Yvette Cooper says professionals to face criminal sanctions for failing to report child abuse
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The home secretary defended her decision not to launch a national inquiry into the grooming scandal. The home secretary has announced the professionals who work with children will face criminal sanctions if they do not report child sexual abuse. Yvette Cooper told MPs that a “significant package of measures” will be announced by the government in the next few weeks aimed at tackling online child sexual exploitation.
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She also defended her decision not to launch a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal, despite calls from Reform UK and Conservative politicians, as well an online backlash from multi-billionaire Elon Musk. Ms Cooper raised concerns in the Commons about how police forces collect data, describing it as “haphazard”, before claiming data published on the ethnicity of perpetrators is not adequate.
![[Yvette Cooper defended her decision not to launch a national inquiry into the scandal (Russell Cheyne/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/27/15/a3fcbe7b6383045e03c817c3f67ec98aY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM1Mzk2MTc5-2.78090452.jpg)
Announcing new measures, she said: “We will make it mandatory to report abuse, and we will put the measures in the crime and policing bill that will be put before parliament this spring, making it an offence with professional and criminal sanctions to fail to report or cover up child sexual abuse,” she said.
“The protection of institutions must never be put before the protection of children. This measure is something I first called for in response to the reports and failings in Rotherham 10 years ago. “It’s something that the Prime Minister first called for 12 years ago based on his experience as director of public prosecutions, and the case was clear then, but we have lost a decade, and we need to get on with it now.”.
