Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department is making on its paper on group-based child sexual exploitation.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Secretary has expressed her determination to ensure failures of the past are not repeated and to do all we can to bear down on offenders and support victims. That is why on 19th May the Government announced its intention to publish a paper on group-based child sexual exploitation by the end of the year, following consultation with subject matter experts. We intend this paper to present the best available evidence on the characteristics of this form of offending, bringing together insight from existing research, independent reviews, and all of the evidence from the Home Office's own work in this area.
The Home Office will set up an External Reference Group, comprising of broad membership with a range of experience and expertise, to review the Pape before its publication. We plan to engage with the External Reference Group over the summer. It is vital we allow time for the External Reference Group to play a proper part in scrutinising the findings and setting the direction for further work.
Subject to engagement with the External Reference Group, we intend to publish the Paper on group-based child sexual exploitation in the autumn.