www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmhaff/uc617-i/uc61701.htm
Q38 Bridget Phillipson: We heard earlier from the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire on the cases in Rotherham around child sex abuse. What would you anticipate for the agency in not simply dealing with individual cases, or collections of cases, as we have seen in Rotherham, but in assisting police forces in coming to recognise how you might deal with that kind of organised exploitation of children?
Keith Bristow: CEOP will become a command within the NCA, and it will therefore be connected to the wider law enforcement resources that we have within the NCA, and then out into policing through the national tasking and co-ordinating arrangement. We are positioning CEOP in a particular way where they have access to those resources. I want to build on the very good work that CEOP has done around exploitation, whether that is within local communities in the way that you have described or it is online. I think there is real expertise, there is real understanding, and there is absolutely proper law enforcement response that we can bring to support local forces and agencies.
Q39 Nicola Blackwood: We have had some reassuring evidence from Trevor Pearce from SOCA and from Peter Davies that, despite initial concerns, they are confident that CEOP will retain its special character and independence within the NCA, but obviously there are going to be pressures on resources, and when you are faced with the need to prioritise between child exploitation, drugs and terror, how confident are you that you will still be able to protect CEOP in that context?
Keith Bristow: Inevitably, in all public services, and NCA will not be any different, we would like to do more, and sometimes we will be required to make difficult choices. To be clear, child exploitation is about as horrible as crime can be. I am very clear how important it is that we put the right level of resource into tackling those particular threats, and we work well with a wide range of partners, not just law enforcement. You and I both know-NSPCC, private sector partners-it is very, very important. I am confident, as is Peter Davies, who has been appointed into a role in the NCA, that we can improve what CEOP operate to do at the moment, rather than erode any of the important work that they do.
Q40 Nicola Blackwood: As I understand it, there is a new duty to have regard to child protection in the NCA, which was not in existence before in SOCA or any other agency. Do you think that this will help in terms of joint working between CEOP and the other parts of the NCA, so perhaps joint operations will be more effective?
Keith Bristow: I have never found any problem whatsoever engaging police officers and law enforcement officers in tackling child exploitation, but I think it is very important the whole agency has a duty in law to ensure we have regard to the needs of children. That is more than presentational; that is an important part of us thinking through all of our policy decisions. We must have the interests of children at the forefront of our minds.
Q41 Nicola Blackwood: If you have not ever had any problems in engaging officers in child exploitation, then why have there been so few prosecutions in child sexual exploitation cases up until this point? Why has this, over the last year, become such a scandal nationally?
Keith Bristow: The point that I am making is that you don?t need to work hard for police officers and law enforcement officers to understand that children are some of the most vulnerable people in our society and need particular care and protection. There is a lot of work going on at the moment that I know that you will be aware of, to understand some of these particular cases and to understand that law enforcement and others could have done more, so I will wait to see what comes from those scrutinies of what has happened, and we will go from there.
Q42 Nicola Blackwood: You do accept that it is important that the lessons of the appalling cases which are coming to light do need to be learned, and that there is better working that can come out at the end of it, so that we don?t have a repeat of some of these cases in future, because some of them do engage organised crime at different levels? I think that it would be something that certainly CEOP would provide, and NCA would hopefully be playing a significant role in, going forward.
Keith Bristow: I absolutely accept the importance of learning lessons, and I know that Peter Davies is giving evidence before you in a couple of weeks, and I know that he believes that too. Peter is a very strong advocate within our team for the needs of children and the importance of tackling exploitation.