Child Sexual Offender Data

Tessa Munt Excerpts

Monday 1st June 2026 Westminster Hall

[Tessa Munt (Wells and Mendip Hills) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Vickers. I have listened carefully to the debate. Child sexual abuse is one of the most despicable crimes. We absolutely need to pay attention to the victims; I pay tribute to those of you sitting in the Public Gallery today who are victims and thank you for attending. I understand that what you have heard today may well have triggered you to re-experience the things you suffered as children, and some of you, perhaps, as adults. We Liberal Democrats will support any measure that goes some way to deliver justice for the victims and prevent these horrific acts from occurring again in the future.

I was one of the seven cross-party MPs who approached Theresa May after being elected in 2010 and who spent time trying to persuade her of the merits of having the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. It took a long time to persuade her, and then it took further time to persuade her not to use the chairs she had chosen, because they were, or might have been perceived as, part of the infrastructure of the very problem we were trying to face, and that there was institutional abuse across many of our accepted centres of power.

I want to accentuate the fact that child sexual abuse is all about the abuse of power and that relationships are absolutely catastrophic when someone removes the power from an individual. There are a number of ways of removing power, and I will move straight to asking the Minister whether she would consider using some of the academic research in this field. Amnesty International has leaned quite hard on something called Biderman’s framework of coercion—Biderman spoke about it in 1957 and Amnesty International released it in 1975—which talks about the use and abuse of power and of coercive control in particular, and about the isolation of victims, the monopolisation of perspectives, the induced debility and exhaustion that victims suffer, the threats they are subject to, the occasional indulgences, or treats, that make them feel they might be special, the business of abusers—perpetrators—demonstrating omnipotence, the degradation of victims, and very often the enforcement of trivial demands just to absolutely enforce the power of the perpetrator over the victim. The perpetrators are always responsible. There is no one under the age of 16 who can consent, and many over the age of 16 cannot either. The word “rape” itself suggests there should be no consent, but no one under the age of 16 can consent anyway.

My party and I agree absolutely that we should collect data on nationality and ethnicity, and share it where it is appropriate to do so, but I draw Members’ attention to the fact that that has started to happen. I certainly have some evidence in front of me that reflects that that data is being collected. Whether it is being shared or not, I do not know, but we certainly need to make sure that the CPS, judges, magistrates, teachers and lecturers, schools generally, health staff, council staff—particularly those in adult social care and children’s social care, and housing officers—as well as the police, are absolutely required to collect data and share it. There should be compulsory training for all those in the positions that I have just listed.

Coercive control should not be viewed as something that applies only in a situation of domestic abuse. Victims of coercive control need to be heard. We need to recognise the signs of coercion and people need to be trained to recognise them.

[Dr Al Pinkerton (Surrey Heath) (LD)]

A few moments ago, my hon. Friend mentioned data. The House of Commons Library has compiled some information from 2021 to 2025, which shows that the single largest ethnic group of perpetrators of child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom was white British men, who were responsible for 58.35% of all such incidents. I do not say that to reinforce points that have already been made; I do so to emphasise the second most prominent category of ethnicity, which is simply “Unknown”. That data shadow is shameful. It fails the victims of child sexual exploitation, but it also creates the space in which speculation and distrust have been allowed to flourish. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need not only to gather better data, but to robustly and systematically analyse it, in order to finally allow the truth about child sexual exploitation to be brought out into the light?

[Tessa Munt]

Absolutely. Earlier, somebody said that sunlight was the best disinfectant, and I agree absolutely.

I have here the ethnicity figures for those who have had proceedings brought against them. As I understand it, in the last five years, 989 offenders were of Asian background, which is 8% of offenders. That compares with 12,157 people of white British origin who had proceedings brought against them. Those of white British origin who were sentenced numbered 8,730; that figure was 622 for those of Asian origin.

I am not in any way decrying what has happened to anyone who has been abused, but I speak from personal experience: I declared quite openly in a previous Parliament that I was a victim of child sex abuse. It happened to me between the ages of 12 and 17. I am very lucky, because I had an enormous amount of support, both from counsellors and from my family. I am not over it, but there are ways that you can survive and thrive, and I came here in 2010 with that in the back of my head. I wanted to make sure that it came to the fore in that Parliament, and it did, but I am not finished, and that is why I am back here now.

[Hon. Members]

Hear, hear.

[Lee Anderson]

The hon. Lady has come out with quite a few interesting bits of data. I wonder if she has any data on how many white British working-class girls have been systematically raped.

[Tessa Munt]

I have not, but I was looking in particular at ethnicity, which is what—[Interruption.] Forgive me; I was referring to the petition of the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Rupert Lowe), which my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) presented today on his behalf. I think it is a very good thing that the hon. Member created the petition, and I salute him for doing so, because anything that brings information into the public domain is a good thing. I feel terribly strongly about that, as people probably will have seen from previous contributions I have made in Parliament.

[Dr Lauren Sullivan (Gravesham) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for her bravery and for being an example for survivors. I pay tribute to her and all those who have experienced this abuse. There is hope, and they should reach out and have faith, but we need to make sure that the authorities listen to their voices and take them seriously.

[Tessa Munt]

This is absolutely not about me. All I would say is that I am an example of how you can come through and do something, but my God I have been frustrated watching the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, which eventually turned into Professor Jay’s recommendations, about which absolutely nothing was done for some time. We need to proceed and make sure that all 20 of those recommendations, and Baroness Casey’s recommendations, are implemented. I am aware that the Government are doing stuff, but they are never fast enough, and this just needs to happen.

