Grooming gangs inquiry to examine role of ethnicity, culture and religion

Alastair Gillespie is head of Forbes’s specialist abuse & social care team. Alastair acted for a major insurer throughout the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and also gave evidence to that inquiry as an expert witness in the defence of claims for non-recent sexual abuse.

The inquiry was set up in response to a recommendation from Baroness Louise Casey’s national audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse. The audit found that systemic failures and institutional paralysis had enabled grooming gangs to operate undetected for many years.

The statutory independent inquiry has published its terms of reference, which will be laid before parliament when it returns from recess on 13 April. The inquiry will then begin its full investigation into the group-based sexual exploitation of children in England and Wales.

The inquiry will examine how grooming gangs operated and how institutions, including the police, local authorities, health services, social care services and schools, responded to the abuse.

Importantly, the inquiry will have the legal powers to compel witnesses to give evidence and require organisations to hand over documents. Any evidence of criminal conduct by professionals will be referred to Operation Beaconport, the national policing operation launched last year to review hundreds of previously closed investigations.

The inquiry will also conduct specific local investigations in areas where serious failures have been identified in response to child sexual exploitation by grooming gangs. Oldham has been confirmed as one of the areas that will be subjected to this additional forensic scrutiny.

The inquiry is being chaired by Anne Longfield, a former children’s commissioner for England.

Lady Longfield said: “Children across England and Wales were and are sexually abused and exploited. When they asked for help, they were too often disbelieved, dismissed or blamed. That is the reality this inquiry exists to address. Victims and survivors have every right to ask whether this inquiry will be any different from those that came before. My answer is this: where we can, we will publish our findings as we go, not in a single report years from now. There will be no opportunity for institutions to quietly manage what we find. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads. We will not flinch from uncomfortable truths.”

The inquiry will hold public hearings, which will be livestreamed, and transcripts will be published after each hearing. Findings will be published progressively rather than being held until a final report. Limits have however been imposed. It has a maximum duration of three years, to conclude no later than March 2029, and has a budget of £65m.

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. The independent national inquiry will now begin its crucial work to uncover how these crimes were allowed to happen and root out failure wherever it occurred”.

“The chair and I have agreed that the inquiry will be laser focused on grooming gangs and will explicitly examine the role of ethnicity, religion and culture of the offenders and in the response of institutions. There will be no hiding place for the predatory monsters who committed these vile crimes.”

The Conservative party leader, Kemi Badenoch, said: “This appears to be a significantly strengthened terms of reference for the national grooming gangs inquiry. The initial draft did not, amongst other things, examine ethnicity and religion, nor did it ensure those in positions of authority like politicians or police officers would be investigated”.

Forbes Solicitors, who have acted for several local authorities in relation to Child Sexual Abuse (CSE) claims, will be closely monitoring the progress of the inquiry and will regularly report further developments.