Child Sex Abuse (Rotherham) Debate

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Department: Home Office

Child Sex Abuse (Rotherham)

Andrew Bridgen Excerpts
Tuesday 2nd September 2014

(10 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait Mrs May
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The hon. Gentleman asks a very good question. What is interesting, in looking at the report, is that Risky Business does seem to be one part of the organisations actually doing good work. Indeed, Professor Jay raises a question towards the end of the report about whether, given that the work of Risky Business has now been incorporated, as I understand it, into the council’s work, it can be as effective in that environment. I would expect that what is known about the incident that the hon. Gentleman refers to is in the report, but certainly I will be discussing with Professor Jay anything that needs to be learned about those sorts of actions.

Andrew Bridgen Portrait Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)
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My hon. Friend the Member for Monmouth (David T. C. Davies) quite tactfully pointed out that the vast majority of the perpetrators of these crimes are Pakistani, Muslim men, so is it any surprise to my right hon. Friend that they might feel emboldened to prey upon vulnerable people in the wider community when for too long a blind eye has been turned to their behaviour towards their own vulnerable young ladies—I am talking about female genital mutilation?

Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait Mrs May
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I repeat the point that I made in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouth (David T. C. Davies): of course in this case, as in some others, the majority of the perpetrators come from that particular community, but we see child sexual exploitation across all communities. There is a question about the extent of hidden abuse and sexual exploitation within communities that is not revealed even by the work of Professor Jay. We should encourage the victims of not only child sexual exploitation and child abuse, but domestic violence, to come forward so that those issues can be properly dealt with.