Priests must report child abusers to police if they hear of crimes in confession

Catholic priests who hear of child sexual abuse during confession must report the penitents to the police, a government minister has said.

Jess Phillips, the Home Office minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, has revealed that the inviolability of the Sacrament of Reconciliation will not be protected under the Crime and Policing Bill.

In a letter to the National Secular Society, Ms Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley, said that the Government “is not considering any kind of exception to the mandatory reporting duty for religious institutions”.