The UK government on Thursday announced a “rapid” national review of the extent of sexual exploitation of children by grooming gangs and several new local inquiries into cases of abuse.
The issue was at the centre of a political firestorm earlier this month when a war of words broke out between US tech billionaire Elon Musk and Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The row relates to sex offences going back decades against British girls by men of mostly South Asian origin in various northern English towns.
Interior minister Yvette Cooper said parliament that she had ordered a three-month “rapid audit of the current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country.”
The review will look at “cultural and societal drivers” of child sex abuse and “properly examine ethnicity data and the demographics of the gangs involved and their victims,” she added.
She added that several local reviews — similar to ones that have already taken place — would also be launched, rejecting calls by the opposition Conservative party for a new national inquiry.
“As we have seen, effective local inquiries can delve into far more local detail and deliver more locally relevant answers, and change, than a lengthy nationwide inquiry can provide,” Cooper said.
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