The government has announced plans to set up a redress scheme for victims of child sexual abuse.
Speaking to MPs in response to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Braverman called the redress scheme a “landmark commitment.”
The inquiry recommended setting up a redress scheme that will provide payments to eligible applicants through a two-tiered system, based on a fixed flat-rate recognition payment, with the option to apply for a second-tier payment.
Another recommendation was to introduce a national guarantee that child victims of sexual abuse will be offered fully funded specialist and accredited therapeutic support.
In response to this recommendation, the government pledged to elicit views on the future of therapeutic support for the victims.
“We will do our utmost to ensure that access to high quality support for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse exists, regardless of where or when the abuse occurred. Government will elicit views on the future of therapeutic support, including possible systemic changes to provision, through extensive engagement and consultation as part of our response to recommendation 19 on victim redress,” the response said.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told Braverman that her statement didn’t instil confidence in terms of guaranteeing specialist therapeutic support for the victims.
“All that the home secretary has done is simply point to what the government are doing already. I hope that there is more in the full report to which she refers, but there is far too little in the statement today to give us any confidence,” Cooper said.
She also asked Braverman for a timetable, to which the home secretary said she didn’t want to “give victims and survivors the false impression that implementing these big commitments will happen overnight.”
The IICSA made two recommendations on the threat of online child sexual abuse, including mandatory online pre-screening for sexual images of children, and more robust age-verification requirements for the use of online platforms and services.
In response, Braverman referred to the government’s Online Safety Bill, where the “strongest measures are reserved for child sexual abuse.”
Cooper described the bill, which is expected to become law this parliamentary session, as “long delayed and watered down.”
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has called for the bill to be strengthened with an independent body to promote and protect children’s safety.
While the government accepted the need to act on the IICSA recommendations, it is not the same as “accepting the recommendations or as setting out what action she is actually going to take,” Cooper told the home secretary.
Asked by Labour MP Sarah Champion about the funding for the announced steps, Braverman said the government needs to decide what form the redress will take and how it can be delivered.
The home secretary announced the launch of a 12-week call for evidence in line with the government’s commitment to introduce a mandatory duty for those working with children in England to report child sexual abuse.
The government pledged to oversee the delivery of its commitments through a newly established Child Protection Ministerial Group, which will embed scrutiny from victims, survivors, and wider partners.
The IICSA was established in 2015 to investigate the extent to which state and non-state institutions across England and Wales have failed in their duty of care to protect and safeguard children from sexual exploitation and abuse.
