Crime and Policing Bill

Debate between Lord Hanson of Flint and Baroness Walmsley

Report stage
Monday 2nd March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to those who tabled amendments. The noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, was absolutely right: there was ministerial tutting on this Front Bench when the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, said that the Government are looking at “How little can we do?” I refer the noble Baroness, for her interest, to the document we produced on 9 April 2025, which I have just looked up online. It has 87 paragraphs of cross-government action, in response to the Alexis Jay report, that the Government will take on this. I refer her to Clauses 77 to 86 of the Bill, which bring forward amendments. I do not wish to make a party-political point about the previous Government, but there is a point to register here: the Alexis Jay report was produced in October 2022, and this Government have not just brought these clauses before the House but, on 9 April 2025, produced an 87-point response to the legislation. So it is not about how little can we do but about how much we can do from a standing start on 4 July 2024.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, I am very sorry that the Minister has taken offence at my comments. I accept that this Government have brought forward legislation and taken a number of actions, but I am very much influenced by the disappointment of the IICSA board members. As my noble friend Lady Brinton said, it is very unusual that such people should write in the terms that they have to the Home Secretary. It is in those particular sections of their report they are very disappointed, and so am I. But I am sorry if the Minister was upset and offended by my comments; I never intend that.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful for the noble Baroness’s comments. I am not upset or offended; I just want to put the record straight. We are trying to deal with this issue, having been in office for just under 20 months. This Bill was produced some time ago, and we put in it a response that meets most of the IICSA recommendations to date. We produced a report on 9 April last year setting out the direction of travel. I am not upset personally; I just want to put this on the record. The noble Baroness cannot say that it is about how little we can do when we are trying to do as much as we possibly can.

On the letter which was mentioned, it was sent on Friday and has gone to the Home Office. I have not seen it myself yet. The noble Baroness may have a copy, and I am sure she will pass it to me in due course. I can see that the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, is itching to give me the letter, but I say to both noble Baronesses that we will respond to it in due course—the Home Secretary will assess its contents.

Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Debate between Lord Hanson of Flint and Baroness Walmsley

Wednesday 8th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend and for her persistent campaigning on this issue. It is important that we focus on the issue: how do we better protect children and survivors, how do we give them victim support and how do we prevent future criminal actions by individuals, whatever their race or ethnicity? We must also seek to prosecute individuals, whatever their race or ethnicity.

While I can make points about the review commissioned by the noble Baroness, Lady May, the seven years afterwards, the response and what has happened since then, I want to try to look forward. That means taking forward the three recommendations that we have agreed to and looking at the work we have done since July on the child sexual exploitation police task force. That was established by the last Government. We have now put some energy into the acceleration of its activity and saw a 25% increase in arrests around child sexual exploitation between July and September of last year.

There is much to do. I appreciate that history is worth looking at, and there are lessons for us all—including me, as I was a Home Office Minister a long time ago, in 2009-10. My hope is that we can use this to find common ground to tackle the issue. In doing so, let us make sure that we protect children and bring perpetrators to justice.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, when I last tried to introduce a mandatory reporting duty for child abuse, in an amendment on Report to the Serious Crime Bill, on 28 October 2014—a long time ago—the Minister at the time, the noble Lord, Lord Bates, responded by announcing the inquiry, which later became the IICSA inquiry established by the noble Baroness, Lady May, as well as a public consultation. However, he said:

“Research is inconclusive in determining whether mandatory reporting regimes help, hinder or … make no difference to child safeguarding outcomes”.—[Official Report, 28/10/14; col. 1083.]


He also said that the duty to report might “divert” services from the task of safeguarding children. Is the current Minister convinced that the research is clear that a mandatory reporting duty will help the task of protecting children, rather than hinder it? The clarity of the evidence will be very important when we come to debate the Home Secretary’s proposals, which we want to make sure go through.

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

The Government believe that a mandatory reporting mechanism will help the system, which is why we will introduce it.