Child Prostitution (Hansard, 6 February 2002)

§ Mr. Hancock
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidelines the Department issues to police forces on dealing with child prostitution and promoting relevant inter-agency protocols; and if he will make a statement. [32157]

§ Mr. Keith Bradley
The Government believe that children involved in prostitution are primarily the victims of abuse and that those adults who take advantage of them whether by pimping or by buying their sexual services, are child abusers.
We also believe that a multi-agency approach to this problem is needed, including local authority, educational establishments and Area Child Protection Committees as well as the police. We are committed to raising awareness and providing clear guidance to police forces and other relevant agencies.
The Home Office and the Department of Health published "Safeguarding Children Involved in Prostitution" in May 2000. This provided guidance on establishing a framework and a protocol for successful multi-agency working.
The guidance stresses that those under 18 who engage in prostitution are victims and ought to be treated as such. Wherever possible criminal justice action should be pursued against those who directly abuse children through prostitution or seek to exploit them commercially as prostitutes.

§ Mr. Hancock
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions for child abuse involved child or youth prostitution in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [32219]

§ Mr. Keith Bradley
Statistics for convictions for the last 12 months are not yet available.
More generally, statistics detailing prosecutions for offences related to child abuse do not indicate whether the child victim was commercially sexually exploited or not. The recommendations made by the Sex Offences Review to Government on reforming the law on sex offences were published in "Setting the Boundaries" in July 2000. One of the proposals was to create a new offence of commercial sexual exploitation of a child through prostitution or pornography. We are currently analysing more than 700 responses received during the consultation process.