Child Houses for Child Victims of Sexual Abuse

Baroness Hazarika Excerpts

Tuesday 9th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Lord. The Government are trying, as I know the noble Lord knows, to respond to the long-term recommendations of the Alexis Jay report, which lay relatively idle until July of last year. We have tried to re-energise the approach to those very severe areas where grooming-gang activity has taken place. We commissioned the national report from the noble Baroness, Lady Casey. There are a range of recommendations that we have accepted in full. Also, as I mentioned to my noble friend Lady Brown of Silvertown, we have an ambitious programme to expand that therapeutic support, of which the Lighthouse is an extremely good model. To do that requires cross-government activity. I will happily report back to this House when plans are forwarded. I hope the noble Lord will rest assured that this Government intend to help prevent future child abuse and give support, solace and help to those people who have been victims in the past.

[Baroness Hazarika (Lab)]

My Lords, just before we broke up for summer, I invited victims of the Pakistani rape gangs to come into Parliament and tell their stories. I thank many noble Lords from across the House who came to that. It was shocking to hear that one of the victims said that her niece was today being groomed, even after everything that her aunt had gone through. Will the Minister tell the House, and of course those victims, how quickly this national report will get off the ground?

[Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend. She will know that the inquiry recommendations from the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, have been accepted by the Government. We have accepted the Alexis Jay IICSA recommendations—certainly from the Home Office’s perspective and we are working with other government departments on those and have an ambitious plan to put that in place. For the national inquiry to take place, we need to appoint a chair. As I said on the Statement last week, we are seeking to consult victims on the chair and on the terms of the inquiry, so they are involved in that, but I am anticipating that we will be able to respond and announce those details extremely shortly. But there is a process and we want to make sure it is done in a fair and effective manner for victims, particularly, as well as the community at large.