Introduced into parliament on 25 February 2025, and currently in the House of Lords, the Crime and Policing Bill includes new offences relating to cuckooing and child criminal exploitation, offences covering non-consensual taking of intimate images, and the classification of grooming behaviour as a statutory aggravating factor.
Among these measures the duty to report stands out for its direct impact on day-to-day safeguarding practice. It requires individuals in positions of responsibility for children and young people to report any child sexual abuse they become aware of, including those working across schools, children’s services, early help, youth justice and child protection. This legal duty represents a shift in expectations, operational practice and risk management.
A legal duty: mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse
Mandatory reporting was a key recommendation from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). The Bill now seeks to place this obligation on a statutory footing.
The proposals include:
- A legal duty for professionals working with children to report suspicions of child sexual abuse
- A new criminal offence for preventing or discouraging a mandatory reporter from making a report
- A duty that applies only to sexual offences against children, not to physical abuse, neglect or emotional harm.
Interestingly, the Bill stops short of criminalising a failure to report. Instead, it creates an offence for anyone who actively prevents or discourages another person from meeting their reporting obligation.
However, non-reporting may lead to:
- Professional misconduct investigations
- Referral to regulatory bodies
- Inclusion on the children’s barred list
- Internal disciplinary consequences.
Who must report?
The duty applies to individuals engaged in ‘relevant activity’, a term drawn from:
- Regulated activity under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
- Positions of Trust under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
This means the duty extends to a broad group of professionals such as teachers, careers advisers, social workers, guardians, and individuals caring for children subject to court orders, among others.
The Bill’s reach is intentionally wide, reflecting the reality that signs of abuse appear across many different service environments. Once concerns are reported and logged by a police officer, the individual’s legal duty is fulfilled.
What triggers the duty?
The duty arises when a reasonable person in the same role would suspect a child sexual offence.
The Bill identifies five pathways that create this obligation:
- Direct observation of concerning behaviour
- Disclosure from a child or adult
- Witnessing an incident involving sexual abuse
- Viewing abusive material, such as images or audio
- Seeing someone in possession of such material.
The legal requirement will be to report and record, not to determine the level of risk or next steps.
Limited exceptions: Consensual activity between young people
The Bill includes narrow exceptions to avoid criminalising normal adolescent behaviour.
A practitioner may decide not to report where:
- All individuals are 13 or older
- The activity is mutually consensual
- The practitioner assesses the situation as low risk, with no indication of coercion.
Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips emphasised that these exceptions are designed to prevent “unintentional consequences". To rely on the exemption, professionals need to be confident the individuals are over the age of 13 and that there are no concerns about any abuse or coercion. These exceptions introduce new judgement areas requiring clear policy, guidance and senior oversight.
Impact on organisations
Evidence suggests that introducing a mandatory reporting duty could lead to more referrals. However, the scale of this change is uncertain. Many professionals are already covered by existing safeguarding requirements, and the proposed change would make reporting compulsory rather than voluntary.
Some groups, such as those working outside of a school setting, may be newly affected by the duty. There is limited evidence on how these groups currently report concerns. Therefore, as the available evidence is limited, the scale and nature of any potential increase in referrals cannot be reliably estimated. Nevertheless, organisations should anticipate increased workload across reporting pathways, triage teams and police safeguarding units.
Scotland: Related but separate reforms
Scotland currently has no equivalent mandatory duty to report. This does not indicate a rejection of the principle; rather, the Scottish Government is examining how the UK Bill’s powers will operate in a devolved context.
Under existing Scottish law, many professionals in health, social work, and education already have a duty to report child abuse, including sexual abuse, to either social services or the police.
Although Scotland is not introducing mandatory reporting, it has introduced the Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Act 2025.
The Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 15 January 2025 and received Royal Assent on 4 March 2025, introducing:
- A statutory Code of Ethics
- A duty of candour for police
- Stronger misconduct and vetting arrangements
- Enhanced oversight via the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner.
The Bill was developed in response to recommendations from an independent review of police complaints handling, investigations, and misconduct. The review aimed to ensure the system is fair, transparent, accountable, and proportionate, with the overarching goal of strengthening public confidence in policing in Scotland. These developments reflect a broader UK wide shift toward improved accountability and transparency in policing and safeguarding.
Preparing for a transformational shift
The Crime and Policing Bill represents a significant evolution in child protection law.
Organisations should begin preparing by:
- Auditing existing policies
- Reviewing reporting pathways
- Planning workforce training
- Assessing resource implications
- Strengthening governance and oversight
- Engaging staff early to support the new duty.
Mandatory reporting will place new expectations on individuals and organisations, but with careful planning, it also provides an opportunity to strengthen collective protection for children and young people.
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