Child Sexual Abuse and Rape Gangs Inquiry
Baroness Hazarika Excerpts(1 week, 2 days ago)
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Baroness Hazarika
To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to ensure the statutory inquiry into child sexual abuse and rape gangs is conducted swiftly and does not delay justice for victims.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Hanson of Flint) (Lab)
The Government are determined to root out the horrific crimes of grooming gangs and to secure justice for victims. We have accepted the 12 recommendations made by the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, including the recommendation to establish a national inquiry under the Inquiries Act. The inquiry will be time-limited and will have statutory powers to direct targeted investigations into local areas, with the aim of holding institutions to account for current and historical failures in their response to group-based child sexual exploitation.
Baroness Hazarika (Lab)
I thank my noble friend the Minister for his Answer. I welcome this inquiry. I just want to say that, as a Muslim woman, I apologise profoundly for what these wicked men have done to white, working-class girls. Many of us feel deeply ashamed. Let us not call them “grooming gangs”; these are rape gangs that operated on an industrial level. I hope that the inquiry will hear the voices of Muslim girls who were also abused by these animals.
The Minister talked about a time limit. Could the inquiry be capped at two years, because justice delayed is justice denied? Given the public interest, will this inquiry be televised? Finally, given the incredible work that the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, has done, can she be appointed as the chair of it because, in a world of appalling systemic failure, she is the only public figure whom many victims trust?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
I am grateful to my noble friend, and I place on record from this Dispatch Box my thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, for the 197-page report that she presented, on the Government’s request, in the five months since January of this year. My noble friend asked about the timescale for the inquiry. The noble Baroness, Lady Casey, indicated that it would be around three years. I would like to see it speeded up, but we have to discuss that matter with the potential chair of the inquiry. The Government intend to try to recruit the chair of the inquiry as a matter of some speed, and we are in the process of doing that now. The noble Baroness, Lady Casey, herself, is now going to be engaged in a further report, but we will appoint a chair as soon as possible.
As to the matter of televising the proceedings, again, if my noble friend will bear with me, that will be a matter for discussion with the chair to determine. We want to ensure that we take action speedily on this issue, which is why we have accepted all 12 recommendations, and why the 11 that are not related to the national inquiry will be implemented in very short order by this Government.
Child Sexual Exploitation: Casey Report
Baroness Hazarika Excerpts(1 week, 2 days ago)
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Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for raising this issue. I extend my apologies to the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton; I am trying to cover a range of issues in a very short time.
On the question of the duty of candour and the Hillsborough law, the noble Lord and the noble Baroness will know that the UK Government had a manifesto commitment to introduce that legislation. As yet, it has not been introduced, but I know that work is being done behind the scenes to do that. As a supporter of the Liverpool Football Club, and somebody who, when a Member of Parliament, had constituents who were victims of the Hillsborough incident, I know that that will be very welcome legislation. It is still being worked on in government terms, and will be published in due course.
The noble Lord mentioned the support of voluntary organisations. That is extremely important. I would hope that the prospective chair, whoever he or she will be, will reach out and look at the role of the voluntary sector as well.
The noble Lord is absolutely right to say that victims know no ethnicity. There are perpetrators from every walk of life and every religious and ethnic group, including white British, and there are victims from every group. We have a particular focus on organised gangs, and that has been prevalent in certain places. The noble Baroness, Lady Casey, has made recommendations about ethnic data collection, which we will look at and which will help inform in future what is happening for both victim and perpetrator, but the noble Lord is absolutely right to raise this issue today.
Baroness Hazarika (Lab)
My Lords, it is so important that both sides do not play politics. The reality is that none of our parties has covered themselves with glory, including my own—I absolutely put my hands up to that. It was not that long ago when a Conservative prospective Prime Minister said that money being spent on historic child abuse inquiries was money “spaffed up the wall”. I think we all need to remember that. These crimes are not historic and I would like the Minister to update us on what is being done to protect victims today. We know that these crimes are still happening and that these rape gangs are still operating in our towns and cities across the country.
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
I am grateful to my noble friend. I want to have consensus in this House on the measures that we take forward as a whole, which is why I reflect on the fact that measures in the Crime and Policing Bill were voted against in the House of Commons within the past hour and a half.
My noble friend is absolutely right to focus on the issue of what is being done now. We have focused on putting additional support into policing and tracing convictions. We have investigated a lot of cases—some 800 cases that were closed cases previously—and increased the conviction rate by 50%. That is an important measure. With the acceptance of the 12 measures from the report of the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, and the inclusion of the IICSA recommendations in legislation, along with action and the further examination of a couple of those, this Government are taking the issue very seriously.
Extremism Review
Baroness Hazarika Excerpts(4 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
I agree, and I look forward to spending potentially several days debating that Bill with noble Lords. It is important that we have a definition of terrorism. It is currently set down in legislation. The Government have asked again for a review of that as part of the review the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, referred to, but there are no outcomes to it yet. Until it brings any outcomes, that is the definition of terrorism in place for this legislation.
