Speeches by Phillips.

“I want to be clear that local inquiries must be independent. The chair of Telford inquiry was independent, and Professor Alexis Jay chaired the Rotherham inquiry. They are independent inquiries and they are not run by local authorities.”

“The grooming gangs taskforce will work with local police force areas. The whole point is that it works operationally with local police forces to ensure best practice. That has led to 1,100 more arrests for group-based child sexual abuse since the taskforce was set up. There is a huge amount of resource in that centre. …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for mentioning boys and giving me the opportunity to say the following. I made a promise to one of the Oldham victims when I met her that I would always say that grooming gangs could happen to boys and girls, because it was her son who had lost his life, so I thank my hon. Friend for allowing me …”

“I do not agree with that. Politically, the easiest thing for me to have done in this situation would have been to capitulate, but I do not think it is the right thing to do. I genuinely believe that from my years of work and speaking to the victims and working in Telford with those victims about what changed afterwards…”

“What we have proposed is better because it is about acting now in areas where it is needed. We have already had a national inquiry, which took seven years and wrote a 200-page dossier on group-based sexual abuse—[Interruption.] There was a 200-page dossier specifically on that, and it took two years just to do that, an…”

“I will wait for the review being undertaken by Baroness Casey and look at what it tells me, and then I will act on that.”

“I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s desire to always be respectful. I shall pay it back in kind and say that there is absolutely no way that the Government wish for the past to be forgotten or for a line to be drawn. That is absolutely the opposite of what I want. I want every single perpetrator rounded up and locked up;…”

“I will not answer the second point, which I think strays slightly from this urgent question, but what I will say is that I wonder if the hon. and learned Gentleman has read the 200-page document of the national inquiry into group-based child sexual abuse that already exists and has statutory powers. If he or anyone in …”

“I delight in the hon. Gentleman’s interest, and what I would say to every single Member of this House is that I will work with absolutely anybody to make this better. I am more than happy to meet him and talk about any level of co-operation, because if people are genuinely here to try to stop the grooming gangs in this…”

“It had written to the previous Government, as had Telford. So, for me, this story started many years—[Interruption.]”

“I appreciate that that is where the whole story began for the hon. Gentleman, but it is not where the whole story began. Oldham council had written, I believe, twice before to the previous Government—”

“That does not deserve a response—and I actually quite like the hon. Gentleman. I have spent my entire career helping—[Interruption.] I wonder how many victims of grooming gangs he has sat and held hands with in court, and for how many he has gone round to their house in the morning to get them out of bed to get them in…”

“The Disclosure and Barring Service issues criminal record checks in England and Wales to support employers to make decisions about the suitability of individuals for particular roles. The DBS also maintains two lists of individuals whom it has barred from working in regulated activity: the adults’ and children’s barred…”

“I wish there was a place where stalking cases were less prevalent—what there will be are areas where stalking cases are less prevalently reported. To return to those two brilliant multi-agency examples, doing a job really well often increases the crime rate in that area, which is sometimes quite difficult for police fo…”

“Following what I was just saying about making things actually change on the ground, these clauses are about doing some of that. It is important that professionals with safeguarding responsibilities, such as the police, teachers, healthcare professionals and social workers, have adequate and clear guidance to support th…”

“Exactly. We rely on our courts to ensure that these decisions are proportionate. In order to get proportionate decisions on breaches, we need to ensure that our criminal justice system is better trained across the board. From the Home Office’s perspective, I point to the fact that this Government have finally invested …”

“Absolutely. The Metropolitan police’s decision to use those three particular boroughs for the domestic abuse protection orders was undoubtedly based on intelligence, and also on what we can best learn. We have seen with the domestic abuse protection orders that someone can get in and out of a courtroom within 24 hours.…”

“I will start at the end and work backwards through the questions. It was a delight to hear everybody mention the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, which is an amazing organisation that I have had the pleasure to work with for many years. Since becoming a Minister, I have had the especial pleasure of working very closely with the tr…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger, while we expect a vote. As we are quorate, I will move on with this task. I will come on to answer the questions put by the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Stockton West, but will first go through the relevant clauses. Ensuring that the system for managing…”

“As I was saying before we were so democratically interrupted, amendment 50 seeks to place a duty on the police to notify victims when an offender intends to change their name. Again, I entirely understand the intention behind the amendment, but the police are already able to disclose information, on a discretionary bas…”