Survivors of sexual abuse by priests have expressed dismay that the Church of England is set to uphold the confidentiality of confession against the urging of the archbishop of York.

A C of E working party, originally commissioned in 2014, has decided against the abolition or qualification of the “seal of the confessional”. Unless C of E bishops decide differently when they consider the group’s report, confessions of criminal acts will not automatically be passed on to the police.

The seal of the confessional came under scrutiny last year at the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse’s hearings into the Anglican church. Concerns are expected to be raised again at further hearings in July. Lawyers have said clerical abuse could have been prevented if priests had reported confessions.

In 2014, John Sentamu, the second most senior cleric in the C of E, argued the seal should not apply in child abuse cases. “How can you hear a confession about somebody abusing a child and the matter must be sealed up and you mustn’t talk about it?” he said.

Presenting the working party’s report on Wednesday, Mark Sowerby, the bishop of Horsham and deputy lead bishop on safeguarding within the church, said there were “legitimate concerns” about the seal of the confessional.

But the working party failed to reach “a common mind” on the issue. Instead, it recommended training for priests on how to deal with disclosures of criminal acts.

The church’s guidelines say that if someone discloses in confession that he or she has committed a serious crime such as child abuse, “the priest must require the penitent to report his or her conduct to the police or other statutory authority. If the penitent refuses to do so, the priest should withhold absolution.”

A responsible priest would “take the opportunity to influence” a penitent to ensure a criminal disclosure was shared with the police, but the priest would not report a crime themselves, said Sowerby.

It was rare for people to disclose they had committed a crime in the course of confession, he added. Far more frequent was survivors of sexual abuse “bearing an inappropriate sense of guilt” who needed a secure and confidential space in which to talk, often for the first time, about their abuse.

The Welsh government introduced a legislative duty to report child abuse and neglect in 2016. There is no such law in England or Scotland.

In a foreword to the report, Paul Butler, the bishop of Durham, said: “We all finally agreed that seeking to find an ‘exemptive’ clause relating to child abuse, or abuse more generally, would not be legally workable; although some had hoped and thought this might be an outcome…

“We all agreed that either the ‘seal’ had to be abolished altogether or upheld. If it were abolished, it would be replaced by the normal legal rules about confidentiality, which apply in professional, commercial and other relationships where there is an expectation of privacy, and which permit the making of disclosures that are in the public interest.”

However, he said, the group could not agree.

The archbishop of York, John Sentamu, argued in 2014 that the seal of the confessional should not apply in child abuse cases. Photograph: Graham Turner/The Guardian

Phil Johnson, of the church abuse survivors’ network Macsas, said the church had “missed an opportunity to take the moral high ground”.

He added: “It would be easy for the church to insist that absolution of the sins of child abuse must involve the matter being reported to the statutory authorities. The law requires that a priest must disclose admissions of terrorism or money laundering in confession but not the sexual abuse of children.”

All institutions should be legally obliged to disclose admissions or allegations of child abuse to the police or social services, with sanctions for failing to do so, he said.

“Churches, private schools and sports clubs have repeatedly demonstrated that they are more concerned about reputational damage than they are about the welfare of children or the victims of abuse.”

Gilo, a survivor of sexual abuse and campaigner for reform within the church, said the confessional seal “continues to hide abusers under a cloak of secrecy that has for so long bedevilled the church’s culture. Any child protection policy qualified in this way with ring-fencing of religious ritual is bonkers.”

Richard Scorer, a lawyer at Slater and Gordon who acts for victims of C of E abuse at the independent inquiry, said: “The lack of recommendation for change is a head-in-the-sand approach from the church. Given that there is already a legal obligation to report information relating to terrorism, there is no justification whatsoever for exempting child abuse now. Yet again the church has placed religious privilege above the protection of children.”

David Greenwood, a solicitor with Switalskis who also represents abuse survivors at the independent inquiry, said: “Protecting conversations held in the confessional from being reported to the police is one of the characteristics which makes the C of E a safe place for child abusers, a place in which they can avoid detection.”

The hearing of confessions by a priest is less common in the Anglican church that the Roman Catholic church. Anglican congregations take part in “general confession” during services, but individuals may approach a priest to make a private “special confession” of sins and ask for absolution.

Both churches share a common tradition of the “seal of the confessional”: confessions must not be repeated or disclosed by the priest under any circumstances.

C of E bishops are expected to discuss the working party’s report next week.