Police, councils and social services who failed young girls who fell victim to grooming gangs will not be able to “hide” and will be held to account, says No10.
Ahead of Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announcing details of a new national inquiry into the scandal in a string of towns including Oldham, Rochdale, Rotherham and Oxford, Downing Street stressed it would have statutory powers to compel people to give evidence.
The new public inquiry into grooming gangs will trigger and oversee local investigations in areas where there have been “failures and obstructions” by councils, the police and other institutions.
Sir Keir Starmer announced the second national inquiry after a review by Baroness Louise Casey’s whose findings on grooming gangs are set to be announced on Monday.
“The full details of this inquiry including the chair, the terms of reference will be set out in the usual way... it will be a full statutory inquiry,” said the Prime Minister’s official spokesman.
“What this inquiry will do is build on the work carried out by Alexis Jay and her independent inquiry into child sexual abuse but look specifically at how young girls were failed so badly by different agencies on a local level, and strengthening the commitment we made at the start of this year to carry out locally-led inquiries.
“By setting up a new inquiry under the Inquiries Act, with statutory powers to compel witnesses, the local authorities and institutions who failed to act to protect young people will not be able to hide and will finally be held to account.”
The Home Secretary is set to address Parliament over the review, which prompted the Prime Minister to implement a full probe after months of resistance.
Meanwhile, the Home Office has said that the National Crime Agency will carry out a nationwide operation targeting people who have sexually exploited children.
Earlier this year, the Government dismissed calls for a public inquiry, saying its focus was on putting in place the outstanding recommendations already made in a seven-year national inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay.
According to the Times, the review by Baroness Casey is expected to explicitly link the grooming gang issue to men of Pakistani origin and say that people were ignored for the fear of racism.
The review comes after a row on the issue was ignited earlier this year, when Sir Keir became embroiled in a row with tech billionaire Elon Musk over calls for a national investigation.
In January, the Prime Minister hit out at politicians “calling for inquiries because they want to jump on the bandwagon of the far right”, but on Sunday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said that Sir Keir had been focused on “victims” rather than “grandstanding”.
Sir Trevor Phillips, former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, has said ministers should apologise for criticising people calling for a second national inquiry which he stressed had to reveal why so many people failed to act.
Asked whether the Prime Minister had changed his mind about the idea of a national inquiry, the Chancellor told the Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I think Keir Starmer, our Prime Minister, has always been really focused, as he was when he was director of public prosecutions, on the victims and not grandstanding.”
