Three relevant Bills have now received Royal Assent and have become Acts of Parliament
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill has now received Royal Assent and is now the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026.
This Act is to make provision about the safeguarding and welfare of children; about support for children in care or leaving care; about regulation of care workers; about regulation of establishments and agencies under Part 2 of the Care Standards Act 2000; about employment of children; about breakfast club provision and school uniform; about allergy safety in schools; about attendance of children at school; about regulation of independent educational institutions; about inspections of schools and colleges; about teacher misconduct; about Academies and teachers at Academies; repealing section 128 of the Education Act 2002; about school places and admissions; about establishing new schools; and for connected purposes.

The Victims and Court Bill has received Royal Assent and is now the Victims and Court Act 2026

This Act is to make provision about the experience of victims within the criminal justice system; about the functions of the Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses; and about procedure and the administration of criminal justice.
The Crime and Policing Bill has received Royal Assent and is now the Crime and Policing Act 2026

This Act is to make provision about anti-social behaviour, offensive weapons, offences against people (including sexual offences), property offences, the criminal exploitation of persons, sex offenders, stalking and public order; to make provision about powers of the police, the border force and other similar persons; to make provision about confiscation; to make provision about the police; to make provision about terrorism and national security, and about international agreements relating to crime; to make provision about the criminal liability of bodies; and for connected purposes.

Martyn's Law guidance published to help businesses
Major venues and events will be better equipped to protect the public from terrorism, as new guidance to support the implementation of Martyn’s Law was published on 15 April 2026.
The guidance sets out clear steps for businesses. This includes for smaller premises like shops and restaurants with 200-799 people, to ensure evacuation routes are in place, staff know how to swiftly implement a lockdown in their building, and staff know how to quickly communicate with their customers were an attack to occur.

Larger premises and events like concerts and sports stadiums, where 800 or more people will be present, will be required to take further steps to reduce their vulnerability to acts of terrorism – such as having CCTV, bag search policies, or vehicle checks where appropriate.

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 also known as Martyn’s Law, is named in tribute to Martyn Hett, one of the 22 victims of the horrific Manchester arena attack.

The act will come into effect after an implementation period of at least 24 months from Royal Assent, giving organisations time to understand their new obligations and prepare.

The major milestone comes as the threat from terrorism endures and evolves, with a rise in attacks from individuals who are not formally part of an existing terrorist group making it harder for the police to detect and investigate. Since the start of 2020, MI5 and the police have disrupted 19 late-stage attack plots and intervened in many hundreds of developing threats.

By providing practical advice and clear instructions to meet the requirements set out in the act, it empowers organisations to take proportionate steps to protect lives and improve emergency preparedness - helping to keep both staff and visitors safe across the UK.

Martyn's Law Factsheet

The Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza responds to findings from the first phase of the Southport inquiry
Dame Rachel de Souza’s response reads as:
“The findings from the inquiry into the terrible events in Southport in summer 2024 are a bleak reminder why the way children’s services work together is so crucial – failure can mean the death of an innocent child. In this case, it was three children: Bebe King, Alice da Silva Aguiar and Elsie Dot Stancombe, and it is their families I am thinking of today.

“Clear opportunities were missed to stop these three little girls being killed. Time and time again we have seen the real life consequences of services and professionals failing to take responsibility for these most complex groups of children like Axel Rudakubana: those with severe mental health conditions, those fixated on violence, or those who do not fit neatly into a category like counter-terror. I am working to understand these cases of children motivated by violence more deeply and what is needed to identify them sooner.

“Each failure like this is as devastating as the last, from the deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson in 2020, to Sara Sharif in 2023, to these murders. This inquiry must lead, finally, to the kind of change that I have called for throughout my time as Children’s Commissioner, where services are required to take responsibility, share information and work together to stop the most at-risk children becoming invisible.”

Ofcom and all Online Safety
1. Met considers AI to quickly identify child sexual abuse victims

AI would enable investigators to identify and safeguard victims more quickly, while significantly reducing the need for officers and staff to manually review deeply distressing material.

