Offences against Children
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the number of ongoing investigations into institutional failings related to group-based child sexual exploitation.
Answered by Jess Phillips
The Government continues to focus on delivering meaningful change for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and exploitation, including group-based child sexual exploitation.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) and police forces can investigative any criminal activity, including offences that have occurred in relation to institutional failings in cases of group-based child sexual exploitation. We have significantly strengthened the National Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce to support police investigations into group-based child sexual exploitation across the country, and we have asked all 43 police forces in England and Wales to work with the Taskforce to review historic cases where 'No Further Action' was taken and to pursue new lines of inquiry, where appropriate, to get justice for more victims and to get more perpetrators behind bars.
We are awaiting Baroness Casey's national audit into group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and will set out any further work in due course.
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