Child Rape Gangs

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Wednesday 30th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I, for one, will definitely watch the documentary outlined by my noble friend, after this evening’s votes. On the action we will take, some of the recommendations made by Professor Jay are very complex, including the creation of a child protection agency; it requires further work and consultation with victims. This Government want to take a victim-centred approach and we are working with all key stakeholders to develop the CPA. We want to make sure that we build it incrementally, with clarity on the end state—that is the right approach and one that, I believe, Professor Jay agrees with.

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

My Lords, I support the idea of having local inquiries, but some local authorities do not wish to have an inquiry. What will His Majesty’s Government do about that? Secondly, is the Minister convinced that these local authorities, some of which are financially challenged, have the resources to undertake this important work?

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

I thank the right reverend Prelate for both his question and the work he has done on this issue within the Church. We will set out the framework next month for how the local inquiries can be done and the associated funding that will be in place. We are very clear that everything must be victim-centred and that we use best practice when looking at these issues. We are working with those who delivered the best practice in Telford to make sure that, where there is community demand and, most importantly, victim-led demand, the resources and processes are in place to deliver a local inquiry.