Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2024 to Question 8408 on Offences against Children, whether she plans to take further steps with Cabinet colleagues to incorporate Article 19 into UK legislation (a) in non-online contexts and (b) other than through the Online Safety Act 2023.

The government remains committed to protecting and upholding children’s rights. The department is confident that existing domestic legislation gives effect to the rights within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Child, including Article 19.

The Children Act 1989 and Children Act 2004 set out a range of duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Furthermore, the government’s multi-agency statutory guidance ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ is clear that children at risk of or experiencing harm from within or outside their home must receive the support they need, recognising harms may arise from school, peer groups, online or the wider community. This guidance was updated in December 2023 to strengthen multi-agency working across the whole system of help, support and protection. More information on the guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2.

Importantly, the department introduced new national multi-agency child protection standards setting out what every individual, at every level, in every agency should do to work together and understand their role, to improve child protection practice and outcomes for children. The department has also strengthened expectations about the role of other agencies, including police and health, in child protection processes.