Combating sexual violence against children Mirage News

Introduction is a serious crime

The sexual abuse and exploitation of children is the most heinous and horrific of crimes, including rape, violence, coercive control, intimidation, manipulation and deep, lasting harm.

The information obtained as a result of the investigation of crimes should frighten us all. It is estimated that half a million children experience some form of child sexual abuse every year – abuse and sexual abuse in the home, repeated rape or exploitation by groomers or pedophiles, threats and intimidation through intimate images on the Internet, violence in institutions, which were supposed to protect. and took care of the youth. Brutal and sadistic crimes against those who are most vulnerable.

Each of us is obliged to protect our children.

The guilty must be punished and prosecuted. Victims and victims must be protected and supported.

But for too long these crimes have not been taken seriously, and too many children have failed. That is why this Government is determined to act – to strengthen the law, implement the recommendations of independent inquiries, support tougher policing and protect victims.

Reports and recommendations

There is no excuse for anyone not to take these crimes seriously. Brave survivors have spoken out about horrific crimes and institutional inaction – whether in Rochdale care homes, Asian grooming gangs in Rotherham or Telford, or abuse covered up by religious institutions including the Church of England and Catholic Church. Church or in family homes.

This report, along with other horrific crimes being highlighted, is why our party in opposition called for a national independent inquiry into child sexual abuse and supported this work when it was launched by the previous government. Over 7 years, this inquiry, under the expert guidance of Professor Alexis Jay, involved more than 7,000 victims and survivors, processed 2 million pages of evidence and produced 61 reports and publications.

His findings should be truly disturbing to all – describing the pain and suffering inflicted on victims and survivors, the treachery and brutality of the perpetrators.

Exploitation and gangs

There are no excuses for those who do not recognize and act on the deep harm and damage caused by organized gang exploitation, abuse, sexual violence and rape.

Ten years ago, 2 reports by Alexis Jay and Louise Casey in Rotherham showed that 1,400 children were sexually exploited, raped by multiple criminals, sold to other towns, kidnapped, beaten, threatened with weapons, even children doused in petrol, girls as young as 11 who were raped . Their report a decade ago pointed to their failure to confront gangs of Pakistani heritage and the “widespread perception that they should ‘downplay’ ethnic dimensions” for fear of being perceived as racist.

When these reports came out, these miscalculations in Rotherham were condemned by both the Government and the Opposition in this House and, as I said at the time, ‘you can never use race and ethnicity or community relations as an excuse not to use. investigate and punish sex offenders.” And the then Home Secretary made it clear that “cultural issues and the fear of being perceived as racist should never stand in the way of protecting children”.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse also carried out a separate inquiry into the sexual exploitation of children by organized networks – it lasted 2 years and produced a separate report in February 2022 which concluded that the police and local councils were still failing to tackle this serious crime. and provide further recommendations for change.

Inaction

But Madam Vice-Speaker, despite these various requests, which have formed numerous recommendations, too little has actually been done. None of the 20 recommendations of the Independent Child Abuse Inquiry were implemented.

As The Survivor’s Trust campaign group IICSA said this week, victims of child sexual abuse “can ill afford further delays in meaningful action”.

And they said that now “it is necessary to maintain the focus on radical reforms.”

After the report was published, two different Conservative Home Secretaries said it was a watershed moment that should mark the start of a new chapter of change. But this did not happen.

The government’s response

Now we need new impetus and action.

Since taking office, the Defense Secretary has met with Professor Alexis Jay and survivors and convened the first intergovernmental group to push for change.

And to ensure that the voices of victims remain at the very center of this process. I can tell the House that we will establish a victims and survivors commission that will work on an ongoing basis with the cross-ministerial group and lead them to develop, deliver and implement new proposals and plans, not only for the IICSA inquiry but also for the wider work on sexual violence and child exploitation, and we will establish more details and time frames based on this work.

But before that, I can announce action on 3 key recommendations.

Firstly, I can confirm that we will make reporting of abuse mandatory and we will include the measures in the Crime and Policing Bill which will be brought to Parliament this spring. Familiarity with professional and criminal sanctions for failure to report or conceal child sexual abuse.

The protection of institutions can never come before the protection of children.

Madam Deputy Speaker, this is what I first called for in response to the reports and errors in Rotherham 10 years ago. Something the Prime Minister first called for 12 years ago, drawing on his experience as Director of Public Prosecutions. The point was clear then, but we lost a decade and we need to address it now.

Second, we will also legislate to make grooming an aggravating factor in sentencing for child sex crimes. The punishment should fit the heinous crime.

Thirdly, we will review the information and evidence gathered on child sexual abuse and exploitation and feed it into a clear new policing performance framework so that these crimes are taken much more seriously.

The independent inquiry recommended as one of its first recommendations that a single core data set be created on child abuse and child protection, but this has never been done.

We will introduce a single child identifier in the Children and Wellbeing Bill and a much stronger framework for policing, including new standards on public protection, child abuse and exploitation.

We are stepping up the work of a special police force on child sexual exploitation, which was rightly set up under the previous government, and the number of arrests between July and September this year has increased by 25%. This is alongside the Anti-Organized Exploitation Programme, which uses advanced data analytics to uncover the complex networks involved in these crimes. Ethnicity data is currently published, but we will continue to work with it to improve the accuracy and reliability of the data and analysis.

Further investigations and local enquiries

And we will continue to support further necessary investigations, including police inquiries and local independent inquiries and reviews, which can reveal failings and wrongdoing in local areas and institutions, as we have seen in Telford, Rotherham and Greater Manchester.

We support the ongoing work commissioned by Mayor Andy Burnham, including the historic violence in Oldham which has led to new police investigations, arrests and convictions.

Based on these findings, the leader of Oldham Council confirmed this week that work is already underway to organize a further local independent inquiry, including liaising with survivors in Oldham. We welcome and support this work, which will focus on the voices of victims.

Madam Deputy Speaker, the Telford Inquiry was particularly effective because it involved victims in shaping the inquiry and they were involved at every stage. Tom Crowther, who led the inquiry, agreed to now work with the government and other local councils where more active engagement with victims and survivors is needed or where more formal inquiries are needed to address persistent problems.

But we must also be clear that where mistakes have been made or perpetrators of heinous crimes have not been brought to justice, the most important inquiries and investigations should be police investigations to track down these criminals, bring them to justice and give victims the protection they deserve .

Online grooming and abuse

Finally, Madam Deputy Speaker, we have to face a serious problem, which is that the fastest growing area of ​​child care and abuse is now online. We will also take much stronger action to tackle the rapidly growing forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse, and to tackle the exponential growth of child sexual abuse material through artificial intelligence, and we will establish a significant package of measures to strengthen the law in this area in the coming weeks.

Conclusion

Over the years, there has been broad cross-party consensus not only on the importance of this work, but also that the interests of victims and survivors must come first.

There will be differing views on the details of the policies needed, but every one of us in this House supports action to protect our children. It is our entire duty to keep them safe for the future. I hope that Members of the House will work with Ministers and with the Victims and Victims Commission we are setting up to change protections for the better and make sure that criminals pay the price.

I recommend this statement to the House.