Overview
- Ministers have tabled amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill to disregard and pardon loitering and soliciting convictions or cautions received under 18.
- Disregards and pardons will apply automatically after Royal Assent and commencement, so survivors will not need to apply.
- The Home Office expects hundreds to benefit, addressing prosecutions from before the 2015 removal of the ‘child prostitution’ term from statute.
- Survivor advocates welcomed the move, with Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips calling it a step to correct past failures and NAPAC citing validation for victims.
- Alongside the change, the Ministry of Justice will require platforms to detect and remove pornographic content involving strangulation or suffocation, with Ofcom enforcement, while the separate national inquiry effort has stalled after chair withdrawals and liaison panel resignations.