PUBLIC INQUIRY INTO NORTH WALES CHILDREN'S HOMES CHILD ABUSE

EDM number 686 in 1995-96, proposed by Rhodri Morgan on 28/03/1996.

That this House calls on the Secretary of State for Wales to fulfil the promise made on 7th September 1992 to hold a public inquiry into child abuse in North Wales children's homes by the honourable Member for Cardiff North, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary then responsible for health and social services in Wales and reported in Welsh Office Press Release W92359 of the same date, and which was reported by him as going to start as soon as the criminal proceedings were completed; believes that the Chief Constable of North Wales was also correct to call for such a public inquiry when criminal proceedings were over on 4th September 1992 and reaffirmed publicly on 13th August 1993; and further believes that the need for the promised public inquiry is now more urgent with the imminent danger of the shredding of all copies of the independent but non-judicial, inquiry into Clwyd County Council's child care homes and policies carried out by John Jillings, the retired Director of Social Services of Derbyshire, which drew attention to the deaths of 12 young people who were victims of child sex abuse who had been in care in Clwyd and the failures of the Welsh Office Social Services Inspectorate and the North Wales Police to detect the failures in the child care system in North Wales and which also called for a public inquiry.

This motion has been signed by a total of 45 MPs.