Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

Monday 20th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

The noble Baroness, Lady Foster, knows that I have great respect for Jim Gamble and his work. She will also know that addressing the movement to online presence, the dark web, fake images, AI, and the future development of child abuse in that sphere is extremely important for the Government. That is why two things are happening as a result of my right honourable friend’s Statement. The first is action on the Online Safety Act to try to look at how we tighten up laws on the use of child images and child abuse images online. Secondly, we are recruiting a large number of additional online undercover police officers. I do not need to talk to the House in great detail about that, but the purpose of those officers is to capture people who are committing criminal activity online and bring them to justice in order to stop them exploiting young people and children, and to stop young people and children being exploited through providing images that those people will seek to use. They are both extremely important areas that the Government are focused on.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, I had the duty to give evidence to IICSA in my time as a Minister, and then served on the Select Committee that looked at statutory inquiries. We came up with a recommendation that was in line with what the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, said about enacting recommendations. We heard evidence, though, that, in addition to its recommendations, a really important part of IICSA was the Truth Project. Of some 7,000 victims who took part, about 6,000 were within that project, which was nowhere near being a core participant. Can the Minister outline how reviews of local inquiries will not lose sight of the fact that victims really valued that process, which was very cathartic and not part of the judicial process of the inquiry?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, for those comments. I think she will know that the Government want to put victims at the heart of the response to the recommendations. We debated mandatory reporting on Friday in this House, and it was clear that victims carry the pain of their victimhood through into adult life and beyond. It scars individuals. My noble friend Lord Mann mentioned the many victims who do not reach adulthood because they self-harm and commit suicide. We need to address how we involve the experience of victims to ensure we do not create future victims. I see the noble Baroness, Lady May of Maidenhead, in her place. The inquiry she established had a number of recommendations on how we can help support victims, and we will look at those between now and Easter. It takes time, but we will look at how we can respond to those recommendations in the best way, so as not to lose the knowledge that the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, mentioned.

Regulated and Other Activities (Mandatory Reporting of Child Sexual Abuse) Bill [HL]

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 17th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, I too pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, for her tenacity in pursuing this Private Member’s Bill. I served on the Select Committee of your Lordships’ House looking at statutory inquiries and had the privilege and duty of giving evidence to IICSA while a Minister in the Department for Education.

The Select Committee stated that too many recommendations from statutory inquiries are not responded to or, even if they are accepted, they are not acted on. When victims give evidence as they do in such inquiries, it is disrespectful at least, and possibly harmful, to treat recommendations in this manner. As the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, outlined, this recommendation is nearly three years old. Could His Majesty’s Government make sure that all past recommendations of all statutory inquiries are looked at now? If they have been accepted, when will they be enacted, even if this new Government take a different view? Surely it is better for victims to know that than have this grey area where there has been acceptance but they are not sure what is going to happen?

While there is now widespread agreement on enacting this recommendation, effective definition of this duty is harder than it might seem. The last Government’s attempts might not have actually created a criminal offence. I know that this is a Private Member’s Bill, with all the constraints this brings, but I wonder whether the limitation to humans having knowledge of child abuse now needs updating. Much of the knowledge of or disclosure by children who have been harmed may in fact be sitting on online platforms, as they increasingly disclose in that way. So, when His Majesty’s Government consider this mandatory reporting duty, could we please be assured that the duties to report on corporations and online platforms under the Online Safety Act align with human beings’ responsibility to report such harm under mandatory reporting?

Also, as the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, outlined, there is no definition of child sexual abuse in the Bill. Again, with much happening online, such as deepfakes and the plethora of offences, these are now not straightforward issues. What if a group of teenagers come across images on their parents’ devices and happen to mention that casually in the hearing of a youth group leader or teacher? Is that child abuse to report? A proper definition will limit the number of misguided or false reports.

While I welcome the creation of a separate detriment offence in Section 3(2), if someone does not report child abuse as they have suffered a significant detriment, and is charged with the offence under Section 3(1), they do not seem to be able to raise that detriment or the threats they suffered as a defence. Is that really just? While we expect people to put the seriousness of child sex abuse disclosures above the reputation of institutions and their own personal promotion, et cetera, if they are being threatened with significant detriment, should they still be guilty of an offence if they succumb to that pressure? Should the magistrates not at least have a discretion to take that into account or are His Majesty’s Government expecting that the common-law defence of duress will be raised in those circumstances?

I would also be grateful if His Majesty’s Government could confirm whether these offences are going to be relevant for that person’s own DBS check. Whether they have that defence that they can raise is very pertinent, because it could affect their career in an ongoing way if it is relevant to their DBS clearance.

I was surprised to read in the IICSA report that it asked for information from local authorities about the level of disclosure of child sex abuse and was told that the data is not collected. If local authorities are given this duty, surely they should have to collect the data and be given the resources to do so. With over 82,000 people currently barred from working with children, sadly, this is not a historic issue.

Windrush Compensation Scheme

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for the question. We will examine the points that he has made, and I will write to him about the detail of the potential Home Office response on that. He needs to be reassured that the Windrush commissioner proposals that we are bringing forward, the £1.5 million we have put in to help with advocacy—as mentioned by the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin—and the commitment to deliver this scheme quickly are for the whole purpose of recognising the hurt and suffering of Windrush victims, and giving them proper redress for that hurt and loss.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, the Minister mentioned that it had been significant that a single caseworker had been allocated, and that it had really improved the system. The Windrush compensation scheme is one of many that the Government are running at the moment, such as the Post Office and infected blood. Can the Minister please make sure that he shares the lessons learned across government, particularly with the Cabinet Office, to ensure that people are getting a speedy redress when they are owed compensation by the Government?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I will certainly do that and take that back to pass on to my Cabinet Office colleagues. One of the reasons why the new Government introduced the single named caseworker was in direct response to the type of criticism that the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, has brought forward. We hope that it will streamline the process, improve consistency, increase transparency and remove the duplication, because those are the factors that have led to delay. If there is good practice from the Post Office and infected blood compensation schemes, and/or vice versa from this, the Government should self-evidently adopt it and make sure that victims get the justice they deserve at the time they deserve it.

Guns Manufactured by 3D Printers

Baroness Berridge Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

The question of hybrid weapons, again, is covered by existing legislation, in the sense that it is an offence carrying a penalty of life imprisonment to distribute them, and an offence carrying a penalty of between five and 10 years’ imprisonment to hold and own them. If the hybrid nature of firearms is being developed, that again is an issue that we are currently looking at, currently examining. There is a Private Member’s Bill in the House of Commons for consideration in January. The Government will respond to that Private Member’s Bill and will reflect on the points made in both this House and the House of Commons.

[Baroness Berridge (Con)]

My Lords, I had the pleasure of doing a Private Member’s Bill with the late Sir David Amess, which dealt with the supply of machinery that could manufacture, for instance, counterfeit passports. Building on the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Hogan-Howe, when we look at this matter, could we make sure that we look also at any 3D printing of bullets—which is apparently at the cusp of being possible —as well as handguns?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

Absolutely. Again, I am in danger of repeating myself to the House. Those matters are under consideration. The Government will review all legislation. Again, the Government’s main aim is to strengthen what we already have: a penalty of life imprisonment for the illegal manufacture and distribution of weapons, and a penalty of five to 10 years for the holding of an illegal weapon. We are keeping these matters under review. I hope the House can hear what I say and understand the consideration that we are making.