Controversial proposals to give lifelong anonymity to teachers accused of offences against children at their schools have become law.

The Education Act 2011, which received the Royal Assent on Tuesday, makes it unlawful to name a teacher who has been accused of assaulting or sexually abusing a child at his or her school if that teacher has not been charged with a criminal offence

The anonymity ends only if the teacher is charged with an offence, or a court agrees to an application that it is in the interests of justice that it should be lifted.

Society of Editors’ executive director Bob Satchwell had warned that the anonymity would “set a very dangerous precedent as people could be convicted for telling the truth.”