Westminster Hall debate: Child Sexual Offender Data (e-petition 730605)

While this debate is very welcome, it is on the broad range of sexual offences against children and the gathering of data about the perpetrators. I suggest, and certainly my constituents in Clacton suggest, that there is something uniquely evil and awful about mass-rape gangs. That is not in any way to diminish sexual abuse committed in the home or elsewhere by trusted people, but there is something uniquely evil about what is going on.

I certainly speak for many of my constituents in saying that there is a feeling that for a couple of decades the authorities at all levels have not done the job of genuinely pursuing justice because of racial sensitivities. I was unaware of the problem, its scale and the cover-up until the Rotherham by-election in 2012, when the current hon. Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion) was elected. In the intervening years she has spoken out more bravely on the issue than most Members of this House. I was genuinely shocked by the stories I was told by families who came forward, and stunned that the police, social workers and local councillors had received multiple reports of what had happened. When I say mass rape, in some cases we are talking about individual girls being raped by hundreds of men over a period of time. Something genuinely shocking had happened.

In the intervening years, we have had the Jay report, the Casey report, attempts by Home Secretaries and current attempts to find out the truth about what has gone on. While a handful of people have been held to account, the truth is that the vast majority have not. I was surprised that during 14 years of Conservative Government, we did not have a proper judicial inquiry with the necessary powers. I have done my best to encourage the current Prime Minister to do the same, but sadly to no avail.

There are two things that it strikes me would be helpful. First, we ought to get published, with redacted names, all the reports of police and social services over the past 40 years, across the whole country, as a public record that everybody can read. But the thing that really surprises me is the reluctance of Members of Parliament to realise their own powers. We are in the Palace of Westminster, in this remarkable historic building, and we are all privileged to be here. We have enormous powers. They were last effectively used back in 2011 by the Public Accounts Committee, which in the wake of the global financial collapse of 2008 used the powers of this Palace to turn Committees into courts. That means that they have powers of subpoena; it means that people can be brought into Committee Rooms like this, under oath, and could face charges of perjury if they do not tell the truth.

My suggestion is this: rather than waiting for this Home Secretary or the next one, who may come soon—who knows?—to act with full judicial power and the ability to subpoena, why don’t we, as Members of Parliament, forget party affiliation, recognise the upset, concern and fear of our constituents that we are increasingly living in a two-tier justice system in this country, come together and force the Government to have a powerful Committee in this place? Let us call the heads of social services, let us call senior police officers and let us call former or serving councillors, or even former or serving MPs, and get to the truth.