Parents and caregivers convicted of seriously harming children will face tougher, long-term monitoring under a new child cruelty register announced by the government.
The new register will require offenders convicted of some of the most serious child cruelty offences to notify police of key changes in their circumstances, in a similar way to registered sex offenders.
Those placed on the register could be required to tell police if they move home, change their name, travel abroad or begin living with children again after completing their sentence.
The register will cover offences including causing or allowing the death or serious physical harm of a child, child cruelty, neglect or abandonment, female genital mutilation offences involving children, and infanticide.
The move follows campaigning by Paula Hudgell, the adoptive mother of Tony Hudgell, who lost both legs after suffering severe abuse and neglect by his birth parents.
The government has tabled amendments to the Crime and Policing Bill to establish the register, which will work similarly to the sex offenders register.
Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips MP said: “It is unforgivable that someone who is supposed to take care of a child would hurt them instead.
“We’ve listened to the Hudgells, and to the many families who feel the system hasn’t done enough to protect some of the most vulnerable people in society, and we are taking vital action.
“Whether it be online, on the streets, in schools, or from their own caregivers – children are being kept safer under this government.”
Alongside the new register, the government says it will introduce further measures aimed at improving the protection of children.
These include encouraging greater use of civil orders, strengthening Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), improving the identification of high-risk cases and placing police child sex offender disclosure schemes on a statutory footing.
The government said the register and accompanying measures would improve police oversight of adults who have harmed children in their care and provide safeguarding agencies with better information to prevent further offending.
Sentencing Minister Jake Richards MP said: “Child abusers do not deserve shielding; children do. The Child Cruelty Register will ensure these offenders are visible to the police, allowing authorities to see and act when risks arise.
“I thank Paula Hudgell for her remarkable fight to ensure no child should go through the life-altering abuse that her son Tony did.”
