Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help improve cross-departmental coordination on child criminal exploitation.

Children and young people, particularly those exploited by county lines gangs, are often used to carry out criminal activity. That is why the Government is introducing a new offence of child criminal exploitation and new civil preventative orders to target those responsible for criminally exploiting children and to help ensure that children are identified as victims and receive the support and protection they need. Where a victim of child criminal exploitation also meets the definition of a victim of modern slavery, they may retain access to the statutory defence contained in section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. Impact assessments for the Crime and Policing Bill are published on gov.uk here Crime and Policing Bill 2025: impact assessments - GOV.UK.

Through the Government’s County Lines Programme, we are targeting violent and exploitative drug dealing gangs to pursue violent line holders and safeguard vulnerable individuals, including women and girls. Through the Programme, we are funding Catch22’s specialist support service for victims of county lines exploitation. The service includes dedicated support for women and girls exploited through county lines to help prevent exploitation or support their safe exit. It also conducts targeted awareness raising and training to professionals on the needs and experiences of young women and girls involved in county lines.

We are working across Government to drive a coordinated response to tackling the criminal exploitation of children. We will issue statutory guidance to police alongside non-statutory guidance for practitioners to support implementation of the new offences and improve identification of victims of child criminal exploitation. Our statutory and non-statutory guidance will highlight the importance of multi-agency working to support children and raise awareness and understanding of child criminal exploitation with all practitioners.

The Government-funded Independent Child Trafficking Guardianship (ICTG) service provides advocacy and support to child victims of exploitation and trafficking who have been referred to the National Referral Mechanism. In September 2025, we launched the invitation-to-tender for the national contract, which will expand the service coverage from the current two-thirds of local authorities in England and Wales, to provide support to all child victims referred into the NRM in England and Wales.