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This week in Westminster, in the news and online there has been a lot of conversation about the horrifying crimes of child sexual abuse, and how we as a country go about investigating, prosecuting and preventing these atrocities taking place. Whilst thankfully none of the crimes in question relate to North East Fife or indeed Scotland, we only have to look as far as the recent convictions in Dundee to know that we cannot be complacent.
No child should ever have to experience sexual abuse. These are horrifying crimes that cause so much harm to the children who are victims. We need to be taking action to stop this - which means ensuring that perpetrators face the full force of the law, and that steps are taken to make sure these sorts of crimes can’t keep happening in the future.
Liberal Democrats are committed to supporting whatever works best to bring that change forward. If another inquiry will make that happen, of course we’ll support it.
But we should not forget that a seven year long inquiry into child sexual abuse - chaired by Professor Alexis Jay - has already happened, which brought forward 20 recommendations to better protect children in the future. The previous Conservative government sat on their hands and failed to make any progress at implementing these.
The Conservatives’ inaction was shameful - and it’s disgraceful that they are now choosing to use the victims of this scandal as a political football.
On Wednesday, the Conservatives tabled an amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing Bill which we did not vote for. This is because voting for the Conservatives’ amendment would not have secured a national inquiry for victims of child sexual abuse. That is because it was a Reasoned Amendment to the Second Reading of the Children’s Wellbeing Bill. Voting for a Reasoned Amendment would have only one result - it would block the Children’s Wellbeing Bill from passing through Parliament. Although the Bill does not include Scotland, the Liberal Democrats have long backed the many important measures relating to child protection and safeguarding at a UK level.
That is why I did not support the Conservatives’ amendment which - rather than introduce an inquiry - would prevent the passage of important child safeguarding measures. Instead I signed the Liberal Democrat motion that calls on the Government to implement the Jay inquiry amendments in full, with regular reports to Parliament on their progress.
We have also laid an amendment to the Bill at committee stage calling on the recommendations to be enacted in full. This is proper opposition, not cheap politicking. Our amendments will seek to strengthen, not wreck the Bill.
As a first priority, the government should focus on implementing these recommendations as quickly as possible, with clear timescales and regular reporting to Parliament on their progress. This includes creating a dedicated Child Protection Authority, strengthening the criminal justice response to these cases, and appointing a new Minister for Children.
I welcome the decision by the Government to bring in a duty of mandatory sexual abuse reporting, which would require people working with children and in positions of trust to report allegations of child sexual abuse to the relevant authorities. I and my colleagues will continue to hold the Government to account on this.
As the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill passes through Parliament, Liberal Democrats will be using every opportunity we have to push for real action to tackle the child sexual abuse scandal.
You also may have seen a post circulated at the start of the week by Elon Musk which lists MPs, including myself, claiming that we voted against the deportation of rapists. I absolutely understand why this at first glance would cause outrage. However, I want to be clear that this is misinformation. MPs have no power to decide on deportations: this is for the Government and the courts.
The image circulated is a (partial) list of signatories to a cross party letter sent in 2020 to the Prime Minister. The letter itself was seeking a delay to deportation flights until after the upcoming Windrush Lessons Learned Review had been published and its recommendations implemented, to ensure the Government did not conduct wrongful deportations. Deporting people who rightfully live here as law abiding citizens would be not only wrong but incredibly expensive to the tax payer.
These might be the topical issues of the week, but please be assured that even if the media frenzy dies down, I will continue to support all actions to investigate, prosecute and prevent such heinous crimes as rape and child sexual abuse taking place.
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If you have been affected by any of these issues, support can be found at https://www.scotland.police.uk/advice-and-information/rape-and-sexual-crime/help-for-victims-of-sexual-crime/Â
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