Barnardo's Scotland, Cut Them Free, Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation in Scotland

The motion

That the Parliament notes that Anne-Marie Carrie, Barnardo’s UK chief executive, has described child sexual exploitation (CSE) as the United Kingdom’s biggest hidden child protection problem; notes that services working with sexually exploited young people in Scotland have reported that the exploitation of children is becoming more organised and increasingly taking place via social media; understands that no current research exists on the full extent and scope of CSE across Scotland and that the current Scottish guidelines on CSE date from 2003 and do not cover recent online and social media developments; welcomes Barnardo's ongoing campaign to tackle CSE; praises the work of Dundee FACE and Glasgow Safer Choices services in supporting children and young people affected by CSE; acknowledges their petition to the Parliament calling for research to be commissioned by the Scottish Government to ascertain the full scale of the problem in Scotland, as well as calling for guidelines to be updated, and believes that CSE is not a problem confined to one social or ethnic group or one geographic area and that all agencies, whether statutory or voluntary, must work together to stop the sexual exploitation of children in Scotland.

No recorded vote on this motion. Most motions are never debated, and many that are debated are agreed without a division. Vote records are published from 2011.

SNP 27 Lab 12 Con 10 Green 2 LD 2

Party shown is each supporter’s party when the motion was published.

No contribution in the Official Report cites S4M-00450 by reference.