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For anyone nostalgic for the comfortable conventions, restrictive attitudes and social framework of the 1950s, the Sexual Offences Act 1956 makes salutary reading.

So in general, the government's new proposals to modernise the way in which sex offences are defined, policed and punished, announced by the home secretary last week, are welcome.

In particular, measures to protect vulnerable adults, to put the blame for child prostitution where it belongs, and to shift the onus of proving consent onto defendants in rape cases are signs of a shift in attitudes that has been hard won by years of campaigning.


There is still room for improvement. The new offence of sexual activity between minors could, in combination with the Sex Offenders Act 1997, lead to children being inappropriately placed on the Sex Offenders' Register with their needs overlooked. The scope of the offence of "breach of a relationship of care" should be widened. And some concepts - "sexual grooming" and "capacity to consent" in particular - will need detailed guidelines.

But the government is to be congratulated on listening to the experts - as long as it listens some more before the proposals get onto the statute books. At least the Home Office has shown that it sees child protection as a top priority.


Or does it? The National Policing Plan, published in the same week, almost ignores child protection. In fact vulnerable children only appear in their more familiar guise as perpetrators of antisocial behaviour.

A cynic might suspect that the government is more anxious to be seen to address the public fear of predatory paedophiles than to ensure resources go into tackling the everyday reality of child abuse.

Even a non-cynic must accept that a raft of new offences - and even funding for each police force to develop a child protection strategy - will not achieve much without the level of resourcing that only the real priorities attract.