Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham, published on 21 August 2014; and in particular the finding that more than 1,400 girls were estimated to be the victims of child sexual exploitation.

Child sexual abuse is an abhorrent crime and this Government is committed to keeping children and young people safe from all forms of abuse, including child sexual exploitation.

The National Crime Agency’s Operation Stovewood in Rotherham is the largest historical child sexual exploitation investigation undertaken to date in this country, and continues to investigate these offences, with more than 170 people arrested to date. Since 2016-17, we have provided £31.1 million of special grant funding to South Yorkshire Police towards the cost of Operation Stovewood. We have also made significant increases to funding for victims, including doubling funding for national services which support victims of child sexual abuse.

This funding forms part of a comprehensive package of measures the Government has set out to prevent offending and help victims and survivors of abuse. The recently published Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy sets out how we will drive action across every part of Government, across all agencies, all sectors, charities, communities, technology companies and society more widely to tackle child sexual abuse in all its forms, including group-based child sexual exploitation.