Monday 13 April 2026’s announcement came alongside a wider £10 million investment into spaces which will reduce trauma and improve outcomes for child victims.

The Met investigated over 5,400 child sexual abuse offences over the past year, requiring over 1300 children to be safeguarded for online child sexual abuse and exploitation (OCSAE) crimes, with online abuse being one of the fastest growing crime types.

Traditionally, officers may need to spend hours manually reviewing seized material to establish whether images or videos relate to known cases or indicate new, unidentified victims in need of urgent safeguarding. Images are then graded, across categories A, B, and C, with category A depicting the most severe abuse.

The Met is exploring how AI could assist by rapidly analysing large volumes of material to help flag content that may relate to previously unknown victims, enabling officers to prioritise cases, accelerate safeguarding action and focus human expertise where it is needed most. The force is in conversations with multiple companies about the tech and is testing how this could work across the force. This is in addition to another new technology, which allows officers to review and risk assess 641,000 messages in just 35 minutes.

OCSAE has increased by 25% year on year, with the Met currently managing over 12% of cases nationally. Identifying potential new victims earlier through AI could significantly shorten the time between detection and intervention, while also reducing the repeated exposure of officers and staff to traumatic content.

Any use of artificial intelligence would operate within strict legal, ethical and safeguarding frameworks, with specialist officers retaining decision making responsibility and human oversight central at every stage.

Alongside this, the Met is funding a £10 million programme to roll out new, victim dedicated Visual Recorded Interview (VRI) suites across London - designed to help children feel safe, supported and empowered when giving evidence during criminal investigations.

The new VRI suites reflect feedback from child victims, families and frontline officers and are designed to support children of all ages, including those who are disabled or neurodiverse. Attending a traditional police station can be intimidating and, for many children, traumatic, particularly where it marks their first interaction with police.

VRI recordings are taken during the early stages of an investigation and play a crucial role in informing lines of enquiry, supporting charging decisions and identifying safeguarding needs. In many cases, recordings are presented to juries during trial and evidence shows children give clearer, more accurate and more detailed accounts when they feel safe and supported.

The programme forms part of the Met’s wider Children’s Strategy, which embeds a ‘child first’ approach across policing. Other actions already delivered include training 23,000 officers and staff in trauma informed communication with children, expanding specialist child exploitation teams by 72 officers, and rolling out Local Missing Hubs across London.

2. Investigation into the provider of Telegram and its compliance with duties to protect users from illegal content under the Online Safety Act 2023
Ofcom are investigating whether the provider of Telegram, Telegram Messenger Inc. has failed, or is failing to comply with its illegal content safety duties under the Online Safety Act 2023 in respect of Child Sexual Abuse Material.

Part 3 of the Online Safety Act 2023 (‘the Act’) imposes illegal content safety duties (‘Illegal Content Duties’) on providers of regulated user to user (‘U2U’) services. In summary, these duties require providers to operate their services using proportionate systems and processes designed to:

• prevent individuals from encountering priority illegal content – including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) – by means of the service;
• effectively mitigate and manage the risk of the service being used to facilitate the commission of a priority offence, including offences around the sharing of CSAM; and,
• minimise the length of time for which any priority illegal content is present and swiftly take it down when they are made aware of its presence.

They have gathered evidence regarding the alleged presence and sharing of CSAM on Telegram, including from their own assessment of the platform, and from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.
Ofcom’s Online Safety Enforcement Guidance sets out how Ofcom will normally approach enforcement under the Act. This includes our approach to information gathering and analysis and the procedural steps Ofcom must take to fairly determine the outcome of the investigation.

Where Ofcom identify compliance failures, they can impose fines of up to £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue (whichever is greater). In the most serious cases of non-compliance, and where appropriate given risks of harm to individuals in the UK, they can seek a court order to require third parties to take action to disrupt the business of the provider. This may require third parties (such as providers of payment or advertising services, or Internet Service Providers) to withdraw services from, or block access to, a regulated service in the UK.

