Sexual Offences Bill [HL]

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 3:45 pm on 10 April 2003.

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Photo of Lord Falconer of Thoroton Lord Falconer of Thoroton Minister of State (Criminal Policy), Home Office, Minister of State (Home Office) (Criminal Justice System) 3:45, 10 April 2003

What the noble Baroness, Lady Blatch, says is widely understood around the Committee. The noble Lord, Lord Rix, was kind enough to give me warning of the purpose of this provision. We have had equally legitimate and parallel debates on the position of the victims and the perpetrators of sex crimes, particularly those who are underage.

One of the key principles underlying the offences in the Bill is that the provisions should offer better protection to the vulnerable. The sex offences review heard very disturbing evidence about the extent and nature of the sexual abuse of vulnerable people. The noble Lord, Lord Rix, has been drawing that to our attention in this House for a very considerable time. It included evidence that these vulnerable individuals are deliberately targeted for abuse by predatory offenders who calculate, all too often rightly, that they are less likely to be convicted than if they abuse somebody with no such disability.

Existing legislation has offered inadequate redress because of the inadequate nature of the criminal offences. These provisions try to make the criminal law better and more effective as a means of seeking to reduce the level of abuse.

The noble Lord, Lord Rix, is right when he says that that is only part of the story. What support is provided not just for victims who have a case brought in the criminal justice system but for those who are abused without proceedings being brought?

I appreciate fully why the noble Lord has raised this issue. I sympathise with his concerns that those victims of crime who are in this situation need specialist help in very many cases in terms of counselling and other services to aid their recovery. I fear that I may not be able to give him the assurances that he seeks. There are two sources of funding. First, there is local authority social services funding. Funding for social services has gone up generally. Relationships with local authorities require that the discussions with them determine how much they give. In addition, the Department of Health provides support to voluntary sector organisations which play a part in providing the sort of counselling to which the noble Lord referred.

The noble Lord knows better than I that for the year 2003–04, voluntary organisations in the learning disability field received approximately £1.4 million in Section 64 grant funding. That is made up of £496,000 paid in the current year and £898,000 that they applied for in previous years. The organisations that received this funding include his own organisation, Mencap, as well as VOICE UK, Respond and ARC. I anticipate that the noble Lord, Lord Rix, will say politely, "I know all that. It is not nearly enough; there is no over-arching strategy, it is patchy throughout the country because some local authorities do this and some do not". We would all share the view that provision needs to be much more focused and less patchy. That needs to be done as soon as possible. I cannot stand here and say that I can give an assurance that that will happen but we all agree that it should. I will take back what has been said today to my colleagues in the relevant departments.

The noble Earl, Lord Listowel, raised the question of the Green Paper Children at Risk. That will obviously deal with a different category of children rather than the vulnerable people whom these provisions are intended to deal with. It will cover issues about how they are to be supported when they become victims of crime in the kind of circumstances with which the Bill is intended to deal.

I appreciate that I have not dealt with the matter in a way which might satisfy all Members of the Committee. We are very mindful of the problem and recognise that the Bill can be part of the story.

As regards the final issues raised by the noble Lord, Lord Astor of Hever, and supported by other Members of the Committee, it is not possible for me to give definitive indications of the precise circumstances in which this clause will be used. But it is absolutely right that it has to be dealt with incredibly sensitively having particular regard to the interests of the victim in the context of proceedings and in considering whether or not it is in the interests of the victim in every case to bring proceedings. That will occur and it will very often require advice and assistance to the CPS way beyond the normal advice which is given.