Thank you to those constituents who have contacted me about grooming gangs. Child sexual exploitation is a despicable crime and those guilty of participation in grooming gangs need to be prosecuted and punished. Victims and survivors must also be protected and supported. At the same time, it is vital to learn lessons from the failures of the past so, as a society, we do everything possible to prevent child abuse and deliver justice for victims.
The Government has been working with colleagues in Parliament to implement the changes previous Governments have failed to make. These changes, many of which were recommended by past inquiries, include longer prison sentences for grooming offenders, as well as mandatory reporting duties so that anyone turning a blind eye to abuse will also face justice.
For the first time, police forces will also be required to collect ethnicity and nationality data in all cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Because the last Government did not take steps to collect this data, historic patterns of crime were not understood and tackled as they should have been.
Alongside implementing the recommendations of past inquiries, Ministers commissioned Baroness Louise Casey to examine what further action is required to address the failure to tackle grooming gangs. Baroness Casey recommended the establishment of a national inquiry with statutory inquiry powers under the Inquiries Act 2005, to oversee both new and ongoing local inquiries into grooming gangs.
Baroness Anne Longfield has been selected as the independent inquiry chair, and a dedicated victims and survivors panel is supporting the process. The Home Secretary has published the inquiry’s final terms of reference, which were shaped by a public consultation. The inquiry has now been formally established and work is underway. It will be trauma-informed and time-limited, as recommended by Baroness Casey. It will pass evidence to law enforcement, so they can take forward any further prosecutions and put more of these evil men behind bars.
More widely, it is completely unacceptable to use race and ethnicity relations as an excuse not to investigate and punish sex offenders. The protection of institutions must never be put before the protection of children.
Thank you once again for contacting me about this important issue.
Best wishes
Rt Hon Hilary Benn
MP for Leeds South
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
[email protected] l www.hilarybennmp.com l X @hilarybennmp