Keir Starmer’s government has announced a near tenfold increase in funding for detectives hunting grooming gangs but has been warned by police that the amount will “likely fall short” of what is needed.
Operation Beaconport, which was set up last year to review closed group-based sexual exploitation inquiries in England and Wales, will receive nearly £38m, a Home Office statement said – up from £4m given last year.
The money will “likely fall short” of the amount needed to cover work to tackle group-based child exploitation, police sources have warned.
The scale and complexity of the reviews involved are expected to require a significant number of officers over an extended period, the source said. The increased cash is not expected to cover the funding forces would need to meet the anticipated cost of a dedicated team, they added.
In a separate development, the chair of the statutory inquiry into grooming gangs told MPs she would not be “squeamish” about tackling issues around the ethnicity and culture of the rapists involved.
Asked about previous inquiries which found a disproportionate number of perpetrators were from Pakistani and Asian heritage communities, Anne Longfield told the home affairs select committee: “We’re setting out to understand and demonstrate what caused it, what allowed it to happen and what allowed it to continue to happen.
“We’re not squeamish … we recognise that there’s no single type of survivor or perpetrator here, but we also know that answers can be sought there and delivered.”
Lady Longfield’s inquiry has a maximum duration of three years and has a budget of £65m, which she told MPs was “doable”. “We think it is possible with the budget,” she said.
Zoë Billingham, a panellist on the new inquiry, told MPs that police forces accused of failing grooming gang survivors should be open to third-party scrutiny.
“We do not expect forces to be investigating themselves,” she said.
The inquiry published its terms of reference earlier this year and is beginning its full investigation into the group-based sexual exploitation of children in England and Wales.
It will have the legal powers to compel witnesses, including politicians, to give evidence and hand over documents.
The prime minister is facing political pressure to tackle grooming gangs, which has become a key campaigning issue for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in Labour’s heartlands.
The extra money also follows the damning resignation last week of the Home Office minister Jess Phillips, who criticised Starmer for a lack of urgency and boldness in tackling online abuse.
Responding to the announcement on Tuesday, Phillips said: “It is about time that both grooming gangs and all forms of child sexual abuse were seen as a priority that it is and this extra funding will go a long way to righting the historical wrongs … Now all our efforts must turn to preventing the harm from happening in the first place.”
Ministers came under pressure over grooming gangs in January 2025 after the owner of X, Elon Musk, highlighted the government’s decision to refuse Oldham council’s request for a second national inquiry.
Starmer announced in June that there would be a specific grooming gangs inquiry, but then struggled to set it up. The Guardian disclosed in October that the new inquiry had stalled amid wrangles over the remit and difficulties in finding a chair.
Police forces will also be given £9m to buy AI technology to detect online abusers more rapidly as part of £100m of funds to tackle child sexual abuse.
Police officers will also have access to a suite of “AI-enabled intelligence tools” under Home Office plans, helping them to analyse large datasets, translate foreign-language material, and identify patterns and relationships between suspects.
The technology will allow forces to bring predators to justice “regardless of size or local resources”, the government said.
Another £11.7m will pay for the Undercover Online Network, which targets predators in the dark web. The network tracks and identifies offenders, intervenes early and drives arrests and prosecutions. Its work helped safeguard 1,748 children between April 2024 and 2025, with 1,797 arrests also made.
The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said: “The grooming gangs scandal is one of the darkest moments in our country’s history, where the most vulnerable people were abused and exploited at the hands of evil child rapists.
“There will be no hiding place for the predatory monsters who committed unimaginable crimes of child sexual abuse [CSA] and exploitation. We will track down these vile rapists and put them behind bars.”
The National Crime Agency’s Jav Oomer said: “We welcome the continued Home Office funding to support the NCA’s vital work in tackling the highest harm offenders, whether they operate in our communities or online, and will use the full force of our capabilities to protect children.
“We continue to see the increasing complexity and severity of CSA offending, with offenders becoming more technologically sophisticated, but also producing more severe and more sadistic material.”
