The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has published details of its second seminar on mandatory reporting which will take place on 29 and 30 April. The seminar will consider the arguments for and against making the reporting of child sexual abuse a legal requirement in England and Wales and will be held at the Inquiry’s hearing centre at 18 Pocock Street, Southwark, London.

Participants include experts from the NHS, NSPCC, Department for Education and the Scouts, as well as charity representatives and victims and survivors. The full agenda and participant list for the seminar can be found on the Inquiry’s website.

The first session will begin at 1.30pm on April 29 and will include two formal sessions:

• Session 1: mandatory reporting in other jurisdictions ​- presentation by Professor Ben Mathews, Queensland University of Technology, and discussion chaired by facilitator
• Session 2: the impact of mandatory reporting in other jurisdictions ​- presentation by Professor Ben Mathews, Queensland University of Technology, and discussion chaired by facilitator.

The second session will start at 10am on April 30, and will included three sessions:

• Session 3: experiences of reporting child sexual abuse ​- discussion chaired by facilitator.
• Session 4: features of mandatory reporting models (part II) ​- discussion chaired by facilitator.
• Session 5: final comments and reflections

After each session, a short time has been allocated to observations from the public gallery.

Comment

An earlier IICSA seminar on mandatory reporting took place on 27 September 2018 and considered existing obligations to report child sexual abuse in England and Wales, as well as international models of mandatory reporting. A report of that seminar has been published on the website and the 11 presentations are also available to read on the mandatory reporting seminar page.

On 17 April we posted an update on mandatory reporting in which we indicated that Bates Wells Braithwaite had reported that the IICSA was actively considering the question of introducing mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse in England and Wales; the Inquiry has consulted with the Victims and Survivors Forum, a self-nominating group of victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, and has now published a summary of responses: Mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse: A survey of the Victims and Survivors Forum, in which the great majority of respondents from the Forum (88.6%) were in favour of introducing mandatory reporting.