Hansard

I congratulate David Stewart and his Public Petitions Committee colleagues on their work. The issue of child sexual exploitation is undoubtedly complex, and John Wilson was right on the money in pointing out how uncomfortable the evidence-taking process was for the committee at times. The harrowing and distressing case studies that David Stewart mentioned could not have failed to touch anyone who read them or heard them in person.

I was first made aware of the committee’s work in the area through the committee’s application to the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body for agreement to support an extension to the work of the committee’s adviser. That illustrated the complexity of the issues with which the committee was wrestling, and highlighted its determination to do justice to those issues.

I put on record my gratitude to Barnardo’s Scotland—that is becoming a bit of a common refrain, not least from me, given my work as a member of the Education and Culture Committee, which has spent at least a couple of years examining issues concerning those who are going through our care system and has more recently been considering the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill. I acknowledge that Barnardo’s work gave rise to the inquiry on child sexual abuse through its petition and has been instrumental in informing what happens thereafter.

The committee’s report and the recommendations that have emerged from the process are welcome and well balanced. The central call for a national overarching strategy strikes me as sensible. I was interested to hear the exchanges between the minister and Jackson Carlaw, as there appears to be a perception of greater disagreement than actually exists.

The minister was right to point to the call from Aberlour Child Care Trust to work with existing work streams, including the short-life ministerial working group, which, as the minister has just confirmed, will be extended to look at the issue. However, given the evidence of a lack of co-ordination, I do not think that we can dismiss the call for a national overarching strategy to pull all the work together.

I was aware of concerns around child sexual exploitation and of the sense that it is on the increase, with the forms that it takes quickly developing through, for example, online grooming and the opportunities afforded by chat rooms and social media. However, I confess that it is not an area that I felt that I understood in any great detail. I was reassured by Jackson Carlaw’s salutary warning about well-intentioned politicians blundering into the area armed with silver bullets, but I was also reassured by the committee’s findings, which point out that there is an imperfect understanding of the issues—there is not even agreement on what constitutes child sexual exploitation.

It is therefore absolutely essential to build up understanding and awareness through national data gathering and scoping exercises. However, that awareness and understanding should be built up not just among children, carers, parents and the wider public but among the professionals involved. Again, the point about what appears to be an absence of adequate co-ordination is one that we ought to take cognisance of.

There are of course specific challenges for the police and for justice bodies. The committee found that they appear not to be using current legislation to the fullest extent, not least to give effect to the disruption of perpetrators, which a number of members have mentioned. I ought perhaps to acknowledge the minister’s valiant efforts to point to a potential benefit from pulling together a single national police force. Given the extended debate on a topical question earlier this afternoon, that seemed a brave endeavour indeed.

The committee also calls for engagement with children on the issue through education and work in schools. I listened with interest to what Jackson Carlaw said in that respect, but I believe that it is absolutely right to do such work. Apparently consensual relationships are often anything but, and there is a lack of understanding of the signs of grooming among not only children who are being groomed but teachers and parents.

The way in which such education work is undertaken is critically important. I have long had concerns about the unintended consequences that can flow from campaigns around stranger danger. The committee heard evidence that a lot of child sexual exploitation happens within families and care settings, so it would be wrong to overstress the extent to which those unknown to individuals should be the focus of attention. There is a need to build confidence in children so that they recognise and can deal with the problems or know who to approach to help them deal with problems. There is also a need to build resilience in individual children—David Stewart alluded to that. However, there is a risk that we will cultivate an atmosphere of fear and suspicion that could ultimately be counterproductive in meeting the objectives that we are all intent on meeting.

I will refer briefly to the Children and Young People (Scotland) Bill. The minister has obviously been intimately involved with the bill process, and she was right to point to some of the improvements that will be delivered through the passing of that legislation next month. However, I am conscious that Tam Baillie, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, the together coalition and other bodies have pointed to the bill’s deficiencies in terms of the rights of children and, in particular, the failure to include in the bill articles 3 and 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. That represents a missed opportunity. For those less familiar with the UNCRC, I point out that article 3 is about ensuring that the voice of the child is heard in all decisions that affect him or her, and article 12 says that the best interests of the child should be treated as the paramount consideration. Although very valuable steps are being taken through the bill, the failure to incorporate more fully those articles is a deficiency. I think that the Public Petitions Committee’s report simply reinforces that point.

The committee’s report is by no means a magic bullet for addressing an issue that is complex and pernicious and whose nature is evolving. On that basis, I again congratulate the Public Petitions Committee on not being put off by the scale of the task that it undertook, on grappling with the issue and on coming forward with what I think are sensible recommendations. I certainly look forward to hearing the minister’s closing speech, but I think that we have the basis on which to address some of the shortcomings that the committee identified.