I feel very strongly that we need to train all the people I mentioned, including the judges, the teachers and the police—crikey, the police!—so that they understand what coercive control is. They also need to recognise what can be done to challenge what is colloquially referred to as the “manosphere”. Two or three weeks ago, I met a young woman and two of her friends, and she complained about the fact that boys in her school—she was young—had said to her that she could not tell them what to do because she was a girl. This has to stop, because it just feeds this whole thing. Women have been down-trodden for many, many years. Now we are brave enough to speak out, and we have to make sure that those who are in authority have the ability to tell us because they understand, not ask us because we do. I want to make certain that we have that compulsory training in place. We need to challenge toxic masculinity. I recognise that it is triggering to everybody when this stuff comes up, but I hope above all hopes that you are able to sleep with a little more peace tonight.

[Martin Vickers (in the Chair)]

Order. I remind Members not to address the Public Gallery, but to speak through the Chair.

[Tessa Munt]

I am sorry. I hope that the members of the public who have suffered are able to sleep a little more peacefully, but we need data collection and sharing. We just need to bring some rigour and force to what we are doing. Lots of people have looked at this over a period of years.

If I have time to make one more small point, I want to bring in the subject of religion. I am particularly interested in religion because, as far as I can tell, there is no mechanism for collecting data on belief systems, faith systems or whatever. We have only to look at the census of 2011, when, certainly in my neck of the woods, we had masses of people refer to themselves as Jedi. What people choose to call themselves in religious terms is absolutely up to interpretation, and I am not entirely sure that there is a way of making that data clean.

Experience tells me that, if we bring religion into this, in the near past we would have been looking at the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church, where some of the most appalling things happened to people, and at the fact that that power was vested in people who had positions in the Church, as they do in youth movements and other places. I do not know whether it is possible to hold religious data or whether there is a real purpose to that. I am not sure that we can get anywhere with that, but I recognise that nationality and ethnicity data is useful and helpful.

On immigration status data, I know that the Home Secretary has the power to remove people, so that data may look a bit squiff if people are being deported, as they are. There are several ways in which the Home Secretary can remove people in different situations, so we may find that those figures are going down. They may not be useful or show the whole picture, but I would welcome the Minister’s comments on that.

The Liberal Democrats will support anything that improves the situation for victims. We have to remember the victims in all this, and we have to protect children into the future. As I said, I hope that victims can sleep a little better every time they hear a debate like this—something will happen.

--- Later in debate ---

[Natalie Fleet]

I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention, and I absolutely will come to that as part of this speech.

Let me assert once more the Government’s unwavering commitment to delivering all the recommendations set out in Baroness Casey’s national audit, which exposed more than a decade of institutional failure. This was, without question, one of the darkest episodes in our country’s history, and every part of the state bears a responsibility to ensure that this is never repeated.

Baroness Casey was rightly clear that the collection of suspect ethnicity data in grooming gang cases is poor. We agree and we are acting. That is why in July last year, the then Home Secretary wrote to all chief constables setting out the expectation that ethnicity data should be collected from all suspects in child sexual exploitation cases, and to urge them to make sure that they are fulfilling that obligation. We continue to work with policing colleagues to improve data collection and analysis. But incredibly importantly, we are legislating to give the Home Secretary the power to mandate the collection of ethnicity data by police officers. The police reform White Paper, published in January, set out our intention to put data standards for policing, including in this area, on a statutory footing.

I say clearly to all those who signed the petition: the Government will legislate to ensure that we fix this issue. Baroness Casey was clear that given the evidence available in some local areas, we need better ethnicity and nationality data at a national level to strengthen understanding and accountability. We will follow that evidence without fear or favour, and we will not let cultural sensitivities stand in our way. The Home Secretary said it best last December:

“We must root out this evil, once and for all. The sickening acts of a minority of evil men, as well as those in positions of authority who looked the other way, must not be allowed to marginalise or demonise entire communities of law-abiding citizens.”—[Official Report, 9 December 2025; Vol. 777, c. 179.]

Members will be aware that the Government set up the independent inquiry into grooming gangs earlier this year. I am proud to be part of a Government who are delivering on this incredibly important work to uncover the truth. The inquiry has begun its crucial work to give survivors of these horrific crimes long-awaited answers. It will have a laser focus on grooming gangs, including the role that ethnicity, religion and culture played in these terrible crimes. It has a budget of £65 million, and the chair has confirmed that the funding is sufficient to deliver the inquiry. The inquiry has been designed to be time-limited for three years. That is long enough to go deep into where it matters the most, with a definitive end date to get the answers that victims and survivors need.

Separately, the Government are also making sure that everything we do is underpinned by evidence. I welcome Members sending me any additional research and information they have in this area. If the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Wells and Mendip Hills (Tessa Munt), could send me that it would be fantastic.

[Tessa Munt]

indicated assent.

[Natalie Fleet]

Thank you.

We will look at research, including on the role that ethnicity, culture and religion play in group-based offending so that our response can lead to lasting, systemic change that everybody in this House, including the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Rupert Lowe), is right to call for today.

[Natalie Fleet]

It absolutely is, and I will come on to that.

[Tessa Munt]

I cannot remember whether I mentioned this—my notes have gone, although I did not follow them anyway. I just want to draw the Minister’s attention to small religious groups, which is the terminology I use to describe what most of us would probably call “cults”. We should make sure that is a focus of some attention in the inquiry, because children of both genders and vulnerable adults are forced into situations over which they have very little control. It is that power dynamic.

[Natalie Fleet]

I give way to the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan).