Rotherham MP welcomes new taxi laws to prevent CSE
Rotherham's MP says new tighter laws on taxi licencing will help the rest of the country learn from the town's grooming scandal.
Rotherham's MP says new tighter laws on taxi licencing will help the rest of the country learn from the town's grooming scandal.
More cameras in taxis and restrictions on who can get a licence were among controversial measures Rotherham Council introduced in the wake of the abuse.
The ideas could now be rolled out to the rest of the country after Parliament passed an amendment to the Policing Bill last night.
Rotherham MP Sarah Champion, who's been campaigning for the change, told Hallam it's a step in the right direction:
"I'm absolutely delighted and relieved that the government have listened to common sense, have listened to the experience survivors of child sexual exploitation, particularly those from Rotherham and put in some new protections for victims but also for taxi drivers around preventing abuse. We've been fighting very hard for this."
"It's been a long and ongoing fight to try and get the government to take seriously the risks that particularly young people face around child sexual exploitation. We're hoping that this is a step in the right direction, that they're going to learn from the experience of victims and really make sure every child, every young person is safe."
When the original changes were brought in by Rotherham Council last year there were demonstrations by taxi drivers who claimed they were being made scapegoats for the grooming scandal.
But Sarah Champion MP claims they were a success in preventing child sexual exploitation and the rest of the country can learn from them.
She says she doesn't want any other area to go through what Rotherham did:
"What we wanted to do is make sure people learned from the horrors that happened in Rotherham - and put that into changes that mean that everybody - whether that's young people, people with learning difficulties, older people - feels safe wherever they are. But it's also about making sure that taxi drivers have the skills and experience so if they see abuse they can do something about it and report it swiftly."
The amendment passed last night doesn't mean the exact measures brought in in Rotherham will be introduced around the country – but it’s a commitment from the government to tighten the taxi licencing laws to help prevent child sexual exploitation.
Sarah says it shows the government are starting to take the issue seriously - but that she'll continue the fight to prevent child abuse on the scale of Rotherham:
"The frustration for me is we focus on how to deal with the crime once it's occurred but the legislation win we've got shows that if we focus on prevention that's the best way to go. So I'm going to be pushing forward more and more ways to prevent child abuse, to prevent child sexual exploitation."