THE Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has pledged to introduce mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, so that it becomes an offence, incurring professional and criminal sanctions, “to fail to report or to cover up” abuse.
Introducing a debate, in the House of Commons on Monday evening, on child sexual exploitation and abuse, Ms Cooper said: “Child sexual abuse and exploitation are the most vile and horrific of crimes, involving rape, violence, coercive control, intimidation, manipulation and deep long-term harm. . .
“All of us have a responsibility to protect our children. . . But these crimes have not been taken seriously for too long, and far too many children have been failed.”
Mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse recommended by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), chaired by Professor Alexis Jay, who presented its findings in October 2022 (News, 20 October 2022). Professor Jay now chairs Act on IICSA, a campaigning group. On Sunday, it released a statement calling on the Government to fulfil its promises concerning child protection.
Recent press coverage of child sexual abuse, the statement says, “highlights a troubling trend of misinformation that undermines the true scale of the crisis and the pressing need for reform”. The Inquiry heard from more than 7500 victims and survivors and “provided a clear roadmap for action. Yet, two years later, none of its recommendations have been fully implemented.”
Ms Cooper said that the new measures would be introduced in the Crime and Policing Bill, to be put before Parliament this spring. She had, she said, called for this ten years ago, alongside the Prime Minister when he was Director of Public Prosecutions. “The case was clear then, but we have lost a decade, and we need to get on with it now.”
The Home Secretary committed the Government to two further IICSA recommendations for legislation: to make grooming “an aggravating factor in the sentencing of child sexual offences, because the punishment must fit the terrible crime”; and to “embed” information and evidence gathered on child sexual abuse and exploitation “in a clear new performance framework for policing” through the introduction of a “single child identifier” in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
Ms Cooper referred both to the work of IICSA and the 2014 report by Professor Jay and Louise Casey (now Baroness Casey) on the Rotherham scandal, which was a focus of Monday’s debate. At least 1400 children were sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
During the debate, the Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, called for a new public inquiry into child abuse by grooming gangs. Ms Cooper said that the priority should be implementing recommendations from existing inquiries.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill was due to be debated by MPs on Wednesday afternoon. The Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch announced that she would be tabling an amendment to the Bill, to include a new inquiry into grooming gangs. But the Education Minister Bridget Phillipson said that “the single biggest piece of children safeguarding legislation in a generation” was now liable to be sacrificed “on the altar of political opportunism” — because, if passed, the amendment was more likely to kill the Bill.
Professor Jay had said on Monday: “Our mission is not to call for new inquiries, but to advocate for the full implementation of IICSA’s recommendations. A Child Protection Authority is critical to this process.”
Act on IICSA said in its statement: “Politicising the issue of sexual violence fails to acknowledge its lifelong impact and hinders the implementation of vital and urgent overhaul to our systems required. It is imperative to keep the focus on radical reform, as evidenced by IICSA’s findings and smaller independent inquiries. The reality is stark: approximately 500,000 children are subjected to abuse each year in the UK. These children cannot afford further delays in meaningful action.”
This statement, acknowledged and quoted by Ms Cooper, warned that misinformation was masking the true scale of the child-abuse crisis in the UK. Over the weekend, the owner of the social-media site X, Elon Musk, accused the safeguarding Minister, Jess Phillips, of being a “rape genocide apologist” for rejecting calls for a new grooming-gangs inquiry.
Sir Keir said: “Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible, they’re not interested in victims. They’re interested in themselves.”
The safeguarding charity ThirtyOne:Eight welcomed the Home Secretary’s statement. Its chief executive, Justin Humphreys, said: “The events of the last few days have yet again highlighted how we are failing to protect children from abuse in this country. We are pleased to hear that the Prime Minister is committed to the implementation of all 20 of the IICSA recommendations.”
He he described this as “a once-in-a-lifetime chance to do something significant. The time for action is now.”
In 2023, Professor Jay was commissioned by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to review the Church of England’s safeguarding (News, 20 July 2023). In her report, The Future of Church Safeguarding, she recommended the creation of two new independent bodies: the first to carry out safeguarding work, and the second to provide “oversight and scrutiny” of the work of the first. Both, she said, should be established as charities and funded by the Church (News, 21 February 2024).
Last February (News, 1 March 2024), the Synod voted to form a Response Group to this report and to the barrister Sarah Wilkinson’s report on the demise of the Independent Safeguarding Board (News, 15 December 2024). One year on, in London next month, the Synod is to consider two options. Both represent a significant change in the Church’s delivery of safeguarding, with implications for the jobs of hundreds of people (News, 20 December 2024).
This article was updated on Wednesday 8 January