Baroness Hazarika (Lab)
My Lords, as part of the work that the department is doing, could the Minister look at the intersection of extremist ideology, whether that is Islamist or far right, with other important issues, such as misogyny and examples of mental health issues? Will they also look at what technology companies are doing? If you have a fragile mind and are being fed a diet of awful, grotesque violence and extreme pornography, that will contribute to these problems as well.
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
My noble friend mentions other sources of issues that may lead people to extremist or terrorist behaviour. The Government are cognisant of that and will not ignore that approach. However, the two main threats are from Islamist terrorism or extreme right-wing neo-Nazi terrorism, so that is where the focus of government action is. We will still examine incidents on a case-by-case basis when they arise.
On the reviews that are being undertaken, we have to learn lessons from issues such as Southport. If there are issues that need to be updated when Prevent and the terrorist legislation are reviewed then so be it. How we deal with materials placed on the net and the responsibility of tech companies for that material is one of the issues that may need to be updated in due course. Self-evidently, individuals are being radicalised in a range of ways, including in the ways my noble friend has mentioned, from Islamist, neo-Nazi and other material they have seen on the net. There is a need to ensure that we examine that new framework, which was not in existence the last time I was in the Home Office 14 years ago, but which is in place now. Therefore, the Government’s response needs to be cognisant of that. We will take all of those points into account and report to this House in due course, when appropriate.
Anti-social Behaviour and Shoplifting
Baroness Hazarika Excerpts(6 months, 1 week ago)
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Baroness Hazarika
To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to tackle anti-social behaviour and shoplifting.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Hanson of Flint) (Lab)
This Government will tackle anti-social behaviour by rebuilding visible neighbourhood policing, with 13,000 additional neighbourhood officers and PCSOs, and will bring in new respect orders to enable police to ban persistent anti-social offenders from our town centres. We will also introduce a new offence of assaulting a retail worker and end the effective immunity for shop theft of goods under £200.
Baroness Hazarika (Lab)
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for his Answer. I was pleased to see that safer streets are a priority for this Government. Will the Minister agree that anti-social behaviour and crimes such as shoplifting, aggressive begging and phone theft are anything but low-level and can blight the lives of local residents and businesses? Many people who work in shops feel like they are living in a war zone. Will he agree that anti-social behaviour can so often be the canary down the coal mine and tell a wider story about what kind of society we are living in? Finally, will there be a focus on targeting often a small number of hardened criminals who are responsible for terrorising local residents and shops? Will the police and courts take this more seriously and consider the use of technology such as facial recognition?
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)
I am pleased to say to my noble friend that it is a “yes” to every point she has raised. Anti-social behaviour and shop theft are not minor crimes. They cause disruption in our communities. Shop theft in particular costs retailers across the nation millions of pounds, which is passed on to us as customers, and it is not acceptable. That is why, on shop theft, we are going to end the £200 effective immunity. For shop workers, we will protect them by introducing a new offence, because they are very often upholding the law in their shops on alcohol, tobacco and other sales, for us in this House.
Domestic Abuse: Victims and Survivors
Baroness Hazarika Excerpts(6 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Baroness Hazarika (Lab)
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Chisholm, for securing this important debate and for such an eloquent, powerful and well-researched opening speech. Domestic abuse is a stain on our society; it not only kills women but scars their children and perpetuates a cycle of pain and violence. We have all been heartbroken by the case of Sara Sharif, which we have seen in the past few days. We know this: that violent and controlling men do not just beat women—they often beat their own children.
All of us across the House want to tackle this issue, and I, too, pay tribute to the many brilliant women’s organisations in the sector. I pay tribute particularly to Women’s Aid, which has just marked its 50th anniversary. These organisations do excellent work, giving voice to women who often feel that the world and every public institution has failed them. They listen to these women and, most importantly, they believe them—women like Claire Throssell MBE. Claire had a violent partner. She told the court that her ex-husband was capable of hurting her children. He told her that he would, to punish her, and in 2014, during an unsupervised contact visit, he killed her sons, Paul and Jack. In her own words:
“It took just 15 minutes for my life to end and my existence to begin”.
That did not need to happen, and so many of the relentless tragedies that we shed a tear over do not need to happen if we listen to victims and we listen to women like Claire.
I hope that this new Government will listen to the victims. They have got off to a good start, and there are many good champions within the Government, particularly the honourable Jess Phillips, MP. But we need a system that is designed for victims, particularly women and children. At the moment, it feels like the whole system—from the family courts to the police, the criminal justice system and the Child Maintenance Service—exists to grind women down and exhaust them with all the bureaucracy and expense, and to punish them again and again.
