The government has agreed to release a detailed review into the Baby P case to opposition MPs, a day after claiming it had been told to keep the document confidential.

The children's secretary, Ed Balls, told the Commons yesterday that lawyers had advised him not to make the full serious case review available.

He cited a 2006 ruling by the Information Commissioner in a separate case and voiced concerns that identifying the professionals involved in the case could jeopardise future investigations.

But today Ball's department said five MPs would be allowed to study the full report.

Baby P died in Haringey, north London, in August last year after suffering more than 50 injuries at the hands of his abusive mother, her boyfriend and a lodger - despite repeated visits by the authorities.

A 15-page summary of the serious case review was published at the end of an Old Bailey trial last week.

Now the full report will be made available to the Conservative and Liberal-Democrat children's spokesmen, Michael Gove and David Laws, the Children, Schools and Families select committee chairman, Barry Sheerman, and local MPs Lynne Featherstone and David Lammy.

The MPs will be allowed to read the document on "privy council terms", meaning they must keep its contents secret.

The case was the subject of angry exchanges between David Cameron and Gordon Brown at prime minister questions last week. Since then the government has been keen to establish cross-party consensus on how to tackle the failings highlighted by the tragedy.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "As Ed Balls said in the House of Commons yesterday and in his letter to the opposition children, schools and families spokesmen, he has been keen to find a way to enable them to study the serious case review report but remaining consistent with the principle that these documents remain unpublished and confidential.

"In order to ensure that future serious case reviews are not undermined and achieve their purpose, it remains vital to keep the serious case review confidential."

The shadow children's secretary, Michael Gove, welcomed the move.

"It's important that bureaucracy doesn't get in the way of proper scrutiny," he said.

The three people convicted of involvement in the killing of Baby P are facing "substantial" terms in prison, a judge has warned.
Baby's P's mother, 27, her boyfriend, 32, and their lodger, Jason Owen, 36, will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on December 15 for causing or allowing his death.

Yesterday there was confusion among officials about the bearing the Data Protection Act had on releasing the report.

The House of Commons was told the information commissioner had ruled that the full report could not be released to opposition MPs because of the risk of identifying professionals involved.

But the Information Commissioner's Office said later that it had not been consulted over the case.

Thirty-one Nobel peace prize winners have called for urgent action to provide good education and build peace in war zones.

The Dalai Lama, the former US president Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi are among the signatories of the first-ever joint statement.

They want world leaders to pay more attention to the educational needs of more than 37 million children who live in countries affected by conflict who cannot go to school.

In a joint letter, initiated by the charity Save the Children, they say: "War and conflict are perpetrated by adults. But every adult was once a child and grew up with experiences and guidance that shaped their lives.

"At the heart of this lies education. But if more than 70 million children do not even have the chance to go to school, and more than half of these children live in countries affected by armed conflict - what are these children learning?"

Millions of children continue to be denied an education because of war, despite world leaders' target to make sure every child has a primary education by 2015.

Even before the fighting escalated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 5 million of the 9.6 million school-age children were unable to go to school.

More children have been forced to flee their schools in recent weeks and some schools have been targeted to recruit child soldiers, the charity said.

An analysis of civil wars of the past 50 years showed that each year of formal schooling attended by boys reduces the risk of their becoming involved in conflict by 20% - yet children in trapped in this spiral of conflict continue to be denied education.

Save the Children is campaigning to provide education for children living in conflict-affected fragile states and for more funding for education to help build peace and stability.

Carter said: "I have seen the beneficial impact of education in promoting peace.

"It would be a mistake to underestimate the influence that children can have in shaping the opinions and decisions of adults."

Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, secretary general of the International Save the Children Alliance, said: "We are delighted that these champions of peace have chosen to speak out with a united voice for the first time.

"Their support shows that if the international community is serious about ending conflict and building lasting peace in countries like Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan, then education has to be a top priority."

The signatories come from 17 countries and have been involved in resolving 15 conflicts.

A senior government adviser today warned that Labour's welfare reforms could push benefit claimants closer to poverty.

Sir Richard Tilt, the chairman of the social security advisory committee, said the government should delay changes to the benefit system because the economic downturn was making it harder for people to find work.

Tilt was speaking ahead of the introduction of new rules next week that will force lone parents with a youngest child of 12 or over to look for work when they submit a new benefit claim.

Tilt's warnings were rejected today by James Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, and his Tory shadow, Chris Grayling.

Over the next few years the government will role out changes to the welfare system intended to encourage lone parents into the job market. Lone parents with older children are gradually being transferred from income support, which is paid without conditions, to jobseeker's allowance (JSA), which is only paid to people looking for work.

JSA claimants face a 40% benefit cut if they do not actively look for a job.

Tilt, whose committee advises the government about new welfare regulations, told the BBC the reforms should be delayed because the economic climate would make it hard for people to find work. He said he did not want the reforms "falling into disrepute".

"Benefit rates are relatively low and if you are going to reduce someone's benefit for a few weeks by 40% you are pushing people much closer to poverty," he said. "Of course, the child will suffer, but it's not the child that has fallen foul of the system."

Tilt said he was concerned about the availability of childcare. He said there could be valid reasons for parents staying at home.

"It may be to do with disability or chronic illness, or in some cases it may be to do with behavioural problems," he said. "So pushing the lone [parent] in those circumstances into work may actually not be in everybody's interests."

Purnell told the BBC's Today programme: "I think it would be wrong, at a time when it may be harder for people to find work, to provide them with less help. We know that our help works; we know that the help they get from the voluntary sector, from providers and from JobCentre Plus works, it changes people's lives.

"What we require people to do is come in and take up that help and when I talk to people about it they say: why didn't you make me do this earlier because it has changed my life."

Grayling said the changes were essential. "It would be disastrous for Britain to do a U-turn on welfare reform," he said.

"It would have the effect of making poverty worse and condemning millions of people in some of our most deprived communities to endless benefit dependency.

"Right now, when the jobs market is tough, we need real action to help people who've been on benefits for a long time to make the journey back into work and not simply assume that because unemployment is rising that there's no hope for them."