B

Baroness Berridge (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 18 March 2026

Debate

Crime and Policing Bill

Contribution

I would be grateful for clarification as to whether the Government have considered their own current inquiries into the grooming gangs. There was evidence there that: “Victims and survivors were also critical about how easy it can be to obtain emergency contraception or abortion services without appropriate questions being asked”. This evidence has been relied on consistently in Committee and on Report, yet there are concerns. Have the Government looked at that? Secondly, in relation to the case that I mentioned in Committee, which contradicts much of what has been said, the comments of His Honour Mr Justice Cooke in Leeds Crown Court, in the case of Sarah Catt, very clearly state that this was a “cold calculated” decision that she took for her own convenience and self-interest. She took pills at 39 weeks and gave birth, and it seems she never revealed where the body was. She had a history of deceit and concealment—that is in the judgment of Leeds Crown Court. So have the Government considered, also in relation to other amendments about pardons, that this was conduct not of a victim but of a woman who perpetrated a crime? Finally—

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