A coalition of nearly 90 organisations has written to the prime minister calling for “decisive action” on violence against women and girls after a Guardian investigation revealed the scale of child-on-child sexual abuse in schools in England and Wales. The groups urged Labour to redouble efforts to deliver on its manifesto promise to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) and “end this cycle of harm once and for all”. Guardian analysis of police data for 2021-25 found that an average of close to five sexual crimes against children aged 12 and younger were recorded by police every day in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales.
The figures include reports of almost 2,000 rapes and attempted rapes, which equates to police receiving an average of one allegation of rape at a school every day. More than a third of the rape victims were children under 13. It also showed at least 8,500 sexual offences against under-13s were recorded by police as having occurred on school premises or nearby between 2021-25, equivalent to 4.7 reported offences a day.
While most of the police reports did not specify the age of the alleged perpetrator, lawyers and experts say they are likely to be fellow pupils. Most of the victims were girls. The letter to the prime minister said: “The publication of this data once again shines a light on the harrowing reality of sexual violence in education and among young people.
And this doesn’t even account for child sexual abuse in the home, which represents the majority of cases. Lawyers and campaigners condemned the “horrifying” scale of child-on-child sexual abuse revealed in the Guardian’s research. The letter to Burnham has been signed by 87 academics and campaign organisations working in the field, including the End Violence Against Women Coalition, Rape Crisis, Women’s Aid, Refuge, the National Education Union and Everyone’s Invited.
No child should ever feel unsafe at school, and we are totally clear that every school must take incredibly seriously its legal duty to act on sexual violence and harassment.” They said the education secretary, Lucy Powell, had set out a new whole-school approach to tackle misogyny head-on in the last month.
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