Overview
- Sir Keir Starmer has reversed months of resistance by accepting Baroness Louise Casey’s recommendation for a full national probe into organised child sexual exploitation
- The inquiry will be established under the Inquiries Act, giving it authority to compel witnesses and demand documents
- Casey’s review highlighted that authorities often ignored white British girls to avoid accusations of racism and lacked a national framework for investigating gang-based abuse
- Public pressure, including criticism from tech entrepreneur Elon Musk earlier this year, prompted the government to commission Casey’s audit and reconsider its stance
- A national task force will revisit almost 300 closed grooming cases as part of the inquiry’s remit to assess how victims were failed