Safeguarding Minister Natalie Fleet says victims and survivors of abuse have been denied justice for too long while vile perpetrators thought they were untouchable
Every day across the UK, children face the devastating reality of sexual abuse and exploitation.
The scale is shocking. The Centre for Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse estimates that around half a million children are sexually abused every year.
It can happen at home, in institutions and in our communities. Abusers can be behind a computer screen, or in vile networks that groom and exploit children over time, often in plain sight.
For years, vulnerable girls were groomed, drugged, beaten, raped and passed around by gangs of men. Too often, they were not believed. In towns like Rotherham, Oldham and Rochdale, they were failed. By adults. By agencies. By police. By systems that should have protected them.
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That is a stain on our country. The truth can be hard to read. It’s even harder to live. Child sexual abuse and exploitation can scar people for life.
I know, because when I was just 15, I was groomed and impregnated by an older man. For years, I carried shame. People called me horrible names. Said I had asked for it. They didn’t believe me because of who I was and where I came from.
When I say victims and survivors must be heard and protected, I mean it. When I say their abusers and rapists must face justice, I mean it.
We must stop at nothing to protect children from these horrors. And we must deliver justice for victims and survivors who have been denied it for too long.
That is why this government is going further than ever before to protect children, hunt down offenders and put them behind bars, where they belong.
We are investing £100million to crack down on child sexual abuse and exploitation – the highest level of funding in UK history.
The biggest share of that – £38million – is for Operation Beaconport, the national police operation to look into closed grooming gangs and other group-based cases.
It means hundreds of cases dating back to 2010 and marked “No Further Action”—three devastating words for victims and survivors—can be looked at again. It means missed leads, evidence and testimony can be picked up. And it means predators who thought they were untouchable can be caught and face justice.
But this is not only about the past. Just on Friday, police charged seven men with 40 shocking offences in Norwich. This follows a complex and sensitive investigation into group-based child sexual exploitation by the police, and officers have our full support as that continues.
And grooming gang criminality is just one type of abuse. Girls and boys are at risk from predators who lurk online, in schools, at sports clubs, and in their own homes and families. We will root them out wherever they hide.
Part of this funding is for the Undercover Child Abuse Online Network, to track sick criminals in the darkest corners of the internet. In just one year, it has protected nearly 1,800 children and made nearly 1,800 arrests.
We are also giving forces access to advanced AI tools to help them sift huge amounts of evidence and data in seconds. That is what meaningful action looks like.
It also means getting survivors help and support to start healing. We are spending an extra £50million to expand the Child House model across England – innovative, caring centres that provide sexually abused children with support they need, under one safe roof.
Alongside all this, the Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs has begun its work examining past failures and holding those responsible to account—backed by £65million.
Nothing can undo the horrors that survivors have had to live through. Nothing can give them back their stolen childhoods. But we can do everything in our power to stop it from happening again.
We are listening to victims and survivors and putting them at the very heart of our response. We owe them the truth. We owe them justice. Above all, we owe today’s children safety.
That is why this money matters. It says to survivors: you were right to speak up. It says to the police: we are backing you. And it says to every disgusting predator out there: we are coming for you.