John Hemming – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Hemming on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to tackle offences of child abuse on St Helena.

Mark Simmonds

Territory Governments have the principal responsibility for ensure the safeguarding of children in the Overseas Territories, for which the UK provides practical assistance and support. DFID and the FCO have been supporting child safeguarding initiatives in the OT’s for the last nine years, most recently through the Safeguarding Children in the Overseas Territories (SCOT) programme (2013-2016), which followed on from an earlier SCOT programme (2009-2013) and a regional Child Protection Programme (CPP, 2005-2008). Although tangible progress was made in earlier programmes to raise awareness and build capacity, the new programme will focus on gaining a deeper understanding of the problem including how to detect, prevent and address child abuse.

In St Helena, the SCOT programme has helped encourage revised and updated legislation to protect children, established professional protocols and procedures for those involved in child services, improved the provision of training for St Helena officials, and helped to promote local ownership of the safeguarding agenda. Support has been provided to St Helena through a Lucy Faithfull Foundation review (2013) and technical expertise to take forward a robust child safeguarding action plan arising from review recommendations.

The FCO and DFID have been working closely with the UK police who have investigated reports into child sex abuse of St Helena and continue to do so.