Meeting of the Parliament 28 January 2014
There are many different issues around internet safety—not least some of the particularly tragic incidents that happened last summer—which is why we held and hosted the summit last year. We clearly need to ensure that young people and parents are empowered to use the internet safely, which is why we brought a number of stakeholders around the table to discuss what we need to do to ensure that safety is maintained.
There are issues with the reserved nature of some of the regulation of internet use but, where we have a responsibility, we are trying to do what we can to allow young people to use the internet safely. It is a great tool—it is a wonderful thing to have access to—but we need to ensure that safety is paramount for young people and that parents know a wee bit more about what their children and young people are doing.
Child sexual exploitation is also a crime—one that cannot be tolerated—and it is important that we do all that we can to ensure that the perpetrators of these terrible crimes are brought to justice and that the risk is properly managed in custody and in the community. A critical element of that is our new single police force. Protecting the public—in particular, the most vulnerable in Scotland’s communities—is a key priority for Police Scotland.
Another essential element is having the right legal framework to pursue the crimes. We have strengthened the law on sex crimes by introducing the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009. That modernised the law and replaced a confusing and complex patchwork of common-law and statutory offences that had developed over many decades with the single statutory framework.
We have also improved Scotland’s sexual offences prevention order and risk of sexual harm order regimes by expanding the range of conditions that a court may attach to an order. Such orders are available to assist with the management of sex offenders and individuals without a relevant conviction who are assessed as posing a risk of sexual harm.
In addition, the Crown Office has developed a team of expert prosecutors in the national sexual crimes unit specialising in the investigation and prosecution of serious sexual crimes.
We understand the frustration of those who want to do more on that difficult area of crime detection and prosecution. A single, dedicated police force and a Crown Office with specialist expertise can build on our robust legal framework and make important strides in disrupting such crimes in the future, but we will continue to review how the laws are being used and how practice can be improved.
I turn to whether we need a national child sexual exploitation strategy. If that means yet another time-consuming review of what we have done, I do not think that we do need one. We have had a review of what we are doing and I believe that we know what needs to be done. What we must do is act upon that knowledge. I will ask the ministerial working group to corral that collective effort within a national action plan—a document that will be focused on the real and practical things that we are doing and must continue to do in this area.
Once again, I thank David Stewart and the Public Petitions Committee for their work. Hopefully, we can work together as we try to ensure young people’s safety in Scotland.
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