Grooming gangs (group-based child sexual exploitation)

The appalling lack of data on ethnicity in crime recording alone is a major failing over the last decade or more. Questions about ethnicity have been asked but dodged for years.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Foreword; p.4

Child sexual exploitation is horrendous whoever commits it, but there have been enough convictions across the country of groups of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds to have warranted closer examination. Instead of examination, we have seen obfuscation. In a vacuum, incomplete and unreliable data is used to suit the ends of those presenting it. The system claims there is an overwhelming problem with White perpetrators when that can’t be proved. This does no one any favours at all, and least of all those in the Asian, Pakistani or Muslim communities who needlessly suffer as those with malicious intent use this obfuscation to sow and spread hatred. Debates take place while the victims are left forgotten, a sideshow as data is used to suit each sides’ own ends. No one in the last decade has established the truth one way or another, eroding the very trust in our institutions which we need.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Foreword; p.4-5

We were unable to provide an assessment on the scale of group-based child sexual exploitation. There is no recent study of the prevalence of child sexual abuse and exploitation in the population. Confusing and inconsistently applied definitions and incomplete data across the police, local authorities, health and the criminal justice system, obscure it. The concept of ‘grooming gangs’, while well-known to the public, is not captured clearly in any official data set.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Executive summary: The scale of child sexual exploitation; p.6

Around 500,000 children a year are likely to experience child sexual abuse (of any kind). However, for the vast majority, their abuse is not identified, and it is not reported to the police either at the time or later.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Executive summary: The scale of child sexual exploitation; p.6

Police recorded crime data shows just over 100,000 offences of child sexual abuse and exploitation recorded in 2024, with around 60% of these being contact offences (and the remainder online offences). Of these contact offences, an estimated 17,100 are ‘flagged’ by police as child sexual exploitation in police recorded crime data.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Executive summary: The scale of child sexual exploitation; p.6

The only figure on group-based child sexual exploitation comes from a new police dataset (called the Complex and Organised Child Abuse Dataset - COCAD) which, while suffering a number of limitations, has identified around 700 recorded offences of group-based child sexual exploitation in 2023. Given how under-reported child sexual exploitation is, the flaws in the data collection and the confusing and inconsistently applied definitions, it is highly unlikely that this accurately reflects the true scale of child sexual exploitation, or group-based exploitation. It is a failure of public policy over many years that there remains such limited, reliable data in this area.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Executive summary: The scale of child sexual exploitation; p.6-7

Grooming gangs are often loosely interconnected, based around existing social connections and so are often broadly homogenous in age, ethnic background and socioeconomic status.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Executive summary: The nature of group-based child sexual exploitation; p.7

National police data confirms that the majority of victims of child sexual exploitation are girls (78% in 2023) with the most common age for victims being between 10 and 15 years old (57% in 2023). Most perpetrators are men (76% in 2023).

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Executive summary: Victims and perpetrators of group-based child sexual exploitation; p.8

The ethnicity data collected for victims and perpetrators of group-based child sexual exploitation is not sufficient to allow any conclusions to be drawn at the national level.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Executive summary: Victims and perpetrators of group-based child sexual exploitation; p.8

The latest data (COCAD) covers all child sexual abuse and exploitation committed by two or more perpetrators. It therefore includes a wide range of offending including familial abuse, child-on-child abuse, abuse in institutions as well as group-based child sexual exploitation. That obscures the picture.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Executive summary: Victims and perpetrators of group-based child sexual exploitation; p.8

We found that the ethnicity of perpetrators is shied away from and is still not recorded for two-thirds of perpetrators, so we are unable to provide any accurate assessment from the nationally collected data.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Executive summary: Ethnicity of perpetrators; p.8

Despite the lack of a full picture in the national data sets, there is enough evidence available in local police data in three police force areas which we examined which show disproportionate numbers of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds amongst suspects for group-based child sexual exploitation, as well as in the significant number of perpetrators of Asian ethnicity identified in local reviews and high-profile child sexual exploitation prosecutions across the country, to at least warrant further examination.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Executive summary: Ethnicity of perpetrators; p.8

Child protection plans (where children have been identified as needing protection from significant harm) on the grounds of sexual abuse, have fallen to their lowest level in 30 years. There is no data published by children’s services about group-based child sexual exploitation.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Executive summary: Data about child sexual exploitation in other services; p.8

Despite reviews, reports and inquiries raising questions about men from Asian or Pakistani backgrounds grooming and sexually exploiting young White girls, the system has consistently failed to fully acknowledge this or collect accurate data so it can be examined effectively. Instead, flawed data is used repeatedly to dismiss claims about ‘Asian grooming gangs’ as sensationalised, biased or untrue. This does a disservice to victims and indeed all law-abiding people in Asian communities and plays into the hands of those who want to exploit it to sow division.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Executive summary: Denial; p.9

This audit was commissioned by the Prime Minister and Home Secretary in February 2025 to evaluate our understanding of the scale, nature and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) at a national and local level.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 1, 1.1 The Audit; p.13

The field work for this audit was carried out in March, April and May 2025. Reviewers conducted visits, met with survivors, police, local authorities and other organisations and individuals. This audit reviewed a raft of material including serious case reviews, police problem profiles, a range of published research and data, and conducted some further reviews and analysis of national and local reports, data and other information provided from local agencies as part of this audit.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 1, 1.1 The Audit; p.13-14

Police problem profiles are intelligence reports produced by forces in respect of specific crime threats. The reports have been shared with the audit team: we have reviewed 33 problem profiles.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 3, 3.6.4 Police problem profiles; p.59

This audit did not inspect or review the performance of services responsible for safeguarding.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 5 introduction; p.88

The COCAD dataset analyses group-based offending (where there are two or more offenders). They exclude all non-contact offending (largely indecent images of children). This shows that in 2023, there were 4,228 group-based contact child sexual abuse offences across England and Wales, of which 719 reported offences (17% of all group-based child sexual abuse offences) were classified as child sexual exploitation. The other group-based offences were categorised as familial (26%), institutional such as churches, schools and sports clubs (9%), other (39%) or unknown (9%). ‘Other’ in this category is largely attributable to children abusing children which we discuss below.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 3, 3.6.3; p.57-58

Data is collected at the end of each quarter of a year, including any crimes recorded in that quarter. The data is not updated subsequently so can only provide a ‘snapshot’ picture of the information as it stands at the end of each quarter. This means the ‘oldest’ a case can be is three months (most will be newer), when investigations will still be in their infancy and limited in the amount of information that has been captured. The consequence of this on the data is that it may be an under-count of group-based offending, as the presence of additional offenders – and demographic information about them or the victims - might only come to light as an investigation progresses.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 3, Caveats on the COCAD data; p.58

A notable amount of data is missing. For example, data on ethnicity of victims and perpetrators continues to be very poor (an issue explored in Chapter 4).

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 3, Caveats on the COCAD data; p.58

While the work of the CSE Taskforce is an important step forward, the COCAD data remains heavily caveated.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 3, Caveats on the COCAD data; p.58

As we have discussed in this chapter: Child sexual abuse as a whole is under-reported. An estimate suggests that 500,000 children experience sexual abuse each year. Police recorded crime shows just over 100,000 offences of child sexual abuse and exploitation recorded annually, with around two thirds (68%) of these being contact offences. Of these contact offences an estimated 17,100 are ‘flagged’ as child sexual exploitation in police recorded crime data. The COCAD dataset, while suffering a number of limitations, has identified around 700 recorded offences of group-based child sexual exploitation in 2023. It is highly unlikely that these data reflect the true scale of child sexual exploitation, or group-based exploitation.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 3, 3.7 Conclusion on scale; p.60

Most victims are girls (78% in 2023, based on 88% of sex recorded, COCAD).

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4 summary: Characteristics; p.61

Most perpetrators are men (76% in 2023, based on 72% of gender recorded, COCAD).

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4 summary: Characteristics; p.61

In 2023, 39% of suspects were aged 10-15, while 18% were aged 18-29. This younger age profile is likely to be a result of the increase in online offending, child-on-child offending, and increased reporting of offences through schools. Therefore, it may not reflect a change in the age profile of members of ‘grooming gangs’.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4 summary: Characteristics; p.61

Ethnicity is shied away from despite being a question for many years and is still not recorded for two-thirds of perpetrators.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4 summary: Characteristics; p.61

Rates of collection and accuracy of ethnicity data were much higher in police data from Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. Their data shows there has been a disproportionality of group-based child sexual exploitation offending by men of Asian ethnicity in these police force areas.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4 summary: Characteristics; p.61

With nearly two thirds of ethnicity data missing for victims in the VKPP report and over half data missing in COCAD, it is not possible to draw any conclusions on the representation of ethnic groups from this published data set. This audit took the same published data set and reconfigured it. If victims for whom ethnicity was not known or declared are included in the data and percentage breakdowns, the figures look very different with victims known to be White accounting for 39% of all victims.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.3.4 Victim Ethnicity; p.71-72

The national data on ethnicity recorded against suspects is poor, whether collected through self-definition or ethnic appearance[footnote 129]. It is not good enough to support any statements about the ethnicity of group-based child sexual exploitation offenders at the national level.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.3.8 Perpetrator Ethnicity; p.74

In the November 2024 CSE Taskforce COCAD report, self-defined ethnicity data was published for all ‘contact’ group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse crimes in 2023 where two or more suspects had been identified (including offending in family, institutional and other settings). It also outlined an ethnicity profile for suspects that aligns fairly closely with 2021 Census data for the general population in England and Wales[footnote 132] (88% White, 7% Asian, 5% Black, 3% Mixed and 2% Other), with a caveat noted in the report that self-defined ethnicity was only recorded for 34% of suspects.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.3.8 Perpetrator Ethnicity; p.75

With over two thirds of ethnicity data missing for perpetrators in the VKPP report and nearly two thirds missing in COCAD, it is not possible to draw any conclusions on the representation of ethnic groups amongst perpetrators from this published data set. This audit took the same published data set and reconfigured it. If perpetrators for whom ethnicity was not known or declared are included in the data and percentage breakdowns, the figures look very different, with 28% of perpetrators identifying as White:

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.3.8 Perpetrator Ethnicity; p.75

Presenting the data without the ‘unknowns’ where the identification of ethnicity is at such a low level is misleading.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.3.8 Perpetrator Ethnicity; p.75

VKPP and COCAD reports on child sexual abuse and exploitation data were not available at the time the Home Office published their paper but, as discussed earlier in this chapter, their data does not include sufficient ethnicity data to conclude that the majority of offenders are White. Given this, we also find it hard to understand how the Home Office reached the conclusion in their paper that the ethnicity of group-based child sexual exploitation offenders is likely to be in line with child sexual abuse more generally and with the general population i.e. “with the majority of offenders being White”.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4; p.79

In our review of 50 local Serious Case Reviews and Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (discussed further in Chapter 5) which arose from cases of child sexual exploitation involving multiple offenders. The ethnicity of perpetrators could be identified in fifteen cases, either by the review itself, or open-source research.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Local Serious Case Reviews and prosecutions; p.79

The ethnicity of perpetrators could be identified in fifteen cases, either by the review itself, or open-source research. These are listed in Annex E: ten involved perpetrators of predominantly Asian or Pakistani ethnicity (in Buckinghamshire, Bradford, Calderdale, Derby, Oxfordshire, Peterborough, three cases in Rochdale, and Rotherham); one case involved perpetrators predominantly from a range of ethnic minority backgrounds including Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian, Iranian, Iraqi, Kurdish, Turkish, Albanian and Eastern European (in Newcastle); one case involved Black perpetrators (in West Sussex); one involved Turkish perpetrators (in Somerset); one involved Somali perpetrators (in Bristol); and one involved White perpetrators (in Torbay). While not representative of a national picture, it was notable that the majority of these involved perpetrators from Asian and Pakistani ethnic backgrounds.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Local Serious Case Reviews and prosecutions; p.79-80

While the data below is not nationally representative, the more significantly disproportionate over-representation of suspects of Asian ethnicity compared to the local population demography warrants further investigation.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Local police force data and intelligence; p.80

Following a number of major child sexual exploitation cases in local authority areas across Greater Manchester (e.g. in Rochdale and Oldham), the Greater Manchester Police Force established a Major Investigations Team (MIT) to oversee complex cases. Following an audit team visit to Greater Manchester Police, the MIT shared data with us on the cases it had been overseeing. The MIT apply a different definition for child sexual exploitation to the one applied by Hydrant for COCAD data. The MIT record cases where child sexual exploitation involves either multiple (two or more) offenders or multiple victims.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Greater Manchester; p.80

Within 61 multi-victim/multi-offender child sexual exploitation investigations, there are 269 known suspects.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Greater Manchester; p.81

Within 35 group-based child sexual exploitation investigations, there are 243 known suspects.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Greater Manchester; p.81

There is a disproportionately higher Asian ethnicity and disproportionately lower White ethnicity identified in suspects across Greater Manchester Police MIT and District investigations (drawn from the tables above) compared with the Census data on the general population of Greater Manchester, and in comparison with COCAD[footnote 137] data for all police forces. These comparisons are set out in the table below:

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Greater Manchester; p.82

These data show that child sexual exploitation suspects in Greater Manchester are more than twice as likely to be of Asian ethnicity compared to the proportion of the Asian population in the area (52% to 54% in GMP suspect data compared to 20.9% in Census 2021 data for Greater Manchester).

