Crime and Policing Bill

Baroness Grey-Thompson Excerpts

2nd reading
Thursday 16th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Grey-Thompson (CB)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a president of the Local Government Association and chair of the Duke of Edinburgh awards.

While I broadly welcome this Bill, I have a number of reservations—but I strongly support the work of the noble Baroness, Lady Bertin, on tackling pornography. I am sorry that my noble friend Lord Hogan-Howe is not in his place at the moment, because I support the fervour with which he wishes to improve cycling safety.

I shall concentrate my comments on the mandatory reporting of child sex abuse—I have a Private Member’s Bill on this topic; I thank the noble Lord, Lord Hanson, for responding to me on that at Second Reading. Tom Perry, who previously worked with Mandate Now, has said:

“Among the 82% of countries in the rest of the world that mandate prescribed personnel to report child sexual abuse, none employ such a dilute approach”.


The impact assessment for this Bill says that there will be an increase of only around eight extra reports per annum per police force—hardly ground-breaking.

In April 2025, the Home Office published a progress update on tackling child sex abuse and found that the scale of child sexual abuse was “truly staggering”. Children are 20% of the population but are the victims in 40% of all sexual offences. The Local Government Association estimates that only one in three children who are sexually abused by an adult tell someone. The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies estimates that 85% of child sexual abuse goes undetected and unreported.

While the Home Office update states that the Government are committed to tackling child sex abuse and will respond to the report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, a system that requires abuse to be disclosed by the child, witnessed by the reporter or confessed by the perpetrator before a report is mandated is far too weak. What His Majesty’s Government propose falls short of the recommendations made in IICSA; the recommendation from IICSA is for anyone in a position of trust, whereas the scope of the proposed Bill is much reduced. This Bill excludes leadership and supervisory roles from the duty to report. Furthermore, only disclosed and witnessed abuse is covered. No criminal penalties are proposed for a failure to report, meaning that suspected child sexual abuse may continue to go unreported with no repercussions.

Lastly, the confidentiality duties for religious and medical sectors remain open to interpretation or to possible future exemption. The IICSA report shows that international evidence supports the view that England and Wales ought to introduce mandatory reporting laws to enable the police and local authorities better to identify children in need of protection. We must learn from other areas where mandatory reporting has been implemented, such as female genital mutilation, and endeavour to ensure that we have a clear, comprehensive and effective law. Our children deserve better.