Grooming gangs inquiry LIVE as 'damning' review to be published
The Home Secretary will make an announcement this afternoon
A 'damning' review into grooming gangs is set to be published as the government announces details of a new national inquiry.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will address Parliament over the review which has prompted the Prime Minister to launch a new probe. Keir Starmer announced the decision on Saturday (June 14) after reading 'ever word' of the review by Baroness Louise Casey.
The 'rapid national audit' looking at the scale of grooming gangs across the country was first announced earlier this year.
It followed outrage over the government's decision not to hold a national inquiry at the request of Oldham council.
Instead, the government agreed to help fund five local inquiries, including one in Oldham, arguing that this would be more effective.
However, the Prime Minister has now decided to hold a new national inquiry with more details set to be announced this afternoon.
Ms Cooper will deliver a statement in the House of Commons at 3.30pm. The 200-page Casey review will then be published.
Former GMP detective turned campaigner Maggie Oliver, who has been helping Baroness Casey with her review, said the findings will be 'absolutely damning'.
Follow below for live updates.
Key Events
Greater Manchester Police has issued a lengthy statement in repsonse to Baroness Casey's report. You can read it here.
In a statement in the House of Commons, Yvette Cooper outlined the government's response to a review into child sex abuse by grooming gangs. The Home Secretary described the findings of Baroness Casey’s review as 'deeply disturbing'.
Ms Cooper then set out a series of reforms in response to the report. You can read all about these measures here.
Baroness Casey concluded in her audit: "Our collective failure to address questions about the ethnicity of grooming gangs –has led to this issue dominating the political and institutional focus, with energydevoted to proving the point on one hand, or avoiding or playing it down on the other,and still with no definitive answer at the national level."When we looked at data held in three local areas, there is evidence that men ofAsian ethnicity are over-represented as perpetrators in group-based child sexualexploitation in those areas. Taken together with the significant number of prosecutions of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds evident in local reviews and prosecutions across the country, this should have, and indeed still does, warrant further examination."Justice might also have been better served in the past if children’s services, the police and other criminal justice agencies had applied fewer stereotypes andjudgements to the victims of child sexual exploitation, to have given them the protection and safeguarding response they deserved instead of treating or seeingthem as complicit adults."The defensive behaviours of organisations responsible when challenged on their handling of child sexual exploitation has added to the misery and suffering of victims and further hampered efforts to tackle child sexual exploitation more effectively."Resistance and reluctance to review and acknowledge past mistakes, apologise and take action is unnecessary and leaves wounds unhealed."The result of all of this has been a blind-spot in the way institutions have addressed child sexual exploitation, with too many of the most important people at the heart ofthis crime – the victims – many still waiting for justice. This pattern will be repeated inthe present day unless change happens."
Greater Manchester Police has welcomed Baroness Casey's report into grooming gangs and the announcement of a new national inquiry, promising to approach it with 'openness' and 'transparency'. In a lengthy statement, Assistant Chief Constable Steph Parker said that, while there have been improvements in the force, 'we still have a way to go'.
She said: "While we are demonstrably better, we will continue to stay true to our apology to those victims we have previously let down, reflecting on our progress, and act on scrutiny to further improve."
ACC Parker, who is GMP's lead for Vulnerability and Public Protection, said that the force will assess the recommendations in Baroness Casey's review and make sure that any changes needed are met. She said the force will do all it can to support the national police investigation that is being led by the National Crime Agency to investigate cases which 'were not previously progressed.
Baroness Casey outlined the findings made against the authorities in Greater Manchester in the wake of Op Span after those same authorities had suggested there would be 'nothing further to learn'.
Among them was that GMP and Rochdale Council 'failed to prioritise the protection of children who were being sexually exploited by a significant number of men wqithin the Rochdale area'.
Police ops were 'inufficiently resourced' and children were 'left at risk' while many abusers have still not been caught, the Op Span review also found.
The information gathered 'should have sparked a major investigation but it did not', the Op Span review found.
Baroness Casey said: "Meanwhile, many years on, victims from Rochdale and Greater Manchester are still co-operating with the police and CPS to be witnesses in trials that have not yet beenscheduled."These two areas are not the only areas who have shown a ‘reluctance’ to review past events. During the course of this audit, we saw a similar reluctance in areas toconduct reviews or establish an inquiry. They pointed to the fact that they were confident that practice had improved or that issues had been ‘covered elsewhere’(often citing serious case reviews)."Until we are able to acknowledge the problem fully, apologise and make good on thewrongs, it will be hard to ‘move on’."
The audit says GMP, following the 2012 convictions of Rochdale sex groomers, would not share data with a review commissioned at the time, citi g the potential impact on ongoing cases.
Baroness Casey said: "Even though GMP’s legal advice was that it was safe and appropriate to disclosei nformation to the review team, this advice was not shared with the review team nor was the information requested disclosed.
"It was not until Stephen Watson took up hisposition as Chief Constable that this legal advice was made available to the review team."
Oldham council leader Arooj Shah has apologised to survivors who were failed, saying that the local authority is determined not to repeat those failings. She says Baroness Casey's report is 'powerful', 'impactful' and 'long overdue'.
She said: "Baroness Casey has shone a bright light on uncomfortable and distressing issues that will now help us navigate a path to protect our children. Anyone who cares about the safety of children should read and digest this report. All agencies with responsibility for safeguarding children should implement its recommendations in full.
"Child Sexual abuse is perpetrated by people of all races and religions, and inflicted on people of all races and religions. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t ask questions about any drivers of this very specific type of offending. We need to do more to understand why this particular pattern of abuse is more prevalent among some groups of men.
"To say so is not racist. What is racist is to suggest that all Pakistani men are groomers or the implication, the suggestion, that any one community condones this behaviour – it does not.
"Nobody I have spoken to, from any community, wants to see anything other than for these men to be punished to the full extent of the law."
Baroness Casey outlines the many reviews concerning Greater Manchester, specifically the one which resulted in apologies after the first Rochdale grooming gang trial ended in convictions in 2012 (Operation Span.
The report says: "There was at best a reluctance by the statutory authorities, in this case GMP and Rochdale council, to openly review the events of the previous years, and to work cooperatively to bring past issues to light. Instead, there was a suggestion that everything was now much better: in short ‘it was time to move on.’"
GMP revealed it had 781 'open' sex crime cases as of May, featuring 594 alleged victims and 908 suspects.
When the all sex crimes was looked, not just grooming gangs, the etnicity of the suspects was 'much close to that of the local population', says the report.
It revealed 44 per cent of the suspects in all open sex crime cases were white. The next biggest group was referred as 'unknown' ethnicity' at 32 per cent. Some 16 per cent were Asian, the third biggest group.
Tory MP Julian Smith has called for the national inquiry to be held in the North of England. Responding, the Home Secretary said: "We will not restrict where the inquiry goes or where the commission chooses to investigate."
Reform MP Lee Anderson has said that GMP whistleblower Maggie Oliver should chair the new national inquiry. This morning, Ms Oliver said that she believes Baroness Casey, who conducted the review published today, should lead it.
The Home Secretary did not address this directly but she said: "We need to make sure that there is a proper independent inquiry as well as, most crucially of all, the action by police to take the operations that will bring perpetrators to justice and put them behind bars."
The audit reveals: These data show that child sexual exploitation suspects in Greater Manchester are more than twice as likely to be of Asian ethnicity compared to the proportion of the Asian population in the area (52% to 54% in GMP suspect data compared to 20.9% in Census 2021 data for Greater Manchester).
GMP confirmed it investigated 35 'group-based child sexual exploitation operations' and identified 243 suspects in the three years up to May this year. The biggest ethnic group (131) were Asian males well ahead of the number of white male suspects (81) while most of the alleged 317 victims were white females (250), says the report.
The Home Secretary has been asked who will lead the new national inquiry. It comes after GMP whistleblower said that Baroness Casey, who conducted the 'rapid national audit' that was published today, should chair the new national probe.
Asked who will lead the new inquiry, Ms Cooper said: "The terms of reference will be set out in due course. We have not yet appointed or determined the chair for the national inquiry and we will do so and set that out for the House."
GMP data gathered between January 2022 to May 2025, relating to 35 'group-based child sexual explopitation operations', uncovered 317 victims, according to the review.
The vast majority, 250, were white females, says the report. The next biggest group was white males (48), the report says.
Although she criticises the data gathered nationally, Baroness Casey said the statististics gathered by some forces including GMP was better and suggested a picture.
She writes: "Rates of collection and accuracy of ethnicity data were much higher in police data from Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. Their data shows there has been a disproportionality of group-based child sexual exploitationoffending by men of Asian ethnicity in these police force areas."
Heywood and Middleton North MP Elsie Blundell welcomes the new national inquiry. She said: "Every penny spent on stamping out the evil of child abusers is money well spent.
"Although welcome, notice of this inquiry will undoubtedly cause a great deal of trauma and distress for both historic and present day victims as violations committed against them are revisited."
The Home Secretary says that we need to increase therapeutic support for victims and survivors, starting with children.
The Home Secretary says that the new national inquiry is expected to take three years. She said: "In the discussions we have had with Baroness Casey and also recognising the many issues that people want to raise with the inquiry we had expected that it might take around three years. Clearly, if the commission is able to work faster than that, then people will clearly want answers as swifltly as possible but final details about the timings will obviously need to be determined."
The Home Secretary has explained why the government wants to close loopholes in taxi licensing to tackle grooming.
