Former IICSA chair criticises weaponisation of child sex abuse

The former chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has criticised the recent “weaponisation” of child sexual abuse, as she told of her relief at news her report’s recommendations will finally be implemented.

Professor Alexis Jay led the multimillion-pound long-running inquiry, which published its final report in October 2022.

She said what followed was almost two years of inaction by the former Conservative government, describing their official response to her recommendations in May 2023 under then-home secretary Suella Braverman as “awful”.

Appearing before the Home Affairs Committee, Prof Jay said the written response to the 20 recommendations – which followed the seven-year inquiry – had been “inconsequential, insubstantial, committed to nothing”.

Frustrated at the lack of action, Prof Jay wrote a letter, published in the Times newspaper, describing the response to her inquiry as “weak” and “apparently disingenuous”.

Prof Jay told MPs she had then been contacted while on holiday and had an “adversarial” conversation with a special adviser who “came on demanding to know why I had written to The Times and complaining”.

Following this, she said there had been “quite a long silence” from the Home Office until James Cleverly took over as Home Secretary in November 2023.

In her appearance before the committee on Tuesday, Prof Jay was asked about the previous years of inaction, followed by a commitment last week by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to lay out a clear timetable by Easter for implementing the IICSA recommendations.

There have been weeks of pressure on the current Government, including from the Conservative Opposition and billionaire X owner Elon Musk for a national inquiry into child grooming gangs.

The public and political conversation has also brought into focus the lack of implementation of IICSA recommendations under the previous Tory government.

Criticising what she branded the “weaponisation” of the issue, Prof Jay said she did not want to name those involved in the public argument so as not to give them “the oxygen of publicity”.

She told MPs: “I really felt very concerned at the weaponisation, if you like, of child sexual abuse that has gone on.

“I declined to make – and I won’t make – any comment about the various actors involved in that – I wouldn’t give them the oxygen of publicity.

“But just, it was such a relief (the news of a plan to implement recommendations), by whatever means – we wouldn’t have chosen it necessarily to have come about in this way – but we just need to get on with it.”

Prof Jay’s seven-year inquiry described child sexual abuse as an “epidemic” in England and Wales, finding institutional failings and tens of thousands of victims across the two nations.

The recommendations from the final report included the implementation of laws compelling people in positions of trust to report child sexual abuse and a national compensation scheme for victims.

Last week alongside the commitment on IICSA recommendations, Ms Cooper also announced an audit looking into the current scale and nature of “gang-based exploitation” across the country as well as local reviews into grooming in some areas.

Ms Cooper said local reviews would provide more answers and change than a nationwide probe, and that the audit of the current national situation would be completed within three months.

Published: 21/01/2025 by Radio NewsHub