Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Paul Waugh Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jess Phillips]

I pay tribute to Ann Cryer, a woman I am incredibly fond of—personally as well as professionally—for her immense bravery. I have no doubt that none of us would be sitting in the Chamber today talking about any of this had it not been for her; she deserves absolute credit.

I do not recognise the characterisation that the hon. Gentleman has given. I have not had any particular pushback, or heard anywhere suggesting that the inquiry should not be looking into certain areas or giving any sense that they will resist it, but I would say to all local areas: resistance is futile.

[Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)]

I welcome today’s update on the national inquiry into grooming gangs, particularly the way in which the Minister has made sure that victims and survivors are definitely going to be at the heart of whatever happens. During the trial of seven members of a Rochdale grooming gang earlier this year, it emerged in court that the social workers involved had referred to one of the victims—who was 13 at the time—as a prostitute. Other victims, who were 10 at the time, were also called prostitutes. I know the Minister will agree that the criminalisation of young girls as prostitutes causes them further trauma later in life. These girls were victims and the state should recognise them as such, so what steps will the Minister take to ensure that such convictions for prostitution are disregarded as swiftly as possible?

[Jess Phillips]

Often in this debate, we discuss how people felt nervous or anxious about ethnicity, when what is also evident in every single case—regardless of the ethnicity of the perpetrators—is the ability of agencies to look at women and think of them as something else, and to treat young girls poorly. That is exactly what my hon. Friend is talking about. The Crime and Policing Bill, which is going through Parliament, is going to disregard any child prostitution convictions. We are working with the Ministry of Justice to find the wider cohort of victims, and with bodies in the criminal justice system to identify and review cases and to support victims. It will not always have been prostitution charges; I have met many victims who have been criminalised for a variety of things that they probably should not have been. That will be a much more complicated process, but it is one that we have set in train.