Labour Drops Plans for Rape Gang Inquiries

Labour has dropped its plans for five local grooming gang inquiries.

In January, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, told MPs that the Government would provide £5 million to support up to five initial local inquiries modelled on the judge-led one into grooming gangs in Telford.

However, on Tuesday Jess Phillips, a Home Office minister, announced that “following feedback” the Government would adopt a “flexible approach” where the money would be available for local councils to use as they wished to support grooming gang work.

She said that this could mean full independent local inquiries, but could also include “more bespoke work, including local victims’ panels or locally led audits of the handling of historical cases”.

The Conservatives accused Labour of watering down its response to the grooming gangs inquiry in an announcement just 45 minutes before Parliament broke for recess.

Home Office sources insisted that the change did not necessarily mean that the five inquiries would not go ahead but rather ministers had decided to not be prescriptive following the local consultation.

‘Not good enough’

But Katie Lam, the shadow Home Office minister, said: “Local inquiries are not good enough – they can’t compel witnesses, they can’t look at themes across the country, and they can’t address national issues like deportation. Now the Government is watering them down even further. We won’t let them get away with it.”

A Home Office spokesman said it was “patently false” it was watering down its plans.

“The £5 million funding announced in January is being made available to local authorities to help strengthen local responses to child sexual exploitation, and all local authorities will be able to apply for funding for local inquiries or other work in this area,” the spokesman said.

“The Home Secretary has written to every local authority on our plans to support local inquiries, and after listening to local authorities about what they need, we made the decision to implement the fund in a flexible way.”

The Government announced the local inquiries in January after huge pressure for a new national inquiry, including from Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X.

Ministers said Tom Crowther, a barrister who chaired the Telford inquiry into grooming gangs, had agreed to work with the Government to develop a new framework for victim-centred locally led inquiries where they were needed.

“As a first step, he will work with Oldham council and up to four other pilot areas,” Ms Cooper told MPs.

But last week Mr Crowther told the home affairs committee that he had been left confused about his role and had even asked whether he was needed amid a lack of communication from the Home Office.

On Tuesday, Ms Phillips said the Home Office was developing a new best practice framework to support “local authorities that want to undertake victim-centred local inquiries or related work”.

She told MPs: “Alongside that, we will set out the process through which local authorities can access the £5 million national fund to support locally-led work on grooming gangs.

“Following feedback from local authorities, the fund will adopt a flexible approach to support both full independent local inquiries and more bespoke work, including local victims’ panels or locally led audits of the handling of historical cases.”

Ms Phillips also announced that a new child protection authority will be created to address one of the central recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) led by Prof Alexis Jay.

‘Epidemic’ of abuse

Prof Jay’s seven-year probe made 20 recommendations in the final report published in 2022, as it described child sexual abuse as an “epidemic” across England and Wales.

The wait for the recommendations to be implemented hit the headlines in January after Mr Musk criticised the Prime Minister and Ms Phillips over the UK’s handling of child grooming scandals.

Ms Phillips told MPs the publication of the report should have been a “landmark moment”, but victims and survivors were “failed again” when recommendations were not properly taken forward under the previous government.

She told the Commons: “I can announce to the House that to prioritise the protection of children and to improve national oversight and consistency of child protection practice, this Government will establish a new child protection authority.

“Building on the national child safeguarding review panel, the child protection authority will address one of IICSA’s central recommendations for providing national leadership and learning on child protection and safeguarding.

“Work to expand the role of the panel will begin immediately, and we will consult on developing the new authority this year.”

A Home Office source said: “The framework for local areas to be identified for inquiries will be set out shortly and will be informed by the Baroness Casey audit, which is looking at the scale, ethnicity and locations of grooming gangs exploitation across the country.

“Arrests for child sexual exploitation and grooming have increased in the last nine months and following our action with police forces, cases where no further action was previously taken are now being looked at again.

“This Government will leave no stone unturned for victims of child sexual abuse.”