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| Keith Vaz criticises Home Office for losing sex abuse files | Keith Vaz criticises Home Office for losing sex abuse files |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 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. | 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. |
| The Home Office has said its own review last year found that 114 potentially relevant files could not be located. | The Home Office has said its own review last year found that 114 potentially relevant files could not be located. |
| Keith Vaz MP said it was "a huge surprise" that so much potential evidence had gone missing. | |
| Lord Tebbit said he hoped any inquiry would be conducted quickly. | |
| The former Tory minister and party chairman also said there may have been a political cover-up of abuse in the 1980s. | |
| He told the Andrew Marr programme: "At that time most people would have thought that the establishment, the system, was to be protected. | |
| "And if a few things had gone wrong here and there that it was more important to protect the system than to delve too far into them. | |
| "That view was wrong then and it has spectacularly shown to have been wrong because the abuses have grown." | |
| Mr Vaz said a planned independent review was "the right thing to do". | Mr Vaz said a planned independent review was "the right thing to do". |
| The new review, to be carried out by a senior legal figure from outside Whitehall, will look into the Home Office's handling of historical 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 historical papers containing the claims was sound. | |
| 'Disappointed' | 'Disappointed' |
| That report found no record of specific claims of abuse by prominent public figures. But it said that 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 historical 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. | Mr Vaz said he was "a little disappointed" that he had not been made aware of last year's review at the time. |
| He said the new review should be carried out quickly and thoroughly. | 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. | 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. | 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. | 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. | Lord Brittan says he in turn handed them to officials. |