Government on child sex abuse and rape gangs - new authority set up, gang enquiries dropped.

[ArabellaScott]

New child protection authority to be set up.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/government-jess-phillips-home-office-inquiry-elon-musk-b2729520.html

“Building on the national child safeguarding review panel, the child protection authority will address one of IICSA’s central recommendations for providing national leadership and learning on child protection and safeguarding.
“Work to expand the role of the panel will begin immediately, and we will consult on developing the new authority this year.”
...
'Baroness Casey’s three-month national audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse is ongoing. It is building a comprehensive national picture of what is known about child sexual exploitation, identifying local and national trends, assessing the quality of data, looking at the ethnicity issues faced, for example, by cases involving Pakistani heritage gangs, and reviewing police and wider agency understanding. We are developing a new best practice framework to support local authorities that want to undertake victim-centred local inquiries or related work, drawing on the lessons from local independent inquiries such as those in Telford, Rotherham and Greater Manchester. We will publish the details next month.'

However:

Five enquiries into grooming gangs are dropped.

'Katie Lam MP, who responded to the statement, told GB News: “Children across Britain have been sexually tortured by gangs of men.
"We must confront the reality of these crimes and how so many people in positions of power let them go on so long.
“Local inquiries are not good enough — they can’t compel witnesses, they can’t look at themes across the country, and they can’t address national issues like deportation.
“Now the Government is watering them down even further. We won’t let them get away with it.”

'In January, the Home Secretary said that the Government would conduct five local inquiries into the rape gangs who have terrorised so many innocent children. More than three months since the Government announced those local inquiries, Tom Crowther KC, a barrister invited by the Home Office to help establish them, knows almost nothing about their progress, and neither do we. Why is the framework for local inquiries now being led by Ministers, rather than by independent voices such as Tom Crowther? Why is the £5 million set aside for inquiries no longer being allocated, but instead delivered on an “opt-in” basis? What do the Government intend to do about local leaders who say there is no need for an independent inquiry, as they do in Bradford and in Wales?'

https://www.gbnews.com/news/labour-grooming-gang-inquiries-plan-dropped-jess-phillips

Hansard:

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025-04-08/debates/4FDDC9A4-1AC6-4F34-8E6B-3DF6CC2C981A/TacklingChildSexualAbuse

Content warning: The most upsetting speech I've ever heard from Westminster. Details of CSA.

Not saying the Labour is right, but I dont think Labour every promised gang enquiries. In fact voted down a Tory motion for this in HoC in January. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyvy4q82l9o

So the rather shouty GB news headline is about not accepting a Tory ammendment.

Although relying on any review that Baroness Casey heads as providing a solution to anything is pointless. In fact once any Government appoints her, you can be sure they dont want to have to do anything, and she will produce pages of verbage and no insight.

I would support local enquiries, but the idea that local councils who are usually part of the problem (and are under funded) could achieve what no one else has been able to do is (although not really funny) laughable.

I suspect that the GB news slant will be about promoting this https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5303904-5303904-mp-with-credible-claim-of-harassment-against-him-wants-to-set-up-his-own-public-inquiry-into-rape-gangs

In a growing number of recorded cases, the perpetrators themselves are under 18.

(From Hansard)

I would support local enquiries, but the idea that local councils who are usually part of the problem (and are under funded) could achieve what no one else has been able to do is (although not really funny) laughable.

That was one of the points made by Katie Lam.

I suspect both parties are partially correct.

It does look like Labour are quietly avoiding the subject of the gangs, and it also looks like the Conservatives are focusing intently on gangs to the exclusion of the bigger picture.

No idea what the solution is. Let's hope the new authority has some teeth and is clear sighted.

The government hasnt the money to deliver a suitable enquiry.

And, lets face it, no-one in the government is going to stand up for white working class girls against the Muslim vote in those constituencies. If they had the money, they wouldnt want to look too closely.

Now for abusive fathers to be subjected to more thorough SS investigations when a disclosure is made by a child!! Surely this is a FAR bigger and more widespread problem, institutionalised by a misogynistic legal system

I agree that Baroness Casey is just a useful peer to be wheeled out when the government wants a plausible whitewash. It is very disappointing.

It’s disgraceful, there is no way local authorities can investigate themselves. A national enquiry will look at patterns and systemic failures.

A national enquiry has already taken place - and recommendations made that have not been implemented for years

More recent calls for another national enquiry have been rejected on the basis that such an enquiry requires any changes to be stopped. The current government has begun the push to implement recomendations from the existing national enquiry

Trevor Phillips (former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission) calls the government's abandonment of the enquiries "utterly, utterly shameful”.

https://x.com/TimesRadio/status/1909902326556483832

Times article:

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/government-accused-of-watering-down-grooming-gang-inquiries-plans-9vkbhqvfb

https://archive.ph/GBs9O

'The Home Office minister Jess Phillips confirmed in the Commons that the government would allow local councils to choose how to use a £5 million national fund.
The fund was <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/GBs9O/www.thetimes.com/article/yvette-cooper-local-grooming-gang-investigations-x85v9rxdg" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">announced in January by Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, with the aim of supporting up to five initial local inquiries based on the judge-led one into grooming gangs in Telford.
In an announcement on Tuesday just 45 minutes before parliament broke for recess, <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/GBs9O/www.thetimes.com/topic/jess-phillips" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Philips said that “following feedback”, the government would adopt a “flexible approach” to its plans for local grooming gang inquiries. She added that this could mean full independent local inquiries, but could also include “more bespoke work, including local victims’ panels or locally led audits of the handling of historical cases”.
Home Office sources insisted that the change did not mean the original five inquiries would not go ahead, but said that the decision followed consultations with local areas. Critics, however, accused ministers of backtracking.'

