Local reviews into grooming will get answers and bring change, says Cooper

An audit looking into the current scale and nature of “gang-based exploitation” across the country has been announced, as well as local reviews into grooming in some areas.

The Home Secretary, following weeks of pressure including from billionaire X-owner Elon Musk for a national inquiry into grooming, said local reviews would provide more answers and change than a nationwide probe.

Yvette Cooper’s announcements came a day after she was threatened with legal action over the child grooming issue.

Former police detective Maggie Oliver, who resigned from Greater Manchester Police in 2012, said she would take Ms Cooper to court unless she took “urgent steps to allay widespread public concern” over gangs sexually exploiting children.

On Thursday, Ms Cooper told Parliament of two key parts of a £10 million plan to tackle grooming gangs and child sexual abuse, namely a three-month “rapid audit” of the current situation across the country, and “victim-centred, locally-led inquiries” in five areas, including Oldham, Greater Manchester.

Mr Musk had directly insulted safeguarding minister Jess Phillips on social media, after she declined a request from Oldham Council for a Whitehall-led inquiry into child sexual abuse in the town, saying it should follow other towns in commissioning its own inquiry.

But Ms Cooper’s plans for local reviews drew criticism for not going far enough, and her Conservative counterpart, shadow home secretary Chris Philp, described them as “wholly inadequate”.

He said: “We now believe as many as 50 towns could have been affected, so IICSA (Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse) barely scratched the surface.

“The Home Secretary has announced Government support for only five local inquiries. Let me say this is wholly inadequate when we know up to 50 towns are affected.”

Ms Cooper failed to say whether the local reviews into grooming gangs will have the power to compel witnesses to attend, to take evidence under oath or to requisition written evidence.

Barrister Tom Crowther, who chaired the inquiry into abuse in Telford, Shropshire, will lead on developing a new framework for what Ms Cooper described as “victim-centred locally led inquiries where they are needed”, and the rapid audit will be led by Baroness Louise Casey.

Baroness Casey, who previously led an inquiry into children’s services at Rotherham Council, South Yorkshire, is also heading up a commission into social care, a three-year timeline for which the Government has already been criticised.

Downing Street has said the two pieces of work will not clash. Baroness Casey will take up her role on the social care commission in April, and the grooming audit will take place in the three months beforehand.

The audit will aim to fill a data gap, Ms Cooper said, telling Parliament: “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.”

The Home Office has pledged to ensure police forces in England and Wales learn lessons from the past, requiring them to improve data collection on child sexual abuse, including ethnicity.

Other announcements on Thursday included forces being urged to reopen cold case investigations into grooming gangs, and survivors being able to ask for their closed cases to be reviewed.

Stronger sentencing will also be put in place, making it an aggravating factor to organise abuse and exploitation.

Ms Cooper told the Commons the “most important task should be to increase police investigations into these horrific crimes and get abusers behind bars”.

She said: “Effective local inquiries can delve into far more local detail and deliver more locally relevant answers, and change, than a lengthy nationwide inquiry can provide.”

The NSPCC said “robust local inquiries” must be “rooted in the experiences of the victims and survivors and that their voices are heard”.

As part of the wider announcement, Ms Cooper also said that the Government will lay out a clear timetable by Easter for implementing the recommendations in the final report from IICSA.

That wide-ranging inquiry’s former chairwoman, Professor Alexis Jay, said she welcomed Ms Cooper’s commitment to implement the recommendations but said progress must take place “as speedily as possible”.

She added that “much valuable time has already been lost” since the final report was published in October 2022, “causing even more trauma to many victims and survivors”.

Prof Jay did not support calls for a national inquiry into grooming, previously saying the time had come for action.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch had repeatedly clashed with the Prime Minister over calls for a national inquiry into grooming gangs, while Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is among Labour figures who had supported such a move, as well as Liverpool Walton MP Dan Carden and Rotherham MP Sarah Champion.

Ms Champion, speaking in the Commons after the announcements, said inquiries into child sexual abuse need “the ability to compel witnesses”.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council said the ambitions set out “will not be easy”, but that the new investment pledged by Government “equips us with additional tools and resources to increase our impact in supporting victims and survivors”.

A coalition of groups helping the abused and exploited called for an “urgent shift away from sensationalism and towards survivor support”.

The statement from Hope Not Hate and Migrant Help among others, said: “We implore political actors to refrain from weaponising the experiences of victims and survivors, and instead keep their focus on the most urgent challenges facing all survivors of child sexual abuse and exploitation at this time.”