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

Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 17th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, as we all do, for bringing forward this most important Bill, which I am sure will go through to full Committee and be passed.

Why is it so important? I served as chair of the Sexual Violence in Conflict Select Committee a while ago. We took evidence from all over the globe by Zoom. Our clerks were diligent, and we brought in more evidence of sexual abuse in conflict than has ever been gathered before. The single determinant was fascinating: it was that victims needed their societies to know that this had happened to them; in other words, this reporting is crucial.

All over the globe, the ladies who have been abused, as well as the few men—most of the men get killed when this happens, while the ladies manage to survive; they are still alive, but heavily damaged—then want their society to know what has happened to them. Curiously, they did not necessarily need it to go to court. What they needed to know was that their society accepted that something totally unacceptable had happened to them and that it was recognised. So this reporting is absolutely vital.

However, it also brings problems. There are more societies than not where the reporting of sexual abuse of a female has damaged her for life. This is extremely difficult. In certain faiths, religions and societies, once a girl is known to have been abused, she is dead wood. She can be abused again and again, because she is already gone.

Therefore, I wonder about something that has not yet been raised as prominently as I would suggest is necessary, from my experience: that parents are brought in. Initially it is the parents who will teach the child, girl or boy, who to worry about, how to behave, how to avoid them, and what they should be concerned about. We have magnificent teachers in this House, but we have not discussed the core people in a child’s life: the mother and father, and how they can help—how they can distinguish between good and bad and teach the child from very early on who they should be worried about.

I remember when I was a child that there was a gentleman, and we were all taught as children, “Don’t go near that man when you are going out for a walk”. It is the mother who knows this and senses it. It is the maternal instinct that shelters the child at the beginning. Therefore, my suggestion is that we might think about Saturday morning teaching for parents in schools, for example. There is a lot of Saturday morning teaching on other subjects, which is fantastic. What about how to protect your child?

My final point is that as a society, we have in my opinion given very mixed messages on what a child is. We demand that doctors give certain sorts of drugs to children of 13, 14 and 15. Are they a child if they can have access to contraceptives, for example? What is the definition of a child in the United Kingdom? As we look at this whole subject, with the upcoming debates on these dreadful happenings in other parts of the UK, we will have to discuss what we define as a child in the first place.

But so far, I welcome the Bill with the warmest possible support. It will make a huge difference to many children in the future.