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Greater Manchester; p.82

Child sexual exploitation suspects in Greater Manchester are also over seven times more likely to be of Asian ethnicity compared to all suspects of Asian ethnicity for group-based CSAE in COCAD data across England and Wales for whom ethnicity is recorded (52% to 54% compared to 7%), although the very low recording of ethnicity in the COCAD data is likely to have an impact on that comparison.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Greater Manchester; p.82

Notably, in relation to comparison with the COCAD data, the Greater Manchester data has recorded ethnicity for all suspects, compared with 34% for COCAD 2023 data.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Greater Manchester; p.83

Greater Manchester Police also provided data on the ethnicity of suspects for all open child sexual abuse crimes across the Greater Manchester area (May 2025) with a recorded date between January 2022 and February 2025. These totalled 781 cases, with 594 individual victims and 908 individual suspects.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Greater Manchester; p.83

Greater Manchester Police also provided data on the ethnicity of suspects for all open child sexual abuse crimes across the Greater Manchester area (May 2025) with a recorded date between January 2022 and February 2025. These totalled 781 cases, with 594 individual victims and 908 individual suspects. The ethnicity breakdown for suspects is shown in the table below. This suggests that, in Greater Manchester at least, there is an over-representation of suspects of Asian ethnicity in cases of group-based child sexual exploitation, whereas when you look more broadly across all child sex abuse offences, the ethnicity profile is much closer to that of the local population.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Greater Manchester; p.83

Greater Manchester Police provided this audit with data obtained over a 3-year period from January 2022 to May 2025 inclusive, covering 35 group-based child sexual exploitation operations (matching the CSE Taskforce’s definition of group-based offending). Within the 35 investigations, there are 317 known victims.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.3.4 Victim Ethnicity, Local data; p.72

West Yorkshire Police also provided a breakdown of the ethnicity of group-based child sexual exploitation victims across its area between 2020 and 2024, which is summarised in the following table:

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.3.4 Victim Ethnicity, Local data; p.73

Self-defined ethnicity was recorded for a total of 1,173 suspects (just over three-quarters) identified over the period, of whom 1,061 were male and 106 female.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 West Yorkshire; p.84

The percentage of suspects of Asian ethnicity (35%) and White ethnicity (34%) compares with an ethnicity profile for West Yorkshire[footnote 141] of 16% Asian and 77% White, suggesting a disproportionate over-representation of people of Asian ethnic background (roughly double) and disproportionately under-representation of people of White ethnicity (roughly half) amongst child sexual exploitation suspects in West Yorkshire over the period examined.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 West Yorkshire; p.84

The first pie chart below shows the ethnic breakdown for a total of 323 designated CSAE suspects in Operation Stovewood, with nearly two-thirds recorded as coming from a Pakistani ethnic background, significantly higher than the proportion of South Yorkshire’s or Rotherham’s Pakistani ethnic population (2.4%[footnote 142] and 4%[footnote 143] respectively):

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 National Crime Agency – Operation Stovewood (Rotherham); p.85

Finally, it is important to have strong working arrangements with specialist services within the Crown Prosecution Service to get cases to trial. For example, CPS staff are integrated within the multi-disciplinary Stovewood team, along with the Trauma and Resilience Service described above. In addition, the central specialist CPS team, the Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit (OCSAU), handles complex child abuse cases from across the country. This has improved criminal justice outcomes for example, for Stovewood, out of 83 individuals charged in total, 42 have been convicted, 2 died before trial, and 12 were acquitted - resulting in a conviction rate of 73%[footnote 178].

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 5; p.116

During the course of this audit, we saw evidence of around a dozen live, complex, group-based child sexual exploitation police operations, the full details of which cannot be included in this report so as not to prejudice any future criminal justice outcomes. While the future outcomes of these investigations remain unknown, and the number of live, open cases we had access to was limited, this audit noted that a significant proportion of these cases appear to involve suspects who are non-UK nationals and/or who are claiming asylum in the UK.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Live police operations; p.86

A number of live operations, including some of those reported to us by the Metropolitan Police Service, report an overlap between child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation. We cannot and should not draw any conclusions from individual nationalities or cultures alone. The profile of these cases, both in relation to the nationality and ethnicity of perpetrators and links to other forms of crime and exploitation, are important reminders of the need to continually examine and improve our understanding of the nature of offending, in order to see it, prevent it and tackle it effectively.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.4 Live police operations; p.86

More effort is required to identify the nature of group-based child sexual exploitation and why it appears men of Asian and Pakistani ethnicity are disproportionately represented in some areas, in order to understand it better, and to tackle it more effectively.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Chapter 4, 4.5 Conclusions on ethnicity of perpetrators; p.87

Recommendation 1: The law in England and Wales should be changed so adults who intentionally penetrate the vagina, anus or mouth of a child under 16 receive mandatory charges of rape.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Conclusions and Recommendations; p.150

Recommendation 2: A national police operation and national inquiry, co-ordinating a series of targeted investigations should be launched into child sexual exploitation in England and Wales.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Conclusions and Recommendations; p.150

Recommendation 3: Review the criminal convictions of victims of child sexual exploitation. Quash any convictions where the government finds victims were criminalised instead of protected.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Conclusions and Recommendations; p.152

Recommendation 4: The government should make mandatory the collection of ethnicity and nationality data for all suspects in child sexual abuse and criminal exploitation cases and work with the police to improve the collection of ethnicity data for victims. Policing should be held to account for its performance in collecting this data, including through the new police performance framework. This reiterates an IICSA recommendation that police forces and local authorities in England and Wales must collect data on all cases of known or suspected child sexual exploitation and child sexual exploitation by networks.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Conclusions and Recommendations (text under Recommendation 4); p.152

Recommendation 5: Mandatory sharing of information should be enforced between all statutory safeguarding partners in cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation. Compliance should be monitored by the inspectorates and overseen by the proposed Child Protection Authority.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Conclusions and Recommendations; p.153

Recommendation 6: The Department for Education should move swiftly to introduce unique reference numbers for children to improve opportunities for agencies to better share their information about children at risk of child sexual abuse.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Conclusions and Recommendations; p.153

Recommendation 7: Police information systems should be upgraded. These systems should also provide for the use of the unique reference numbers for children which are being introduced by the Department for Education.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Conclusions and Recommendations; p.153

Recommendation 8: Child Sexual Exploitation investigations should be approached like Serious and Organised Crime.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Conclusions and Recommendations; p.153

Recommendation : The Department for Education should urgently interrogate child protection data to identify the causes of the decline in child sexual abuse and exploitation representation in child in need assessment data; examine the reasons for variations across local authorities; and review the effectiveness of Serious Incident Notifications in relation to child sexual abuse and exploitation.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Conclusions and Recommendations; p.154

Recommendation 10: The government should commission research into the drivers for group-based child sexual exploitation, including online offending, cultural factors and the role of the group.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Conclusions and Recommendations; p.154

Recommendation 11: The Department for Transport should take immediate action to put a stop to ‘out of area taxis’ and bring in more rigorous statutory standards for local authority licensing and regulation of taxi drivers.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Conclusions and Recommendations; p.154

Recommendation 12: The government should commit to fully resourcing the implementation of these recommendations over multiple years and to tracking their implementation across departments and other organisations, with regular reports to Parliament.

National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Home Office (independent report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock DBE CB), Conclusions and Recommendations; p.154

We will therefore accept all 12 recommendations from Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation, which will build upon the significant workstreams already underway to tackle this heinous offending, to get justice for victims and survivors, and to get perpetrators behind bars.

Government response to the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse report, Home Office, Opening passage (no heading; second of the two paragraphs before 'Recommendation 1')

Since January, as a result of the new investment and policy approach announced by the Home Secretary, over 800 grooming gangs cases that were originally dropped by the police have now been identified for formal review, with police forces being asked to re-open investigations and pursue new lines of inquiry, where appropriate, in order to get more perpetrators behind bars.

Government response to the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse report, Home Office, Recommendation 2: A national criminal investigation

Government response: We will make it a requirement for the police to collect ethnicity and nationality data of perpetrators of group-based CSE.

Government response to the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse report, Home Office, Recommendation 4

To address the woefully inadequate existing data on ethnicity of perpetrators, in January the Home Secretary asked the CSE Taskforce to work with police forces to change their recording practices so that ethnicity data is collected from closed cases (when more suspects may have been identified and more information may have come to light), as well as when cases are first opened. An initial pilot of this approach conducted by the CSE Taskforce using the data of eight police forces has significantly improved the collection of ethnicity data for suspects.

Government response to the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse report, Home Office, Recommendation 4

The Home Office will appoint an independent reviewer to lead a programme of research across communities, academia and public institutions, examining the cultural and social drivers of child sexual exploitation, misogyny and violence against women and girls, looking at different ethnicities and age groups, and different modes of offending.

Government response to the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse report, Home Office, Recommendation 10

The inquiry will be chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (oral statement to Parliament), Home Office and The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP (Home Secretary), Oral statement, 9 December 2025

As many in this place will know, Baroness Longfield was the Children’s Commissioner from 2015 to 2021.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (oral statement to Parliament), Home Office and The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP (Home Secretary), Oral statement, 9 December 2025

In recognition of her service, Baroness Longfield was elevated to the Lords earlier this year. At that point, she took the Labour whip, which, on taking up this appointment, she will now resign.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (oral statement to Parliament), Home Office and The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP (Home Secretary), Oral statement, 9 December 2025

Alongside her, I can also announce her two fellow panellists. The first is Zoë Billingham CBE. Zoë is a former Inspector at His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, and currently serves as Chair of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (oral statement to Parliament), Home Office and The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP (Home Secretary), Oral statement, 9 December 2025

The second panellist is Eleanor Kelly CBE. Eleanor is the former Chief Executive of Southwark Council.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (oral statement to Parliament), Home Office and The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP (Home Secretary), Oral statement, 9 December 2025

Together, the Chair and panel bring deep experience of championing children’s rights, knowledge of policing and local government, and, crucially, a proven track record of holding powerful institutions to account. Each individual was recommended by Baroness Casey.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (oral statement to Parliament), Home Office and The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP (Home Secretary), Oral statement, 9 December 2025

Baroness Casey was clear this inquiry must be time-limited to ensure justice is swift for those who have already waited too long. For that reason, it will be completed within three years, supported by a £65 million budget.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (oral statement to Parliament), Home Office and The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP (Home Secretary), Oral statement, 9 December 2025

The inquiry is focused, specifically, on child sexual abuse committed by grooming gangs. It will consider, explicitly, the background of offenders – including their ethnicity and religion – and whether the authorities failed to properly investigate what happened out of a misplaced desire to protect community cohesion.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (oral statement to Parliament), Home Office and The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP (Home Secretary), Oral statement, 9 December 2025

I can announce today that I have commissioned new research from UK Research and Innovation to rectify the unacceptable gaps in our understanding of perpetrators’ backgrounds and motivations, including their ethnicity and religion.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (oral statement to Parliament), Home Office and The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP (Home Secretary), Oral statement, 9 December 2025

My predecessor wrote to all police forces calling on them to improve the collection of ethnicity data, and while the Home Secretary does not currently have the power to mandate that this is collected, I will rectify this by legislating at the earliest possible opportunity.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (oral statement to Parliament), Home Office and The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP (Home Secretary), Oral statement, 9 December 2025

Last month the National Crime Agency launched Operation Beaconport, reviewing previously closed cases of child sexual exploitation. It has already flagged more than 1,200 cases for potential reinvestigation, more than 200 of which are high-priority cases of rape.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (oral statement to Parliament), Home Office and The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP (Home Secretary), Oral statement, 9 December 2025

This Inquiry responds to Recommendation 2 of Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (June 2025) (the ‘National Audit’), which called for a time limited, targeted and proportionate inquiry into cases of failures or obstruction by statutory services in relevant local areas.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 1.2

Under the terms of the Inquiries Act 2005, the Inquiry is unable to determine criminal or civil liability. For all criminal allegations or evidence from 1996 to the end of the Inquiry a referral will be made to Operation Beaconport – an operation that was recommended in Baroness Casey’s National Audit and which is overseen by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 1.3

The formal setting-up date of the Inquiry, as per section 5(1)(a) of the Inquiries Act 2005, is 13 April 2026.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 1.5

Group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse is a kind of child sexual abuse, involving two or more perpetrators who are connected through formal or informal associations who are involved in or facilitate the sexual exploitation and abuse of children.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 3.2

The Inquiry must examine the factors that allowed or caused exploitation and abuse to happen and go unaddressed at a local and national level - including the role of ethnicity, religion and culture of perpetrators and victims. This must include examining the response of statutory bodies and any issues of denial, as discussed in the National Audit.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 4.3

The Inquiry should take account of findings from new research commissioned by the Home Office in response to Recommendation 10 of the National Audit, which will explicitly examine the role of ethnicity, religion and culture, when considering the factors that drive and enable group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 4.4

To fulfil its purpose, the Inquiry will deliver the following focused objectives through local investigations and a national review.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 4.5

Specifically, the Inquiry must consider (as decided by the Chair and Panel for each local inquiry): [...] whether ethnicity, religion or culture played a role in the causes and response; and

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 4.6.2

The Inquiry will cover England and Wales.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 5.1

The Inquiry must examine issues arising between 1 January 1996 and 31 March 2029.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 5.5

The criteria used to select local areas will be published by the Inquiry within three months of the formal setting-up date and will be informed by a combination of factors including the experiences of victims and survivors, and evidence of prevalence, harm and risk.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 5.6

The Inquiry will be led by a Chair and two Panellists, appointed by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, under the Inquiries Act 2005.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 6.1

Within six months of the formal setting-up date of the Inquiry, Operation Beaconport and the Inquiry should jointly publish a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 6.5

The Inquiry will operate for no more than three years, within a budget of £65 million.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 6.6

The Inquiry will publish findings and recommendations for each local investigation (as set out in section 4.6) in accordance with the agreed timetable and aligned with the objectives set out above.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 7.1

The final report must be submitted to the Home Secretary by 31 March 2029.

Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs: terms of reference, Home Office, Terms of reference 7.3

The setting-up date of the Inquiry, as per section 5 of the Inquiries Act 2005, is 13 April 2026.

Commencement of the Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (written ministerial statement HCWS1492), UK Parliament (Home Office written statement by Shabana Mahmood MP), Written statement HCWS1492, 13 April 2026

The final Terms of Reference for the Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs were published on Gov.UK on Tuesday 31 March. This upheld our previous commitment to agree a Terms of Reference by the end of March. The interval between publication and formal commencement reflects the timing of Parliamentary recess.

Commencement of the Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (written ministerial statement HCWS1492), UK Parliament (Home Office written statement by Shabana Mahmood MP), Written statement HCWS1492, 13 April 2026

The Terms were agreed with the Chair and Panel following a period of consultation. This included an online open consultation, which received over 25,000 responses, direct engagement with victims and survivors across England and Wales and engagement with Parliamentarians.

Commencement of the Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs (written ministerial statement HCWS1492), UK Parliament (Home Office written statement by Shabana Mahmood MP), Written statement HCWS1492, 13 April 2026

The Inquiry is also naming the first areas for its specific local investigations: Oldham, Bradford and Keighley, and London. Further areas will be announced over the coming months.

Press release – Grooming Gangs Inquiry Announces National Accountability Hearings and First Local Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Press release, 24 June 2026

The Inquiry will also review whether institutions and individuals in other areas which have already had reviews into grooming gangs, such as Telford, Rochdale, Oxford and Rotherham, have implemented the changes recommended to them following those previous investigations.

