6.02pm BST

• Theresa May, the home secretary, has indicated that a wide-ranging inquiry into whether public bodies did enough to investigate child abuse claims in the past will be able to inspect files held by MI5. She made the offer as she used a Commons statement to confirm that the government will set up a Hillsborough-style panel "to consider whether public bodies – and other non-state institutions – have taken seriously their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse". (See 4.09pm.) Asked if the panel would be able to see intelligence files, May suggested that it would, and that she might ensure that a privy counsellor heads the panel so that he or she can have access to secret material

My intention is that the fullest possible access should be made to government papers in relation to these matters. As I'm sure you and other members of the House will recognise, where there are files where there are certain issues around who can have access to those files we will need to ensure we have an appropriate means of ensuring the information is available to the inquiry panel. But as I said, I am looking to appoint a very senior figure to be chairing that panel and I'd expect it to be possible to ensure that all government papers are available.

• She said that the panel would not have the power to summon witnesses to give evidence but that, if the chair felt it needed this power, she would upgrade it to a full public inquiry to allow it to subpoena witnesses.

• She said that the political parties at Westminster and the churches would be among those institutions covered by what she is intended to a wide-ranging inquiry. Its terms of reference will be published in due course. When Lisa Nandy, a Labour MP, said that a Tory whip from the 1970s had revealed that the whips protected MPs involved in this kind of scandal (see 12.42pm and 4.21pm), May replied:

It is not my intention that political parties should be outside the scope of the inquiry.

At another point May specifically said she expected churches to be covered by the inquiry.

• She said the inquiry would not cover specific allegations.

I should perhaps clarify a point; the inquiry panel will not be conducting investigations into a specific allegation, in so far as those would be matters properly for criminal investigations to take place. It is looking across the board at the way things have been approached in the past and asking that question as to whether, and I expect to draw this quite widely, people did have in place the proper protections for children or not and if not, what are the gaps, are those gaps still existing today, and what do we need to do to make sure that those gaps are filled?

• She said the inquiry could lead to legislation. When one MP suggested MPs should be subject to CRB checks, May said this was the kind of issue the panel would look at. (See 4.30pm.)

• She said she had not read the full report into how the Home Office dealt with allegations about child abuse submitted by Geoffrey Dickens and others because the claims included references to Conservative MPs.

I did not see the full report and there was a very good reason for that - the matters that lay behind this were allegations that senior MPs and in particular, as we've seen, suggestions that senior Conservative MPs may have been involved in these activities. I thought it was absolutely right and proper therefore that the commissioning of the investigation and the work that was done should be led by [the Home Office permanent secretary, Mark Sedwill] and not by a Conservative politician.

• She announced that the NSPCC chief executive Peter Wanless to review how the Home Office, and subsequently the police and prosecutors, handled abuse allegations raised by Geoffrey Dickens and others.

• Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said the new inquiry should look at the need for current child protection rules to be tightened.

Yvette Cooper (@YvetteCooperMP) Welcome overarching inquiry into child abuse, something we've called for for 18m. Must look at current child protection inc vetting& barring

Cooper also pointed out that May had originally resisted calls for a wide-ranging inquiry of the type announced today.

That's all from me for today.

Thanks for the comments.