Government to make it mandatory to report child sexual abuse
The Home Secretary says those who cover up or fail to report child sexual abuse could face professional or criminal sanctions under a new offence to be introduced this year.
In an oral statement in the House of Commons, Yvette Cooper said “the protection of institutions can never be put before the protection of children”.
She said the change will be added to the Crime and Policing Bill this spring.
Ms Cooper said the Government will also legislate to make grooming an aggravating factor in the sentencing of child sexual offences.
In addition, she has promised to overhaul the information and evidence that is gathered on child sexual abuse and exploitation and embed it in a clear new performance framework for policing so these crimes are taken far more seriously.
The new measures are in response to three key recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) led by Professor Alexis Jay to address “significant failings” to keep children safe.
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.
“Perpetrators must be punished and pursued. Victims and survivors must be protected and supported.”
She said data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales estimates that half a million children every year experience some form of child sexual abuse – violence and sexual violation within the home, repeated rapes or exploitation by grooming or paedophile gangs, threats and intimidation involving intimate images online, and abuse within institutions that should have protected and cared for young people.
Ms Cooper said a victims and survivors panel will be set up to work on an ongoing basis with the inter-ministerial group and guide them on the design, delivery and implementation of new proposals and plans, not just on the IICSA inquiry but on “wider work around child sexual abuse and exploitation”.
“The independent inquiry recommended as one of its first recommendations, a single core data set on child abuse and protection but that has never been done,” said Ms Cooper.
“We will introduce a single child identifier in the Children and Wellbeing Bill, and a much stronger police performance framework including new standards on public protection, child abuse and exploitation.
“We are accelerating the work of the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce, set up rightly under the previous government, and there has been a 25 per cent increase in arrests between July and September of this year.
“That sits alongside the Tackling Organised Exploitation Programme, which is using advanced data analytics to uncover the complex networks involved in these crimes. The data on ethnicity is now being published but we will work further with them to improve the accuracy and robustness of the data and analysis.”
She added: “There is no excuse for anyone not to take these crimes seriously.”
Alan Collins, a lawyer who represents victims of sexual abuse at law firm Hugh James, said: “We welcome this long overdue decision to implement key recommendations made by IICSA over four years ago.
“However, the devil as always is in the detail: this is key for mandatory reporting laws, as opposed to the watered down version that appeared under the last government.
“Tougher sentences are all very well but jail time has not deterred offenders to date.
“The real challenge for the Government, the police and social services is to understand objectively why the grooming and sexual abuse of children is happening. Until we try to understand the causes, we are always going to be dealing with the consequences.”