Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Steve Darling Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jess Phillips]

I absolutely commit myself to working with the Victims Minister. The issue of consent, and the age of consent, was a huge part of Baroness Casey’s review, and a number of Members have mentioned making this a victim-centred process. These are words that we say, but it is much harder in reality. We are talking about people who have been very badly wronged and whose level of trust has been badly affected. This is not something that happens easily. It is not a process in which every one of the victims will get on with the others. We will ensure that in both the national policing inquiry and the national statutory inquiry there are systems to enable as many voices as possible to be heard as comfortably as possible, but I do not think we should lie to the public about how easy those procedures are. I speak as someone who has worked in this field for a very long time. We are talking about very traumatised and distressed young people, and this will take considerably more effort and patience than I think they have been shown in the past.

[Steve Darling (Torbay) (LD)]

Grooming gangs are entirely abhorrent, as are all forms of grooming leading to sexual exploitation. This summer I met a Torbay resident whose 15-year-old adopted son had been groomed online and then prostituted online. Can the Minister please tell us how she intends to tackle all forms of grooming that lead to sexual exploitation?