On Monday 3 March, the Commons had a surprisingly full debate on safeguarding in the Church of England.

Luke Myer (Lab, Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) opened the debate by emphasising the importance of addressing abuse within the Church of England and outlined the long history of safeguarding failures within the Church, referencing numerous reports and inquiries that had led to little substantial change. He was critical of the Church’s response, describing its safeguarding processes as inadequate and inconsistent, and said that the General Synod’s recent decision on a two-stage approach to implementation of Professor Jay’s recommendations was “deeply disappointing”.

Marsha De Cordova (Lab, Battersea), Second Church Estates Commissioner, emphasised the need for justice, dignity, and respect for survivors of abuse and called for perpetrators to be fully held to account. The failures in safeguarding, past and present, have led to concerns about the Church of England’s inconsistency and lack of transparency in handling abuse cases.

She supported a fully independent safeguarding operation within the Church, and it had been “a huge disappointment … that the Synod chose not to back a wholly independent model of safeguarding”. She urged the Church to treat independent safeguarding as an urgent matter: the Makin review had to be “a watershed moment for the Church to transform both its culture and its safeguarding structures”.

Jess Phillips, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department and Minister for Safeguarding, condemned all forms of abuse and agreed that institutional inaction exacerbated survivors’ trauma. While the Government could not “tell the Synod what it has to do”, she reiterated that failures in safeguarding were not to be tolerated; the fundamental point was that, “big or small, rich or poor, organisations that are in a position of power and responsibility and are working with children or vulnerable adults have a safeguarding responsibility”. The Government had

“made a commitment to introduce a mandatory duty for those working with children to report sexual abuse and exploitation, making it a clear legal requirement for anyone in regulated activity—which will include the Church—relating to children in England to report to the police or the local authority if they are made aware that a child is being sexually abused. We are pleased that that commitment was introduced last week in the Crime and Policing Bill. We are also committed to making grooming an aggravating factor, toughening up sentencing and setting up a new victims and survivors panel, and we will set out a clear timeline for taking forward the 20 recommendations of the final IICSA report on child sexual abuse.”