Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether, as part of Recommendation 2 of the Casey Audit, the Cabinet Office has yet issued a formal instruction or preservation notice requiring the retention of records relevant to child sexual exploitation by grooming gangs.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
In her Audit, Baroness Casey made clear that local authorities, police forces and other relevant agencies should be required not to destroy any relevant records, and we expect this to be the case. The Home Office has made the requirement clear to departments across government with responsibility for relevant agencies. The Terms of Reference for the inquiry, once established and agreed with the Chair, will set the scope of the inquiry in more detail, at which point a more detailed request for the retention of records can be made.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, published in June 2025, what progress she has made on implementing recommendation 4.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The government has committed to make it a requirement for the police to collect ethnicity and nationality data of perpetrators of group-based child sexual exploitation. This data is vital in enabling us to develop the most accurate and robust picture of the nature of this offending.
In July this year, the former Home Secretary wrote to all Chief Constables to set out the clear expectation that ethnicity data on grooming gang suspects should be collected in every case, and to urge them to make sure they are fulfilling their obligation to collect suspect ethnicity data as part of the government's commitment to transparency and accountability. The Home Office is closely monitoring data collection and provision from forces, and continues to engage with individual forces on where improvements are required.
If we do not see improvements, we will not hesitate to put this requirement into legislation.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, published in June 2025, what progress her Department has made on implementing recommendation seven.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office has been working closely with the Department for Education to understand how the proposed Unique Identifier will operate in order to plan for upgrades to police IT systems.
In June we conducted a Preliminary Market Engagement to understand how the market could support the need to better integrate data across policing. We are currently evaluating those responses against the existing policing landscape to determine the best way forwards.
We also awarded a contract to deliver a Police Technology Strategy and Roadmap.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to increase capacity for housing asylum seekers within the Bradford Council district.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
When this Government came to office, we inherited a system where hotels had become one of the primary means of providing asylum accommodation – with more than 400 in use in Autumn 2023 at a cost of almost £9 million per day – and where a 70 per cent collapse in asylum decision-making in the last months of the previous administration had driven that pressure up further.
We have taken rapid action to address that chaos, in particular by speeding up the volume of asylum decision-making so that fewer people are stuck in limbo, dependent on support from the state, and so that more failed asylum-seekers can be removed from the UK, along with foreign national offenders and others with no right to be in our country.
The number of hotels in use is now around half the peak reached under the previous Government, and we will take further action over the rest of this Parliament to end the use of asylum hotels entirely.
We are continuing to work with a range of stakeholders to pursue that goal, while fulfilling our statutory obligations in the interim. Where the Home Office needs to use dispersed accommodation, it does so in accordance with the principle of Full Dispersal, announced by the previous government in 2022 to ensure that asylum seekers were more fairly distributed across the UK.
We also continue to consult with local authorities, the police, and other interested parties to ensure that – wherever there are concerns over the impact of particular asylum accommodation sites on the local community, public safety and public amenities – all necessary actions are taken to address those concerns, and protect the security of each local area.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what capacity her Department has to house asylum seekers within the Bradford Council district.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
When this Government came to office, we inherited a system where hotels had become one of the primary means of providing asylum accommodation – with more than 400 in use in Autumn 2023 at a cost of almost £9 million per day – and where a 70 per cent collapse in asylum decision-making in the last months of the previous administration had driven that pressure up further.
We have taken rapid action to address that chaos, in particular by speeding up the volume of asylum decision-making so that fewer people are stuck in limbo, dependent on support from the state, and so that more failed asylum-seekers can be removed from the UK, along with foreign national offenders and others with no right to be in our country.
The number of hotels in use is now around half the peak reached under the previous Government, and we will take further action over the rest of this Parliament to end the use of asylum hotels entirely.
We are continuing to work with a range of stakeholders to pursue that goal, while fulfilling our statutory obligations in the interim. Where the Home Office needs to use dispersed accommodation, it does so in accordance with the principle of Full Dispersal, announced by the previous government in 2022 to ensure that asylum seekers were more fairly distributed across the UK.
