Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Snowden Excerpts

Thursday 4th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Solicitor General]

As I said, we are setting up a new independent body to clear appeals more quickly. We are clearing up the Conservatives’ mess, and the Home Secretary will bring forward plans in the areas that the hon. Lady mentions.

[Mr Andrew Snowden (Fylde) (Con)]

2. What steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to prosecute people for grooming gang offences.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

11. What steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to prosecute people for grooming gang offences.

[The Solicitor General]

The grooming and sexual exploitation of young girls in this country is nothing short of sickening, and the Government are doing everything in our power to secure justice for the victims and protect children from further harm. The Crown Prosecution Service has significantly increased prosecutions for child sex offences and recently secured convictions against three offenders for truly hideous crimes going back to 1999.

[Mr Snowden]

From my time as Lancashire’s police commissioner, I have seen the fruits when the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts worked together to prioritise the listing of cases involving rape and serious sexual assault, as we know that victims and witnesses are less likely to continue with a prosecution the longer it continues. Can the Solicitor General update us on the work being done to ensure that those agencies work together to support the victims and prioritise those case listings?

[The Solicitor General]

As the hon. Gentleman will know, listing is a matter for the independent judiciary. However, I can tell him that certain areas have pilot schemes of weekly listing meetings across criminal justice partners to ensure—as he says—that we lessen victim attrition, which is unfortunately far too high as a result of the record court backlog.