Rape: Inquiries

Question

The Government is committed to using every lever to ensure all children are protected from sexual exploitation and abuse across our communities and online, regardless of who is perpetrating that horrific abuse. We are committed to continuing to learn from past failings, providing support to victims and survivors, and ensuring across all sectors we all step up and take further responsibility for preventing and responding to child sexual abuse.

As part of this work, we continue to invest in the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce, which is giving practical, expert, on the ground support for local forces investigating child sexual abuse, with a focus on complex and organised child sexual exploitation. This is also supported by the Tackling Organised Exploitation programme, which is helping forces to uncover more of this offending. We are also driving targeted action to respond to exploitation through the Home-Office funded Prevention Programme, delivered by The Children's Society to tackle and prevent child sexual abuse and exploitation.

And we are committed to taking swift action against the recommendations of the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

The Home Secretary announced we will be bringing in mandatory reporting, making grooming an aggravating factor in child sexual abuse cases, and taking further action to crack down on child sexual abuse and exploitation online.

The Home Secretary also announced that we will set up a new panel to ensure victims' and survivors' voices are prioritised in future policy making, alongside a dedicated inter-ministerial group on child sexual abuse. IICSA made several recommendations on how to improve routes to support and compensation for victims and survivors, which the Government will be considering as part of this broader approach.

The Government will continue to support further inquiries where they may be needed, and which can expose failings and wrongdoings in local areas and institutions. But we are clear that it is right that these take place at a localised level so that those are responsible for delivering services work to ensure lessons are learnt and that local partners are doing all they can to improve their response, and that these inquiries inform regional and national responses.

Furthermore, the Government's election manifesto included a commitment to introduce a 'Hillsborough Law', which the Prime Minister has committed to introduce by the next anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster (15th April 2025). This legislation will place a legal duty of candour on public servants and authorities.