Ministers have agreed to release a detailed report into the mistakes made by authorities in the Baby P case to a select group of MPs.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls told the Commons on Thursday that Government 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 voiced concerns that identifying the professionals involved in the case could jeopardise future investigations.
But the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) said five MPs would be allowed to study the full report.
Baby P died in a blood-splattered cot in Haringey, north London, in August last year. He had suffered more than 50 injuries at the hands of his abusive mother, her boyfriend and a lodger despite repeated visits by the authorities.
A 15-page summary of the serious case review was published at the end of an Old Bailey trial last week.
Now the full report will be made available to Conservative and Lib-Dem children's spokesmen Michael Gove and David Laws, Children, Schools and Families select committee chairman Barry Sheerman and local MPs Lynne Featherstone and David Lammy.
The MPs will be allowed to read the document on "privy council terms", meaning they must keep its contents secret.
A DCSF spokeswoman said: "As Ed Balls said in the House of Commons yesterday and in his letter to the opposition children, schools and families spokesmen, he has been keen to find a way to enable them to study the serious case review report but remaining consistent with the principle that these documents remain unpublished and confidential."
She added: "In order to ensure that future serious case reviews are not undermined and achieve their purpose, it remains vital to keep the serious case review confidential.
"As we have already said, we will publish the full report from the joint inspectors' review into Haringey together with the Government's response. Ed Balls has already confirmed that opposition spokesmen and local MPs will be invited in for a briefing before it is published."
