Child Rape Gangs

Debate between Lauren Sullivan and Jess Phillips

Monday 28th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jess Phillips]

I absolutely agree. I remember working in a Rape Crisis centre when the Jimmy Savile scandal was revealed and it was like being hit by a tsunami—the phone lines lit up. As I said before Easter in response to the Jay inquiry, making sure that we have robust mental health support for children who are victims is really important. I also announced that the Home Office would double the amount of money it provides for adult historic rape victims, in recognition that we may bring more people forward and therefore need to improve access to support.

[Dr Lauren Sullivan (Gravesham) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for all her work and commitment over many, many years. Will she confirm that the Government are committed to building trust with victims and survivors of child exploitation and abuse? My heart goes out to them. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government’s focus on tackling violence against women and girls will turn the tide and shed a light, as sunlight is the best disinfectant?

[Jess Phillips]

Absolutely. There are systemic problems with how women and girls are treated, and sometimes cover-ups are ignored. I am afraid to say that there is still a cultural sense of women feeling that they will not be believed if they come forward. We have to look fundamentally at all the systems across Government, which is what I and my colleague, the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), who is leading on the violence against women and girls strategy, will do.

Crime and Policing Bill (Tenth sitting)

Debate between Lauren Sullivan and Jess Phillips

Committee stage
Thursday 24th April 2025 Public Bill Committees

[Jess Phillips]

As I was saying before we were so democratically interrupted, amendment 50 seeks to place a duty on the police to notify victims when an offender intends to change their name. Again, I entirely understand the intention behind the amendment, but the police are already able to disclose information, on a discretionary basis, to protect victims from further harm.

It is important to note that many victims will simply not want to be notified of information relating to the perpetrator of the crime, especially if they have made considerable efforts to move on with their lives. I handled a case of this type very recently. A woman came to see me about her abusive father. She had not heard from him or anything of him for decades, and the effect of the notification on her was one of calamity: it was to see her life turned upside down by something she had moved past.

One can only ask how we would administer such a system, with an opt-in and opt-out, when we are talking, specifically in relation to sex offender notification systems, of periods of decades. Therefore, although I absolutely recognise the intention behind the amendment, I wonder whether cases can be cited in which this type of notification would have made a difference but did not happen. I would be happy to hear from and speak to the hon. Member for Stockton West about that.

[Dr Lauren Sullivan (Gravesham) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. Does my hon. Friend the Minister agree with me that, given the lifelong trauma from such offences, and the ongoing mental health struggles that could be triggered by such a notification, we need to put victims at the heart of everything that we do? How can we ensure that measures like this enable that to happen?

[Jess Phillips]

I have met victims of childhood sexual abuse, for example, who have suffered trauma years and years into the future. I have to say that, in recent years, that has been very badly exacerbated by delays in our courts system. I have worked with children who were sexually abused in childhood, who do not see the inside of a courtroom until they are adults, causing a period of developmental delay in their lives. Their lives remain on hold while they are waiting for a system to deliver something for them. I have seen that affect their working lives. I have seen it affect their mental health beyond anything that should have happened. Sometimes state failure has exacerbated that, so we have to have a pragmatic system that allows for the risk to be assessed and the needs of the victim to be assessed to see whether notification would be a requirement, and that currently exists.

New clause 55 seeks to introduce a requirement for data on the employment status of convicted sex offenders to be published on an annual basis. I reassure the hon. Member for Stockton West that registered sex offenders are managed under multi-agency public protection arrangements and will already have in place a risk management plan that considers employment information. That would allow the offender managers to manage risks around employment post conviction. The police may record the employment status of individuals on their systems where that is relevant, but to routinely require forces to collate and publish employment data would have questionable gains. Such resources are considerably better focused on the management of offenders.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data annually on registered sex offenders who are subject to multi-agency public protection arrangements, and we are confident that the police already have the systems in place to record appropriate data to ensure that offenders are managed according to their risk. I recognise the spirit in which the amendments were tabled but, given what I have said, I hope that the hon. Member for Stockton West will withdraw his amendment.