Child Criminal Exploitation: New Offences Under the Crime and Policing Act
The landscape of organised crime has long relied on the systematic manipulation of vulnerable young people. From county lines drug networks to trafficking illegal goods, criminal networks frequently utilise and exploit power dynamics to protect themselves whilst placing young people on the frontline of their illegal operations.
The Crime and Policing Act 2026 introduces new targeted statutory measures designed to dismantle these operational models, legally separating victims from perpetrators, and criminalise these specific practices used by gang networks.
Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE)
Historically, the police and social care agencies have faced legislative challenges in distinguishing between exploited children and the adult perpetrators controlling them. The new Act addresses this by formally establishing Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) as a standalone criminal offence.
The provision of the Power Imbalance Offence directly targets any adult aged 18 or over who uses, manipulates, coerces, or grooms a child under 18 to commit any form of criminal activity. By focusing on the structural power disparity between the adult and the child, the law now shifts criminal culpability away from the minor and squarely onto the perpetrator directing the harm.
To proactively disrupt potential exploiters, the Act also establishes CCE Prevention Orders. These civil preventative measures can be sought independently by police forces or issued by a court following criminal proceedings, even in cases where a defendant is acquitted.
Key terms imposed under these orders include:
- Contact Restrictions: Prohibiting direct or indirect contact with specified children, including communications made online or via electronic devices.
- Geographical Banning: Restricting individuals from entering defined geographic zones or specific locations associated with potential targets or past exploitation.
- Criminal Penalties for Breach: A breach of a CCE Prevention Order constitutes a serious standalone criminal offence, carrying a maximum penalty of up to 5 years' imprisonment.
The new laws
The new laws reinforce the safeguarding framework. Underpinning these legislative shifts is a clear statutory principle: children engaged in county lines activity, drug running, or weapon transportation are treated primarily as victims of exploitation, rather than primary offenders. This framework aims to ensure that frontline interventions focus on safeguarding, rehabilitation, and support rather than penalising minors manipulated, coerced or forced into criminality.
Alongside CCE measures, the Act targets specific high-risk tactics deployed by organised crime groups to move illicit goods. Section 68 introduces a distinct criminal offence for causing internal concealment of an item for a criminal purpose.
Internal concealment, commonly referred to as ‘plugging,’ ‘stuffing,’ or ‘banking’, involves forcing or coercing individuals to hide illicit materials such as class A drugs, weapons, cash, or mobile phones inside their bodily cavities to bypass police detection.
Section 68 targets the gang leaders, perpetrators, and controllers who order, deceive, or manipulate individuals into carrying out this high-risk practice.
The provisions under Section 68 set a clear standard regarding children which include:
- Strict Offence Standards for Minors: It is a criminal offence if a person intentionally causes a child under 18 to conceal a specified item inside their body for a criminal purpose.
- Irrelevance of Insertion: The offence applies regardless of whether the item was inserted by the child, the perpetrator, or a third party, provided there is an established connection to criminal activity.
By establishing standalone offences for Child Criminal Exploitation and internal concealment, alongside civil preventive tools like CCE Prevention Orders, the Crime and Policing Act 2026 creates a firmer legal basis for prosecuting criminal networks. These measures focus on safeguarding, reinforcing a crucial boundary to protect exploited children and regard them as victims whilst holding those who direct and profit from organised crime accountable.
SSS training on safeguarding against Child Criminal Exploitation is available.
SSS Learning
24 September 2026