Offences against Children
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on how many (a) police officers, (b) officials of local authorities and (c) social workers who were found to have had knowledge at the time of grooming by Pakistani heritage grooming gangs are in positions with a duty of care towards girls.
Answered by Jess Phillips
The Government is actively working to ensure that all institutions and individuals remain responsible and accountable in protecting children from all forms of child sexual abuse. This includes compliance with existing statutory safeguarding duties, and the introduction of a new mandatory reporting duty, which will introduce criminal sanctions to drive greater accountability.
In addition, the Home Secretary announced to Parliament on 16 January 2025 the further steps that the Government is taking to ensure proper accountability for those institutions and individuals who failed to take the necessary action to prevent group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation in the past, including through additional nationally supported local inquiries.
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