Rupa Huq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rupa Huq on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health on the potential merits of the Children’s House model for children who are victims of abuse.

Mike Penning

This government has made tackling child abuse a priority. We set up the first ever cross-government Child Protection Taskforce to overhaul the way police, schools, social services and others work together in tackling this abhorrent crime. We have also invested an extra £100m to support vulnerable children and we are providing £7m for services supporting child abuse survivors.

We have not had any ministerial discussions about the Children’s House model, but more widely the Government is committed to improving the experience of child witnesses in the criminal justice system. We have increased the number of intermediaries to support them to give their best evidence. In addition, vulnerable witnesses can give evidence away from the courtroom and away from the court building at remote sites set up nationally in each criminal justice region.