
Tim Loughton says he would support the implementation of some recommendations of Prof Alexis Jay’s ICSA report but has concerns about the impact of others Credit: Daniel Leal/AFP via Getty Images
THE TELEGRAPH | Published January 12, 2025
Yvette Cooper’s central reform to tackle the child sexual grooming scandal is likely to backfire, a former children’s minister has warned.
In an article for The Telegraph, Tim Loughton, who is also a former member of the home affairs committee, said the proposed law requiring mandatory reporting of child abuse could end up overwhelming police and other agencies with “low-level or outright vexatious” allegations
The proposal was announced last week by the Home Secretary as Sir Keir Starmer’s Government sought to head off Tory demands for a national inquiry into grooming scandals, maintaining victims wanted active measures rather than more investigations.
Under the plans to be brought forward as part of Sir Keir’s crime and policing bill, anyone who works with children, including teachers, social care workers and NHS staff, and who fails to report child sexual abuse could face prosecution.
The change was recommended by Prof Alexis Jay as part of the national inquiry she chaired into child sexual abuse.
Those who fail to report child abuse will be banned from working with children, while those found to have actively prevented others from reporting it, or who have covered up the crime, will face up to seven years in jail.
Mr Loughton, who as children’s minister from 2010 to 2012 was responsible for setting up the UK’s first comprehensive child sexual exploitation strategy, says mandatory reporting could actually prove “detrimental.”
“Experiences in other countries shows that it leads to an undermining of professionals who then flood the safeguarding system with low level or outright vexatious reports to cover backs, diverting resources from serious cases,” he said.
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SOURCE: www.telegraph.co.uk
RELATED: Majority Say Yes to Fresh Inquiry Into Child Rapes by Grooming Gangs
BREITBART | Published January 12, 2025
Over three-quarters of Britons support a fresh investigation into child sex abuse by what are called predominantly Pakistani grooming gangs, something the labour government of Sir Keir Starmer has set itself hard against.
An overwhelming majority of Britons may be guilty of jumping on the “bandwagon of the far-right” — by the standards expressed by the Prime Minister this week as he moved to shut down discussion of migrant heritage rape gangs — by saying they want a deeper investigation into the grooming gang scandal. Some 76 per cent say a fresh report is needed, including a majority from every mainstream political party including even Starmer’s Labour.
Two-thirds of Labour voters disagree with the Prime Minister on the issue. 84 per cent of Conservatives want a fresh inquiry, and 91 per cent of supporters of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK do too.
There have already been several smaller inquiries into child rape gangs, or wider national reviews which touched on the matter peripherally. But critics say the scandal appears to run so deep, and so comparatively little can be said to be really known — there aren’t even good estimates on how many victims there have been nationwide, nor agreement on how many grooming gangs there are — that a fresh investigation is needed to “connect the dots”.
One remarkable black hole in what previous inquiries have investigated is just how little effort has been put into how so many child sex gangs with similar operating structures emerged at the same time, and how it is so many arms of government from local authorities, child services, and police were persuaded to look the other way so consistently. While actual abusers have been put in prison, no government employees who enabled or ignored abuse has been jailed to date.
date.
Reform UK Member of Parliament Rupert Lowe presented a laundry list of data needed on what are called predominantly Pakistani child rape grooming gangs, thought to have plagued British towns and cities for decades.
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SOURCE: www.breitbart.com
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