Thank you to everyone who contacted me in regards to the proposed Grooming Gang enquiry.
The full statement by Yvette Cooper MP, the Home Secretary, is available here: www.gov.uk/government/speeches/next-steps-to-tackle-child-sexual-exploitation. Some of the measures we are taking include:
- This government will adopt stronger sentences for child grooming, classifying it as an aggravating factor in organised abuse and exploitation.
- A review of historic cases of abuse where no further action was taken, with police forces asked to pursue any new lines of inquiry and re-open investigations where appropriate. This will be boosted by a £2m uplift for relevant services.
- All police forces will be expected to produce “problem profiles” on grooming gangs in their local areas, and we will expand the data collected on both perpetrators and victims, including regarding ethnicity.
- We will support victim-centric, locally-led inquiries into areas such as Oldham and others who have faced as a community the devastating consequences of child sexual exploitation.
- The government has initiated a rapid audit to determine the scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country, so that the steps taken here are the beginning, not the end, of new safeguarding measures.
The first priority of any government must be the protection of children. I am proud that this government is committed to doing so both through bold legislation, such as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that I voted for, as well as by supporting local communities in carrying out localised inquiries into abuse and by initiating a rapid national audit led by the well-respected Baroness Casey – that will let us thoroughly examine the problem without delaying the steps we must take now to stop these harrowing crimes. The best time to take action was years and years ago, but the previous Government let us down – the second-best time is now, and that’s what we will do.
Kind regards,
Emily Darlington MP