Home Secretary announces 'rapid national audit' into grooming gangs

The Home Secretary says all remaining recommendations from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) will be implemented following mounting pressure.

Yvette Cooper also said a three-month ‘rapid national audit’ will take place investigating the “scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country”, led by Baroness Casey.

In a statement in the House of Commons, Cooper said that despite reports and other inquiries, “shamefully little progress had been made. That has got to change.”

The IICSA delivered its final report in 2022, though many of its recommendations were not implemented by the Conservative government in power at the time. However, pressure built on the Labour Home Secretary after Elon Musk’s tweets.

The tech billionaire sparked renewed calls for action after posts on X (formerly Twitter) criticised the Labour government, labelling Jess Phillips a “rape genocide apologist” and saying she “deserves to be in prison”. Conservative and Reform MPs soon rallied behind the issue once again.

Whistleblower Maggie Oliver, a former Greater Manchester Police detective who resigned in 2012 saying that “victims were being let down”, heightened pressure further yesterday afternoon when she was putting the Home Secretary “on notice”, saying that she would commence action in the High Court, unless the Secretary of State implemented all of the recommendations of the IICSA and takes “urgent steps” to allay widespread public concern regarding grooming.

The IICSA delivered its final report in 2022 finding “extensive failures” by local authorities and police forces meaning they are struggling to keep pace with the changing nature of sexual exploitation of children by networks.

The report said children were being sexually exploited by networks in all parts of England and Wales, with many exploited children raped or sexually assaulted repeatedly over a period of months or even years.

The Child Sexual Exploitation by Organised Networks report also noted there appeared to be a flawed assumption that child sexual exploitation was decreasing, but that in reality it has become more of a hidden problem which is increasingly underreported when only linked to other forms of criminal behaviour such as county lines.

The report found issues with language used by professionals, including social workers, around child sexual exploitation that have developed over many years, such as describing children being ‘at risk’ despite clear evidence of actual harm having occurred. Examples include children having contracted sexually transmitted diseases, children regularly going missing with adults who picked them up in cars late at night and children attending so-called ‘house parties’ organised by adults, where they are plied with alcohol and drugs before being sexually abused.

Prof Alexis Jay, the former Chairwoman of the inquiry, said valuable time had been lost by not implemented the recommendations sooner. She said she welcomed Cooper’s announcement that the recommendations would be implemented but said progress must take place “as speedily as possible.”