Home secretary Suella Braverman fails to answer Advertiser questions

THE ADVERTISER approached home secretary Suella Braverman through the Home Office to ask about issues around tackling child sexual exploitation  — but she failed to answer our questions.

We pointed out there is an enormous backlog at court, holding up potential convictions, and the delay in formalising “mandatory reporting” of abuse — something demanded by Labour as long as ten years ago.

We highlighted how victims have said they do not have enough support, one-to-ones and counselling to give them confidence to go through the court system and asked if any new funding would be forthcoming to change this.

The home secretary was also challenged about the potential danger of highlighting grooming gangs of British Pakistani backgrounds when a 2020 Home Officer report failed to identify any ethnic group as being more prevalent in committing the crime.

On court backlogs, we were asked to send our queries to the Ministry of Justice, and all the other questions were left unanswered.

Ms Braverman said in a statement that “every adult must be supported to call out child sexual abuse without fear, and the despicable abusers must be brought to justice”.

She added: “That’s why I’m introducing a mandatory reporting duty and launching a call for evidence.

“We must address the failures identified by the inquiry (the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse) and take on board the views of the thousands of victims and survivors who contributed to its findings.

“It is important to have a national conversation about this to shine a light on this terrible — but too often hidden — crime.”