More local grooming inquires expected - minister

Home Office minister Jess Phillips has said she expects there will be more local inquiries into grooming gangs than the five already announced.

Phillips said she would provide more details about the local inquiries once an audit into the scale and nature of the problem is published.

Baroness Louise Casey's audit, which had been due to finish in mid-April, will be released "later in May", Phillips said.

She added that she did not yet know "what Baroness Casey will say about which particular area" but would act on the facts.

Conservative Chris Philp said the inquiries, which would not be able to compel people to give evidence, "just won't do" and repeated his call for a national inquiry.

The shadow home secretary also asked the minister how she would force councils to hold an inquiry, in cases where the local authorities were unwilling to do so, citing Bradford council as an example.

Earlier this year, Bradford Councils' Safeguarding Children Partnership said a new inquiry was "unlikely to provide us with any new learnings" having held an independent review in 2021.

Robbie Moore, a Conservative MP for Keighley and Ilkley, accused Bradford Councils of avoiding commissioning a new inquiry for "fear of unearthing a very significant problem".

In reply, Phillips told the MP that, if Baroness Casey identified problems with particular local authorities, "he has my guarantee, I will pursue them".

For more than a decade there has been a series of high-profile cases where groups of men, predominantly of Pakistani descent, were convicted of sexually abusing and raping mainly white girls in the UK.

In 2022, Prof Alexis Jay published the conclusions of a seven-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse, which investigated abuse in churches and schools, as well as by grooming gangs.

Interest around the subject was re-ignited at the start of the year when tech billionaire Elon Musk began calling for a second national inquiry into the scandal - a proposal that was backed by opposition MPs, as well as some Labour ones.

In January, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper stopped short of holding such an inquiry but instead announced the audit of the current scale and nature of gang based exploitation.

She also said £5m would be available for "victim-centred locally-led inquiries" in Oldham and four other areas, which have not yet been named.

She added that Tom Crowther KC, who led an inquiry in Telford, would help the government develop a new framework for the five local investigations that could be used as a model in other areas.

However, last month Crowther expressed uncertainty about his role and told a committee of MPs that he had asked the Home Office "do you still want me?"

On Monday, Phillips said the government was "moving ahead" with its commitment for the five inquiries and would focus on "delivering meaningful, tangible change".

Karen Bradley, Conservative MP and chairwoman of the Home Affairs Committee, asked when the government would announce the locations for the local inquiries and how the minister would "ensure that councils that are reluctant to be part of this are compelled to do so".

Phillips replied: "Whilst we have committed to five, I expect to actually go further."

She said the framework for inquiries would be released later in May, when Baroness Casey's review would also be published.

The minister added: "I'm going to go on the basis of facts, and I'm going to follow them wherever they tell me. Wherever they tell me there are victims that need help, that is where I will go."