Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has today announced a ‘rapid national audit’ into grooming gangs.
The review is to be led by Dame Louise Casey and will look at “ethnicity data and demographics of gangs involved and their victims”, and “cultural and societal drivers”.
The audit is set to go on for three months and features four new inquiries, including one already agreed upon in Oldham. It will be funded and assisted by central government and they will be advised by Tom Crowther KC – a key part of the Telford grooming gang inquiry published in 2022.
The BBC says that in response to Labour MP Sarah Champion, Ms Cooper says, “We are not redoing the Telford inquiry” as this was already “extensive”, and “crucially involved victims and survivors throughout”.
Ms Cooper’s announcement comes two weeks after the grooming gangs scandal made headlines.
It was discovered that safeguarding minister Jess Phillips rejected calls from Oldham Council for a government inquiry into historical grooming gangs in the town, instead saying the council should lead an inquiry.
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