The issue of grooming gangs has caused immense distress to victims, their families, and communities. Many feel that the Home Office report does not adequately address the complexities of this crime due to a lack of data and concerns over political correctness. The debate calls for transparency in addressing racism while ensuring the majority stance against racial discrimination is upheld.

Introduced an immediate time limit of four minutes on Back-Bench speeches to ensure all those who wish to speak have the opportunity.

As a priority since 2011, tackling violence and sexual exploitation has involved immediate escalation of child sexual exploitation cases to authorities. The data on CSE is inadequate with three out of four victims not reporting abuse. Group-based offenders are male and under 30. The focus needs to sharpen up, every child's rights need to be protected from abuse that occurs in every community.

The speaker emphasised the importance of taking sexual abuse seriously and urged for more attention to be given to victims. She highlighted that many women who enter the criminal justice system are themselves victims of abuse, and she called for a change in attitudes towards cultural sensitivities that hinder tackling these issues.

The Member shared her experience advocating against child sexual exploitation and grooming gangs over eight years. She presented specific measures to prevent CSE by grooming gangs, secure convictions, and support survivors, including mandatory relationship education for primary schoolchildren, stricter sentencing, improved multi-agency approaches, stable funding for support services, and better accessibility of CSE services.

The speaker acknowledged the work done by Sarah Champion and others in forming a Government strategy on CSE. He emphasised the need to tackle abuse and bring offenders to justice, highlighting the importance of robust intelligence sharing, improved criminal justice system resources, educating children about healthy relationships online, and reforming the system to better support victims.

In my constituency, this is a live issue causing concern. There are ongoing investigations and pending trials. People express lack of faith in the system as victims have been let down time and again. Transparency can help restore faith in processes. We need to shine a light on injustices without being misled by those with vested interests stirring up tensions.

Paid tribute at noon today for Captain Sir Tom Moore who inspired the country over the last year and in memory of many thousands who have died. We will pause for a moment at 6 o'clock but no clapping will be allowed.

Communities I represent in Batley and Spen have been rocked by announcements and police investigations into grooming gangs. Court cases take time, but justice is served when victims come forward bravely. We need to learn from historical cases. A system should be put in place that does not involve forces going cap in hand for funding. Survivors of these crimes should hear the message: 'We do believe you.'

Survivors are most commonly females aged 14 to 17; risk factors include being in care, experiencing episodes of going missing, learning disabilities, drug or alcohol dependency, mental health issues, and previous abuse. The Home Secretary's report highlights various motives for offenders, including financial gain and sexual gratification. False claims about the ethnic background of criminals can hinder efforts to tackle the issue, as they spread misinformed beliefs and foster racial divisions.

The debate is difficult to encapsulate in four minutes given his long-standing work on child sexual exploitation. In 2011, an action plan was launched that highlighted CSE can happen anywhere to anyone, not exclusive to northern metropolitan boroughs or specific ethnic backgrounds. Despite the Savile revelations and increased awareness of CSE, there is disappointment regarding lack of transparency about the extent of systemic activities of British Pakistani grooming gangs. The phenomenon needs to be called out for what it is and tackled specifically.

Survivors are often treated as perpetrators rather than victims when coming forward, particularly in cases involving sexual abuse for money or recruitment of other survivors. Perpetrators gravitate towards children perceived to be vulnerable due to lower safeguards around them. The tackling child sexual abuse strategy highlights the importance of early-years wellbeing and mental-health provision; however, 10 years of Tory austerity has led to cutbacks in these areas.

More than 20 years have passed since the issue was first raised, yet little has changed. The consequences of inaction are severe for victims, primarily young girls who suffer lifelong trauma from sexual abuse by predominantly Muslim men. Urgent action is needed to address this problem before it escalates further and undermines community relations.

Barnardo’s report revealed that one third of sexually exploited children are in care, with 29% being looked after, 16% having disabilities, and 5% requiring special educational needs support. The report noted a correlation between abuse, going missing, learning disabilities, drug and alcohol dependency, mental health issues, and previous abuse. Adequate funding for NGOs like Barnardo’s and the police is essential to prevent future cases and protect children's futures.

