UK government confirms new inquiries into grooming gangs focusing on ethnicity

Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, will ask police forces to re-open ‘cold cases’ related to child sexual exploitation and abuse

The government is set to spend £10 million on new local inquiries into grooming gangs – focusing on ‘cultural drivers’ and the ethnicity of the gangs.

Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, will ask police forces to re-open ‘cold cases’ related to child sexual exploitation and abuse.

It follows weeks of pressure from the Tories, Reform UK and erratic tech billionaire Elon Musk, who have noisily demanded a fresh national inquiry into the scandal.

Ms Cooper told MPs local inquiries can “delve into far more local detail and deliver more locally relevant answers” than a national probe.

And she said a local inquiry in Telford had led to “tangible change” including the introduction of cctv in taxis and appointing child sexual exploitation experts in local schools.

Tom Crowther, who chaired the Telford inquiry, will work with the government to help plan out a framework for future local probes – starting with Oldham Council and four other pilot areas.

And Arooj Shah, the leader of Oldham Council welcomed the announcement, saying: “Survivors must be at the heart of any inquiry into these horrendous failings.

“Oldham’s survivors can be confident that by involving someone of the stature of Tom Crowther KC they will have a voice and a stake in our inquiry.”

But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch dismissed the plan, saying before the announcement that local inquiries “couldn’t summon people, only a national inquiry can do that.”

Additionally, Dame Louise Casey will perform a rapid, three-month audit looking at “cultural and societal drivers” of offences.

Home Secretary Yevette Cooper told the Commons: “In order to go much further, I have asked Baroness Louise Casey to oversee a rapid audit of the current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country and to make recommendations on the further work that is needed.”

She said it will look at child protection referrals, adding: “It will properly examine ethnicity data and the demographics of the gangs involved and their victims, and will look at the cultural and societal drivers for this type of offending, including amongst different ethnic groups.

“And it will make recommendations about further analysis, investigations and actions that are needed to address current and historic failures.”

But Rotherham MP Sarah Champion said inquiries into child sexual abuse need “the ability to compel witnesses”.

She told MPs: “(Home Secretary Yvette Cooper) cites Telford, which was victim focused, which was why it was so important, because we must have those victims and survivors’ voices, but what they said they lacked, what Greater Manchester said they lacked, was the ability to compel witnesses, and a big strand of what we need to do is make sure there have been no cover ups, and it’s only if it’s on a statutory footing that we can do that.”

Ms Cooper said: “Obviously, the work in Telford and in Rotherham, in the original work that Baroness Casey did, did manage to uncover truths in different areas.

“But there also need to be other new arrangements on accountability, and that is what we are working with the Cabinet Office and also with mayors and councils to draw up what new accountability arrangements would be, to ensure that there is proper either follow up or as part of those initial inquiries, that you have that proper accountability framework in place and we will link that to the duty of candour as part of the Hillsborough law.”