Home Secretary Yvette Cooper addressed Parliament, outlining upcoming government measures to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. These initiatives include:
- Mandatory reporting of suspected abuse.
- Establishment of a victims and survivors panel.
- Overhauled data collection and new police performance standards.
- Tougher legal penalties for perpetrators.
- Support for local inquiries, beginning in places like Oldham.
Cooper emphasized how previous inquiries—such as the 7-year Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which heard from 7,000 survivors and reviewed 2 million pages—had revealed devastating cases of institutional neglect. She warned that recommendations from those investigations were frequently ignored. The government now intends to implement all 20 recommendations from the final IICSA report, especially those assigned to the Home Office. A timetable for delivering these changes will be presented before Easter.
To prosecute more offenders and deliver justice, the plan includes:
- Stricter sentences for grooming, making it an aggravating factor.
- A refreshed Child Sexual Abuse Review Panel to handle cases since 2013.
- A call for Chief Constables to re-examine previously dropped grooming cases, backed by £2 million in funding.
- Local police forces will produce ‘problem profiles’ on grooming, with progress overseen by the inspectorate.
Recognizing the prevalence of grooming across diverse communities—including Pakistani heritage gangs—Cooper acknowledged the poor quality of data on offender ethnicity and called for its expansion. She also announced a rapid national audit led by Baroness Louise Casey to better understand gang-related exploitation and underlying drivers, with findings to inform data and policy improvements.