The lack of legislation addressing coercive and controlling behaviour in child exploitation cases hinders successful prosecutions. Current tools such as sexual risk orders and modern slavery risk orders require substantial proof and lengthy processes, leaving children vulnerable to continued abuse. There is a need for new offences targeting coercive control to better protect children aged 16 and 17 from exploitation.

Mr Hayes provided facts on the incidence of CSE in Oxford, Rotherham, and Rochdale. He criticised the Home Office report for avoiding conclusions about ethnicity over-representation among offenders. Mr Hayes called for the Government to enact recommendations from a report by Professor Abdel-Haq to make taxis safer.

Mr McDonald thanked petitioners and contributors, noting that research into crime patterns can be helpful but must be interpreted carefully. He emphasised the importance of community awareness in preventing CSE and highlighted the limited evidence on ethnicity for group-based CSE offenders.

I thank the Petitions Committee for bringing us here today. I, like others, think that this should have more prominence than waiting for the public to raise it; it should be front and centre in our thinking. I remember the words of the girl who sat in front of me 10 years ago as she described, as if it were completely normal, a line-up of men at a party waiting for her to perform oral sex on them. She said it to me as if it was an everyday thing—no biggie. A year later, I was called to a school where a group of boys had sexually abused, assaulted and exploited over 50 girls at their school. In the last 15 years, thanks to the bravery of victims of sexual exploitation and grooming gangs, we better understand this heinous crime. The Government have now published the long-awaited review that the petition called for. I am only sorry that the delay meant that further distrust and misdirection on this issue was allowed to gain traction. Transparency, openness and robust external and internal critique of state agencies is the only way that we are going to combat this crime and win back trust. My hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham is usually right about these things and she was right today that unregulated care homes have to be sorted, and that pre-charge bail should be—without question in this area, and in many others when it comes to vulnerable people—sorted immediately. The strategy talks about working together, and we have heard a lot about cross-Government Departments needing to work together. I turn to the proposals for schools in the strategy. There are very few people in this House who would not support the sentiment of a strategy that says, “We will educate children and young people about healthy relationships in a digital world”—noble indeed. Yet only this week we have seen the publication of school materials being used in some schools in the UK that are teaching, and I quote: “within a romantic relationship between male and female, masculinity is more about initiating”, whereas, “femininity is more about receiving and responding”. The Government continually shrug their shoulders about these incidents, but they need to understand that without proper funding, robust safeguards and proper scrutiny, there is a potential that the roll-out of healthy relationships education could be anything but. Telling girls to expect men to initiate sex, and for them to receive it and respond to it, is dangerous. What will the Government do to monitor what is being taught? Saying that prevention will happen in our schools will take much more work than just words written on paper. I want to close my remarks by paying tribute to the victims of this crime and saying some of the things that they have asked me to say today. Sammy, as many have mentioned, was horrendously abused from the age of 14 and had a son born of repeated rape by Arshid Hussain. Sammy’s case, as the Minister knows, is by no means an exception. We can all stand here and be fire and brimstone about the rapists and child abusers—monsters—who perpetrate these crimes; however, here in this building we have repeatedly failed to legislate to prevent these rapists and other perpetrators of child abuse and domestic and sexual violence from continuing the abuse of their victims into adulthood through the family courts. This is on us; it is our failings—it is the law that has been too meek to change and to stop rapists like Sammy’s rapist being able to access her child.

The Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Criminal Justice thanked petition signatories and highlighted the Government's commitment to tackling child sexual abuse. She discussed the publication of a paper on group-based child sexual exploitation and outlined measures in the tackling child sexual abuse strategy, including improving data collection, investing in police-led projects, and enhancing disruption tools.

Responding to the debate, Tom Hunt thanked contributors for their support and emphasised the need to continue addressing difficult questions regarding grooming gangs. He highlighted concerns about pushback from certain elements of the establishment hindering progress in understanding and tackling this issue.

While not a direct speaker, Imran Ahmad Khan's involvement was mentioned as part of the review group contributing to the debate on addressing cultural sensitivities that may hinder progress in tackling child sexual exploitation cases.