Crime and Policing Bill: Parliamentary Briefing

Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner, has a statutory role sitting at the heart of Government, delivering for children, and championing their voices and needs. Her role was established by the Children Act 2004, and strengthened by the Children and Families Act 2014.

The Children’s Commissioner wants England to be the best place for children to grow up. Every child should feel safe and protected in their local area. However, this is not the case for too many children. In the Commissioner’s Big Ambition survey, only 66% of children aged 12 to 18 said they felt safe and protected in their local area and 75% of children said they felt safe when they went online.

The Commissioner believes that the Bill, alongside wider statutory safeguards, is a welcome step towards improving the safety, protection and wellbeing of children and young people. The exploitation and abuse of children is an abhorrent crime that requires a coordinated multi-agency approach to ensure early identification and prompt, effective intervention so that no child is overlooked. However, there are a number of areas that the Commissioner believes should be strengthened and on which she would like to see more detail.

Summary of key amendments the office supports

The office believes the Bill is important but that it could be strengthened in a number of areas. In particular:

• The office strongly supports an amendment that removes clause 40(1)(b). This ensures that any individual who exploits a child into violence and criminality, regardless of the child’s perceived age, is held accountable.
• The office strongly supports an amendment that captures all image-generator tools that are capable of creating child sexual abuse material.
• The office supports amendment NC103, tabled by Sarah Champion in the House of Commons, which inserts an additional clause creating an offence to publish, allow or facilitate the publishing of pornographic content online which meets the criteria for harmful material under section 368E(3)(a) and section 368E(3)(b) of the Communications Act 2003.
• The office supports amendment NC9, tabled by Sarah Champion in the House of Commons, which requires training for anyone subject to a mandatory reporting duty under Clause 66(1).
• The office supports an amendment to compel the Secretary of State to issue guidance on how professionals working with children can identify and respond to abuse in children’s intimate and sexual relationships.
• The office supports an amendment for a separate criminal offence to exist for wilfully concealing, or attempting to conceal, child sexual abuse.

Additionally, the office recommends the following changes are necessary:

• A comprehensive national strategy to address the criminal exploitation of children through a co-ordinated multi-agency approach.
• A comprehensive reform of the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) system and the introduction of an automatic referral pathway for victims of child criminal exploitation, cuckooing and internal concealment.
• A new Children’s Plan platform delivered alongside the Unique ID. This should outline children’s needs, set out the support they are entitled to and help coordinate all multi-agency support for a child.
• Mandatory safeguarding referrals for any child arrested or suspected of criminality.