She said: "There are many local authorities across the country who have worked to ensure that they have raised standards and checks in their licensing arrangements particularly those in areas where there have been serious problems and where there have been criminal cases that have taken place.
"However, those checks and safeguards can end up being undermined by the licensing of other areas that do not have those checks. So we are looking to take forward reforms to the law.
"The transport secretary is looking at exactly this issue to make sure we can find a way to close that loophole."
Baroness Casey went on: "The question of the ethnicity of perpetrators has been a key question for this audit, having been raised in inquiries and reports going back many years. We found that the ethnicity of perpetrators is shied away from and is still not recorded for two-thirdsof perpetrators, so we are unable to provide any accurate assessment from thenationally collected data."Despite the lack of a full picture in the national data sets, there is enough evidenceavailable in local police data in three police force areas which we examined which show disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds amongst suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation, as well as in the significantnumber of perpetrators of Asian ethnicity identified in local reviews and high-profilechild sexual exploitation prosecutions across the country, to at least warrant furtherexamination."More effort is required to identify the nature of group-based child sexual exploitationand, in particular, the ethnicity of perpetrators and offender motivations, in order tounderstand it better, and to tackle it more effectively."
Baroness Casey said strong leadership was required rather than bursts of activity which did not lead to lasting change.
She said: "But what emergesinstead over at least the last decade is a repeating cycle: seminal moments ofscandal and public outrage which lead to bursts of government focus and activity butno sustained improvement, leaving victims and the public with insufficient justice,action, accountability or answers."
Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams says that survivors are still waiting far too long for justice. She said "They want no further delays to justice and for perpetrators to face the full face of the law now.
"It is unacceptable that some are being given court dates of 2028 with all the risks that that implies. They want no more red tape and they want survivors to be at the heart of rooting out these perpetrators and getting justice."
In her just published 197-page 'audit', Baroness Louise Casey said she wanted the law around rape to be 'tightened'.
She said: "Their predators see them as ideal victims, ready to be trickedinto thinking they are loved, worthy of their attention – before turning that againstthem. That is why I want the legislation on rape tightened up so that an adult havingpenetrative sex with a child under 16 is rape, no excuses, no defence. I believemany jaws across the country would drop if it was widely known that doing so iscalled anything but that."
Bradford West MP Naz Shah says that Muslims are angry and condemn the vile crimes committed by grooming gangs.
She says: "This is not only backed by recent polling by opinion that shows that Muslims are deeply concerned, the majority of them, by grooming gangs, but by sermons in mosques, letters from leading figures, demonstrations on the street and so much more, often not given the media coverage that they deserve."
Stockport MP Lisa Smart, who is the Lib Dems' spokesperson for Home Affairs, says that survivors must be at the heart of the new inquiry and its outcome. But she said they should not have to repeat stories of their abuse 'again and again.'
She calls for the government why 'a duty of candour', also known as the Hillsborough Law, hasn't been introduced yet.
Rochdale MP Paul Waugh says that victims want accountability and no one should be able to hide from this new inquiry.
He said: "In Rochdale we know all too well how many years it has taken victims to get the justice they deserve. They have waited many, many years to see these sick cirmnals locked up and put behind bars. Only last week we had seven more of these perverts locked up in Rochdale and that is a testimnoy to the police and the prosecution who finally got these cases together.
"The victims also want accountability for anyone in a position of authority, anyone who found out about this and failed to act, or knew about it and failed to act. So does she agree with me that no councillor of any political party, no social worker, no police officer, no council officer and no ethnic group should hide from the fierce scrutiny of this national inquiry?"
Responding, the Home Secretary says she agrees that there can be 'no hiding from justice' for anyone and she hopes that there will be a 'cross-party process' to support that.
The government will accept all 12 recommendations from Baroness Casey's review, the Home Secretary announced.
Sir Keir Starmer said he agrees with Baroness Louise Casey that a full national inquiry into grooming gangs that “will go wherever it needs to go” will be held.
The Prime Minister was asked by broadcasters if he would apologise for changing his mind about a new inquiry, which he previously suggested was not necessary.
He did not reply directly, but said: “Well, grooming is a vile offence, absolutely vile, and I brought the first prosecution when I was chief prosecutor 15 years ago now. So I’ve seen the impact directly on victims."
He added: "I’ve looked at her report, I’ve considered that material. I think she’s right, and that’s why it’ll be a national inquiry. It will be a statutory inquiry. It will go wherever it needs to go.”
Ms Badenoch says that the new national inquiry 'must have teeth' and should start in known hotspots such as Rochdale.
Responding to the statement by the Home Secretary, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accuses the government of a 'u-turn'. She says that Labour voted against a national inquiry three times, while the Lib Dems did not vote at all.