Source: UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC) published on this website Monday 3 March 2025 by Jill Powell

The UK Safer Internet Centre (UKSIC) has published a draft of its ‘appropriate’ filtering and monitoring definitions for 2025 for public consultation. The definitions help both schools and providers understand what is considered ‘appropriate’ and comments are invited regarding this years proposed revisions.

Alongside the DfE’s introduction of statutory guidanceand Prevent Duty obligations, UKSIC first published its filtering and monitoring definitions in 2016 to help both schools and providers understand what should be considered as ‘appropriate’.  

Included here are final proposed revisions alongside a version that tracks the changes compared to 2024 with a summary of the substantive changes, both for Filtering and Monitoring

Source: Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published on this website Thursday 27 February 2025 by Jill Powell

Six people who exploited Vietnamese workers who had been smuggled into the UK for forced labour on cannabis farms have been convicted

Mai Van Nguyen, 35, Duong Dinh, 38, Nghĩa Dinh Tran, 30,  Shamraiz Akhtar, 54, Tasawar Hussain, 54, and Amjad Nawaz, 43, were found guilty of conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the travel of people with a view to forcing them to work in exploitative conditions on cannabis farms and of a conspiracy to produce cannabis between 1 June 2020 and 18 August 2022 at Birmingham Crown Court.

A long and detailed investigation by the National Crime Agency supported by the Crown Prosecution Service discovered that the defendants arranged for victims, people who had been smuggled illegally into the UK, to be trafficked around the UK to work in cannabis farms.  The defendants conspired together to move the victims, equipment, and cannabis around the UK.  The victims were held in conditions of modern slavery where their movements were controlled.  The Prosecution case showed that all of the defendants were involved in conspiracy to produce cannabis on a large scale.

Lauren Doshi of the Crown Prosecution Service said:  

“These defendants make use of vulnerable people who are driven by poverty to seek to work illegally in the UK.  They were forced to involve themselves in the production of cannabis in order to repay debts incurred in Vietnam as well as the cost of their travel to the UK. They were forced to live in squalid conditions with threats made to their lives and those of their families should they fail to comply with the conspirators demands. The CPS is continuing to work with law enforcement partners to discourage, disrupt and dismantle this exploitative trade through prosecutions and cross-border collaboration.”

Source: Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published on this website Friday 28 February 2025 by Jill Powell

A former Olympic swimmer and trainee police officer, who represented Great Britain at the 2012 London Games, has been jailed at Plymouth Crown Court for raping two teenage girls. He has also been placed on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life.

Antony James, 35, was today sentenced to a total of 21 years. He was convicted by a jury in October 2024 of eight charges, including three counts of rape, three of sexual activity with a child, and two counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity. James had denied the offences, but pleaded guilty to six counts of making indecent images of a child, including four videos and seven photos of the most serious category A.

James was a student officer with Devon and Cornwall Police at the time of his arrest.

Gemma Kneebone from the Crown Prosecution Service said:

“Antony James is a serial liar and manipulator who used his position as a respected swimmer and coach to control his young victims and fulfil his own sexual desires. He now faces a substantial jail sentence as a result of his appalling behaviour.

“The young women who came forward to give evidence showed tremendous courage, and this prosecution would not have been possible without their support.

“The Crown Prosecution Service is committed to securing justice for the victims of rape and sexual abuse and we will prosecute those who commit these appalling crimes to the full extent of the law.”

Source: His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) published on this website Wednesday 26 February 2025 by Jill Powell

The Metropolitan Police Service has made positive progress in how it tackles the sexual and criminal exploitation of children, but more improvements are required, the police inspectorate has said.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said that through a renewed focus on child exploitation, its links to missing children and the language officers and staff use, the service has made improvements since its previous inspection.

These improvements include:

• how it assesses and investigates the risk to missing children and crimes involving exploited children.
• its supervision of cases, making sure the child is the focus of investigations and better communication with child victims.
• ensuring its audit processes identify victim-blaming language and increased activity to help eradicate it; and
• better oversight arrangements for its response to missing children and use of innovative techniques to help find them more quickly.

However, HMICFRS said that the service still has more work to do to improve further in these areas and to provide a consistently good service.

For example, inspectors described several examples where cases of missing children were graded incorrectly. In some cases, the service didn’t do enough, or act quickly enough, to find children. The inspectorate also said that there were too many missed opportunities to follow lines of enquiry to trace offenders.

HMICFRS found that the service still has problems in complying with the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime and rarely carries out initial victim needs assessments. This can have a negative effect on the service a victim receives throughout the criminal justice system.

Constabulary Lee Freeman said:His Majesty’s Inspector of said:

“Children who go missing from home, or are at risk of exploitation, are some of the most vulnerable in society. Public services including the police have a shared responsibility to look for the warning signs, be alert to the risks and act quickly to protect children. But when we inspected the Metropolitan Police Service in 2023, it wasn’t doing enough when children were suffering from, or at risk of, exploitation. We issued three causes of concern.

“I am therefore pleased to report that the senior leadership response to the issues we raised has been positive, and we have closed the causes of concern. The decision by His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, Sir Andy Cooke, to return the service to our default phase of monitoring, was supported by these closures.

“The service’s children’s strategy now sets out the commissioner’s ambition to adopt a ‘child first’ approach. This aims to make sure officers and staff recognise that children are different to adults and should be treated differently because they have different needs and vulnerabilities. However, the service still has more work to do to improve further and to provide a consistently good service. We will continue to closely monitor its progress.”

Get the report The Metropolitan Police Service’s handling of the sexual and criminal exploitation of children: Causes of concern – revisit