Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria she used to identify the five local areas to hold local inquiries into child sexual exploitation, announced on 16 January 2025.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
On 16 January 2025, the Home Secretary announced a funding package to deliver stronger national support for locally-led work on tackling group-based child sexual exploitation. This includes supporting Oldham Council who have confirmed that work to undertake a local inquiry has already begun. We are in the process of consulting with local authorities and relevant stakeholders on the design and delivery of this package and will update the House in due course.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she expects the publication of the reports into the five local inquiries into child sexual exploitation, announced on 16 January 2025.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
On 16 January 2025, the Home Secretary announced a funding package to deliver stronger national support for locally-led work on tackling group-based child sexual exploitation. This includes supporting Oldham Council who have confirmed that work to undertake a local inquiry has already begun. We are in the process of consulting with local authorities and relevant stakeholders on the design and delivery of this package and will update the House in due course.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will steps to ensure that bodies working with young people are required to verify an individual’s DBS certificate directly with the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The safety and security of young people is top priority for this Government and DBS checks are one way we can help to protect them.
The DBS is moving to a model where ‘online results’ will be the default way in which employers engage with DBS products. This approach will help to improve employers’ confidence in any online result that they view, as it will be viewed via secure Government web services.
The Crime and Policing Bill will further strengthen the Disclosure and Barring regime by removing the exemption which currently prevents those working closely with children but under supervision from undergoing the highest level of DBS checks (enhanced with a check of the children’s barred list).
There are already a number of security features relating to Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificates to assist organisations with verifying their authenticity. These include the certificate being produced on a uniquely sized paper stock, the presence of a crown seal watermark, and a complex design using specific inks. Nevertheless, if an organisation is unsure of a DBS certificate’s authenticity, then they can contact the DBS to explore their concerns.
Additionally, the DBS run an ‘Update Service’ which can confirm whether a DBS check is up to date and contains the most recent relevant information. This annual subscription service allows employers to do an online check which confirms whether the certificate that has been presented to them remains valid, or whether they should apply for a new DBS check to be presented with any updated criminality information.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of (a) victims and (b) perpetrators of live cases of gang-based child sexual exploitation.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce has brought together the best police data that is currently available on group-based offending. This was published in November 2024: https://www.hydrantprogramme.co.uk/publications/hydrant-publications#LatestNews).
The taskforce reports that 127 major police investigations across 29 police forces are currently under way into child sexual exploitation and gang grooming. However, as the Home Secretary set out in her statement on 16 January, the Home Office will overhaul the data that we expect local areas to collect on child sexual exploitation and abuse as part of a new performance framework for policing, and we have already asked the Taskforce to immediately expand the data it collects and publishes, including on ethnicity.
To go further, the Home Secretary has asked Baroness Louise Casey to oversee a rapid audit of the current scale and nature of gang-based child sexual exploitation across the country. That work is currently underway.