Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a review of sentencing guidelines for people convicted of grooming-gang offences.

Child sexual abuse and exploitation are the most horrific of crimes and the Government is determined to act to strengthen the law in this area. We have committed to legislate to make grooming an aggravating factor in the sentencing of child sexual offences, to ensure that this behaviour is reflected in the sentencing of perpetrators. We will also make it a mandatory duty for those working with children to report child sexual abuse – a key recommendation of Professor Alexis Jay’s report – and this will go into the Crime and Policing Bill due to be introduced to Parliament this spring.

Sentencing guidelines are developed by the independent Sentencing Council for England and Wales, in fulfilment of its statutory duty to do so. The guidelines produced provide the Court with guidance on factors that should be considered, which may affect the sentence given. They set out different levels of sentence based on the harm caused and how culpable the offender is.

Sentencing guidelines for child sex offences, including for the offence of meeting a child following sexual grooming, were first published by the Council in 2013. Following consultation, revised guidelines for some child sex offences were published in May 2022. As an independent body, the Council decides its own work plan and priorities.