Ruston

"Health has become another victim of Labor's cost of living crisis... we know it has literally never been harder or more expensive to see a GP than it is right now," health spokesperson Anne Ruston told the BBC in a statement.

Channel 4 News had been tipped off about the Ruston report by Smyth survivor advocate and writer Andrew Graystone.

"The scale and severity of the practice was horrific," noted the so-called Ruston report, named after the Rev Mark Ruston, who compiled it in 1982.

In late 2016 Thames Valley police were contacted by the Oxford diocese, who disclosed a full copy of the Ruston report, which was compiled more than 30 years earlier and which spelt out in graphic detail the beatings administered by Smyth.

The 1982 report, prepared by Anglican clergyman Mark Ruston, about the canings said "the scale and severity of the practice was horrific", with accounts of boys beaten so badly they bled, with one describing how he needed to wear nappies until his wounds scabbed over.