We also continue to consult with local authorities, the police, and other interested parties to ensure that – wherever there are concerns over the impact of particular asylum accommodation sites on the local community, public safety and public amenities – all necessary actions are taken to address those concerns, and protect the security of each local area.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to recommendation 3 of The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, published in October 2022, what recent discussions she has had with the Minister for the Cabinet Office on the potential merits of creating a new Cabinet Minister for Children.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
In April, the Government published the ‘Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Progress Update’ which sets out the action this Government is taking in response to the recommendations in IICSA’s final report, alongside broader steps to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation.
As set out in the Progress Update, the Government agrees with the importance of having a clear focus on children across Government, including at Cabinet level. The Secretary of State for Education is the Cabinet minister for children. A new Keeping Children Safe ministerial board will also drive and mainstream the strong collective cross Government focus on children’s wellbeing, safety and opportunity. This will bring together Ministers from the Government departments with a key role on issues affecting children.
The Progress Update also sets out the Government’s commitment to create a Child Protection Authority for England to help make the child protection system clearer, more unified and to ensure there is ongoing improvement through effective evidence-based support. The Progress Update sets out the next steps the Government will take to establish a Child Protection Authority, which will build on the foundation of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on when the Child Protection Authority will begin its work.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
In April, the Government published the ‘Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Progress Update’ which sets out the action this Government is taking in response to the recommendations in IICSA’s final report, alongside broader steps to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation.
As set out in the Progress Update, the Government agrees with the importance of having a clear focus on children across Government, including at Cabinet level. The Secretary of State for Education is the Cabinet minister for children. A new Keeping Children Safe ministerial board will also drive and mainstream the strong collective cross Government focus on children’s wellbeing, safety and opportunity. This will bring together Ministers from the Government departments with a key role on issues affecting children.
The Progress Update also sets out the Government’s commitment to create a Child Protection Authority for England to help make the child protection system clearer, more unified and to ensure there is ongoing improvement through effective evidence-based support. The Progress Update sets out the next steps the Government will take to establish a Child Protection Authority, which will build on the foundation of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on implementing the recommendations in the report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, published in February 2022.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
In April, the Government published the ‘Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Progress Update’ which sets out the action this Government is taking in response to the recommendations in IICSA’s final report, alongside broader steps to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation.
As set out in the Progress Update, the Government agrees with the importance of having a clear focus on children across Government, including at Cabinet level. The Secretary of State for Education is the Cabinet minister for children. A new Keeping Children Safe ministerial board will also drive and mainstream the strong collective cross Government focus on children’s wellbeing, safety and opportunity. This will bring together Ministers from the Government departments with a key role on issues affecting children.
The Progress Update also sets out the Government’s commitment to create a Child Protection Authority for England to help make the child protection system clearer, more unified and to ensure there is ongoing improvement through effective evidence-based support. The Progress Update sets out the next steps the Government will take to establish a Child Protection Authority, which will build on the foundation of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria she used to identify the five local areas to hold local inquiries into child sexual exploitation, announced on 16 January 2025.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
On 16 January 2025, the Home Secretary announced a funding package to deliver stronger national support for locally-led work on tackling group-based child sexual exploitation. This includes supporting Oldham Council who have confirmed that work to undertake a local inquiry has already begun. We are in the process of consulting with local authorities and relevant stakeholders on the design and delivery of this package and will update the House in due course.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she expects the publication of the reports into the five local inquiries into child sexual exploitation, announced on 16 January 2025.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
On 16 January 2025, the Home Secretary announced a funding package to deliver stronger national support for locally-led work on tackling group-based child sexual exploitation. This includes supporting Oldham Council who have confirmed that work to undertake a local inquiry has already begun. We are in the process of consulting with local authorities and relevant stakeholders on the design and delivery of this package and will update the House in due course.