Sex crimes against under-16s rocket to 62,000 a year in England and Wales

National Audit Office warns of ‘significant gaps’ in government response to serious and organised crime

Authorities focusing on arresting offenders rather than preventing crime, report says (Getty)

Sexual crimes committed against under-16s in England and Wales have rocketed to almost 62,000 in a year, a report has revealed.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said the figure had increased by 9 per cent on 2017 to 61,646 last year, as the “human cost” of serious and organised crime is laid bare.

The body found that the government was “flying blind” while trying to tackle groups who groom and blackmail children into sexual acts, upload indecent images online, physically abuse children and sexually exploit victims abroad.

Meg Hillier, chair of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, said there were “significant gaps” in British authorities’ understanding of the complexity and scale of abuse.

“The cost of serious and organised crime is huge [but] the human cost is far higher: criminal gangs target and prey upon the most vulnerable in our society for the purposes of child sexual exploitation and abuse, modern slavery, human trafficking and organised immigration crime,” she said.

“It is disgraceful that the Home Office and the National Crime Agency are effectively flying blind as neither have any idea whether their efforts are working or not, or genuinely alleviating the misery and suffering of those who they should be protecting.”

The NAO found “significant shortcomings” in the government’s bid to tackle serious and organised crime, which also includes money laundering, fraud, corruption, cybercrime, illegal firearms and drugs. When combined, the threats kill more people every year than terrorism in the UK and cost the national economy an estimated £37bn every year.

The NAO report said more than 4,500 organised crime groups are operating in the UK in “changing and unpredictable ways”, often using violence and intimidation and working with international networks. The use of modern slavery and human trafficking is believed to be increasing, with the number of potential victims identified increasing by a third in 2018.

Louise Haigh MP, Labour’s shadow policing minister, said: “Serious and organised crime is the most deadly security threat facing the UK, yet the government response is haphazard, under-resourced and fragmented. This report suggests ministers aren’t just failing to tackle serious crime, they barely understand it. This toxic combination of cuts, carelessness and incompetence is hampering the fight against serious crime.”

The government estimated it spent £2.9bn on tackling serious and organised crime in 2015-16, but the NAO criticised officials for spending 79 per cent of the budget on pursuing offenders and just 4 per cent on preventing the crime in the first place. The NAO said a new strategy unveiled in 2018 aimed to improve the response after a Home Office review, but there was no “well-evidenced justification” of the approach or an estimate of how much it will cost.

The NAO found that the government does not have enough data on serious and organised crime, causing a “weak understanding of the scale” of some areas and insufficient knowledge of international markets. Authorities measure how many crimes are disrupted through arrests or other action, but the NAO said that because the wider impact is not assessed the “government does not know if its efforts are working”.

The National Audit Office said the involvement of more than 100 agencies and groups in tackling serious and organised crime “cluttered” the picture and made strategies difficult to implement. Funding for efforts was “uncertain and insufficient”, coming from numerous sources including government departments and local police and crime commissioners. The NAO called for the Home Office to properly measure the impact of law enforcement efforts on serious and organised crime, tackle the underlying causes and “avoid wasting resources through the duplication of capabilities”.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said today: “The government faces an immense challenge in fighting this complex, evolving threat. While it has made efforts to step up its response, there is more the government could do to make its aspirations a reality. To deliver its new strategy, the government needs to better match resources to its priorities, improve its understanding of these crimes and ensure governance and funding fit with its ambitious plans.”

Chief Constable Peter Goodman, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for serious and organised crime, said “significant investment” was needed. “Police see the impact of this on communities across the UK on a daily basis and we are committed to dealing with it and the violence that results from it,” he said. “We are increasingly working with other law enforcement agencies and the government to respond in a coordinated and cohesive way.”

Lynne Owens, director-general of the National Crime Agency (NCA), said: “Demand on the NCA is already high and continues to grow. However, there has never been a dedicated funding stream for serious and organised crime, and I welcome the NAO’s recognition that substantial improvements to funding arrangements are needed.”

The Home Office said it would consider the NAO’s recommendations. “This government is committed to tackling serious and organised crime, and our strategy sets out how we will mobilise the full force of the state to target and disrupt it,” a spokesperson said. “As criminals’ use of technology evolves, so must our response. We continue to invest in the right capabilities and tools in law enforcement, across government and in partnership with the private sector.”