Child Sexual Abuse Cases On The Rise

Females made up 78% of victims, while 82% of perpetrators were male. Child sexual exploitation and abuse online increased by 26%, with 51,672 crimes recorded, which represents 42% of the 2024 total.

Only 34% of suspected child sex abusers had their ethnicity recorded last year, according to the report. Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, emphasised the need for comprehensive data to counter what she described as "conspiracy theories" about grooming gangs.

Becky Riggs, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for child protection and abuse, acknowledged the challenges, saying: "We're never going to get 100%, it's not a realistic ambition."

Readers will be aware that in June 2025 Baroness Louise Casey published a damning audit report into the widespread failure of national agencies to compile any worthwhile data, either individually or collectively, that might then be used to deliver cogent and effective strategies to protect women, girls and the public generally.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools bill, which is presently going through parliament, includes new provisions intended to ensure that information relating to any child that is retained in more than one agency is properly collated, enabling far more informed and improved decision-making. However, the reference points that will facilitate the gathering of, and access to, that collated information have still to be determined and raise significant privacy and human rights issues which are likely to be the subject of intense scrutiny and debate.