The Prime Minister has announced that there will be a statutory inquiry (Inquiries Act 2005) into sexual grooming gangs - Reuters 14 June 2025.
In mid January 2025, the Home Secretary (Yvette Cooper MP) asked Baroness Louise Casey to undertake an urgent national review into the scale and nature of gang-based sexual exploitation in Britain - The Guardian 16 January 2025.
Casey's report has yet to be published but the Prime Minister said that he has read every word in it and has accepted a recommendation that an inquiry be held.
Details of the inquiry have yet to be announced and the announcement will be generally welcomed.
Statutory Inquires
usually prove to be lengthy and expensive and they cannot rule on, and have no power to determine, any person's civil or criminal liability (Inquiries Act 2005 section 2).In January, the government rejected calls for a national inquiry and preferred other measures which are summarised in previous posts - HERE and HERE.
The Crime and Policing Bill, currently before Parliament, will create a duty to report Child Sexual Abuse (see Bill Part 5). This was a recommendation of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. The majority of recommendations made by that inquiry remain to be implemented even though its final report was published in October 2022. (See also the IICSA website).
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Additions - Monday 16 June 2025
Grooming victims' concerns not dismissed, says Reeves - BBC News
Why many victims will welcome a national inquiry into grooming gangs - Sky News
Nationwide Police Operation on grooming gangs announced - Sky News - 'A nationwide police operation to track down those in grooming gangs has been announced by the Home Office.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) will target those who have sexually exploited children as part of a grooming gang, and will investigate cases that were not previously progressed.'
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