Files which may be linked to child abuse claims seem to have been lost "on an industrial scale" at the Home Office, the chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee has said.
Keith Vaz MP said it was "a huge surprise" that so much potential evidence had gone missing.
The Home Office has said its own review last year found that 114 potentially relevant files could not be located.
Mr Vaz said a planned independent review was "the right thing to do".
A new review, to be carried out by a senior legal figure from outside Whitehall, will look into the Home Office's handling of historic claims of child sex abuse claims involving politicians and other senior figures.
One of its aims will be to assess whether the 2013 Home Office report on what happened to historic papers containing the claims was sound.
'Disappointed'That report found no record of specific claims of abuse by prominent public figures. But it said although 527 potentially relevant files were kept by the Home Office a further 114 were identified as missing, destroyed or simply "not found".
It has also emerged that four cases of historic sex abuse were referred to the police following last year's report.
Mr Vaz said he was "a little disappointed" that he had not been made aware of last year's review at the time.
Leon Brittan was home secretary between 1983 and 1985 He said the new review should be carried out quickly and thoroughly.
His comments came after Home Office permanent secretary Mark Sedwill wrote to the prime minister to inform him of plans to appoint a senior independent legal figure.
David Cameron had asked him to "find answers" about what happened to the material supplied by the late Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens.
Mr Dickens passed the abuse claims to the then home secretary Leon Brittan in the 1980s.
Lord Brittan says he in turn handed them to officials.
Vaz criticises sex abuse file loss
Put the internet to work for you.
0 comments:
Post a Comment