Child Sexual Exploitation: Casey Report

Jas Athwal Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

Crime is crime, and the safety of children should always be paramount, whatever the circumstances, and we must always pursue the evidence. That is why the mantra around policing is to pursue the evidence “without fear or favour”, and that is the standard that British policing has long applied. That is the approach we always have to take to children’s safety, wherever issues or concerns are raised.

[Jas Athwal (Ilford South) (Lab)]

I put on record my thanks to Baroness Casey and the Home Secretary—the first Home Secretary in 16 years to come here with an independent review. These girls, now women, were abused, traumatised and then retraumatised by a system that did little to protect them or help them get justice. We should always put the lives and safety of young girls before any political concerns, which is why I welcome today’s decision. Will the Home Secretary lay out how predators, and those who denied victims justice, will be held accountable following this inquiry?

[Yvette Cooper]

We must ensure that recommendations are implemented. One conclusion in the Baroness Casey audit states:

“The timeline set out above—”

that is the history of failed reports in the past—

“shows a pattern of case after case of offending that is prosecuted, reviewed and then recommendations for improvement made and repeated, but not followed through. We become so used to hearing about these issues that they become more about justifications for failures rather than problems that need to be fixed.”

We must ensure that these problems are fixed.