What steps she is taking to prevent people who have committed sexual offences from obtaining parental responsibility or contact orders for children conceived as a result of their crimes; and whether she plans to introduce amendments to the Children Act to close this loophole.
The Government has included a measure in the Victim and Courts Bill which will restrict the exercise of an offender’s parental responsibility where they are sentenced to four or more years imprisonment for a serious child sexual abuse offence against a child for whom they hold parental responsibility. Given these changes are untested, the Government has chosen to focus on the cases involving the highest degree of direct risk to children first.However, the Government recognises the discussions around the appropriate scope of the measure, including whether to extend it to offenders convicted of rape where a child has been conceived as a result. We are looking at this closely and will continue to work across Parliament as the Bill progresses.The welfare of a child must be the court’s paramount consideration when making decisions about that child’s life. Courts already have powers under the Children Act 1989 to restrict the exercise of parental responsibility and to control who the child should live or spend time with, if it is in the child’s best interest to do so. When considering arrangements to be made for a child, including the extent to which parental responsibility should be exercisable and who exactly the child should live or spent time with, the court must have particular regard to a list of welfare factors, including any harm the child has suffered or is at risk of suffering.