Press release – Grooming Gangs Inquiry Announces National Accountability Hearings and First Local Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Press release, 24 June 2026

The first national accountability hearings will take place at the end of this year and will focus on national and local institutions and individuals responsible for supporting victims and survivors - the services that should have identified and stepped in when terrible atrocities and abuse were happening.

Press release – Grooming Gangs Inquiry Announces National Accountability Hearings and First Local Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Press release, 24 June 2026: National Public Accountability hearings

The Inquiry has identified more than 800 recommendations relating to grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation and abuse across previous reviews, reports and inquiries dating back to the 1990s. Its ongoing analysis indicates that there has been significant inconsistency in how these recommendations have been implemented.

Press release – Grooming Gangs Inquiry Announces National Accountability Hearings and First Local Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Press release, 24 June 2026: National Public Accountability hearings

The third part of the national accountability hearings will be to investigate tech companies and the role of technology in the exploitation of children by grooming gangs.

Press release – Grooming Gangs Inquiry Announces National Accountability Hearings and First Local Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Press release, 24 June 2026: National Public Accountability hearings

We will look at the role culture, ethnicity and religion may have played in the decisions that were taken, and whether some in authority were too squeamish to act.

Press release – Grooming Gangs Inquiry Announces National Accountability Hearings and First Local Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Press release, 24 June 2026 (quote from Zoë Billingham CBE)

The Inquiry formally began work on 31 March 2026 and has a maximum duration of three years.

Press release – Grooming Gangs Inquiry Announces National Accountability Hearings and First Local Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Press release, 24 June 2026: About the Inquiry

The Home Secretary appointed Baroness Anne Longfield CBE as Chair, with panellists Zoë Billingham CBE and Eleanor Kelly CBE, on 9 December 2025.

Press release – Grooming Gangs Inquiry Announces National Accountability Hearings and First Local Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Press release, 24 June 2026: About the Inquiry

Prior to the confirmation of the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference, it was agreed that Oldham would be prioritised for a local investigation.

Local Area Investigation Selection Criteria; Public Announcement on Initial Local Areas Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Local Area Investigation Selection Criteria, 1.1

The selection of a local area does not mean that the Inquiry has reached any conclusion about wrongdoing by any person, organisation or community in that area.

Local Area Investigation Selection Criteria; Public Announcement on Initial Local Areas Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Local Area Investigation Selection Criteria, 1.5

The Inquiry recognises that available data on grooming gangs and group-based child sexual exploitation is incomplete and inconsistent. A lack of recorded cases, convictions or prosecutions does not necessarily mean that abuse did not occur.

Local Area Investigation Selection Criteria; Public Announcement on Initial Local Areas Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Local Area Investigation Selection Criteria, 2.3

The selection of Oldham, Bradford and Keighley, and London reflects the Chair and Panel's judgement that early investigation of these areas to be of the highest priority in discharging its Terms of Reference. The Inquiry has not yet made findings about the nature or extent of abuse, institutional failings, or the responsibility of any individual or organisation in those areas.

Local Area Investigation Selection Criteria; Public Announcement on Initial Local Areas Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Public Announcement on Initial Local Areas Investigations (PDF heading: 'First Local Area Investigations'); p.1

The Inquiry recognises that the prevalence of grooming gangs and group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse is not clearly or consistently captured in any single dataset.

Local Area Investigation Selection Criteria; Public Announcement on Initial Local Areas Investigations, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Public Announcement on Initial Local Areas Investigations (PDF heading: 'First Local Area Investigations'); p.2

This opening phase of the national hearings in the Inquiry will take place at the end of 2026/beginning of 2027.

Outline of Scope: National Accountability Hearings, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Outline of Scope: National Accountability Hearings; PDF page 1 of 4 (no printed page numbers)

The first national hearings will include analysis of any role played by ethnicity, religion and culture as reasons why recommendations or changes were either not implemented at all, or only partially implemented.

Outline of Scope: National Accountability Hearings, The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Outline of Scope: National Accountability Hearings; PDF page 4 of 4 (no printed page numbers)

Applications for Core Participant status in relation to the National Accountability Hearings are open from 13 July 2026 and will close at 5pm on 14 August 2026.

Inquiry website news posts and pages (progress update 28 May 2026; National Listening Project 13 July 2026; August 2026 Newsletter 7 August 2026; letter to the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor, posted 7 August 2026; Documents and Hearings pages), The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, 'Inquiry launches National Listening Project...' (posted 13 July 2026)

The deadline for applications from victim and survivor organisations, representative groups, and individual victims and survivors has been extended by two weeks and will now close at 5pm on 28 August 2026.

Inquiry website news posts and pages (progress update 28 May 2026; National Listening Project 13 July 2026; August 2026 Newsletter 7 August 2026; letter to the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor, posted 7 August 2026; Documents and Hearings pages), The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, 'August 2026 Newsletter' (posted 7 August 2026)

In the autumn, we will also be starting one-to-one conversations with survivors who want to speak with us about their experience in more detail.

Inquiry website news posts and pages (progress update 28 May 2026; National Listening Project 13 July 2026; August 2026 Newsletter 7 August 2026; letter to the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor, posted 7 August 2026; Documents and Hearings pages), The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, 'August 2026 Newsletter' (posted 7 August 2026)

The Chair and Panel of The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs wrote to the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor on 23 July 2026 to share concerns raised directly by victims and survivors of grooming gangs about the potential early release of offenders convicted of serious sexual offences.

Inquiry website news posts and pages (progress update 28 May 2026; National Listening Project 13 July 2026; August 2026 Newsletter 7 August 2026; letter to the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor, posted 7 August 2026; Documents and Hearings pages), The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, 'Letter to the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor on concerns raised by victims and survivors about the early release of serious sexual offenders' (posted 7 August 2026)

The inquiry will publish details of preliminary and public hearings on this page. We will provide a timetable for open public hearings including details of how you can follow proceedings.

Inquiry website news posts and pages (progress update 28 May 2026; National Listening Project 13 July 2026; August 2026 Newsletter 7 August 2026; letter to the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor, posted 7 August 2026; Documents and Hearings pages), The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, Hearings page (accessed 27 September 2026)

In response to Recommendation 1, we have legislated in the Crime and Policing Act 2026 to create new offences in England and Wales covering rape and other penetrative sexual activity with a child under 16 by an adult regardless of apparent consent, where that adult did not reasonably believe that the child was aged 16 or over (as long as they are at least 13).

One year on: Government delivery of recommendations from Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (written ministerial statement HCWS115), UK Parliament (Home Office written statement by Shabana Mahmood MP), Written statement HCWS115, 16 June 2026 (Recommendation 1)

In response to Recommendation 2, we have established a national police operation into group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse, Operation BEACONPORT, overseen by the National Crime Agency and delivered in partnership with policing, backed by £37.7 million this year.

One year on: Government delivery of recommendations from Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (written ministerial statement HCWS115), UK Parliament (Home Office written statement by Shabana Mahmood MP), Written statement HCWS115, 16 June 2026 (Recommendation 2)

Last month, the Criminal Cases Review Commission referred its first conviction of a grooming gang victim to the courts since Baroness Casey’s Audit.

One year on: Government delivery of recommendations from Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (written ministerial statement HCWS115), UK Parliament (Home Office written statement by Shabana Mahmood MP), Written statement HCWS115, 16 June 2026 (Recommendation 3)

In response to Recommendation 4, we continue to work with police forces to improve collection of ethnicity data for suspects of these crimes, and we have committed – through the Police Reform White Paper – to legislate through the Police Reform Bill to ensure we have the necessary powers to mandate the collection of this and other forms of data. In the meantime, we will hold police forces to account for improving performance in the collection of this data as a priority.

One year on: Government delivery of recommendations from Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (written ministerial statement HCWS115), UK Parliament (Home Office written statement by Shabana Mahmood MP), Written statement HCWS115, 16 June 2026 (Recommendation 4)

In response to Recommendation 10, the Home Office has commissioned UK Research and Innovation to deliver independent research into the drivers of group‑based child sexual exploitation and abuse, including cultural factors, group dynamics and the role of online technologies. This will strengthen the national evidence base, enabling a more detailed understanding of the factors at play and support the development of more targeted and effective interventions. Calls for applications will launch soon.

One year on: Government delivery of recommendations from Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (written ministerial statement HCWS115), UK Parliament (Home Office written statement by Shabana Mahmood MP), Written statement HCWS115, 16 June 2026 (Recommendation 10)

Operation Beaconport will review cases where police forces (across England and Wales) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) made the decision to take no further action against suspects between 1 January 2010 and 31 March 2025, and will run alongside the national public inquiry, announced by the Government earlier this year.

Operation Beaconport: Hundreds of child abuse cases under review to prioritise victim and survivor voices, National Crime Agency, NCA news release, 5 November 2025

So far, 1,273 cases relating to allegations of group-based CSAE, identified by 23 police forces have been referred to the investigation team. Of these, 236 relate to allegations of rape, which Operation Beaconport is reviewing as a priority.

Operation Beaconport: Hundreds of child abuse cases under review to prioritise victim and survivor voices, National Crime Agency, NCA news release, 5 November 2025

Building on published advice and learning from across policing, the operation will develop an increased understanding of child sexual abuse as serious and organised crime, particularly offender networks and profiling, to understand the evidence gap around ethnicity data, as well as gender-based violence norms that are driving group-based child sexual exploitation to assist future investigations.

Operation Beaconport: Hundreds of child abuse cases under review to prioritise victim and survivor voices, National Crime Agency, NCA news release, 5 November 2025

At this early stage, the reviews have identified closed cases from eight force areas that may have viable lines of inquiry. The forces have been directed to reopen these cases, to determine the next steps in relation to any reinvestigation.

Operation Beaconport: Update on the national investigation into group-based child sexual abuse, National Crime Agency, NCA news release, 15 June 2026

Since Operation Beaconport commenced last year, police forces have gathered and submitted to the operation data relating to tens of thousands of investigations.

Operation Beaconport: Update on the national investigation into group-based child sexual abuse, National Crime Agency, NCA news release, 15 June 2026

The data collection has already led to the identification of new cases of suspected offending in four force areas, which is now being investigated by the appropriate forces.

Operation Beaconport: Update on the national investigation into group-based child sexual abuse, National Crime Agency, NCA news release, 15 June 2026

Operation Beaconport has already trained more than 800 police officers across England and Wales in victim-and-survivor-centred and trauma-informed approach.

Operation Beaconport: Update on the national investigation into group-based child sexual abuse, National Crime Agency, NCA news release, 15 June 2026

Some studies have indicated an over-representation of Asian and Black offenders. However, it is difficult to draw conclusions about the ethnicity of offenders as existing research is limited and data collection is poor.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Home Secretary's Foreword; p.3 (PDF page 5)

We looked at ten operations dating from 2013 to 2018, covering six of the ten police regions in England and Wales, and interviewed 26 professionals.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Approach, para 45; p.16 (PDF page 18)

It is important to note that the above projects were commissioned to inform policy decisions, not as part of a public-facing inquiry or review.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Approach, para 47; p.16 (PDF page 18)

The ERG also did not reach consensus around how the evidence should be presented, particularly with regard to cultural and community contexts.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, A note on the role of our External Reference Group, para 9; p.6 (PDF page 8)

Based on what we do know, the characteristics of offenders in group-based CSE include that they are predominantly but not exclusively male[footnote 1] and are often older than sexual offenders in street gangs, but younger than lone child sexual offenders.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Executive summary: Key findings, para 16; p.8 (PDF page 10)

Beyond specific high-profile cases, the academic literature highlights significant limitations to what can be said about links between ethnicity and this form of offending.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Executive summary: Key findings, para 17; p.8 (PDF page 10)

A number of high-profile cases - including the offending in Rotherham investigated by Professor Alexis Jay,[footnote 3] the Rochdale group convicted as a result of Operation Span, and convictions in Telford – have mainly involved men of Pakistani ethnicity.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Executive summary: Key findings, para 17; p.8 (PDF page 10)

It is therefore hard to get a sense of the scale of CSE. To improve this, a ‘CSE flag’ was introduced to police recorded crime. This shows that in the year to March 2020 around 10,500 crimes were flagged as being CSE-related. However, this is still likely to be an underestimate, as we know the flag is not consistently used across forces.[footnote 39] It should also be noted that the CSE flag is applicable to all types of CSE, and so still does not enable identification of group-based offending specifically.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Prevalence, para 61; p.21 (PDF page 23)

There are over 70 live investigations that involve group-based CSE across England, Wales and Scotland, although this number very likely would have been higher if returns had been received from all forces.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Prevalence, paras 62 and 64; p.21 (PDF page 23)

Research on offender ethnicity is limited, and tends to rely on poor quality data. It is therefore difficult to draw conclusions about differences in ethnicity of offenders, but it is likely that no one community or culture is uniquely predisposed to offending.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Characteristics of Offenders: Ethnicity, key findings box; p.25 (PDF page 27)

A number of studies have indicated an over-representation of Asian and Black offenders in group-based CSE. Most of the same studies show that the majority of offenders are White.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Characteristics of Offenders: Ethnicity, key findings box; p.25 (PDF page 27)

Police-collected data on ethnicity uses broad categories and requires the police to assign an ethnicity rather than it being self-reported by offenders.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Characteristics of Offenders: Ethnicity, para 75; p.25 (PDF page 27)

CEOP (2011) undertook a data collection with police forces, children’s services and specialist providers from the voluntary sector, looking at those allegedly involved in ‘street grooming’ and CSE. Data was returned on approximately 2,300 possible offenders, but approximately 1,100 were excluded from analysis due to a lack of basic information. In the remaining 1,200 cases, ethnicity data was unknown for 38% of them. Where data was available 30% of offenders were White, while 28% were Asian. Due to the amount of missing data, both basic offender information and ethnicity specifically, these figures should be treated with caution.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Characteristics of Offenders: Ethnicity, para 76a; p.26 (PDF page 28)

In 2013 CEOP undertook a second piece of work in this space. Data was requested from all police forces in England and Wales on contact CSA, and responses were received from 31. Of the 52 groups where data provided was useable, half of the groups consisted of all Asian offenders, 11 were all White offenders, 4 were all Black, and 2 were exclusively Arab. There were nine groups where offenders came from a mix of ethnic backgrounds. Looking at the offenders across all groups, of the 306 offenders 75% were Asian. However, as with CEOP (2011) these figures should be treated with caution due to the amount of missing data.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Characteristics of Offenders: Ethnicity, para 76c; p.26 (PDF page 28)

The Children’s Commissioner for England carried out work in 2014 looking at police data on CSE offenders (Berelowitz et al., 2015). Data was provided by 19 out of 43 police forces, showing nearly 4,000 offenders, 1,200 of whom were involved in group-based CSE. This study found that 42% were White or White British, 17% were Black or Black British, 14% were Asian or Asian British, and 4% had another ethnicity. No data on ethnicity was recorded in 22% of cases. As above (Berelowitz et al., 2012), it should be noted that when this work was carried out when many agencies were less familiar with CSE, and very little was recognised or recorded about this kind of offence or offender by police at the time.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Characteristics of Offenders: Ethnicity, para 76d; p.26 (PDF page 28)

In light of the lack of reliable evidence from published data, Home Office Analysis and Insight undertook exploratory analysis of unpublished data from the Police National Computer (PNC) to determine whether a relationship between child sexual exploitation and ethnicity could be determined. This analysis demonstrated that the existing data would not answer the question of the relationship between ethnicity and child sexual exploitation. First, it was not possible to use ethnicity data because of the amount of cases in which it is missing.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Characteristics of Offenders: Ethnicity, paras 79-80; p.27 (PDF page 29)

Based on the existing evidence, and our understanding of the flaws in the existing data, it seems most likely that the ethnicity of group-based CSE offenders is in line with CSA more generally and with the general population, with the majority of offenders being White.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Characteristics of Offenders: Ethnicity, para 81; p.27 (PDF page 29)

It is common for offender groups to be largely ethnically homogenous, although there are cases where offenders within groups come from different backgrounds.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Characteristics of Offenders: Ethnicity, para 78; p.27 (PDF page 29)

The qualitative interviews were commissioned by Home Office ministers to gather insight on group-based child sexual exploitation from the frontline. This work was explicitly designed to build and deepen our understanding of the nature of offending. It was not intended to provide quantitative evidence of the scale or nature of offending (or offenders) nationally.

Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, Home Office, Annex B, para 1; p.57 (PDF page 59)

In 2023 group-based offending (across all criteria) accounted for 3.7% (n.4228/115.489) of total CSAE crimes and 5.4% (n.4228/78,078) of all contact crime

Group-Based Offending Publication, November 2024 (COCAD data for 2023), Hydrant Programme / Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Overview of all CSAE crimes and all group-based crimes within the COCAD; p.12

% Breakdown of COCAD criteria (based on 4228 crimes) - 2023

Group-Based Offending Publication, November 2024 (COCAD data for 2023), Hydrant Programme / Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), % Breakdown of COCAD criteria (based on 4228 crimes) - 2023; p.13

This analysis is based on police recorded data and is not a prevalence study

Group-Based Offending Publication, November 2024 (COCAD data for 2023), Hydrant Programme / Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), What are the caveats?; p.11

The data received represents a moment in time of the investigation

Group-Based Offending Publication, November 2024 (COCAD data for 2023), Hydrant Programme / Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), What are the caveats?; p.11

It’s important to note that ethnicity data is limited and should be treated with caution, in 2023 only 34% (n.2266/6670) of suspects had a recorded self-defined ethnicity (SDE) and for victims this was 47% (n.2058/4422)

Group-Based Offending Publication, November 2024 (COCAD data for 2023), Hydrant Programme / Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Ethnicity; p.17

Of those suspects with a recorded self-defined ethnicity, 83% (n.1884/2266) were White

Group-Based Offending Publication, November 2024 (COCAD data for 2023), Hydrant Programme / Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Ethnicity: % Breakdown of Suspect Self-Defined Ethnicity; p.17

Of those victims with a recorded self-defined ethnicity, 85% (n.1744/2058) were White

Group-Based Offending Publication, November 2024 (COCAD data for 2023), Hydrant Programme / Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Ethnicity: % Breakdown of Victim Self-Defined Ethnicity; p.17

70% (n.224/319) of CSE suspects have a self-defined ethnicity of White, for overall group-based offending 83% (n.1884/2266) are White

Group-Based Offending Publication, November 2024 (COCAD data for 2023), Hydrant Programme / Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Criteria Reporting: Child Sexual Exploitation category; p.19

In the case of CSE, 39% (n.201/521) of suspects were aged between 18 to 29 years

Group-Based Offending Publication, November 2024 (COCAD data for 2023), Hydrant Programme / Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Criteria Reporting: Child Sexual Exploitation category; p.19

The introduction of the COCAD dataset in January 2023, has for the first time allowed us to understand the nature and scale of group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation as represented through police recorded crime. It will not be the true picture, as we know from previous research that most victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation don’t report what happened to them at the time. So, this report does not speak to prevalence.

Group-Based Offending Publication, November 2024 (COCAD data for 2023), Hydrant Programme / Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Conclusion; p.24

In 2024 group-based offending (across all categories) accounted for 3.6% (n.4,450/n.122,768) of total CSAE crimes and 5.6% (n.4,450/n.79,222) of all contact crime.

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Total recorded CSAE crimes - CPAI (including online) and COCAD; p.12

Chart 2 – 2024 Breakdown of the COCAD categories

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Chart 2 – 2024 Breakdown of the COCAD categories; p.13

The data included comes from the 44 police forces in England and Wales and is rich in detail.

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Foreword; p.3

It is important to remember that this period is prior to the publication of the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and the significant policy and operational shifts announced in January 2025.

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Foreword; p.3

A self-defined ethnicity was recorded for 37% of suspects (n. 2,563/6,873), this is an increase of 3% on 2023 recorded SDE.

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Ethnicity of victims and suspects: Suspects; p.20

78% (n. 2,000/2,563) of known SDE for suspects were White British. If suspects with an SDE not yet recorded (unknown) were also included within this percentage the actual SDE for White British suspects would be 29% (n.2,000/6,873). In the 2021 census White British accounts for 74% of the population.

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Ethnicity of victims and suspects: Suspects; p.20

4% (n. 101/2,563) of known SDE for suspects were Pakistani. If suspects with an SDE not yet recorded (unknown) were also included within this percentage the actual SDE for Pakistani suspects accounts for 1.5% (n.101/6,873). In the 2021 census Pakistani accounts for 2.7% of the population.

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Ethnicity of victims and suspects: Suspects; p.20

The next highest category is 13% (n. 40/310) of known SDE CSE suspects being of Pakistani ethnicity. If suspects with an SDE not yet recorded (unknown) were also included within this percentage the actual SDE for CSE Pakistani suspects accounts for 3.9% (n.40/1,006). In the 2021 census Pakistani accounts for 2.7% of the population.

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Appendix 3: CSE category, suspects; p.44

In comparison to overall SDE suspects - there is a lower percentage of white British suspects involved in CSE with 55% (n. 171/310) in CSE compared to 78% (n. 2,000/2,563) overall. If suspects with an SDE not yet recorded were also included within this percentage the actual SDE for CSE White British would account for 16.9% (n.171/1,006).

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Appendix 3: CSE category, suspects; p.44

Low levels of recorded self-defined ethnicity in suspect data typically reflect gaps or limitations in how the data is collected, recorded, or reported.

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Ethnicity of victims and suspects: Suspects; p.20

COCAD data is received within 12 weeks of reporting, any subsequent arrests made, and additional information updated is not received for analysis.

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Arrest data; p.23

Primary category CSE had the second highest arrest rate at 23% (n. 140/622) after Other at 27% (n. 143/538).

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Arrest data; p.23

There was an overall charged/summonsed rate of 5% (n. 137/2,621).

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), Outcomes data – within 12 weeks of the crime being recorded; p.24

44 police forces - this refers to the 43 Home Office forces and British Transport Police.

Group Based Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Data: 12 months of data from January - December 2024, Hydrant Programme / CSE Taskforce (National Police Chiefs' Council), The Data Collection Process (footnote 1); p.8

Self-defined Ethnicity was unknown or not recorded for a victim in 66% (n = 73,616) of victim records and in 66% (n = 84,747) of perpetrator records.

National Analysis of Police-Recorded Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE) Crimes Report 2024 for England and Wales (revised version), Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme / National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection (College of Policing and NPCC), Victim & Perpetrator profiles; p.22 (PDF page 12)

The data collected for this report, precedes Baroness Casey’s audit, however, concerns raised by Baroness Casey regarding the presentation of protected characteristic data have been taken on board and implemented within this report.

National Analysis of Police-Recorded Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation (CSAE) Crimes Report 2024 for England and Wales (revised version), Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme / National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection (College of Policing and NPCC), Introduction; p.5 (PDF page 3)

The Inquiry therefore chose to base this investigation on areas which had not already been the subject of independent investigation (such as Rotherham, Rochdale and Oxford).

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Executive Summary; p.1 (PDF page 8)

Six case study areas were chosen: Durham, Swansea, Warwickshire, St Helens, Tower Hamlets and Bristol.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Executive Summary; p.1 (PDF page 8)

The sexual exploitation of children by networks is not a rare problem confined to a small number of areas with high-profile criminal cases.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Executive Summary; p.1 (PDF page 8)

Child sexual exploitation has been a designated strategic policing priority since 2015, giving it the same significance as terrorism and serious organised crime. Despite this, the Inquiry’s findings indicate that less is now known and understood about the prevalence of this appalling crime than was the case prior to 2015.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Executive Summary: The understanding of the scale of child sexual exploitation; p.2 (PDF page 9)

An accurate picture of the prevalence of child sexual exploitation could not be gleaned from either criminal justice or children’s social care data.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Executive Summary; p.2 (PDF page 9)

More significantly, there appears to be a flawed assumption that this form of child sexual abuse is on the wane. There is also a suspicion that some do not wish to be labelled as ‘another Rochdale or Rotherham’.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Executive Summary; p.3 (PDF page 10)

There were significant difficulties in this investigation in identifying networks or groups of abusers. The case study material showed that there were cases of child sexual exploitation by networks in all six case study areas but the police forces in these areas were generally not able to provide any evidence about these networks, using either the Inquiry’s definition or any other.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Executive Summary; p.3 (PDF page 10)

None of the areas examined kept data on the ethnicity of victims and alleged perpetrators.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Executive Summary: Policing and the criminal justice system; p.6 (PDF page 13)

Many of the high-profile child sexual exploitation prosecutions have involved groups of men from minority ethnic communities. This has led to polarised debate about whether there is any link between ethnicity and child sexual exploitation networks. Poor or non-existent data collection makes it impossible to know whether any particular ethnic group is over‑represented as perpetrators of child sexual exploitation by networks.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Executive Summary: Policing and the criminal justice system; p.6 (PDF page 13)

It is unclear whether a misplaced sense of political correctness or the sheer complexity of the problem have inhibited good-quality data collection generally and on ethnicity more specifically.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Part B.5: Ethnicity data collection, para 41; p.37 (PDF page 44)

The failure to collect data on the ethnicity of the perpetrators and victims of child sexual exploitation, and the failure to make a public statement of the reasons why it is important to collect such data, have also led to a one-sided and often uninformed public debate where links have been made between ethnicity and a number of high-profile cases involving South Asian men.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Part B.5: Ethnicity data collection, para 42; p.37 (PDF page 44)

Finally, the result of this lack of accurate and reliable data from police forces and local authorities, compounded by the lack of consistency about the definitions of ‘child sexual exploitation’ and ‘networks’ (discussed in Part C), is that the government and other organisations cannot know the current scale of child sexual exploitation by networks, or who is involved in these groups.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Part B.5, para 47; p.38 (PDF page 45)

There were widespread failures to record data about the ethnicity of both perpetrators and victims in the case study areas: [...] in the Tower Hamlets 2019 profile, ethnicity was not recorded for 86 percent of offenders involved in 147 reports of child sexual exploitation and 14 percent of 166 victims of child sexual exploitation in the Central East Area BCU;

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Part H.4: Failures to record victim and perpetrator ethnicity, para 8; p.101 (PDF page 108)

In 2018/19, police forces in England and Wales identified or ‘flagged’ 11,554 criminal offences as related to child sexual exploitation.[footnote 107] In 2019/20, the figure was 12,569.[footnote 108]

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Part B.4: Prevalence, para 18; p.32 (PDF page 39)

The government should amend the Sentencing Act 2020 to provide a mandatory aggravating factor in sentencing in the case of the commission of an offence under Part 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 relating to a child, where (1) the child was exploited, (2) ‘exploitation’ means the child was controlled, coerced, manipulated or deceived into sexual activity and (3) two or more persons were concerned in the exploitation.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Part L.2: Recommendations, Recommendation 1; p.145 (PDF page 152)

Police forces and local authorities in England and Wales must collect data on all cases of known or suspected child sexual exploitation and child sexual exploitation by networks. These data should be separated from other data sets, including data on child sexual abuse, and be disaggregated by the sex, ethnicity and disability of both the victim and perpetrator.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Part L.2: Recommendations, Recommendation 5: Child sexual exploitation data; p.146 (PDF page 153)

The Department for Education should ban the placement in semi-independent and independent settings of children aged 16 and 17 who have experienced, or are at heightened risk of experiencing, sexual exploitation.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Part L.2: Recommendations, Recommendation 6: Unregulated placements; p.146 (PDF page 153)

Research has identified two clear indicators of heightened vulnerability to child sexual exploitation. These are being in residential care and the presence of a disability.

Child sexual exploitation by organised networks: Investigation Report (HC 1059), Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), Executive Summary: Heightened risk and vulnerability; p.5 (PDF page 12)

Every witness who volunteered their testimony – whether survivor, parent, whistleblower, politician or expert – showed courage that made this Inquiry possible. Their contributions have ensured that the truth is now a matter of permanent public record.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Acknowledgements, printed p. 2 (PDF p. 3)

Rupert Lowe MP’s energy and commitment ensured that The Rape Gang Inquiry took place. He has been unwavering in his devotion to making sure that this rotting stain on our country’s history has remained firmly in the public eye.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Acknowledgements, printed p. 2 (PDF p. 3)

Deep gratitude is extended to the entire Inquiry team, led by Sammy Woodhouse. Nat Enderby-Shenton, Marlon West, Debra Sudbury, and Julie Ballan worked tirelessly to bring the evidence together and support every survivor who came forward.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Acknowledgements, printed p. 2 (PDF p. 3)

A special thank you is owed to MPs Esther McVey, Nick Timothy, and Carla Lockhart for taking the time to sit on the Inquiry panel.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Acknowledgements, printed p. 2 (PDF p. 3)

Dr. Mark Durie has been extremely generous in enriching the report that follows with his expert knowledge.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Acknowledgements, printed p. 2 (PDF p. 3)

We are also grateful to Charlie Downes, Joshua Ferme, Harrison Pitt, and Graham Smith for their editorial oversight and counsel.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Acknowledgements, printed p. 2 (PDF p. 3)

Last but not least, we thank the untold thousands across Britain who made all of this possible by donating to ensure that this Inquiry could take place.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Acknowledgements, printed p. 2 (PDF p. 3)

Today, I am launching a national inquiry into the rape gang scandal.

Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) on X, launch announcement, 28 March 2025, paragraph 2 of 19 of the post

My speech to open the hearings of our Rape Gang Inquiry.

Rupert Lowe MP on X, 2 February 2026 (post with video of his speech), paragraph 1 of 1 of the post

Today marks the end of the survivor participation for our rape gang inquiry hearings. I simply have no words that describe the bravery and courage of these women who have come forward.

Rupert Lowe MP on X, 12 February 2026, paragraph 1 of 22 of the post

Our hearings will finish tomorrow, following the contribution of three more expert witnesses.

Rupert Lowe MP on X, 12 February 2026, paragraph 14 of 22 of the post

And following such immense demand, we will reopen the portal so that more women can tell their stories.

Rupert Lowe MP on X, 12 February 2026, paragraph 17 of 22 of the post

We have received so many messages from women who have been through similar abuse and rape - so many.

Rupert Lowe MP on X, 19 February 2026, paragraph 2 of 13 of the post

As a team, we have decided to reopen the submission process so that these individuals can come forward in a safe and secure way.

Rupert Lowe MP on X, 19 February 2026, paragraph 3 of 13 of the post

The Rape Gang Inquiry report will be published today.

Rupert Lowe MP on X, 16 June 2026 07:32 UTC, paragraph 1 of 1 of the post

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report.

Rupert Lowe MP on X, 16 June 2026 13:19 UTC (the post linking the report), paragraph 1 of 2 of the post

It will focus on three questions - what happened, how did it happen and why was it allowed to happen? A crowdfunder has been set up, please see the link below. I will of course personally donate.

Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) on X, launch announcement, 28 March 2025, paragraph 3 of 19 of the post

A qualified panel will be appointed to oversee the inquiry, with a legal advisory team to support the panel throughout the inquiry.

Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) on X, launch announcement, 28 March 2025, paragraph 4 of 19 of the post

There will be three stages. Evidence collection, public hearings, report/publication. There will be a secure submission process for evidence, and the hearings will be live-streamed. In non-attendance, questions will still be put on the record and evidence examined. The findings will be compiled, and a report will be published.

Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) on X, launch announcement, 28 March 2025, paragraph 5 of 19 of the post

Any surplus funds raised will be donated to charities supporting victims, and every penny spent will be transparently published.

Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) on X, launch announcement, 28 March 2025, paragraph 6 of 19 of the post

Extensive discussions have taken place over the last couple of weeks in regards to the participants of the panel and of the inquiry itself - more details will be announced soon, with the option to put yourself forward. Witness protection and safeguarding will be prioritised.

Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) on X, launch announcement, 28 March 2025, paragraph 7 of 19 of the post

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made

Crowdfunder, 'The Rape Gang Inquiry' project page (Internet Archive snapshot of 18 April 2026), the text of the page's 'Funding method' box, below the project description

Transparency report.

The Rape Gang Inquiry (@rapeganginquiry) on X, 'Transparency report', 11 July 2025 (the whole post), paragraph 1 of 4 of the post

The first donations were drawn from our Crowdfunder and arrived in the Rape Gang Inquiry bank account on June 23rd - Rupert had been funding the inquiry until then.

The Rape Gang Inquiry (@rapeganginquiry) on X, 'Transparency report', 11 July 2025 (the whole post), paragraph 2 of 4 of the post

All appropriate checks have been made for Rupert’s parliamentary declaration. He has 28 days from the money arriving in the account, which was on June 23rd, until the submission has to be complete - although this has almost entirely been finished already.

The Rape Gang Inquiry (@rapeganginquiry) on X, 'Transparency report', 11 July 2025 (the whole post), paragraph 3 of 4 of the post

Once the inquiry is complete, spending will be published in the interests of full transparency.

The Rape Gang Inquiry (@rapeganginquiry) on X, 'Transparency report', 11 July 2025 (the whole post), paragraph 4 of 4 of the post

The independent chair of the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection Alexis Jay has identified the 1970s as the decade when immigrant rape gangs first began tormenting the girls of Britain.⁴ However, the British Newspaper Archive reveals that the first recorded case of specifically Pakistani rape gangs dates back to 1955, when four Bradford-based Pakistanis were charged with raping a 15-year-old girl from Middlesbrough.⁵ This was soon after former colonial subjects, from the subcontinent as much as the Caribbean, became eligible to enter the United Kingdom in non-trivial numbers under the British Nationality Act 1948.⁶ What began as singular and small-scale instances became systematic and industrial over time.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 11 (PDF p. 12)

Footnote 4

See Alexis Jay OBE, The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, October 2022.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, footnote, printed p. 11 (PDF p. 12)

Footnote 5

See Bradford Observer, Saturday 27 August, 1955, the British Newspaper Archive.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, footnote, printed p. 11 (PDF p. 12)

Footnote 6

See the British Nationality Act (1948).

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, footnote, printed p. 11 (PDF p. 12)

Footnote 1, to the sentence that states the figure

Lord Pearson of Rannoch (House of Lords, Hansard Vol. 797) in a debate on Grooming Gangs, 14 May, 2019.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Executive Summary, footnote, printed p. 7 (PDF p. 8)

The scale of the rape gang phenomenon is endemic across the entirety of Britain. The 250,000 figure originates directly from a statement in the House of Lords by Lord Pearson of Rannoch on 14 May, 2019:

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 12 (PDF p. 13)

Quoted by the report, the words of Lord Pearson of Rannoch in the House of Lords

“Do the Government accept that if we extrapolate nationally the Jay report on Rotherham and other reports from Telford and Oxford, there appear to have been upwards of 250,000 young white girls raped in this century, very largely by Muslim men, usually several times a day for years?”

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 12 (PDF p. 13)

He added that this number “is probably an underestimate.”⁷

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 12 (PDF p. 13)

Footnote 7

Lord Pearson of Rannoch (House of Lords, Hansard Vol. 797) in a debate on Grooming Gangs, 14 May, 2019.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, footnote, printed p. 12 (PDF p. 13)

This extrapolation now has greater support due to further data that has been collected, derived from scaling the patterns documented in major inquiries:

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 12 (PDF p. 13)

Rotherham (Jay Report, 2014): At least 1,400 girls abused between 1997 and 2013, with some updated estimates exceeding this. Perpetrators were overwhelmingly Pakistani Muslim men.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 12 (PDF p. 13)

Telford Inquiry (2022): More than 1,000 children (predominantly girls) over decades, again with the same perpetrator profile.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 12 (PDF p. 13)

National footprint: The grooming gang model has been confirmed in dozens of towns and cities. Our independent Inquiry, led by Rupert Lowe MP, has heard evidence demonstrating coordinated operations extending to all corners of the country, in at least 149 local authority districts (see page 14 for the full map).

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 13 (PDF p. 14)

When the Rotherham/Telford scale is applied across the documented national distribution, and multiplied by the extreme under-reporting factor accepted by official reviews, the total reaches the 250,000 threshold as a bare minimum.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 13 (PDF p. 14)

We are far from grasping the full extent of grooming gang criminality in modern Britain. It is reasonable to assume that, since sexual abuse of all kinds tends to be under-reported, this is also true of grooming gangs. The Independent has reported that almost 19,000 children were identified as sexual exploitation victims in England in one year alone, despite the reluctance of state actors to name or tackle the problem of the rape gangs.⁸ After decades of abuse, victims must number in the hundreds of thousands. The full scale is not yet known.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 13 (PDF p. 14)

Footnote 8

Lizzie Dearden, Grooming ‘epidemic’ as almost 19,000 children identified as sexual exploitation victims in England, The Independent, 28 December, 2019.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, footnote, printed p. 13 (PDF p. 14)

Every major review has emphasised that recorded statistics severely understate reality:

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 13 (PDF p. 14)

Baroness Casey National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (June 2025): The audit explicitly states that the scale, nature, and characteristics of group-based child sexual exploitation remain impossible to quantify precisely due to inconsistent data collection and historical suppression.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 13 (PDF p. 14)

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and multiple local inquiries (2022–2025): “It is simply not possible to know the scale” because ethnicity, group offending, and historical cases were routinely unrecorded or shelved to protect “community cohesion.”

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 13 (PDF p. 14)

Overleaf is a heat map that portrays the various locations in which the Inquiry can be sure the rape gangs operated. It is likely that the true extent is far worse.⁹

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 13 (PDF p. 14)

Footnote 9

See Appendix IV for our name-by-name list of affected areas.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, footnote, printed p. 13 (PDF p. 14)

Text in the image, title

Rape gangs operate / have operated in at least 149 Local Authority Districts across the United Kingdom.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, map image, printed p. 14 (PDF p. 15)

Text in the image, at the foot

THE RAPE GANG INQUIRY

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, map image, printed p. 14 (PDF p. 15)

The 250,000 figure is not a precise count. No such count exists because the British state has failed to record it. But we may regard it as a conservative estimate that accounts for the organised, repeated nature of the abuse (many girls raped hundreds of times by multiple perpetrators) and decades of institutional concealment.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Demographics and Culture, Statistics, printed pp. 113-114 (PDF pp. 114-115)

Footnote 2, to the sentence that states the figure

See Sacrificing girls to political correctness, Christian Concern, 16 March, 2018.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Executive Summary, footnote, printed p. 7 (PDF p. 8)

Researcher Peter McLoughlin in Easy Meat (2016) compiled a comprehensive list of grooming gang convictions from 1997 to 2018 (with updates in subsequent analyses), drawing from published court outcomes. His examination of names indicated that approximately 87% of those convicted bore distinctively Muslim names, which was a figure echoed in related analyses far exceeding the Muslim proportion (around 6%) of the general population of Britain.¹³

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Demographics and Culture, printed pp. 106-107 (PDF pp. 107-108)

Footnote 13

See Peter McLoughlin, Easy Meat: Inside Britain’s Grooming Gang Scandal (Nashville, TN: New English Review Press, 2016).

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Demographics and Culture, footnote, printed p. 107 (PDF p. 108)

As previously stated, Peter McLoughlin’s research indicates that approximately 87% of rape gang convictions were of people with distinctively Muslim names. These figures stand in marked contrast to the much smaller proportion of Pakistani or Muslim communities within the overall population of modern Britain (Muslims approximately 6.5% and Pakistanis around 2.1%, according to the most recent census data). Multiple examinations, including police data from various forces, national audits and independent reviews, have documented this overrepresentation in group-based offending of this nature, even as some earlier official narratives emphasized no single community profile or sought to downplay ethnic patterns.²³

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Demographics and Culture, Statistics, printed p. 114 (PDF p. 115)

Footnote 23

See Connor Tomlinson, Grooming Gang Denial Is Dead, Courage Media, 18 June, 2025.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Demographics and Culture, Statistics, footnote, printed p. 114 (PDF p. 115)

Footnote 3, to the sentence that states the figure

See Fundamentalist ‘Muslims believe if the Prophet’ slept with a nine-year-old ‘what’s wrong with a 12-year-old?,’ claims Muslim leader, London Loves Business, 9 January, 2025.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Executive Summary, footnote, printed p. 7 (PDF p. 8)

Additional context from expert commentary includes statements by Dr. Taj Hargey, an imam at the Oxford Islamic Congregation, who observed that virtually every individual in these grooming gangs appears to be Muslim, estimating that 95% of those involved are of Muslim faith.²²

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Demographics and Culture, Statistics, printed p. 114 (PDF p. 115)

Footnote 22

See Fundamentalist ‘Muslims believe if the Prophet’ slept with a nine-year-old ‘what’s wrong with a 12-year-old?,’ claims Muslim leader, London Loves Business, 9 January, 2025.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Demographics and Culture, Statistics, footnote, printed p. 114 (PDF p. 115)

In each of these areas the same tactics were used. Girls as young as 11 were targeted with gifts, alcohol and drugs, collected in taxis from school gates, care homes and streets and taken to houses, flats, restaurants and hotels and then raped repeatedly by groups of men, passed between perpetrators, trafficked across county lines, and in many cases impregnated or forced into abortions. Most victims endured violence, were filmed for blackmail, or told they were “white trash” or “kuffar” who deserved punishment.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 11 (PDF p. 12)

One evening, Chloe’s friend suggested that they travel to a nearby town where one of the men had a hotel room. They were picked up by the man – who was drunk and under the influence of drugs – and taken to the hotel. When they arrived, hotel staff saw them but did not intervene. In the room, the girls were given a potent strain of cannabis, which left Chloe – then eleven – “absolutely smashed.” Chloe’s friend was taken into another room by a group of men, and Chloe was groped by the man who remained. Chloe resisted, and he hit her. The man did not attempt to sexually assault her again, and instead threw the girls – both of whom were still intoxicated – out of the hotel and refused to drive them back to their home town. They were forced to walk. It was around midnight. Chloe did not want to go back to her home as she feared her mother would beat her for being out late, so stayed with her friend.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Victim Testimony, ‘Chloe’, printed pp. 19-20 (PDF pp. 20-21)

At age eleven, Sebastian was introduced by these abusive family members to a local café owner. The owner gave Sebastian free food, lifts in his car, and free cinema tickets to build trust and a sense of obligation. From there, they began prostituting Sebastian out to a number of people. These included seemingly respectable professionals such as estate agents, solicitors, care support workers for children, and even police officers. Even at boarding school, Sebastian was raped, assaulted, and groomed by staff and connected adults, with Sebastian’s injuries often ignored by medical professionals. All of Sebastian’s abusers were White British.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Victim Testimony, Sebastian, printed p. 51 (PDF p. 52)

Chloe was raped repeatedly from age 11, contracted multiple STIs as a 13-year-old, starved to five stone, drugged with heroin, imprisoned in her own home, and publicly humiliated. She now carries severe gynaecological damage and lifelong trauma.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Impact on Survivors, printed p. 151 (PDF p. 152)

National footprint: The grooming gang model has been confirmed in dozens of towns and cities. Our independent Inquiry, led by Rupert Lowe MP, has heard evidence demonstrating coordinated operations extending to all corners of the country, in at least 149 local authority districts (see page 14 for the full map).

