The National Safeguarding Team has today announced the conclusion of the work to review all clergy under the authority or oversight of the Church of England who are criticised in the Makin Review.
The review was commissioned to look at the Church’s handling of the appalling abuse by John Smyth and published in November.
This has been a rigorous and independent process, with every decision reviewed by an independent barrister.
The National Safeguarding Team will now seek to bring disciplinary proceedings under the Clergy Discipline Measure.
This is the largest number of people against whom proceedings have ever been brought at any one time.
The names of those against whom applications to bring a CDM will be brought are made public today in order to be open and transparent, and in light of the significant amount of information already in the public domain.
This is about meeting the threshold for bringing an out of time application under CDM. In reaching its conclusions the Stage 3 panel considered;
- the safeguarding policies and guidance which were in force at the relevant time
- the facts of the particular case
- the relevant legal considerations
- whether there is sufficient evidence to justify proceedings
The Stage 3 conclusions on individuals were validated by the Stage 4 external scrutiny process carried out by an independent barrister.
In respect of clergy not listed but criticised in the Makin Review, the work has concluded that there is insufficient evidence to meet the threshold for the NST to bring disciplinary proceedings at this time.This does not mean applications may not be brought by other interested parties.
Victims and survivors and all those criticised in the Makin review have been informed and support offered.
It would not be appropriate to make further comment on individual cases while an application to bring a CDM, which is a legal process, is ongoing.
It is now for individual dioceses to determine how this affects any ongoing ministry of the individuals against whom an application for a CDM is being brought while that process is ongoing.