Yesterday Ed Balls told the Commons that he could not release the full, confidential, serious case review of the case of Baby Peter because of professional advice and an earlier ruling of the Information Commissioner. As I reported, the Commissioner then issued a press statement issuing himself from Balls's decision. Today Balls relented and announced that the report will be shown, on privy c...

Ed Balls made a statement to the House of Commons on Thursday about the Baby P case and the actions he was taking. Mr Balls was able to say to most questions essentially - I will wait until I get the report from the urgent investigation I have commissioned and then I will decide and act. Understandable - except none of us have had access to the Serious Case Review full document. In response to req...

The government has agreed to release a detailed review into the Baby P case to opposition MPs, a day after claiming it had been told to keep the document confidential. The children's secretary, Ed Balls, told the Commons yesterday that lawyers had advised him not to make the full serious case review available. He cited a 2006 ruling by the Information Commissioner in a separate case and voice...

Today Ed Balls told the Commons (I'll link to Hansard when the transcript is in place tomorrow: for now try here): The hon. Gentleman [Michael Gove] will know, as I wrote to him and to the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) this morning, that yesterday I endeavoured to see whether I was able to release the full, confidential, serious case review to parliamentarians, but the clear professional ...

H/T to Old Holborn Ed Balls said he could not give the report to even opposition MP's because of an objection from the Information Commissioner. As usual a pack of lies, the Information Commission has just issued this statement What happened in the old days when you lied to Parliament ?

Ed Balls made a statement to the House of Commons this lunchtime on the Baby P case. Michael Gove, responding, said this... The Secretary of State knows that the hon. Members for Yeovil (Mr. Laws), and for Hornsey and Wood Green (Lynne Featherstone), and I have asked to see the serious case review of the handling of baby P’s case. Regrettably, the Secretary of State’s hands are tied, b...

The Prime Minister s Spokesman (PMS) began by telling the assembled press that the Baby P statement from Ed Balls was an update and followed on from the exchanges at DCSF Questions earlier this week. Asked if the statement would be substantive, the PMS repeated that he expected it to be an update. It was about keeping the House informed, as there had not been a full statement on the issues relatin...

In this emotional indictment of our education system, the writer and teacher Francis Gilbert explains how an obsession with testing has broken enthusiasm for learning The decision by the Children’s Secretary, Ed Balls, to kill off the Sats exams for 14-year-olds is arguably the most momentous decision taken by a politician since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister. Dramatic as it may sound, I beli...

The inspection ordered by Ed Balls following the death of Baby P is looking at the local authority, health services and police. I've received a tip off from someone working in one of these agencies about how the visit of the inspectors to their staff team had been handled. The reason they rang me was that they were concerned that the inspectors were seemingly allowing this team to present the pict...

Fascinating piece of body language in Prime Minister's Questions just now. Gordon Brown was repeatedly prompted by the man sitting next to him -- Ed Balls, the Children's Secretary. I suspect he was there because Brown was...