1. UK victims lost £2.4 million every day to investment fraud in 2025 - equivalent to £1,675 a minute, City of London Police reveal
Victims of investment fraud lost an average of £1,675 every minute last year, new figures from the City of London Police, the National Lead Force for Fraud, have revealed.
Criminals stole £879.8 million through investment fraud last year - an average of £2.4 million a day.

In 2025, 34,673 people reported investment fraud to Report Fraud, the national service that replaced Action Fraud in December 2025. This marks a 31 per cent rise on the previous year, with officers warning that fraudsters are taking advantage of economic uncertainty, volatile markets and increasingly convincing online platforms to lure in victims.

The rise in reporting is not only linked to an increase in investment fraud, but also due to the point at which victims realise what has happened. Reports began climbing steadily from March and spiked in July and September when many people review their investments, move money into new products or check their returns ahead of the new financial year.

For thousands of victims, it was only at that point that the truth became clear: the investment they were sold never existed. Losses averaged £25,612 per person, often representing pension savings or long term investments.

Investment fraud last year ranged from bogus online trading platforms to fake bond schemes, cryptocurrency opportunities and glossy social media adverts that appeared to feature well known public figures. Fraud reports have highlighted how criminals now deploy AI manipulated videos, deepfake endorsements and cloned websites to draw victims in, echoing patterns seen across the wider fraud landscape.

Another growing problem is so called “recovery fraud”, where criminals return to previous victims while posing as law enforcement, lawyers or specialist recovery firms. They promise to retrieve stolen money but instead charge upfront fees and disappear. Detectives describe this as one of the most cynical developments in the fraud world, as criminals effectively monetise a victim’s desperation a second time.

In parallel with these trends, officers have also observed a rise in so called “finfluencers” across social media - predominantly young male personalities who boast about making “easy money” on high risk trading platforms, particularly those linked to forex and rapid turnover investments.

Their content often glamorises quick wins, luxury lifestyles and aggressive self improvement narratives, themes recently explored in Louis Theroux’s documentary on the online ‘manosphere’. While not all of these personalities are involved in criminal activity, their posts can create a false sense of legitimacy around speculative trading and make inexperienced followers more vulnerable to opportunistic scammers who mimic the same language, style and promises.

As part of wider fraud prevention work, the City of London Police is urging the public to take simple steps to protect themselves.

• Before making any investment, use the FCA’s firm checker tool, to confirm whether a firm or individual is authorised. The tool can be accessed via the FCA website and is one of the most effective ways to avoid cloned firms and bogus advisers.
• We encourage anyone considering an investment to be cautious of unsolicited messages, adverts promising unusually high returns, or requests to keep the offer “confidential”.
• The City of London Police is reminding the public that any suspicious activity should be reported to Report Fraud as soon as possible at www.reportfraud.police.uk or by calling 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, victims of fraud and cybercrime should report to Police Scotland on 101.
• You can also contact the Financial Conduct Authority’s consumer helpline on 0800 111 6768 or report suspicious businesses or individuals by using the reporting form on their website

2. New practical advice for families to get children school ready
Families will now receive new support from 16 April 2026 to help children prepare for school, as the government rolls out a package of measures from primary school offer day through to the first day in September.
The move comes as over a third (37%) of children are starting school without the basic skills they need for the classroom, with teachers and charities finding many children arriving in Reception unable to use the toilet independently, communicate clearly or follow simple instructions.

As part of the government’s mission to get a record number of children school ready, the guidance published – on primary school offer day – will provide parents with a clear idea of what good support looks like from schools and early years settings to help their child transition into Reception.

For the first time, new guidance sets out how schools, nurseries, and childminders should work together as one system around families to get children ready for Reception – making clear that Offer Day is the starting gun for children beginning their school education.

It sets three key building blocks for a smooth start: strong relationships with families, close partnership working between schools, nurseries and childminders, and early identification of children’s needs, including SEND. It includes practical examples to follow, like home visits and stay and play sessions, giving families the opportunity to visit their new school, or for teachers to visit children in their early years setting.

This government is bringing together support from pregnancy through to starting school, including through the rollout of Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority, offering parenting advice, health services and help with children’s development, alongside the first ever guidance to help families manage screen time at home.

