One of the Anglican church’s most senior figures, the former archbishop of Perth Roger Herft, is under internal investigation for failing to report all allegations of child sexual abuse to the police while he was bishop of Newcastle.

On Thursday the church issued a statement confirming Herft is being investigated by the Episcopal Standards Commission, the Anglican body for dealing with allegations about bishops.

“The Episcopal Standards Commission is investigating the many issues which arise from the information it has received. It will determine its course of action as soon as it can,” a church spokesman said.

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Herft’s conduct while he was the bishop of Newcastle between May 1993 and February 2005 was scrutinised by the child sexual abuse royal commission, which delivered its final report in December 2017.

It comes almost three years after Herft gave evidence to the royal commission that while he understood matters of child abuse should be reported to the police, he believed he was only obliged to report when he received a complaint of substance, and if he knew the name of the complainant.

“Bishop Herft also gave evidence that before 2002, if someone made an allegation of child sexual abuse and would not put the allegation in writing, the diocese would take no further action,” the royal commission report said. “In hindsight, he accepted that this left children at risk and was ‘totally unacceptable’.”

Herft retired from his position as archbishop of Perth one year ahead of schedule in 2016, after giving evidence to the royal commission and admitting he “let down the survivors in a way that remorse itself is a very poor emotion to express”.

The church said it was making its investigation into Herft public in line with internal protocols, “but those protocols strictly limit the information it can release before any finding is made”. Herft faces potential defrocking.

But abuse advocates and victims have previously been critical of the church’s processes of investigating its own, questioning whether the process is fair and independent. The church has said the director of the Episcopal Standards Commission “is as independent as possible from the diocese but is paid by the diocese”.