Child Sexual Abuse Independent Panel Inquiry
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to implement the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, published on 20 October 2022.
Answered by Sarah Sackman
The Government is focused on delivering meaningful change for victims of these horrendous crimes.
Before Easter, we will lay out a timetable for responding to the 20 recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. The new victims and survivors panel will support our cross-Government ministerial group to consider those recommendations, putting the voices of victims at the heart of our plans going forward.
We will strengthen the law, introducing a mandatory reporting duty to make it an offence, with professional and criminal sanctions, to fail to report or to cover up child sexual abuse.
Going further, my Department will legislate to make grooming an aggravating factor in the sentencing of child sexual offences, to ensure that this behaviour is reflected in the sentencing of perpetrators.
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