Overview

• Greater Manchester Police’s dedicated CSE Major Investigation Team, established in 2021 with around 100 staff and a ring-fenced budget, remains central to grooming gang inquiries.
• The July HMICFRS report confirms GMP is conducting 59 live multi-victim, multi-offender child exploitation investigations involving 714 victims and 1,099 suspects.
• Since forming the specialist unit, investigations have yielded 42 convictions with offenders sentenced to more than 430 years in prison.
• Inspectors pinpoint significant training shortfalls in investigation teams and note that heavily redacted or delayed data from councils has hindered inquiries.
• With trust still fractured among survivors, the force must pursue victim-led reforms as it faces a new statutory national inquiry into systemic child sexual exploitation.