Government amendments to Crime and Policing Bill would require same police notification requirements as for registered sex offenders.
Those convicted of child cruelty offences such as neglect, abandonment, genital mutilation and infanticide will face new penalties, under proposed changes to the law put forward by the government.
Photo by Tadeusz Lakota / Unsplash
The changes include being more closely monitored by police and will face similar restrictions as registered sex offenders. That could include having to inform police if they move house, change their identities, travel abroad or start living with children again.
These changes aim to reduce the chances of reoffending and provide better protection to children, and follows a widely publicised campaign to establish such a register. Among the campaigners was including Paula Hudgell, adoptive mother of Tony Hudgell who became a double amputee following severe neglect by his birth parents.
The government is also bringing in other non-legislative measures to protect children. That includes promoting the effective use of civil orders, strengthening the oversight of multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA), ensuring consistent identification of high‑risk cases, and putting on a statutory basis the disclosure of child sex offenders.
Jess Phillips, MP, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, said: ‘It is unforgivable that someone who is supposed to take care of a child would hurt them instead. We’ve listened to the Hudgells, and to the many families who feel the system hasn’t done enough to protect some of the most vulnerable people in society, and we are taking vital action. Whether it be online, on the streets, in schools, or from their own caregivers – children are being kept safer under this government.’
Jake Richards MP, Sentencing Minister, adds: ‘Child abusers do not deserve shielding; children do. The Child Cruelty Register will ensure these offenders are visible to the police, allowing authorities to see and act when risks arise. I thank Paula Hudgell for her remarkable fight to ensure no child should go through the life-altering abuse that her son Tony did.’
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