{"id":429644,"date":"2025-09-16T20:18:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/429644\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T20:18:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T20:18:14","slug":"real-risk-of-scotland-falling-behind-in-tackling-grooming-gangs-tories-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/429644\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Real risk\u2019 of Scotland falling behind in tackling grooming gangs, Tories claim"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Morning<\/p>\n

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the worldSign up to our free Morning Headlines emailSign up to our free Morning Headlines email<\/p>\n

\"Morning<\/p>\n

Tories<\/a> have claimed there is a \u201creal risk\u201d Scotland<\/a> could fall behind England in dealing with child sexual abuse after MSPs<\/a> voted down a bid to force research into grooming gangs.<\/p>\n

Scottish Conservative justice spokesperson Liam Kerr had tabled amendments to the justice reforms brought forward by the SNP administration at Holyrood.<\/p>\n

With the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill including the the establishment of a new Victims Commissioner for Scotland as one of its measures, Mr Kerr\u2019s amendment would have required this new commissioner carry out research in relation to group-based child sexual exploitation in Scotland within three years of taking up the job.<\/p>\n

The Conservative said this would see a \u201csimilar investigation\u201d carried out to one ordered by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> for England in January of this year.<\/p>\n

He told MSPs the work would \u201cwould build a national picture of what is known about grooming gangs in Scotland\u201d and would \u201ccrucially\u00a0require recommendations to be made on how to prevent this most vicious, this most heinous of practices from occurring and to make a recommendation on whether a full public inquiry needs to be commissioned\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Kerr told MSPs: \u201cThere is currently a worrying lack of information about the true scale of the issue, who the victims are, who is conducting these crimes in Scotland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot bury our heads in the sand while England tackles this.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were so to do there is a real risk of Scotland falling behind in dealing with child sexual abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Scottish Justice Secretary Angela Constance<\/a> told MSPs work in this area was already being carried out by both Police Scotland and the specialist body the National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group, which was established in 2024.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the work of this \u201cexpert group\u201d she insisted it was \u201cbest placed to assess and make recommendations for the additional action to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation,\u201d rather than the new\u00a0 Victims Commissioner, who still has to be recruited and will have a \u201cvariety of duties to deliver\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Constance added that officers from Police Scotland are also \u201creviewing historical and current cases of this nature\u201d, as she argued if the Conservative amendment were passed it would \u201crisk unnecessary duplication\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Justice Secretary said: \u201cI stress that the National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group and Police Scotland are active in this area now.\u201d<\/p>\n

After hearing from her, MSPs voted against Mr Kerr\u2019s amendment by 51 votes to 62 \u2013 with the Tory hitting out afterwards, saying: \u201cIt is simply outrageous that the SNP have chosen to vote against setting up a Scottish grooming gangs inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n

He insisted: \u201cThis is an abject betrayal of victims. We know that grooming gangs operate in Scotland, which begs the question why the SNP are choosing to ignore this when they should be learning vital lessons in order to prevent future abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot afford to turn a blind eye to this. Scottish grooming gang victims deserve an inquiry, just like those south of the border.\u201d<\/p>\n

He spoke out as MSPs debated amendments to the Bill, which will make a series of changes to Scotland\u2019s justice system.<\/p>\n

If passed in its final vote at Holyrood on Wednesday, the legislation will scrap Scotland\u2019s unique and centuries old not proven verdict.<\/p>\n

In addition to this it aims to reform the jury\u00a0process, requiring at least two thirds of jurors to support a conviction before someone can be found guilty.<\/p>\n

The legislation will also create a specialist sexual offences court, while also promising to give victims of such offences a lifelong right to anonymity.<\/p>\n

Other changes will see the Parole Board required to consider if killers have provided information on the whereabouts of their victims remains when considering if they should be freed from prison, a move known as Suzanne\u2019s Law after Suzanne Pilley, who was murdered in 2010 but whose killer has never revealed the location of her body.<\/p>\n

With more than 160 amendments due to be debated at Holyrood on Tuesday, MSPs will sit late to consider these, before the final vote on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

As Holyrood debated the legislation on Tuesday, MSPs backed amendments from Liberal Democrat MSP Jamie Greene, which will require the Crown Office to inform victims of any decision not to prosecute or to discontinue criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n

Mr Greene said afterwards: \u201cBy backing these amendments, MSPs have shown that we are serious about the rights, protections and access to information that we owe victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am confident that this Bill can now make an important difference for the victims of crime and their families, and I encourage all parties in Holyrood to not play political games at the final hurdle and support this Bill.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the worldSign up to our free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-429644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115215827235974146","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}