I also forgot to include this detail yesterday:

'A new criminal offence will be introduced for obstructing the reporting of abuse'

IICSA report, for completeness:

https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/inquiry/final-report/executive-summary.html

I think there is a real unwillingness to look too closely at this issue. The previous inquiry did not examine one of the most important elements of this, which is the fact that most of the perpetrators came from a specific culture and targeted a different, specific group of girls. This is hugely important because it’s probably still happening in cities in the UK and it won’t stop happening until it is understood and tackled properly.

It’s hard to imagine a similar lack of robust action in other circumstances. Imagine there were reports that all over the UK, a particular group of men (say, chicken factory workers) were selecting young, vulnerable Nigerian girls and were complicit with grooming, rape and even murder. Imagine the girls were targeted because of their race, were racially abused and were passed between men in the factory. Imagine if in some cases, the factory management were aware and even involved. Imagine if the regulatory bodies overseeing the factories knew and turned a blind eye. There would be inquiries, sackings, factories would be shut down. People wouldn’t hesitate.

No one wants to say ‘we think this particular element of culture in this particular group of Pakistani men should be condemned and all possible measures taken to stop it’. It’s odd because when communities are doing things to their own girls (FGM, forced marriage, child marriage) we have no problem acting. Why is this different?

Trevor Phillips: 'It is so obviously political ... people who in govt who are responsible for this who are in other ways [completely?] decent people should really be ashamed of themselves. It's so obvious they're not doing this because of the demographic of the people involved - uh, as Katie Lamb, the Tory MP says yesterday, largely pakistani muslim background, and also in Labour-held seats and councils, who would be offended by it, and that's clearly the reason that they're not pursuing this, and it is utterly shameful given what has been done to these children by these men. I cannot tell you how cross I am about it'.

I am in complete agreement with Trevor Phillips. Labour's position is shameful.

And it will not decrease societal tensions: will just again feel some are more equal than others

Local councils? We already know that individuals running those gangs are on the local councils.

Exactly.

I can understand the need to try and avoid any exacerbation of community tensions. This is not going to help.

A repeated factor with these gangs is the use of taxis. Who issues taxi licences?

Taxis and fast food places.

I fully fully support proper enquiries for these girls. It's quite likely some politicians and police who helped cover it up are still employed and many other areas were as bad as Rotherham. Never again. There's also still the possibility of prosecutions.

R.e. taxis it reminds me of a local news story of how known sex offenders were given taxi licences where I used to live: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-29118949 A committee were shown the offences and still gave them a licence. No consequences for them.

Labour are scared of losing the Muslim vote. They'd rather turn a blind eye.

We need to ask ourselves how the U.K. has got to the point where our politicians will not investigate mass gang rape and torture of white and Sikh vulnerable minors for fear of upsetting Pakistani male rapists and their supporters.

The cover up is a disgrace.
The last ‘inquiry’ had many failures.
Trevor Phillips is spot on.
Katie Lam was excellent.
Lowes crowdfunder may amount to nothing but good on someone for trying and at the very least keeping it in the public domain.

One of the victims from Dewsbury was told by her rapist: “We're here to fuck all the white girls and fuck the Government.” This sounds like they rape and torture to demoralise the population and cause a problem for the authority. Why?

We need to know why so many men were prepared to gang rape. Why they gang raped with family - brothers and fathers. Is watching your family rape and torture someone normal? How do people get to this point. A one off family is disgusting. But this was in multiple towns with so many men. It seems common. Why didn’t others report them?

We need to know which officials covered it up and why. They need prosecuting too.

We also need to know why so many law abiding citizens are prepared to still sweep this under the carpet in the name of multiculturalism.

White girls were tortured and raped on a very large scale. This will have ruined numerous lives. (It costs the UK state money in medical, law, lost future income etc if you want to look at more widespread impact). Labour and anyone defending or rug sweeping should be ashamed of themselves. These are serious widespread crimes committed on white girls and Sikh girls.

If this is where we are in 2025 where will be be in 5 years? 10 years? 15? Because it’s not looking a like great future for women and girls.

If anyone hasn’t heard Lam in parliament it’s worth a listen.

The local, law abiding citizens have silenced, threatened and vilified for decades whenever they try to speak up. They move away if they can or keep their heads down and keep quiet.

The national enquiry that was held looked into the general theme of child abuse, focusing on areas like the Church. The grooming gangs received about one page of investigation and looked at one specific area in the country over a specific three year period.

Essentially there has never been a national enquiry into grooming gangs, people who claim that there has been are people who do not want this issue investigated.

Seems like Birmingham MP Jess Phillips is doing so much recently, not bothering with the bin problems in her constituency and not helping sexual abuse victims as her role of safeguarding minister.

Watch the video below and you'll understand what is actually happening and why Labour don't want to go anywhere near it: