The Government has refused to release a detailed report into the mistakes made by authorities in the Baby P case.
A serious case review was carried out after the little boy died in a blood-splattered cot in Haringey, north London, in August last year.
He had suffered 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.
But the Information Commissioner has ruled that the full report cannot be made available to opposition MPs because of the risk of identifying the professionals involved, the House of Commons has heard.
There are fears that releasing reports might lead to professionals who make mistakes in child welfare refusing to co-operate with serious case reviews, MPs were told.
Shadow children's secretary Michael Gove acknowledged that Children's Secretary Ed Balls had his hands tied and called for a change to the law.
He asked Mr Balls: "Does he not agree with me that it is quite wrong to put the interests of a bureaucracy which has failed ahead of proper scrutiny?"
The Children's Secretary replied: "I endeavoured to see yesterday whether I was able to release the full confidential serious case review to Parliamentarians.
"But the clear professional advice to me was that would be the wrong thing to do, both given the ruling of the Information Commissioner but also the importance of making sure that in future serious case reviews are done properly."