Many people think that it is all over for a woman when the immediate violence stops and she leaves her partner, but that can often be just the beginning of a nightmare journey, trying to survive economic abuse and coercive control, with the ex-partner using the family court system against her and accusing her of all sorts. The emotional, psychological and financial abuse can carry on long after those initial bruises fade. We must listen to women and work with organisations such as Women’s Aid and Surviving Economic Abuse.
Finally, I ask my noble friend the Minister: will he consider recognising domestic abuse as the national emergency that it is?
Retail Crime: Effects
Baroness Hazarika Excerpts(6 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Baroness Hazarika (Lab)
My Lords, I thank my good friend the noble Lord, Lord Hannett of Everton, for organising this important debate. He brings great wisdom and experience, having represented shop workers over many decades, and is one of our most respected trade union leaders at USDAW. I also look forward to hearing from my noble friend Lord Monks.
The timing of this debate is highly apt and very personal to me because, on Monday evening, I popped into my local shop in Lambeth, south London, to pick up some groceries. A very aggressive man barged in, pushed past a queue of customers, marched up to the alcohol aisle by the till and grabbed two bottles of spirits. The poor security guard tried to stop him. The shoplifter then turned very aggressive and threatened not only the member of staff but everyone around him. The whole shop froze with fear and the guy simply walked out. It was genuinely incredible to witness. Everyone in the shop was very shaken up by this, and I spoke to the security guard and asked if he was okay. He told me that this happens all the time. He fears for his safety and that of the customers, especially when there are mums with young kids in doing their shopping. He also told me that this guy was a serial offender; he comes in a couple of times a week, sometimes even a couple of times a day. He is a violent menace, and yet nobody does anything.
The shocking thing is that everybody knows who this person is. The evidence is there, and yet nothing happens. The police do not take it seriously and employers do not know what to do. The security guard cares deeply, but he does not want to risk life and limb. The worst thing is that this is the new normal. Let that sink in: we now live in a society where we teach our children about rules and laws, yet they see people saunter into a shop, fill their boots, threaten violence and walk out scot free. In what world is that okay?
There will be some who argue that this kind of crime is just low level. I could not disagree more. Shoplifting is not trivial in any way; it is theft. It is often the canary down the coal mine, which tells us an interesting story about where society is. We all know that sky-high shoplifting goes hand in hand with anti-social behaviour—litter, street harassment, aggressive begging, mugging, phone theft, drug dealing, violence, particularly against women and girls on the street, and the rest. Anti-social behaviour is blighting so many of our communities and causing so much misery.
I am part of a local community group in the Brixton area where I live called Action on ASB!, and I can tell you that local residents are distressed and fed up with it. Not only is it horrible to live in an area where you and your kids feel frightened; it causes huge damage to the local economy. I will quote the Brixton business improvement district, known as BID, which represents more than 500 local members. It says that the Brixton economy is worth £2 billion annually, which is a third of the whole Lambeth economy, so it is important. Movement data shows a considerable fall in footfall—in some cases as much as 25% compared to the previous year. The BID argues that personal safety, crime and anti-social behaviour is a key reason why people are staying away from the local area, and cites shoplifting and verbal and physical abuse against workers as a major problem.
Retail crime, along with anti-social behaviour, has reached an unsustainable level in Brixton and it is affecting people’s quality of life. But this is not just in Brixton and Lambeth; it is happening all over the country, and it can have devastating consequences.
A much-loved local business owner and good friend of mine, who owns a second-hand shop, had a terrible experience recently. As he was closing up one night, he was attacked and beaten so badly that he has now lost his sight in one eye. His life was saved only by a passer-by who made an intervention. So I say again to anyone who challenges me: retail crime is not low-level crime. It is intrinsically connected to more serious crime, and it is time we took it seriously.
We need more police, and I strongly welcome the announcement today of 13,000 more officers, but we need those police to take this more seriously and actually turn up. We also need to prosecute and punish this crime. There are often a small number of hardened criminals who are responsible for terrorising local shops and are known in the area. As the noble Lord, Lord Kirkham, argued, let us target them using technology such as facial recognition.
We also need to acknowledge that alcohol and drug addiction, homelessness, prostitution and mental health issues contribute to this kind of behaviour, so we need a joined-up approach that brings together local authorities and police, along with other key agencies from public health and housing.
Above all, we need real leadership on this from our politicians, national and local, and from our police. We should not just surrender our local high streets to a Wild West where shop workers, residents and customers are subjected to theft, intimidation and violence on a daily, sometimes even an hourly, basis. The toll on them is not just physically but psychologically immense, and it is harming the wider economy.
There is also a moral question here: what kind of society do we want to live in? We once prided ourselves as a nation of shopkeepers. The local shop and convenience store make up the fabric of our communities —it is where we see our friends and our neighbours—but their owners and workers should not feel like they are living in a war zone, as the noble Lord, Lord Hannett, so eloquently describes. It is time to get tough on retail crime and make our shops and streets safer for everyone.