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Prosecutors are considering charging an elderly Labour peer with child sex offences and have promised a decision "soon".

Greville Janner, 86, has not been arrested in connection with the allegations.

Crown Prosecution Service lawyers are now considering if there is enough evidence to charge him after recently being handed a full file of evidence for the first time.

If they decide there is they will consider if it is in the "public interest" to prosecute taking into account his age and health.

The new CPS statement comes after calls for inquiries into allegations of historical child sex abuse to be speeded up following the death of Leon Brittan last week.

Lord Brittan passed away after a long fight with cancer - leaving unanswered questions about his role in the disappearance of a dossier said to reveal the existence of an abuse network at the top of government.

Labour MP Simon Danczuk said "time is running out" as witnesses die and memories fade.

Lord Janner is accused of sexually assaulting boys as far back as the 1970s when he was the MP for Leicester North West then Leicester West.

He attended the Lords 15 times in November 2013 and another 12 times in December 2013. But he has not been back since police raided his home in Golders Green, north London on December 20 that year.

Last June they searched the peer's office in the House of Lords and removed computers and files.

(Image: MEN)

Leicestershire police have spent more than a year investigating the case, codenamed Operation Enamel, recently handed the CPS a full file of evidence.

Central to the inquiry is the 1991 trial of Frank Beck, a Leicestershire care-home warden suspected of abusing roughly 200 children in his care between 1973 and 1986.

Beck, a former Liberal councillor, was given five life sentences, plus a further 24 years behind bars, after being found guilty of 17 counts of sexual abuse of children in his care. He died in prison in 1994.

A CPS spokesperson said today: "CPS has received a file of evidence from Leicestershire Police as part of Operation Enamel and will now consider whether charges should be brought. This decision will be made as soon as is practicable.”