Response from the British Government

BY: MAHAVIDYA DAS (ACBSP)

Jul 08, 2016 — UK (SUN) —

Yesterday I received a reply from the British Government Home Office regarding a previous letter sent to the UK Prime Minister, Mr. David Cameron.

I think this response speaks for itself. I do believe there is a contact address for those wishing to take this matter further, at www.Krishnachildren.com.

Home Office
Direct Communications Unit
2 Marsham Street
London
SW14DF

Dear Mr Powell

Thank you for your letter of 17 June 2016 about child sexual abuse. I do hope you will understand that, due to the pressure on his time, the Prime Minister cannot answer all correspondence personally and therefore, your letter has been passed on to the Safeguarding Unit of the Home Office for a reply.

Child sexual abuse is a despicable crime and the Government is committed to keeping children and young people safe from all forms of abuse. We are clear that if child abuse takes place it must be thoroughly investigated and those responsible brought to justice.

In the past these horrific crimes were not always given the priority that they should have had, but now child sexual abuse is rightly centre stage as an issue we must tackle.

The Government is taking a wide range of actions to tackle child sexual abuse, including measures set out in the "Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation" report, which the Prime Minister launched in March 2015.

The full report can be viewed at: www.gov.UK/government/publications/tackling-child-sexual-exploitation--2

I am pleased to say that the Government has made good progress in taking forward the actions set out in this report. We are however aware that there is still a long way to go and we do not underestimate the challenges ahead.

The Home Secretary has established a statutory Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, chaired by the Hon Dame Lowell Goddard. The Inquiry, which is independent of government, the police and the courts, is considering the extent to which public bodies and non-state institutions have taken seriously their duty to protect children from sexual abuse in England and Wales.

I should clarify that the Home Office has a protocol agreement in place with the police which sets out that all information disclosed to us - relating to child sexual abuse will be passed to a central point in the police. This is to ensure that the police have all the information available to them for the purpose of their investigations.

For this reason, the Safeguarding Unit has referred the contents of your letter to Operation Hydrant for further investigation. Operation Hydrant is the national policing response to the oversight and co-ordination of all child abuse investigations concerning persons of public prominence, or those offences which took place in the past or in institutional settings. Operation Hydrant is overseen by the National Policing Lead for Child Protection and Abuse Investigations.

Whilst I do appreciate your concerns, Government Ministers and Home Office officials have no jurisdiction to intervene in individual cases or operational policing matters.

I hope this clarifies the situation and would like to thank you for writing to the Home Office about this very important issue.

Your sincerely

Safeguarding Unit.