Member

While I am on my feet, I will add my support to all the amendments in this group. I highlight in particular those tabled by my noble friend Lady Cash. They are necessary to address the deficiencies in the criminal justice system and the other bodies that have been highlighted in the Casey review, when it comes to safeguarding victims and potential victims of child sexual abuse, whether it is rape-gang connected or a different pattern of activity. I also support Amendment 271B in the names of my noble friends on the Front Bench, dealing with the rape of a child. Again, this was something that the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, argued for: she said the law should be changed to close the loophole whereby penetrative sex with a child is not always classed as rape. I think most people in the country will think it is absolute insanity that this is not called rape. A child cannot consent to sex. It should be rape. It should be called rape. We should prosecute those rapists as rapists, and we should treat children as children. I beg to move.