Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the reasons for the reduction in the number of children put on the child protection register for reasons including sexual abuse from (a) 2022-23 to (b) 2023-24 in England and Wales.

Baroness Casey’s national audit on group-based child sexual exploitation recommended the department interrogate the child protection data to identify the causes of the decline in child sexual abuse and exploitation representation.

The government has committed to urgently reviewing the child protection data. We must better understand the decline in child sexual abuse and exploitation representation in the assessment data and the reasons for variation across local authorities.

By the end of 2025, we will publish analysis that aims to better understand what has happened regarding the decline in child protection data on child sexual abuse and exploitation.

This will include analysis of child abuse victims’ demographics, outcomes, trends and local area variation over time. We will also work with the Child Sexual Abuse Centre to understand the specific issues outlined in this recommendation and will publish any related research once concluded.

Child sexual abuse is an abhorrent crime that no child should ever have to face, and it is of paramount importance that we do more to protect vulnerable children from the horrors of this crime.