Influential bishop calls for religious exemption to mandatory reporting of CSA

A Church of England bishop has argued there should be religious exemptions to mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse.

Speaking in a debate in the House of Lords last week, the Bishop of Manchester, David Walker (pictured), said there was an "arguable case" for exempting child sexual abuse revealed during confession and that the tradition of the seal of the confessional is established in ‘canon law’.

“There is an arguable case that the seal allows somebody—and it is more likely to be a victim or witness who comes to the confessional—to make a kind of protected disclosure, which then often would lead to them being helped to make a more public disclosure and allow a perpetrator to be taken to justice.”

Walker continued to urge ‘careful discussions’ with religious bodies around how the seal of the confessional would work with the mandatory reporting requirement, proposed as part of the Government’s Crime and Policing Bill.

“We want what will produce the best safeguarding, but it is not simply that mandatory reporting or getting rid of the seal of the confessional will get better reporting at the end of the day,” Bishop Walker said.

The argument contradicts the recommendation of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), which said that mandatory reporting should “not be subject” to religious exemptions, including abuse revealed during “sacramental confession”.

Responding to Bishop Walker, Home Office Minister David Hanson said he had received a delegation from a cross-religious group to discuss the issue at the Home Office.

Hanson committed to exploring exemptions further with churches, and hoped religious exemptions could be debated in parliament.

In 2023, eight Anglican bishops, including one lord spiritual, actively opposed mandatory reporting of abuse revealed in the confessional. Among them was the bishop of Chichester Martin Warner, who sits on the bishops' bench. The Church of England said it 'doesn't know' if the confessional should be exempted.

Earlier this month, the Government gave an update on its plans to implement fully the recommendations of the IICSA, including setting up a new Child Protection Authority to improve national oversight and consistency of child protection practice in response to failings in tackling group-based child sexual exploitation.

In the update, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), Jess Phillips, said: “Mandatory reporting will create a culture of openness and honesty rather than cover-ups and secrecy. It will empower professionals and volunteers to take prompt, decisive action to report sexual abuse.

“It will demonstrate to children and young people that if they come forward, they will be heard. And anyone who seeks deliberately to prevent someone fulfilling their mandatory duty to report child sexual abuse will face the full force of the law.”