Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of current sentencing guidelines for individuals convicted of grooming and coercing children as part of criminal drug activities.

Sentencing guidelines are developed by the Sentencing Council, in fulfilment of its statutory duty to do so. In 2021, the Council issued a comprehensive package of revised sentencing guidelines for drugs offences. The guidelines include an aggravating factor “Exploitation of children and/or vulnerable persons to assist in drug-related activity”, the presence of which increases the seriousness of an offence and can merit a more severe sentence.

Further information is available on the Council’s website: https://sentencingcouncil.org.uk/guidelines/crown-court/.