Sarah lobbies government for new offence of child exploitation

Sarah Champion, the Member of Parliament for Rotherham, has this week called on the Government to enshrine the offence of child exploitation in law as part of the Modern Slavery Bill. Currently, there is no specific offence that exists in statue that addresses the exploitation of children. Speaking to the Bill Committee of the Modern Slavery Bill, Sarah said: Through recent events in Rotherham, child exploitation has very much come to the fore. The dominant narrative frequently refers to how perpetrators of such abuses rely on exploiting the vulnerability of victims as children not just as vulnerable and impressionable people, but as children.

Rotherham is the largest child exploitation scandal in a string of UK towns. The failure to respond adequately to the widespread sexual exploitation of children highlights an endemic issue across the UK. In communities throughout our country, including Oxford, Rochdale and Peterborough, we have been confronted with overwhelming evidence of repeated and multiple failures to protect children from exploitation.

To read the full press release, click here