Asked by Lord Pearson of Rannoch To ask Her Majesty’s
Government what assessment they have made of the national scale of
the “grooming gang scandal”, including sexual exploitation of
non-Muslim children by Muslim men, as emerged recently in
Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford and elsewhere; and what steps they are
taking to enable the prosecution of those in the police and local
authorities who have failed to prevent it....Request free trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have
made of the national scale of the “grooming gang scandal”,
including sexual exploitation of non-Muslim children by
Muslim men, as emerged recently in Rotherham, Rochdale,
Oxford and elsewhere; and what steps they are taking to
enable the prosecution of those in the police and local
authorities who have failed to prevent it.
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(Con)
My Lords, the government-funded Centre of Expertise on Child
Sexual Abuse is working to build a more informed picture of
the scale of these crimes, and preventing them is a priority
for the Government. The Independent Office for Police Conduct
is currently conducting investigations into 33 police
officers of varying ranks for potential criminal offences and
breaches of the standards of professional behaviour, linked
to the Rotherham case.
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(UKIP)
My Lords, I fear that reply is shamefully inadequate, because
these girls are usually raped several times a day. If we
accept the views of our lead police officer for child
protection, of Rotherham’s MP and of the recent Jay and
Quilliam reports, we are looking at millions of rapes of
white and Sikh girls by Muslim men, only 222 of whom have
been convicted since 2005. Will the Government ask our Muslim
leaders whether the perpetrators can claim that their
behaviour is sanctioned in the Koran, and to issue a fatwa
against it? Secondly, will the Government encourage a
national debate about the various interpretations of Islam?
Can we talk about Islam without being accused of hate crime?
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My Lords, child sexual exploitation is a vile crime and it is
not exclusive to any one community, culture, race or
religion. Political or cultural sensitivities should not get
in the way of tracking down offenders and preventing future
abuse. I say to noble Lords that we should be careful about
our language in this matter, not least because I am about to
repeat a Statement on inflammatory letters inciting a “punish
a Muslim” day on 3 April. We need to be careful about how we
approach this.
There is nothing in the Koran that encourages the sort of
activity the noble Lord has referred to. In any case, the
Koran would be trumped by the law of the land. Islam, like
all world religions, does not support, advocate or condone
child sexual exploitation. Indeed, respect for women is
inherent in its faith. As my noble friend has just told
me, one of Islam’s phrases is, “Paradise lies at the feet of
the mother”.
As for encouraging a debate on Islam, the Government are
supporting an initiative by British-based Islamic leaders of
all denominations to dispel the poisonous interpretations of
Islam peddled by al-Qaeda and Daesh. We are taking a number
of other initiatives to minimise the exposure of children to
sexual abuse from whatever source.
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(Ind
UU)
My Lords, I believe many people will be grateful to the
Minister for clarifying that point, but is there not a
contradiction in our own society, where we fail? I ask about
a questionnaire sent out by Brighton and Hove City Council,
asking children as young as six or seven, or their parents,
for their gender perception. If we are allowing this type of
information to be collected, for what purpose? It is to
condition people as they grow up. Will the Minister look at
our so-called liberalism, which enables this to happen and
prevents the police getting on with their duties?
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My Lords, that goes slightly wider than the specific
Question. I am aware of the debate taking place on
transgender issues and the whole debate about at what age, if
at all, children should be allowed to express their own
sexual preference. This is not a subject on which I am an
expert. I am very cautious about entering into it, but I will
certainly draw what the noble Lord has just said to the
attention of the relevant Ministers at the DfE.
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The Lord
My Lords, I am enormously grateful for the Minister’s Answer
to the Question. I had the great privilege to be the Bishop
of Sheffield for seven years during the child sexual
exploitation scandal in Rotherham and I am now the . I spent a great deal
of time in Rotherham following Professor Jay’s report and
registered the shock across all sections of the community,
including, of course, the Muslim community there, who were as
deeply appalled by what had happened as the rest of the
community. I vividly remember visiting some parents at a
mosque in Rotherham and hearing how their children were
insulted by the rest of the community in words I will not
repeat in this House. Will the Minister affirm the
condemnation with which these scandals are greeted across the
Muslim communities in each of these towns and cities?
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There is only one word I can say to the right reverend
Prelate: amen.
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(Lab)
My Lords, the experience of these young girls is not to be
used to encourage religious intolerance, but it is still
extremely serious. Yet again this week there have been calls
for a proper investigation into what happened in Telford from
the local MP, a Conservative, and from , who has of course
championed the victims in other parts of northern England.
Why is an investigation not to be launched into Telford? This
seems an extreme case of these extreme violent acts against
young girls.
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I have read the reports of what happened in
Telford—disgraceful cases that took place, I think, between
2007 and 2009. The case called Operation Chalice concluded in
2012 with a number of convictions. Since then I understand
that both the police and children’s services have improved
the way they operate. However, the option is open in this
case for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse,
chaired by Alexis Jay, to look at what happened in Telford
and at the institutional responses to the child sexual
exploitation that took place in that borough.
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