Funding for Fire & Rescue Services
It is right to say that throughout the pandemic, fire and rescue services across the country have played an essential role in the national effort to tackle Coronavirus. This includes helping other emergency services, aiding vulnerable people and supporting the NHS. It is important to remember that this is of course on top of their usual vital firefighting duties.
I therefore welcome the fact that the Home Office has launched a £6 million Fire Coronavirus Contingency Fund. This funding will help to support fire and rescue authorities who incur significant costs as a result of taking on additional duties during the coronavirus outbreak.
I can assure you that Fire and Rescue Authorities have the necessary funding to respond to incidents. Overall, Fire and Rescue Authorities will receive around £2.3 billion in 2020/21. It is also good news that £6.4 billion in funding has been made available for councils to relieve local pressures and help vulnerable people as councils see fit.
I hope this clarifies the commitment to the Fire and Rescue Authorities, and I will continue to engage with Ministers.
Grooming gangs
I strongly believe that people who abuse children must be stopped, regardless of their race, age, or gender. Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is not exclusive to any single culture, community, race or religion.
Tragically, CSE happens in all areas of the country and can take many different forms. However, political or cultural sensitivities must not get in the way of preventing and uncovering child abuse.
Law enforcement capacity and capability is being strengthened and investment has been provided to transform policing to respond to changing crimes such as child sexual abuse, including continued funding for the network of police CSE coordinators and analysts who identify organised child sexual abuse across police force boundaries so that offenders are subject to a robust response wherever they offend. This has led to a huge increase in the volume of police activity and an increasing number of CSE cases have been prosecuted in the courts and heavy sentences handed down.
A range of measures have also been introduced to tackle the culture of denial and inaction that has led to children being failed in the past, including creating a new national whistleblowing helpline for public sector workers; and introducing legislation to ensure that exit payments for senior staff can be clawed back where those people are quickly re-employed in the same part of the public sector. This will ensure that those who fail to protect children see the consequences of their actions.
This is a difficult issue and requires a robust whole system response to all kinds of child sexual abuse. I welcome the fact that the Home Office will soon be publishing a national strategy.
I know that Ministers are working on a number of fronts to understand the characteristics of group-based offending and where it occurs. This includes ongoing work commissioned by the previous Home Secretary and will inform future government policy on child sexual abuse.
I have always been clear that the priority must be to protect victims and increase public confidence in the criminal justice system. It is good news that new sentencing laws will ensure that the most serious and violent sexual offenders spend time in prison that matches the severity of the crimes they have committed.
The response I am looking for is not here
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