Chuka Umunna – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to ensure that adequate financial resources were allocated to investigations into cases of historical child sexual abuse in (a) the London Borough of Lambeth, (b) London and (c) England and Wales.

Karen Bradley

No case of child abuse is ‘historical’ for victims and survivors. They must live with the consequences of their abuse each and every day of their lives. The allocation of resources on investigations into cases of child sexual abuse, including abuse that has taken place in the past, is an operational matter for the police and law enforcement.

We have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat which means that police forces and Police and Crime Commissioners must have in place the capabilities they need to protect children from sexual abuse. In 2015/16 we provided an additional £10 million to the National Crime Agency for the creation of more specialist teams to tackle online child sexual exploitation. We have also made available £1.7 million to fund Operation Hydrant, which coordinates the handling of multiple historical child sexual abuse investigations specifically concerning institutions or persons of public prominence, and up to £1.5 million to support regional coordinators and analysts to oversee the implementation of the National Policing Plan for tackling Child Sexual Exploitation.