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Safeguarding Children (Sexual Exploitation)

I congratulate the hon. Member for Totnes (Mr. Steen) on securing the debate. He has considerable experience and knowledge of trafficking and has used it to great effect. Many significant points have been made and the new Minister has many questions to answer. I welcome her to her new position officially. We have exchanged a few amicable words across the Floor of the House, but have not yet engaged in debate. This debate has highlighted how important it is for the Minister for Children to bring Departments together. We have discussed a number of issues that in the past may have been fobbed off as the responsibility of the Home Office. However, now that we have a Minister for Children, that should not be the case. On that basis, I anticipate that we will receive answers to all our questions. The hon. Gentleman gave some statistics, which are always a great wake-up call. They were not pessimistic enough to suggest that our society is broken, but did show that it has many worrying and upsetting traits. He rightly drew our attention to this country's child abuse statistics, which remind us that child protection should be at the top of every citizen's agenda. We must be aware of what is going on. In my brief contribution, I will look at the wider issue of exploitation, as well as at trafficking. The issue is important in relation to the new Government publication, "Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation". I was pleased to work on the parliamentary panel on safeguarding children and young people who run away or go missing from home or care. An enormous number of children—140,000— run away each year. Fortunately, most of them return safely, but about 10,000 encounter harm or danger, which can involve sexual exploitation. Homeless children, regular absentees from education, those who are not receiving a suitable education and those in pupil referral units are vulnerable. A large proportion of runaways are children in care. A wide breadth of issues make children vulnerable.