Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has commissioned research on the motivations of the perpetrators of gang-grooming crimes against young girls; and if he will make a statement.

Improving our understanding of the scale and nature of all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse, including that involving gangs and groups, is a priority for this Government.

We have invested £7.5m in a new centre of expertise on child sexual abuse which will identify, generate, and share high quality evidence of what works to prevent and tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSA/E).

At present, ‘types’ or ‘models’ of CSA/E offending are understood differently by the agencies, professionals and academics responding. This hampers efforts to understand, prevent and disrupt offending. The Centre of Expertise is addressing this by developing a typology of offending. This will involve identifying the characteristics and patterns of offender behaviour within different models, which will in turn support a more targeted response by the police and other agencies.

While this is underway, we will continue work to enhance our understanding of organised models of exploitation. This includes working with police and law enforcement agencies to identify characteristics associated with group-based CSA/E cases, so that best practice in preventing and tackling these forms of abuse can be identified and shared.