Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) national and (b) local inquiries have been carried out into rape grooming gangs.

It is essential that we continue to learn from past failings on group-based Child Sexual Exploitation to improve and strengthen our ongoing response to grooming gangs offending.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), led by Professor Alexis Jay, was conducted over seven years and engaged with more than 7,000 victims and survivors. None of the 20 recommendations from the final report were implemented by the previous Government. IICSA also conducted a dedicated two-year investigation into abuse by organised networks and published a report in February 2022. His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue (HMICFRS) published an inspection into the effectiveness of the police response to group-based Child Sexual Exploitation in December 2023. Local inquiries have also taken place in many local authority areas including Rotherham, Oldham, Rochdale, Bradford and Telford.