lawyer

Baroness Butler-Sloss, the former President of the Family Division of the High Court, is leading a drive to overhaul the current laws, which date back to Victorian times, completely replacing the notion of neglect with a new crime of child maltreatment .

For the first time, inflicting emotional and psychological harm on children would be treated as seriously as causing physical injuries or abandoning them.

It follows a string of cases in which the authorities have failed to step in early enough despite warning signs of neglect and abuse, including the Baby P case and the Edlington torture scandal.

Baroness Butler-Sloss, now a cross-bench peer, has helped draft an amendment to the Government s Crime and Courts Bill, which is currently being considered by a committee of MPs, to overhaul the neglect laws, with the support of the charity Acton for Children.

The current law on wilful neglect is governed by the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.