3. Met wins judicial review over use of Live Facial Recognition
The Met has won a judicial review into the use of Live Facial Recognition across London. The Court concluded that the Met’s policy complies with human rights law, recognising that it contains clear, precise and effective safeguards.

1. 'A dangerous man jailed': Child abuser behind bars
The Essex Police, Child Abuse Investigation Team has seen a Suffolk man jailed for abusing two girls in Essex over 16 years.
Stephen Harper, 60, of Stowmarket, was accused of assaulting two victims between 2008 and 2024 in the area of Stansted Mountfitchet.

Police officers have carried out an extensive, sensitive investigation since that abuse was reported to us in June 2024, working closely with the victims and their families to make sure they are supported and protected through this process.

Thanks to their statements and the case built by the teams’ investigators, the Crown Prosecution Service approved charges for Harper in September 2025.

He appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court on 13 January 2026 and has since pleaded guilty to nine counts; five of assaulting a girl under 13 by touching, and four of sexual assault.

He’s now been jailed for seven-and-a-half years, will be on the Sex Offenders Register for life, has been given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Please access support from the following Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs): England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

2. Vietnamese pair advertising small boats crossings on Facebook sentenced
Two Vietnamese nationals who advertised small boats people smuggling on Facebook have been sentenced following a major UK-French investigation.
Hoang My Tra Nguyen, 25, from Croydon and Hop Cahn Nguyen, 36, from Leicester were arrested by NCA officers in April 2024 after a five-month investigation.

Both had arrived in the UK by small boat in January and July 2023 respectively. Hoang and Hop controlled Facebook accounts, together with another male who is awaiting extradition to France, to advertise small boats crossings from France to the UK, targeting the Vietnamese community.

They would include video clips of individuals travelling on a small boat and provide UK mobile numbers to arrange travel.

Messages included: "I still have a few direct flights to the UK. Passport available everyone" and "Orders for you guys who want to enter Europe with a cheap price... you guys hurry and get a seat".

Hoang and Hop would arrange crossings for migrants and helped them to abscond by putting them in touch with a third party once their claims were processed.

Officers put the group under surveillance and began to monitor their movements over the course of five months.

3. South London man sentenced to 15 years for child sexual offences
A man who abused a family’s trust to secure alone time with a young girl and threatened to harm her if she spoke out about the sexual abuse, has been brought to justice.
He has today been sentenced to 15 years in prison following a detailed investigation led by Met detectives.

Kamran Khan, 44 (07.02.82), of Lambeth, was sentenced Wednesday, 1 April and received 15 years at Inner London Crown Court.

Khan was found guilty at the same court on Thursday, 15 January for ten sexual offences against a child. This included the rape of a girl under the age of 13, and the assault of a girl under 13 by touching. The offending relates to one victim.

Khan was brought to justice after the hard work and dedication from Met Officers. The team used detail phone analysis and forensics to prove Khan's multiple offences against the girl.

The Met continues to strengthen its efforts to tackle child abuse across online, institutional, familial, and community settings, with officers remaining determined to bring offenders to justice. They have intensified our response through major investment in digital forensics, rapid analysis software, and advanced monitoring tools to track the activity of registered sex offenders. These efforts have contributed to three times more cases solved last year and 134 additional suspects being charged.

In addition to his 15-year sentence, Khan is now on the registered sex offenders list and was served with a restraining order as well as a sexual harm prevention order.

4. Former private school teacher convicted for multiple non recent sexual assaults
An ex-private school teacher has been found guilty of numerous child sexual abuse offences against former pupils. David James Clarke, 82, has been found guilty at Lewes Crown Court of 45 counts of child sexual abuse.
The Sussex police investigation and subsequent Crown Prosecution Service uncovered that while Clarke was a teacher at Newlands School, Seaford, East Sussex, committed 39 counts of indecent assault and four offences of indecency with a child, one offence of buggery. He was also convicted of making indecent images of children. He took advantage of running a photography club which isolated boys in a dark room where he would commit various acts of sexual abuse progressing from touching both under and over clothing, to masturbation, oral sexual abuse and buggery.

When he was arrested the police discovered indecent images of children on his desk top computer.

5. UPDATED WITH SENTENCE: Nursery worker jailed and company fined after death of toddler
A nursery practitioner has been jailed for the gross negligence manslaughter of a 14-month-old toddler who died after being suffocated while staff tried to make him fall asleep.
Toddler Noah Sibanda died at Fairytales Day Nursery on 9 December 2022 having been physically restrained face down on a cushion, with a blanket over his face and a leg placed over him.

Nursery practitioner Kimberley Cookson, 23, on 17 April 2026 was jailed for three years and four months at Wolverhampton Crown Court after previously pleading guilty to gross negligence manslaughter. This related to her conduct in making Noah sleep.

Fairytales Day Nursery Limited was fined £240,000 after it previously admitted one count of corporate manslaughter and a Health and Safety at Work Act offence. It was also ordered to pay £56,000 in costs.

Director and business owner Debbie Latewood, 55, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment, suspended for two years. She previously admitted a Health and Safety at Work Act offence on the basis that she did not know children were being put down to sleep in this dangerous way, though should have known. She was also disqualified from being a director for seven years.

The incident was captured on CCTV at the nursey, and showed Noah was tightly wrapped in a sleeping bag, had a blanket placed over his head, and was laid face down to sleep by Cookson.

She held him in place face down on a soft cushion and restrained him with her leg for some of that time, in what appeared to be an effort to make him sleep when he did not want to. After a considerable duration, it was noticed that he was not breathing, and the emergency services were called. Noah was pronounced dead at hospital.

6. Former teacher guilty of sexual abuse at a children’s home in the 1970s
A man has been found guilty of sexual assaults on young boys at a children’s home in Hastings in the 1970s.
Roland Simmons worked as a teacher at Guestling House, a residential home.
Four victims, who were placed into care at the property, and are now all in their 60s, came forward to report that they had been abused.

Catherine Wear, Senior Crown Prosecutor from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Simmons was supposed to be caring for these boys, but instead he abused the trust placed in him, knowing that the boys would struggle to speak out and report what was happening to them.

Following a trial at Lewes Crown Court, Roland Simmons was convicted of 10 charges of indecent assault on a male person relating to four victims between 1974 and 1979.

7. Boy, 16, sentenced for targeting vulnerable teenage girls online with self-harm campaign lasting 16 months
A 16-year-old boy has been sentenced after encouraging other internet users to self-harm, as well as downloading indecent images of children.
The defendant, aged 14 at the time of the offences, used an online username to hide his identity while targeting victims which were primarily teenage girls.
He instructed them to carve his username into their bodies and send him images, which he saved.

He pleaded guilty to encouraging self-harm and was later convicted of downloading indecent images following a trial at Southampton Youth Court.

Officers seized an Xbox from his address after he accessed accounts linked to the offences while on bail.

The Crown Prosecution Service built the case using messages recovered from his phone and computer, which showed a clear pattern of encouraging and directing others to self-harm.

Government to examine deaths of vulnerable care leavers
Vulnerable young people leaving the care system will be better supported following a review launched by the government today into the deaths of care leavers.
This is in response to the horrifying fact that a disproportionate number of young people who have been in care die young, often in complex circumstances and without support from social workers and others. The government is determined to change this as part of wider efforts to improve the lives of young people, breaking down barriers to opportunity and enabling them to succeed.

Data published in May 2025 showed 91 notifications of care leaver deaths in 2024–25, with the majority aged between 16 and 21. This number is unacceptably high and a serious problem which impacts wider society.

The review into some of these cases will be led by experienced social worker Clare Chamberlain and care-experienced author and broadcaster Ashley John-Baptiste.

Together, they bring a wealth of experience and expertise about the huge challenges which young people face both in and out of the care system.

The review will focus on young people’s experiences, who and what mattered to them, and identify what more could have been done to support them.

The Department for Education has already taken steps to improve understanding of care leaver mortality. Since December 2023, local authorities have been expected to report the deaths of care leavers through the Serious Incident Notification system.