Not surprisingly, with a considerable vested interest, my old adversary Lord Lester seems rather reluctant to talk about it all. Not doubt preferring a legislative approach to those who raise rather awkward questions and facts:
Because some of the aspects of domestic violence, such as the sexual grooming of young girls, children and so forth, have recently been linked with a particular section of the community, and because the right honourable Jack Straw has chosen to come out and say that this is a particular problem involving young Pakistani men, I want to emphasise that it is important not to indulge in ethnic or religious stereotypes.
Meanwhile Conservative MP for Stourbridge Margot James, unlike her colleagues, might need to be reclassified from invertebrate status:
What progress the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre has made in its investigation into the grooming of vulnerable teenage girls for sex.
The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May): I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising this issue. Good progress has been made since CEOP commissioned its thematic assessment of localised grooming in January. A range of responses has been received from a variety of sources, including police forces, charities and local safeguarding children boards. Analysis of the data is ongoing and the final report is expected to be published in June.
Margot James: I thank the Home Secretary for her answer. Whether or not CEOP forms a discrete part of the new national crime agency, what steps will be taken to work with mosques and Asian communities to make this organised exploitation of young girls culturally unacceptable?
Mrs May: My hon. Friend’s question enables me to say how strongly we support CEOP’s work. We want it to be a lead law enforcement body in terms of protecting children nationally, so I am pleased to announce that it will form part of the new national crime agency and will continue to build on the work it is doing. In examining the issue of grooming, it is important to wait for CEOP’s thematic report, see the extent of this problem and, obviously, take CEOP’s advice on any action that needs to be taken in relation to particular communities, but I do not think we should see this as an issue that relates only to particular communities.
Let us hope that the likes of Lord Lester have had no hand in the compiling of this report. Should it prove inconvenient however, he and his ilk might like to make its possession, distribution or publication a criminal offence.
My favourite still has to be Conservative Baroness Berridge, who you will remember recently furnished their Lordships with this pearl of wisdom:
I hope that the values of self-restraint, moderation and abstinence which are also found among the British Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities will come to dominate English and British values around alcohol..
Bet she regrets saying that now.
