The Government is today fulfilling its commitment to publish the two Serious Case Review (SCR) overview reports into the tragic death of Peter Connelly, in order to restore public confidence and improve transparency in the child protection system.

The SCR reports have both been carefully and appropriately redacted and anonymised to protect the privacy and welfare of vulnerable children and their families.

Children's Minister Tim Loughton wants today's publication of the Peter Connelly reports to help enable

  • genuine lessons to be learned
  • transparency, to restore public confidence, and
  • the identification of everyone's roles and shared responsibilities.

Children's Minister Tim Loughton said:

Today everyone can see and understand the events that led to Peter Connelly's horrific death. The publication of both Peter Connelly reports means that across the country and across the child protection profession, full lessons can be learned and widely applied.

The Government's commitment to publish full SCR overview reports has always been about transparency so that vital information is made available, so that agencies can be held to account and lessons properly learned. The reports have details of the events which are shocking to read but are necessary to publish in order to learn from them.

The publication of these reports is not about apportioning blame but about allowing professionals to understand fully what happens in each case, and most importantly, what needs to change in order to reduce the risk of such tragedies happening in the future. I welcome the progress that Haringey and local partners have made over the past two years and it is essential that this progress continues.

We have taken a great deal of care to prepare these sensitive and complex reports for publication in order to protect the privacy and welfare of vulnerable children and their families.

After two years of high-profile reporting, I want today's publication of the Peter Connelly reports to bring some form of closure, so everyone – family and professionals – involved in this tragic case has the chance to move on.

Alongside the launch of the Munro Review on 10 June, Children's Minister Tim Loughton committed to publishing – by applying the new criteria of publication – five specific Serious Case Reviews, including the two Peter Connelly reports, with identifying details removed. The minister also confirmed, as stated in the Coalition Government agreement, that the overview reports and executive summaries of all new SCRs initiated from 10 June 2010 should be published.

The SCR overview reports relating to Peter Connelly were written by independent authors commissioned by the Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board. The only editing undertaken by the Department prior to publication is the redaction of information that it is not appropriate to put into the public domain. An explanation of the redactions is set out in the beginning of each report.

From this page you can download

  • the first Serious Case Review overview report relating to Peter Connelly dated November 2008
  • the second Serious Case Review overview report relating to Peter Connelly dated March 2009
  • the executive summary for the first Serious Case Review overview report dated November 2008 relating to Peter Connelly
  • the executive summary for the second Serious Case Review overview report dated February 2009 relating to Peter Connelly
  • a copy of the letter of 10 June 2010 sent to DCSs and LSCB chairs by Tim Loughton, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families, to confirm new arrangements and amended guidance for publication of SCRs.