Tackling Child Sexual Abuse

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 1:25 pm on 8 April 2025.

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Photo of Jess Phillips Jess Phillips The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department 1:25, 8 April 2025

Unfortunately, what has been lost in that time is the ability to hold people to account. Even if, in a statutory inquiry, information was found out, for example about councillors, that would not lead to their arrest—that is not what a statutory inquiry does. Nobody is in prison as a result of any of the statutory inquiries we have had, so we want to focus our attention on criminalising those people. I am afraid to say that in the absence of mandatory reporting, we have seen lots of people get away with cover-ups in the intervening years. What I hope for the future is not that I see lots of people locked up who are bad, but that this change creates a culture of openness and transparency in child protection services. That is what should be celebrated, not the reputation of the organisation.