Oral QuestionDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.

Tabled: 23 March 2023Answered: 30 March 2023

Asked by

Sir Desmond Swayne

ConservativeNew Forest West

Answering Minister

the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Answer from Hansard

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Jess Phillips)

Child sexual exploitation and abuse are the most horrific crimes, and the Government are taking decisive action to ensure that victims and survivors of grooming gangs get the justice that they deserve. We are delivering on the key recommendations of the seven-year independent inquiry into child sexual abuse, including the recommendation on mandatory reporting; we have asked all police forces in England and Wales to review historical cases in which no further action was taken, and to reopen investigations; and we have commissioned Baroness Louise Casey to conduct a national audit of the nature and scale of grooming gangs and this offending in this country. We will leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of truth and justice.