Lords blast South Yorkshire Police over failings on sex abuse

Lib Dem peer Lord Scriven expressed concern at the way exploitation cases had been treated in the police area during Lords question time.

“Will the Minister seriously consider direct intervention by the Government in South Yorkshire Police’s performance in dealing with child sexual exploitation?

“This has been highlighted by the recent report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, which said that South Yorkshire Police still needs to make major improvements.

“Following freedom of information requests to ten forces across the country, a BBC report on Friday showed that, nationally, one in five cases reported are charged, but that in South Yorkshire the figure is one in 16,” Lord Scriven said.

Police statistics revealed that last year a total of 177 people in South Yorkshire were charged with child sexual exploitation offences.

681 offences were ‘flagged’ with the child sexual exploitation marker on police databases between January 2013 and the end of December 2015.

Home Office Minister Lord Bates said the Government was monitoring the situation.

Conservative peer Lord Lexden noted all agencies now took a firmer stance, and said: “Is it not essential that all agencies involved in protecting children investigate allegations of sexual abuse fully, fairly and openly? Will my noble friend agree that the more stringent procedures now required of bodies such as our school inspectorates and the Church of England authorities represent real progress?”

Lord Bates replied: “On the first point, we have encouraged – in fact, published and put on a statutory footing – legal requirements to work together to safeguard children in order to restore public confidence in these very serious areas.”