Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry Debate

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Department: Home Office

Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry

Tessa Munt Excerpts
Thursday 18th June 2026

(1 month, 2 weeks ago)

Commons Chamber
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Sarah Jones Portrait Sarah Jones
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My hon. Friend can be reassured that this inquiry has all the powers it needs to go, without fear or favour, to find the answers we all seek. This issue is too important for us not to have ensured that, so we absolutely have. I know that the Minister for Safeguarding will be in contact with her counterparts in the Scottish Government to make sure we are joined up in in our approach.

Tessa Munt Portrait Tessa Munt (Wells and Mendip Hills) (LD)
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I echo the comments about how disgusting these particular crimes are. Lady Casey has identified how, in quashing convictions, the Government have failed to take account of the whole picture. Quashing convictions for under-age prostitution is laudable, but there are other convictions such as for possessing the drugs given to those who are abused by their abusers or carrying them under coercion. The Minister referred to professional curiosity. Could she encourage people around her to engage in exactly that, and to look further than just the very first or main conviction to sort this out?