Charity calls for tough safety measures to prevent abuse

Police investigations suggested the late DJ (pictured) had abused about 60 victims between 1959 and 2006, including vulnerable patients at psychiatric hospital Broadmoor.

Scotland Yard is pursuing 340 lines of inquiry with 12 allegations of sexual offences officially recorded but police said this figure was continuing to rise.

The Department of Health could be sued by victims over its decision in 1988 to appoint Savile to lead a "taskforce" at Broadmoor.

It is investigating why the decision was made but Rethink argued the department should go further.

It called on Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to reinstate a survey used to monitor safety on mental health wards.

According to the charity the last survey in September 2009 revealed less than half of patients felt safe on mental health wards.

Rethink's Jane Harris said: "The Jimmy Savile allegations have highlighted how important it is to protect vulnerable people on mental health wards from abuse.

"Yet the government has in fact dropped the only survey that told us how safe people felt in mental health hospitals.

"The Care Quality Commission checks how safe people with physical illnesses feel when they are in hospital, so why not extend the same regard to the safety of thousands of people getting mental health treatment?"

A Department of Health spokesman said the framework for child protection at Broadmoor and other special hospital patients changed radically in 1999 but the ministry wanted to establish the circumstances and see if any lessons can be learned.