Crime and Policing Bill

The Crime and Policing Bill has been laid before Parliament. It includes provisions to introduce: new offences of child criminal exploitation and cuckooing (where a vulnerable person’s home is used by others to commit criminal activity). It aims to update the legislation around child sexual abuse material by introducing: new offences around using or promoting the use of AI to generate child sexual abuse material and moderating or administering websites that host child sexual abuse material; and a new power for Border Force officers, where reasonably suspected, to search the digital devices of individuals arriving in the UK for child sexual abuse material. It introduces a new statutory aggravating factor of grooming applicable in sentences around child sexual abuse offences, and updates the legislation around child abduction by a person connected with the child, where the child is taken out of the UK.

The Bill introduces a new statutory duty for individuals undertaking key roles with responsibility for children and young people in England to report sexual abuse when they are made aware of it, alongside a new criminal offence of attempting to prevent someone reporting child sexual abuse. The Bill provides for a limited number of exceptions to the duty to report, which include those providing specified services (to be set out in regulations) that relate to the safety or wellbeing of children and where confidentiality is in the best interests of children. The Bill also proposes that adults working in regulated activity under supervision will be eligible for enhanced DBS checks.

Different parts of the Bill apply to different parts of the UK.

Find out more: Crime and Policing Bill 2025  

View the Bill: Crime and Policing Bill