§ Mrs. Curtis-Thomas:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many former care workers in children's homes and institutions have been investigated for child abuse in Merseyside in the past five years; and how many of those individuals were (a) charged, (b) convicted and (c) acquitted. [128349]
§ Paul Goggins:I understand from the Chief Constable of Merseyside Police that, since Operation Care began in 1996, 541 employees connected with care homes have been the subject of allegations of child abuse. Of these, 98 were arrested, of whom 36 were subsequently convicted in court, 24 after pleading guilty. Nine employees were acquitted and the remainder had proceedings against them discontinued, either before or after being charged, for a variety of reasons, including poor health.
§ Mrs. Curtis-Thomas:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the Government will adopt the recommendation by the Home Affairs Committee that resources be channelled into researching and piloting the use of statement validity analysis as a tool for evaluating the credibility of witness testimony in complex historical child abuse cases. [128352]
§ Paul Goggins:The Government's response to the Home Affairs Committee's report supported this recommendation, while noting that statement validity analysis is only one of a range of techniques available.
We are aware that the Association of Chief Police Officers' Investigative Interviewing Group, which aims to develop and assist the implementation of a national investigative interview strategy, are in the process of preparing advice to police forces on a number of techniques, including statement validity analysis.
We will consider this advice in future decisions about resourcing research.
§ Mrs. Curtis-Thomas:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if the Government will adopt the Home Affairs Committee's recommendation that the prosecution of offences relating to child abuse, which is alleged to have occurred over 10 years since the date of the offence, should only proceed with the court's permission, and that the time period does not begin until the complainant has reached age 21 years; [128356]
(2) whether there is a time limit on the number of years after the alleged offence that a child abuser can be prosecuted. [128399]
§ Paul Goggins:There is in general no restriction on the time that may elapse between the commission of an offence and commencement of prosecution. Either way offences, which can be tried either in a magistrates court or in the Crown Court, and indictable only offences, which must be tried in the Crown Court, can normally be prosecuted at any time. There are statutory 29W provisions prohibiting proceedings in respect of certain such offences once a specified time has elapsed. An example is contained in the Sexual Offences Act 1956, which provides that prosecutions for unlawful sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 must be commenced within 12 months of the offence. If no time limit is set out in legislation in respect of any either way or indictable-only offence, then the general rule applies, and prosecutions may be commenced however long ago the relevant events occurred.
In their October 2002 report on the investigation of historical abuse cases, the Home Affairs Committee agreed that the prosecution of offences relating to child abuse should not be time-barred.
The Government do not support the Committee's recommendation that the prosecution of offences relating to child abuse, which is alleged to have occurred over 10 years since the date of the offence, should only proceed with the court's permission, and that the time period should not begin until the complainant has reached age 21 years. It is the role of the Crown Prosecution Service to consider each individual case, and whether there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction. One of the factors to be considered is any delay in reporting a crime and the reasons for that delay. We cannot see a good reason to change the current system.
§ Mrs. Curtis-Thomas:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications have been received by the Criminal Cases Review Commission from those convicted of abuse in care homes in each year from 1997 to 2003. [128389]
§ Paul Goggins:The Criminal Cases Review Commission has recorded the following applications from those convicted of abuse in care homes.
Number of abuse applications 1997 1 1998 1 1999 1 2000 5 2001 8 2002 7 January to August 2003 3 Total 26
§ Mrs. Curtis-Thomas:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the factors underlying the take-up rate, in historical child abuse cases, of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. [128395]
§ Paul Goggins:None.
§ Mrs. Curtis-Thomas:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority will conduct a review of the accessability of its scheme to victims of past institutional child abuse. [128396]
§ Paul Goggins:I would refer the my hon. Friend to the response given by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary in April 2003 to the Fourth Report from the Home Affairs Committee Session 2001–02 HC 836 on The Conduct of Investigations into Past Cases of Abuse 30W in Children's Homes (column 5799). Paragraphs 71 and 72 of that response addressed a recommendation about the accessibility of the scheme to victims of past institutional child abuse.
§ Mrs. Curtis-Thomas:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidelines govern the conduct of police investigations and subsequent prosecution proceedings in care home abuse cases. [128391]
§ Paul Goggins:The Government's publication "Complex Child Abuse Investigations: Inter-Agency Issues" and the Association of Chief Police Officers' Senior Investigating Officers Handbook both cover the conduct of police investigations into complex historical abuse cases. This is in addition to more general guidelines in the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 and accompanying code and the Crown Prosecution Service code for Crown prosecutors.
§ Mrs. Curtis-Thomas:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the Government will take steps to encourage early consultation on the conduct and direction of investigations between the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service in cases of abuse in children's homes. [128393]
§ Paul Goggins:These steps have already been taken. The Government issued inter-agency guidance on complex child abuse investigations in June 2002. The guidance stresses the need to ensure that the Crown Prosecution Service are involved at an early stage as appropriate, while noting that they should not be involved in operational decisions about the conduct of an investigation.
This approach is further supported by the guidance in the Association of Chief Police Officers' Senior Investigating Officers Handbook.