A dossier on paedophiles allegedly associated with the British government was assembled by the British Member of Parliament Geoffrey Dickens , who handed it to the then- Home Secretary , Leon Brittan , in The whereabouts of the dossier is unknown, along with other files on organised child abuse that had been held by the Home Office.
In , the Home Office stated that all relevant information had been passed to the police, and that Dickens' dossier had not been retained. It was later disclosed that documents concerning child abuse allegations were missing. In July , the Labour Party called for a new inquiry into the way that the allegations had been handled, and the Prime Minister, David Cameron , ordered the permanent secretary of the Home Office, Mark Sedwill , to investigate the circumstances of the lost dossier.
On 7 July , the Home Secretary , Theresa May , announced a review into the handling of historic child abuse allegations, to be led by Peter Wanless , chief executive of the NSPCC , and the establishment of a public panel inquiry into the duty of care taken in the protection of children from paedophiles by British public institutions, led by an independent panel of experts and chaired by Baroness Butler-Sloss. Butler-Sloss later stood down as chair of the inquiry.
The existing panel would be disbanded, and the inquiry would be given new powers, becoming the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. Between and Dickens campaigned against a suspected paedophile ring he claimed to have uncovered that was connected to trading child pornography.
Dickens further questioned why Hayman had not been jailed after it was discovered he had left a package containing child pornography on a bus.
