My Lords, in moving Amendment 111 I will speak to the related Amendment 112. Here, we are being asked to amend the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to import some definitions into it. This presents some problems, to my way of thinking. We are dealing with “Positions of trust” and people who abuse those positions, using them to abuse, exploit or manipulate young people to consent to sex. The clauses before us in this Bill refer to someone who
“coaches, teaches, trains, supervises … on a regular basis, in a sport or a religion”.
That immediately prompts the question: why are other activities involving coaching or training on a close one-to-one basis not listed in the way that sport and religion are?
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I am probably happy to remain with the definition of positions of trust which is made by the courts and the public at large, rather than one which names
particular instances, because I think we all understand what a position of trust is and what the abuse of it is. I recognise, however, that there is a potential gap in the law—which I will come to again in a moment—in cases involving the age group we are talking about, where it can be argued and perhaps even accepted by the victim that there was consent. When we are considering people in positions of trust which they might abuse to engineer sex with a person in this age group, it seems fairly obvious that sport and religion are not the only areas in which that situation will arise. There is music—the violin, piano or guitar teacher explaining to someone precisely how their fingering should be done and how to hold the instrument. There is ballet and dramas.
I must draw the Committee’s attention to a recent case—which, I make clear, was dealt with under existing law—involving a ballet instructor who was a principal dancer at the English National Ballet and who was jailed for nine years
“after leaving four students ‘haunted and humiliated’ when he used his ‘fame and prestige’ to sexually assault them.”
This is precisely what the Bill is trying to address, but it was dealt with under existing law as assault. The victims concerned were
“aged between 16 and 19 at the time, at the English National Ballet and Young Dancers Academy, in west London, where a dance studio was named after”
the person who carried out these assaults.
Ministers may say that other activities can be added by regulation to this legislation. There are regulatory powers included in the Bill. But it makes me wonder what would trigger such a statutory instrument, what criteria would be used by the Government and what evidence they would require to believe that they had to add these other areas, which they have not thought it necessary to include in the Bill. We are dealing, of course, with sexual activity which may otherwise be legal, in that it involves 16 and 17-year-olds and may have been on the basis of consent.
The Ministry of Justice had a review in 2019 and found strong evidence for extending the law to include those individuals who had influence or authority over 16 and 17-year-olds by virtue of the roles and activities they undertake within a sport or religious setting. But the review dealt only with abuse in sport or religion and took evidence or consulted on the basis of only those activities, even though the same situation can arise in individual music teaching, ballet teaching, or rehearsing and training in drama. All of those engaged in all such activities operate in a position of trust which can be abused. So, where is the difference? Ministers may argue that they can attend to these other areas later, but what happens if we get cases in the meantime where there is not available to the prosecution what would be available to them in cases involving sport or religion? I do not understand the logic of that, but I am sure the Minister will explain it to me. He may still have to do quite a bit to convince me we can separate out sport and religion without looking at these other areas.