Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2024 to Question 23051 on Offences against Children, whether this information is held by her Department.

The information previously requested by the Rt Hon Member is not held by the Department. The Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce currently holds the best data available on police-recorded child sexual abuse and exploitation crimes, including group-based offending. And the Government has committed to improving our understanding of this offending, including on the data collected and published.

The £10million funding announced by the Home Secretary in her 16 January statement to Parliament will contribute to taking forward our strengthened response to child sexual exploitation and abuse, as well as driving change at a local level. We are providing stronger national support for local inquiries, by providing £5million of funding to help local councils set up their own reviews. Funding will be made available to support Oldham and four other areas to pilot new approaches and conduct their own reviews. £2.5m will enable the increase of investigations, including through the Child Sexual Abuse Police Taskforce, and £2.5m will contribute to the implementation of the Home Secretary's other announcements, including the new Victims and Survivor Panel, and the Baroness Casey audit.

We will continue to work at pace to prioritise protecting more children, finding more criminals, and getting justice for more victims and survivors.