Oral Answers to Questions

Mims Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)]

I point to page 86 of Baroness Casey’s report, which shows a worrying number of live investigations of cases in which there is an overlap between child sexual exploitation and criminal exploitation. The report notes that a “significant proportion” of cases appear to involve suspects who are claiming asylum. Which Minister is directly responsible for safeguarding our communities, including those housed in asylum hotels? If the Government manage to close asylum hotels, as they claim they will, and individuals move into other accommodation, will any dangers transferred from hotels to the wider community be accounted for?

[Bridget Phillipson]

The hon. Lady will know that the Home Secretary recently made an extensive statement to Parliament, setting out the actions that this Government will take to address the many failures left behind by the Conservatives. Baroness Casey outlined that there had been a decade of lost time and a failure to deliver justice for victims. This Government will take action. We will root out all forms of child sexual exploitation, keep children safe from harm, and ensure that perpetrators are finally prosecuted.

[Mims Davies]

For decades, too many people blocked their ears and turned their backs on towns and individuals asking for help, as well as on the national calls for help. Will the Minister confirm that those in their ivory towers in Whitehall can now be compelled to give evidence under oath on their actions and assumptions—including, vitally, senior civil servants, former Crown Prosecution Service employees, and previous Directors of Public Prosecutions?

[Bridget Phillipson]

As the Home Secretary set out on Monday, anyone found to have been responsible for covering up or hiding vile crimes of child sexual abuse must and will be prosecuted. However, the Conservatives had a decade to act—the lost decade that Baroness Casey talked about—and the recommendations from Alexis Jay sat on a shelf without being acted on. This Government immediately brought forward the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to deliver the biggest upgrade in child protection legislation in a generation—a Bill that the Conservatives opposed.