Overview

• Baroness Casey’s audit found authorities displayed “blindness, ignorance and prejudice” and recorded suspect ethnicity in only one-third of grooming gang cases.
• Prime Minister Keir Starmer reversed his earlier opposition and accepted all 12 audit recommendations to launch a statutory inquiry under the Inquiries Act.
• The inquiry will coordinate at least five planned local investigations within a defined timeframe and has powers to compel evidence from public bodies.
• The National Crime Agency will lead a nationwide operation to review and investigate over 1,000 child sexual abuse cases previously closed without prosecution.
• New legal measures will mandate collection of suspect nationality and ethnicity data, require automatic rape charges for adults having sex with under-16s, and bar convicted offenders from the asylum system.