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 13 (PDF p. 14)

Overleaf is a heat map that portrays the various locations in which the Inquiry can be sure the rape gangs operated. It is likely that the true extent is far worse.⁹

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, printed p. 13 (PDF p. 14)

Footnote 9

See Appendix IV for our name-by-name list of affected areas.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, footnote, printed p. 13 (PDF p. 14)

Text in the image, title

Rape gangs operate / have operated in at least 149 Local Authority Districts across the United Kingdom.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, map image, printed p. 14 (PDF p. 15)

Text in the image, at the foot

THE RAPE GANG INQUIRY

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, map image, printed p. 14 (PDF p. 15)

Our Inquiry also found additional strong evidence of rape gangs operating more widely within the following counties, albeit with a lower degree of specificity.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Appendix IV – List of Areas Gangs Are Known to Have Operated, Local Authority Districts (149), printed p. 218 (PDF p. 219)

Text in the image, title

Rape gangs operate / have operated in at least 149 Local Authority Districts across the United Kingdom.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, map image, printed p. 14 (PDF p. 15)

Text in the image, at the foot

THE RAPE GANG INQUIRY

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Overview of Crimes, map image, printed p. 14 (PDF p. 15)

At least eight theological aspects of Islam may contribute to cultural patterns that enable or normalise the sexual abuse of non-Muslim girls. These include (1) the doctrine of Muslim superiority, (2) the principle of loyalty and disavowal (al-walā' wa-l-barā'), (3) male dominance over women, (4) enforced seclusion and veiling of women, (5) forced marriage combined with the absence of a fixed minimum age of consent, (6) the perception of female sexuality as inherently dangerous or fitna, (7) the historical sharia institution of slavery, (8) and the system of dhimmitude.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, The Influence of Islam, Muslim Treatment of Non-Muslims Worldwide, printed p. 118 (PDF p. 119)

Around the age of 13, Chloe disclosed to social services that she was being sexually abused by gangs of Muslim men. In response, social services did not intervene, but rather talked to Chloe about contraception and sexual health. One social worker started regularly taking Chloe to a sexual health clinic, where she was diagnosed with chlamydia in her throat and vagina, gonorrhea, genital warts, and pelvic inflammatory disease. Neither the social workers nor the clinic staff questioned or reported this. The police were aware of Chloe’s activities, but instead of targeting those responsible for her abuse, they routinely failed to question them – let alone pursue further action – when Chloe was found in cars and houses with them.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Victim Testimony, ‘Chloe’, printed p. 22 (PDF p. 23)

Chloe was raped repeatedly from age 11, contracted multiple STIs as a 13-year-old, starved to five stone, drugged with heroin, imprisoned in her own home, and publicly humiliated. She now carries severe gynaecological damage and lifelong trauma.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Impact on Survivors, printed p. 151 (PDF p. 152)

Inquiry Panellist: “Did the NHS play a part and were you able to talk to them?” Rape gang survivor: “I went when I was 13 with chlamydia, and then I got genital herpes, and then I had a miscarriage. And that was all between 13 and 15. So they knew something was going on. I did go once and I explained to the doctor because I was like, can you give me some antidepressants or something? And the doctor said, well, I don’t think that’s a warrant enough to give you those when you’re too young. The NHS is complicit.”

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Appendix II – Survivor Quotations, printed p. 199 (PDF p. 200)

NHS Sexual Health Services treated Redacted for multiple sexually transmitted infections, including gonorrhoea and chlamydia, when she was only 13-years-old. The clinics diagnosed and medicated her but never triggered safeguarding procedures or reported the fact that a child was being repeatedly raped by adult men. No child protection referral was made. The service treated the infections as a medical issue rather than evidence of organised child rape.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Appendix III – Institutional Failures, NHS Services, printed p. 206 (PDF p. 207)

Researcher Peter McLoughlin in Easy Meat (2016) compiled a comprehensive list of grooming gang convictions from 1997 to 2018 (with updates in subsequent analyses), drawing from published court outcomes. His examination of names indicated that approximately 87% of those convicted bore distinctively Muslim names, which was a figure echoed in related analyses far exceeding the Muslim proportion (around 6%) of the general population of Britain.¹³

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Demographics and Culture, printed pp. 106-107 (PDF pp. 107-108)

Footnote 13

See Peter McLoughlin, Easy Meat: Inside Britain’s Grooming Gang Scandal (Nashville, TN: New English Review Press, 2016).

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Demographics and Culture, footnote, printed p. 107 (PDF p. 108)

As previously stated, Peter McLoughlin’s research indicates that approximately 87% of rape gang convictions were of people with distinctively Muslim names. These figures stand in marked contrast to the much smaller proportion of Pakistani or Muslim communities within the overall population of modern Britain (Muslims approximately 6.5% and Pakistanis around 2.1%, according to the most recent census data). Multiple examinations, including police data from various forces, national audits and independent reviews, have documented this overrepresentation in group-based offending of this nature, even as some earlier official narratives emphasized no single community profile or sought to downplay ethnic patterns.²³

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Demographics and Culture, Statistics, printed p. 114 (PDF p. 115)

Footnote 23

See Connor Tomlinson, Grooming Gang Denial Is Dead, Courage Media, 18 June, 2025.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Demographics and Culture, Statistics, footnote, printed p. 114 (PDF p. 115)

The evidence presented to this Inquiry by victims and whistleblowers demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt that the rape gangs operated with either the active or passive consent of public authorities. More or less every institution failed. The state knew the patterns, recorded and then often destroyed the evidence of harm, and chose political convenience over child protection.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, printed p. 159 (PDF p. 160)

Any government that aspires to restore justice, eliminate the gangs, and protect the next generation must implement the following recommendations. Only then can the British state begin to make up for its profound betrayal of hundreds of thousands of British children.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, printed p. 159 (PDF p. 160)

Victims must be placed at the centre of the criminal justice process. They must have the right to be informed of all decisions, to attend sentencing hearings, and to submit victim personal statements that carry statutory weight. Independent Sexual Violence Advisers must be funded nationally and assigned to every grooming gang victim from the moment of first report.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Criminal Justice Response, printed p. 159 (PDF p. 160)

Current sentencing guidelines are grotesquely inadequate for organised child rape. The Sentencing Council must be required by statute to revise its guidelines so that group-based child sexual exploitation carries a starting point of life imprisonment, with a minimum tariff of 50 years for ringleaders and 25 years for participants. Racial or religious motivation, multiple victims, trafficking across counties, pregnancy caused by rape, and use of filming or blackmail must each be spelled out as statutory aggravating factors that push sentences toward their maximum extent. Concurrent sentencing must be prohibited where multiple victims are involved; cumulative sentencing must be the default. A number of politicians, including Rupert Lowe MP, have also called for a referendum on reintroducing the death penalty for the most heinous crimes. There is a case to be made that this is more than proportionate where rape gangs are concerned.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Sentences, printed p. 159 (PDF p. 160)

Every foreign national convicted of group-based CSE must at the very least be deported.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, IMMIGRATION, Deportations, and denaturalisations, printed p. 160 (PDF p. 161)

Any British citizen convicted of these offences who holds dual nationality must lose their citizenship automatically upon conviction, rendering them liable for deportation. This ought to apply retrospectively to those convicted in the past, too. The Home Office must publish annual deportation figures, broken down by national background and offence type.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, IMMIGRATION, Deportations, and denaturalisations, printed p. 160 (PDF p. 161)

Where a perpetrator has family members in Britain who have supported, harboured or failed to report the offending, the entire immediate family unit must also face deportation proceedings themselves, unless they can prove either active cooperation with authorities or no prior knowledge.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, IMMIGRATION, Deportations, and denaturalisations, printed p. 160 (PDF p. 161)

The evidence from witnesses, convictions, and the Casey Audit shows a clear overrepresentation of Muslim men, particularly of Pakistani heritage, in these organised networks. The Inquiry has not ignored this. Mosques, madrassas, and community organisations that have harboured or failed to report perpetrators must face investigation and, if found guilty, be closed. The immediate deportation of anyone nested within such sub-cultures promoting attitudes that dehumanise non-Muslim girls must be pursued.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, IMMIGRATION, Deportations, and denaturalisations, printed p. 160 (PDF p. 161)

The nations of the world are not identical. Ultra-selective border control, attentive to general patterns in sending countries, is therefore also vital to the long-run happiness and continued existence of host peoples across the West. Immigration policy must immediately reflect the evidence. Anyone from a country whose nationals are disproportionately represented in rape gang convictions must no longer be entitled to a visa. This should be applied ruthlessly. Our young girls must come first.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, IMMIGRATION, Deportations, and denaturalisations, printed p. 160 (PDF p. 161)

Special measures for child witnesses in grooming -gang trials must be strengthened. Pre-recorded evidence, remote testimony, and screens must be the default. Cross-examination that re-traumatises the child must be prohibited. The court must appoint a specialist intermediary in every case.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Children Giving Evidence, printed pp. 160-161 (PDF pp. 161-162)

The CPS must create a dedicated national unit for group-based child sexual exploitation, with specialist prosecutors trained in trauma- informed practice. Charging decisions must no longer be influenced by “community impact” or fear of racism allegations. Failure to charge a clear case must be reviewable by the Attorney General and should result in criminal liability for those who do not carry out their duty.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, THE CROWN PROSECUTION SERVICE, printed p. 161 (PDF p. 162)

It has been established that organised gangs, chiefly of Pakistani heritage, have not only groomed, raped, and tortured thousands of women and girls across Britain, but have also trafficked such victims overseas, particularly to Pakistan and other countries. Evidence from independent hearings, Early Day Motions in Parliament, and of course survivor testimonies presented to this Inquiry serve to suggest as much. The intent by perpetrators was to exert near-total control, prevent disclosure of the abuse, obstruct homegrown investigations, and continue inflicting abuse in environments with weaker safeguards. The full extent remains under-investigated due to historical institutional failures by police, councils, and social services, often linked to concerns over ‘racism’ allegations or inadequate cross-border cooperation.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Overseas taskforce, printed p. 161 (PDF p. 162)

This must be rectified. It is therefore recommended that a dedicated taskforce be established within the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), working in close liaison with the Home Office, police forces, the National Crime Agency, and international partners. This unit should prioritise the identification, location, safeguarding, and urgent repatriation of affected British women and girls. That means enhanced consular support, intelligence-sharing on missing persons cases recorded in known grooming hotspots, targeted reviews of passports and travel records linked to known perpetrators, and diplomatic pressure on destination countries for victim extraction and evidence gathering.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Overseas taskforce, printed p. 161 (PDF p. 162)

A national compensation scheme for grooming gang victims must be set up at once. Something similar already exists in the form of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA), established in theory to seek compensation on behalf of “people physically or mentally injured because of a violent crime in England, Scotland or Wales.”⁵⁸ The CICA does so by suing authorities or perpetrators directly, but has proven time and again to be unfit for purpose in all sorts of ways. Despite providing evidence that helped to convict the leader of a Rotherham-based rape gang, Sammy Woodhouse was refused compensation by CICA on the grounds that she had ‘consented’ to her own abuse.⁵⁹

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Compensation, printed p. 162 (PDF p. 163)

Footnote 58

See Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Compensation, footnote, printed p. 162 (PDF p. 163)

Footnote 59

Josh Halliday, Compensation body told Rotherham abuse victim she ‘consented’, The Guardian, 11 September, 2017.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Compensation, footnote, printed p. 162 (PDF p. 163)

In our view, awards should be updated to reflect the lifelong harm documented in survivor testimony, including loss of education, employment, mental health, physical health, and family life. The scheme must be funded by a levy on all convicted perpetrators’ assets and by the defined benefit pensions enjoyed by any public servants – either within police forces or social services – found guilty of or dismissed for culpable negligence.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Compensation, printed p. 162 (PDF p. 163)

The law must place the protective family at the centre of safeguarding.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Family, printed p. 162 (PDF p. 163)

As such, the core principle that should underpin safeguarding reform is recognition that a child’s family tends to represent the first, strongest, and most effective line of defence against exploitation. While there are circumstances in which children cannot safely remain within their family unit, exploitation cases generally differ from traditional intra-familial abuse models.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Family, printed p. 162 (PDF p. 163)

Present safeguarding systems do not always reflect this distinction. Families may experience responses that frame them primarily as contributors to risk rather than as potential safeguards against it. This can result in reduced trust between families and professionals, parental disengagement from safeguarding processes, delayed information-sharing, increased isolation of the child from protective relationships, and perpetrators exploiting divisions between children, families, and agencies.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Family, printed pp. 162-163 (PDF pp. 163-164)

Official research increasingly reinforces relational approaches to CSE, recognising that protective networks – including parents, siblings, extended family, schools, peers, and community relationships – are central to reducing vulnerability and disrupting exploitation.⁶⁰ Once removed from family and community networks, children as a general matter become more vulnerable to grooming, missing episodes, trafficking, and other forms of harm. A ‘family first’ approach is therefore essential. We recommend the construction of a safeguarding framework in which families are recognised as primary protective factors wherever safe, family support is prioritised, contextual safeguarding approaches are strengthened, and residential care is used proportionately and as a last resort rather than as a default response to exploitation risk. This proceeds from the understanding, bolstered by our Inquiry, that where rape gangs are concerned, parents and carers are more often protective than causative agents.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Family, printed p. 163 (PDF p. 164)

Footnote 60

See Josh MacAlister, The independent review of children’s social care | Final report, May 2022.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Family, footnote, printed p. 163 (PDF p. 164)

Needless to say, this ‘family first’ approach should never prevent decisive intervention in cases where home environments are deemed unsafe. The point is that safeguarding authorities must first establish the unfitness of some family environment before residential placement becomes the response. Parents ought also to have a statutory right to be informed of all risks to their child, to receive copies of all assessments and plans, and to challenge any decision that undermines or removes their parental responsibility. Financial and practical assistance, including emergency housing relocation where needed, must be made available to any parent reporting grooming indicators.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Family, printed p. 163 (PDF p. 164)

The state should not interfere with a family’s ability to protect itself from harm.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Recommendations, Family, printed p. 163 (PDF p. 164)

The existing legislative framework is fragmented, inconsistently applied, and deliberately blind to the ethnic and religious patterns documented in this Inquiry and the Casey National Audit. As we have noted above, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the Modern Slavery Act 2015 – among other relevant statutes – already contain powers that were never used to any significant effect against the rape gangs. Ethnicity recording, too, remains either patchy or absent. Group-based child sexual exploitation is not even a distinct offence with its own sentencing guidelines. The result is a system that records thousands of individual offences while concealing, deliberately or otherwise, the organised nature of the predation.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 164 (PDF p. 165)

A single, comprehensive Childhood Sexual Exploitation Act must be enacted at once.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 164 (PDF p. 165)

This new statute should create a specific offence of “organised group-based child sexual exploitation” – understood as participation in networks that groom, traffic, or exploit children for sexual purposes, whether or not each individual act can be separately proven – with mandatory minimum sentences and aggravating factors for racial or religious motivation.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 164 (PDF p. 165)

It must reverse the presumption that a child can ever consent to sexual activity with an adult, especially in a grooming context. Courts to date have recognised that apparent acquiescence may be the product of coercion or psychological manipulation, but the statutory formulation has not fully reflected this aspect of CSE.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 164 (PDF p. 165)

It must also impose a statutory duty on every relevant public authority to record and publish the ethnicity, immigration status, nationality, and religion of both victims and perpetrators in all such cases. This would entail speedy repeal of any legislation that forbids authorities from collecting relevant ethnicity and religious data.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 164 (PDF p. 165)

Last of all, it must criminalise, as we shall elaborate below, any provably culpable failure or refusal on the part of public officials to act on rape gangs for fear of inflaming ‘community tensions’ or inviting ‘anti-racist’ media scrutiny. This would build upon existing principles concerning misconduct in public office but provide clearer and more enforceable standards.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 165 (PDF p. 166)

Parliament should mandate enhanced sentencing for offences committed as part of organised networks, including minimum custodial terms and expanded use of whole life orders in extreme cases. The gravity of such offending – often involving prolonged abuse, trafficking, and commercial exploitation – justifies the harshest possible sentences.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 165 (PDF p. 166)

A broader constitutional question arises concerning the interaction between human rights law and the prosecution of organised sexual exploitation. It is frequently argued that existing rights frameworks have been interpreted in ways that inhibit robust enforcement or contribute to institutional caution. A comprehensive review of the Human Rights Act 1998 should therefore be undertaken with a view to recalibrating the balance between individual rights and the protection of vulnerable victims. Reforms should focus on ensuring that rights-based arguments cannot be deployed to obstruct investigations, prosecutions or deportation proceedings involving serious sexual offending. Indeed, it is probably preferable to repeal the Human Rights Act 1998 than to allow it to continue in its current form.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 165 (PDF p. 166)

The Equality Act 2010, if not repealed altogether, should never be applied to criminal justice and safeguarding contexts. Anti-discrimination principles must not operate as a deterrent to the identification of risk patterns or the enforcement of criminal law. Short of full repeal, at the very least legislative amendment should clarify that equality protections can neither be invoked to shield criminal conduct nor to restrict lawful investigative practices based on evidence-led risk assessment.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 165 (PDF p. 166)

Preventative mechanisms must be significantly expanded to address the evolving nature of child sexual exploitation and organised grooming networks. At present, the criminal justice system remains heavily reactive, intervening most decisively only after serious offences have already occurred and victims have suffered lasting harm. While prosecution and punishment remain essential, greater emphasis must be placed on early intervention, disruption, and risk management in order to prevent abuse before it escalates.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed pp. 165-166 (PDF pp. 166-167)

One vital reform would be to ensure the wider and more proactive use of Sexual Risk Orders (SROs) and related civil preventative orders. In principle, these powers allow authorities to impose restrictions on individuals who demonstrate concerning behaviour characteristic of sexual abusers, even where a criminal conviction has not yet been secured. Greater readiness to deploy them would give police officers and safeguarding agencies more confidence to intervene sooner rather than later, whether by restricting contact with vulnerable children, monitoring online activity, limiting access to certain locations, or preventing association with suspected grooming networks. Such measures would help close the gap between suspicion and prosecution, where many offenders currently continue operating unchecked.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 166 (PDF p. 167)

For similar reasons, compulsory monitoring arrangements for high-risk offenders should be strengthened. Individuals with histories of sexual violence, exploitation, trafficking, or organised abuse should be subject to more rigorous supervision through electronic monitoring, regular risk assessments, mandatory disclosure requirements, and closer multi-agency oversight. Given the increasingly digital nature of grooming, monitoring should also include online behaviour and communications where legally proportionate. Enhanced supervision would not only reduce opportunities for reoffending but also improve intelligence gathering on wider criminal networks.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 166 (PDF p. 167)

Mandatory reporting duties for institutions represent another crucial preventative safeguard. Schools, social services, healthcare providers, care homes, charities, and other organisations working with children should be placed under a clear legal obligation to report suspected abuse, exploitation, or grooming activity to the appropriate authorities. Too often, institutional failures, fear of reputational damage, or uncertainty about procedures have allowed warning signs to be ignored. A statutory duty would create greater accountability, encourage earlier referrals, and strengthen inter-agency cooperation. Failure to report serious concerns, particularly by professionals in positions of trust, should carry meaningful disciplinary and potentially criminal consequences.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 166 (PDF p. 167)

Expanding preventative powers must, however, remain consistent with principles of proportionality, due process, and basic freedoms. Safeguards including judicial oversight, regular review mechanisms, and clear evidential thresholds are necessary to ensure that expanded powers are not used arbitrarily. Nevertheless, where the protection of vulnerable children is at stake, the balance of public policy should favour earlier intervention rather than waiting for irreparable harm to occur.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 167 (PDF p. 168)

Finally, the overarching legislative objective should be to recognise organised sexual exploitation as a form of structural criminality. This requires a shift in both legal doctrine and institutional culture. The law must move from reactive punishment to proactive eradication of networks that exploit vulnerable children. Without such a shift, existing statutes – however numerous or severe in theory – will continue to operate as instruments of retrospective justice rather than effective protection.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 167 (PDF p. 168)

The following principles must be enshrined in the aforementioned Childhood Sexual Exploitation Act:

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 167 (PDF p. 168)

Children can never consent. The Act must prohibit any agency or court from treating a child’s previous behaviour, clothing, intoxication or “lifestyle choices” as mitigation or consent. Any professional who uses such language in reports or proceedings must face disciplinary action and potential criminal sanction.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 167 (PDF p. 168)

Accountability encourages competence. The Act must contain greater clarity in law detailing the positive expectations to which public-facing bodies with a statutory “duty of care” must be held accountable. Among frontline professionals, it is of course everybody’s duty to safeguard children. The clarification should be such as to require the relevant duty-holder – be it an individual, an organisation, or some other entity – to take proactive, affirmative steps to save children from group-based exploitation. Breach of this duty, whether by provable incompetence or deliberate malpractice, must be an offence. Repeated failure to act on known safeguarding indicators has been one of the defining characteristics of the rape gang scourge across Britain. Public bodies must therefore face clear legal accountability where serious neglect occurs.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 167 (PDF p. 168)

Crimes committed by child victims of grooming at the behest of their abusers lack the mens rea (“guilty mind”) to count as criminal in the conventional sense. The Act must expunge the criminal records of any child or young person convicted of crimes (including prostitution, drug possession, or public order offences) that occurred while and because they were forced to do so. The presumption must be that such convictions were the direct result either of manipulation or coercion. Named Sammy’s Law after Sammy Woodhouse, this would be for the benefit of survivors in need of closure who were criminalised instead of protected.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed pp. 167-168 (PDF pp. 168-169)

Proven rapists forfeit their parental rights. The Act should make it unambiguous that rapists, upon conviction, automatically lose their parental rights over any children born of such rape.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 168 (PDF p. 169)

Sharia Marriage. The Act must prohibit sharia marriages. Too often, these have served as a pretext for abusers to exercise greater coercive control over their victims. This is because Sharia courts effectively operate as a parallel judicial system, recognised in British law but not of British law. This enables them to govern the life of Muslim communities – and by extension the life of any victims groomed by such communities – in ways counter to our long-established norms and customs.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, Legislative Response, printed p. 168 (PDF p. 169)

Every frontline professional – police officers, social workers, teachers, GPs, nurses, taxi licensing officers, school staff, and youth workers – must receive mandatory annual training on group-based child sexual exploitation. This training must convey the documented ethnic and religious patterns, the tactics used by the gangs, the signs of grooming, and the legal duty to act. Failure to act on clear indicators must carry professional risk and, in serious cases, criminal consequences. A national public awareness campaign must be launched so that parents, neighbours, and communities know exactly what to look for and whom to contact. The default response of every agency must shift from disbelief and victim-blaming to immediate protection and investigation.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, printed p. 169 (PDF p. 170)

While policy change is required to hold statutory services to account, the delivery of these practices must be carefully monitored. Improved training is key. Many initiatives emphasise the need for multi-agency working, but delivery more than emphasis is essential to effective safeguarding in practice. Previous reviews have documented gaps in multi-agency processes, many of them noticed as a result of failures of child safeguarding. A crucial point to consider is that each service has its own guidelines, practices, and processes, all of which contribute to gaps in communication, referrals, and the like. It is important that statutory services form trusting relationships with one another, as well as with other partners. This means engaging in open conversations, demonstrating professional curiosity, and erring on the side of oversharing information to safeguard children.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, printed p. 169 (PDF p. 170)

In 2022, the British Journal of General Practice published an article on the work of Sharon Dixon, Bryony Kendall, Jenny Driscoll and Catherine Pope. “Relationship building is at the heart of multi-agency working,” it read, “and sharing stories and findings can be part of this. When research is primarily conducted and shared within single-agency professional meetings and publications, opportunities to do this may be missed.”⁶¹ This buttresses the findings from this Inquiry: cross-agency training is vital to facilitating multi-agency working. We therefore recommend that cross-agency child safeguarding training be made mandatory for all statutory services. The Inquiry further recommends that agencies work together to agree joint working practices and policies to prevent confidentiality acting as a barrier to sharing pivotal information in circumstances that may not only serve to protect children, but prove life-saving.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, printed pp. 169-170 (PDF pp. 170-171)

Footnote 61

Sharon Dixon, Bryony Kendall, Jenny Driscoll & Catherine Pope, Supporting the ‘multi’ in multi-agency working: learning with and from each other could enable multi-agency safeguarding, British Journal of General Practice, September 2022, p. 439.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, footnote, printed p. 169 (PDF p. 170)

Safeguarding posters outlining signs of child grooming and exploitation should be displayed in public areas in all health clinics, including GP surgeries, sexual health clinics, A&E departments, inpatient areas, and mental health clinics and any other area accessed by those attending health care facilities. This should be extended to schools and youth centres.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, printed p. 170 (PDF p. 171)

Policing must be reformed from the ground up. Every force must be required to record the ethnicity, immigration status, nationality and religion of both victims and perpetrators in all CSE cases. A national marker for group-based child sexual exploitation must be mandatory. Specialist CSE units must be established in every force, with dedicated resources for proactive disruption. Ethnoreligious lobbying against proper law enforcement must be resisted on principle.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, printed p. 170 (PDF p. 171)

The current framework within which law enforcement approaches CSE is untrue to the real-world nuances of the problem. In order to perform better, the police must deepen their cooperation with existing multi-agency CSE panels, designed to identify and safeguard children at risk of exploitation.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Policing, printed p. 170 (PDF p. 171)

At present, these efforts take place largely at the local level, without sufficient coordination. Multi-agency CSE panels also lack either a statutory footing or a nationally mandated operational framework. As a result, performance varies from place to place. Evidence from serious case reviews and major inquiries – including those arising from investigations into the Rotherham and Rochdale gangs – indicates that the lack of a consistent playbook, set down nationwide, contributed to safeguarding failures and undermined local responses.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Policing, printed p. 170 (PDF p. 171)

We therefore call for the immediate introduction of multi-agency coordination on CSE and a uniform operational framework. Such reforms would improve consistency and maximise accountability. Where effective, multi-agency CSE panels tend to demonstrate well-defined referral thresholds and pathways, regular strategic meetings between police departments and children’s services, and clear lines of accountability. Norfolk is often praised for its track record on these very fronts. There exists a dedicated multi-agency exploitation team, embedded alongside policing. The proven model of such success stories must serve as the foundation of any future reforms.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Policing, printed pp. 170-171 (PDF pp. 171-172)

Police should also be trained to interview rape gang suspects in relation to their religious beliefs and investigate the witness evidence of victims in relation to the religious elements of their abuse. The fear of offending cultural sensitivities should be removed completely from the culture that permeates modern policing.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Policing, printed p. 171 (PDF p. 172)

The NHS must be specified in law to owe a duty of care to survivors of rape gangs. Every sexual health clinic, GP surgery, A&E department, and mental health service must trigger an automatic safeguarding referral for any child presenting with STIs, genital injuries, pregnancies or repeated self-harm linked to exploitation. Discharge of a child back to a known risk environment without a multi-agency protection plan must be prohibited. Trauma-informed care must be commissioned nationally for all rape gang survivors. Backstreet abortions and pregnancies caused by rape must be treated as crimes, not private medical matters.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed p. 171 (PDF p. 172)

In March 2026, the government published an updated version of Working Together to Safeguard Children – a statutory guidance manual on multi-agency working to help, support, and protect children. The guidance provides a summary of changes within this updated version, as well as an appendix glossary on group-based child sexual exploitation.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed p. 171 (PDF p. 172)

This glossary defines group-based child sexual exploitation as

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed p. 171 (PDF p. 172)

Quoted by the report, the words of the UK Government's Working Together to Safeguard Children, cited in its footnote 62

“two or more individuals (whether identified or not) who are known to (or associated with) one another and are known to be involved in or to facilitate the sexual exploitation of children. Being involved in the sexual exploitation of children includes e.g. introducing them to other individuals for the purpose of exploitation, trafficking a child for the purpose of sexual exploitation, taking payment for sexual activities with a child or allowing their property to be used for sexual activities with a child, etc. This can be perpetrated within or beyond the family, by both children and adults, and groups can be organised or loosely linked.”⁶²

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed pp. 171-172 (PDF pp. 172-173)

Footnote 62

See UK Government, Working Together to Safeguard Children, March 2026, p. 164.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, footnote, printed p. 172 (PDF p. 173)

Trauma-informed care must also be commissioned nationally for survivors of organised sexual exploitation. Survivors frequently experience long-term psychological trauma, addiction, self-harm, homelessness, PTSD, depression, and difficulties engaging with healthcare services. Yet support provision remains inconsistent. An overwhelming number of the participants with whom we engaged during the Inquiry have reported struggles accessing the appropriate psychological support to process their trauma and facilitate recovery.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed p. 172 (PDF p. 173)

Survivors need more specifically focused attention than is customary with cognitive behavioural therapy. This report recommends that Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) should also form a central component of therapeutic provision for survivors. Survivors commonly present with profound shame, self-blame, dissociation, emotional dysregulation, complex trauma symptoms, substance dependency, depression, self-harm, and difficulties forming safe interpersonal relationships. These psychological patterns are not incidental; they are frequently the direct consequence of prolonged coercion, humiliation, degradation, violence, and institutional abandonment.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed p. 172 (PDF p. 173)

CFT specifically targets these psychological patterns. Grooming processes deliberately condition victims to internalise guilt, complicity, worthlessness, and emotional dependency upon perpetrators. Many survivors consequently describe themselves not primarily as victims of violence, but as ‘dirty,’ ‘weak,’ ‘complicit,’ or ‘beyond help.’ These shame-based feelings persist even after physical safety has been secured. CFT directly seeks to strengthen this soothing system through compassionate imagery, emotional regulation training, attachment repair, and reduction of self-attacking cognition. Emerging evidence suggests that compassion-based interventions are effective in reducing PTSD symptoms, shame, depression, and self-criticism among trauma survivors.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed p. 172 (PDF p. 173)

Importantly, many survivors of organised exploitation distrust authority figures and struggle with conventional clinical relationships due to repeated betrayal. CFT offers a non-punitive and non-pathologising framework that validates survival responses rather than framing victims as dysfunctional or resistant. This is particularly important for survivors previously criminalised, disbelieved, or blamed by professionals.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed pp. 172-173 (PDF pp. 173-174)

In view of these facts, CFT should be commissioned nationally within specialist survivor services, NHS trauma pathways should include CFT as a recommended intervention for survivors of organised sexual exploitation, clinicians working with grooming gang survivors should receive specialist training in shame-informed and compassion-based approaches, long-term therapy provision should be prioritised over short-duration crisis interventions, and survivor services should incorporate peer-based compassionate recovery models alongside formal psychotherapy. Support should also be made available to family members, especially to children and to the partners of victims of gang-based abuse.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed p. 173 (PDF p. 174)

As for physical health, pregnancies in children under 16, abortions following suspected rape, concealed pregnancies, forced terminations, and suspected backstreet abortions should be treated as safeguarding and potentially criminal matters rather than solely private medical episodes. The child must always be regarded as a victim in need of protection.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed p. 173 (PDF p. 174)

As we have seen, the physical after-effects of exploitation did not end when the abuse itself ended. In many cases, as we have seen, the trauma carried over into the lives of children born through rape. The continued institutional invisibility of these children reflects a broader reluctance to confront the wider human consequences of organised sexual exploitation. As such, these children should be formally recognised within safeguarding legislation as a vulnerable category requiring specialist support. We further recommend the creation of a national research programme examining the long-term social, psychological, developmental, and safeguarding outcomes of children born through organised sexual violence. The near-total absence of British research in this field represents a major institutional blind spot.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed p. 173 (PDF p. 174)

Mandatory training should also be introduced for all frontline NHS staff on how to identify and how to engage with the various grooming dynamics: coercive control, dissociation, trauma presentation, gang-associated abuse, ‘boyfriend model’ exploitation, and honour-based abuse. Multiple inquiries have identified a recurring pattern in which professionals failed to intervene because victims were perceived as ‘troubled,’ ‘consenting,’ or ‘making lifestyle choices.’

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed p. 174 (PDF p. 175)

Last of all, we recommend the establishment of specialist NHS Child Sexual Exploitation Units in areas with documented histories of organised abuse. These should combine forensic medicine, safeguarding expertise, mental health services, survivor advocacy, and long-term trauma support. Their purpose would be not only treatment but also early identification of organised exploitation patterns. Every survivor should be guaranteed long-term access to specialist counselling, psychiatric treatment, sexual health care, reproductive healthcare, addiction support, legal advocacy, and housing assistance regardless of whether criminal proceedings are ongoing.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Healthcare, printed p. 174 (PDF p. 175)

The law provides comprehensive and powerful mechanisms for victims, their families, and other concerned parties to pursue accountability for the widespread grooming, rape, and trafficking offences committed by organised gangs across the United Kingdom. These mechanisms operate through two principal routes: (1) civil actions seeking compensation, together with other remedies, for harm suffered and (2) private prosecutions where public authorities have failed or refused to act. Both avenues draw directly upon the extensive range of offences and institutional failures documented in cases such as R v. Karrar (2013), and they can be deployed strategically to secure justice, expose systemic shortcomings, and deter future offending without sole reliance on reluctant state prosecutors or local councils.⁶³

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, printed p. 174 (PDF p. 175)

Footnote 63

Central Criminal Court, Case of R v. AKHTAR DOGAR, ANJUM DOGAR, KAMAR JAMIL, MOHAMMED KARRAR, BASSAM KARRAR, SENTENCING REMARKS OF HIS HONOUR JUDGE PETER ROOK QC, 27 June, 2013.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, footnote, printed p. 174 (PDF p. 175)

Civil actions against the perpetrators themselves begin with the core torts of assault and battery. These claims arise whenever non-consensual sexual contact, physical violence or coercive acts occur, as repeatedly evidenced in the grooming and exploitation patterns that involved extreme brutality, sustained assaults, and the use of drugs to facilitate offending. Victims can recover damages for physical injuries, pain and suffering, loss of earnings, and medical expenses, with courts empowered to award aggravated or exemplary damages where the conduct is shown to have been sadistic or humiliating. False imprisonment forms a further head of claim in every case involving trafficking or confinement, where perpetrators can be shown to have restricted the liberty of victims through threats, abduction, or control within the United Kingdom for sexual exploitation. This tort directly mirrors the trafficking offences under sections 57 to 59A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the Modern Slavery Act 2015, allowing victims to seek substantial compensation for the deprivation of freedom and the psychological trauma that accompanies it.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, printed pp. 174-175 (PDF pp. 175-176)

A separate but highly relevant civil claim is available under the rule in Wilkinson v. Downton (1897) for the intentional infliction of emotional distress. This tort captures the grooming process itself, the supply of controlled substances to lower resistance, the repeated humiliation, and the long-term mental harm inflicted on child victims. Courts have recognised that such deliberate conduct, often accompanied by threats to families, meets the threshold of outrageous behaviour calculated to cause psychiatric injury, thereby opening the door to compensation even where physical injury is absent. In addition to these private law remedies, every eligible victim retains the statutory right to apply for payments from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012. The scheme explicitly covers violent sexual offences, including rape of a child under 13, assault by penetration and sexual exploitation, and it operates independently of any criminal conviction, providing a safety net of state-funded awards that can reach tens of thousands of pounds depending on the severity of harm.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, printed p. 175 (PDF p. 176)

Civil liability extends equally to public authorities whose failures have enabled heinous criminal offences. Negligence claims against police forces, local councils, social services departments, and NHS bodies succeed where a duty of care is established and breached through the systematic ignoring of reports, the failure to investigate warnings, or the prioritisation of so-called “community relations” over child protection. Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, for example, has already paid millions of pounds in settlements precisely because its institutional culture prevented effective safeguarding. Misfeasance in public office supplies an additional and potent tort where claimants can prove that officials acted with bad faith or malice, such as deliberately shelving investigations out of fear of being labelled racist. This tort requires evidence of targeted harm but carries the potential for exemplary damages and personal liability against individual officers or councillors.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, printed pp. 175-176 (PDF pp. 176-177)

Claims under the Human Rights Act 1998 have proved especially effective in this context. Article 3 of the ECHR imposes a positive obligation on the state to protect individuals from inhuman or degrading treatment and to investigate grave crimes such as rape with efficiency and promptness. The landmark Supreme Court decision in DSD v. Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (2018) confirmed that systemic investigative failures breach this article, giving rise to damages for victims who were let down by repeated inaction.⁶⁴ More recent authority in Chief Constable of Northamptonshire v. Woodcock (2025) reinforces that police forces may be held liable in damages where they fail to protect individuals from foreseeable third-party harm, encompassing breaches of both Article 3 and Article 8 rights to respect for private and family life.⁶⁵ These human rights claims can run alongside negligence actions and have resulted in substantial compensation awards while simultaneously forcing policy changes within failing institutions.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, printed p. 176 (PDF p. 177)

Footnote 64

Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, COMMISSIONER OF POLICE OF THE METROPOLIS v. DSD AND ANOTHER, 23 July, 2015.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, footnote, printed p. 176 (PDF p. 177)

Footnote 65

Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, CHIEF CONSTABLE OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE POLICE v. WOODCOCK, 4 July, 2025.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, footnote, printed p. 176 (PDF p. 177)

Further statutory routes arise under the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004, which place clear duties on local authorities to safeguard children and promote their welfare. Breaches of these duties, particularly where vulnerable children in care were groomed or assaulted by those in positions of trust, support civil claims for damages. Sections 16 to 19 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 create specific criminal offences for adults in positions of trust who engage in or incite sexual activity with children under their care, but the same facts also ground civil liability for breach of statutory duty. Vicarious liability principles allow claimants to hold authorities responsible for the acts or omissions of their employees, such as social workers, care home staff or NHS personnel who either committed offences or turned a blind eye. Where broader policy decisions contributed to the scandal, judicial review proceedings remain available to challenge unlawful failures to act, providing a route to quash decisions and compel proper investigations.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, printed pp. 176-177 (PDF pp. 177-178)

Private prosecutions supply the criminal counterpart to these civil remedies and are available to any person or organisation with sufficient interest in the case. The full spectrum of offences committed by the perpetrators can be prosecuted privately under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, including rape contrary to section 1, rape of a child under 13 contrary to section 5, assault by penetration contrary to section 2, sexual assault contrary to section 3, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity contrary to sections 8 and 10, arranging or facilitating child sexual exploitation contrary to section 50, grooming contrary to section 15, and the various trafficking and prostitution-related offences in sections 52 and 57 to 59A. The Serious Crime Act 2015 broadened these provisions by replacing outdated references to child prostitution with the wider concept of sexual exploitation of a child, while the Modern Slavery Act 2015 criminalises trafficking for sexual purposes with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Indecent image offences, offences of causing or inciting prostitution for gain, and even rarer but documented instances of animal cruelty linked to the offending can likewise be pursued.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, printed p. 177 (PDF p. 178)

Where public authorities or their employees have themselves committed crimes, private prosecutions are equally viable. Misconduct in public office, perverting the course of justice, and aiding or abetting the primary offenders can all be charged against police officers, councillors, social workers, or care staff who deliberately obstructed investigations or protected perpetrators. The same principles apply to family members or community figures who shielded rapists through intimidation of victims, concealment of evidence, or active assistance in the trafficking networks. Precedents such as HM Advocate v. Collins (2016) illustrate the gravity with which courts view abuse of trust in care settings, and private prosecutors can seek the same life sentences with extended minimum terms that were imposed in R v. Karrar (2013) for the depraved, brutal, and sadistic nature of the gang activity.⁶⁶

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, printed pp. 177-178 (PDF pp. 178-179)

Footnote 66

High Court of Justiciary, HER MAJESTY’S ADVOCATE v. GORDON COLLINS, 25 November, 2016.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, footnote, printed p. 178 (PDF p. 179)

The procedural route for private prosecutions is straightforward yet powerful. A summons or warrant is issued by a Magistrates’ Court upon presentation of evidence that satisfies the evidential and public interest tests, after which the case proceeds as any other criminal matter, with the CPS retaining the power to take over and continue or discontinue it. This mechanism bypasses institutional reluctance, ensures that cases such as those involving absconded offenders or protected family members reach court, and creates a public record of the offending that can support parallel civil claims. In combination, civil actions deliver financial redress and accountability for harm, while private prosecutions deliver criminal convictions, long custodial sentences, and the public condemnation necessary to dismantle the networks. Together, they form a complete legal strategy capable of delivering justice where state agencies have historically fallen short.

The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, All Frontline Response, Private Prosecutions/Civil Litigation, printed p. 178 (PDF p. 179)

The question, asked by Rupert Lowe (Great Yarmouth) (Ind)

Despite multiple promises of inquiries from political parties across this House, it seems the only operational investigation will be the rape gang inquiry that I have privately launched. It has garnered cross-party support, and I implore MPs from any political persuasion to align with our cause. Will the Minister commit today to engaging in a co-operative manner with the investigation and make herself available to answer questions from our expert panel?

Hansard, HC Deb 28 April 2025, vol 766, Child Rape Gangs (urgent question)

Jess Phillips

I delight in the hon. Gentleman’s interest, and what I would say to every single Member of this House is that I will work with absolutely anybody to make this better. I am more than happy to meet him and talk about any level of co-operation, because if people are genuinely here to try to stop the grooming gangs in this country, I am genuinely here to help.

Hansard, HC Deb 28 April 2025, vol 766, Child Rape Gangs (urgent question), paragraph 1 of 1 of the contribution

The Commissioner noted:

The Spectator (Steerpike), 'Rupert Lowe cleared by standards watchdog', block 11 of 16 of the article body

Quoted by The Spectator, the words of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards

I opened a formal inquiry on 10 July 2025. My inquiry sought to confirm whether these donations qualified as registrable interests and whether Lowe had failed to register them within the 28-day window set by the House. During the inquiry, Lowe provided evidence that a number of donations made to the crowdfunder did cross the threshold for registration but that they were not accepted until 23 June 2025. As such, the 28-day window set by the House for the registration of those interests has not passed and no breach of the rules has occurred.

The Spectator (Steerpike), 'Rupert Lowe cleared by standards watchdog', block 12 of 16 of the article body

The ex-Reform MP’s ‘Rape Gang Inquiry,’ which has raised over £600,000, includes Tommy Robinson supporters.

Left Foot Forward, 'Who is funding Rupert Lowe’s ‘Rape Gang Inquiry’?', standfirst

Though the government will now launch a national inquiry, Lowe insists his will continue. Unlike the government’s inquiry, Lowe’s has no statutory powers, but has raised over £619,000 in donations.

Left Foot Forward, 'Who is funding Rupert Lowe’s ‘Rape Gang Inquiry’?', body block 3 of 19

The majority of the £619,000 raised has come from small donors, but a handful of higher-profile figures have also contributed. The largest single donation — £8,000 — came from a software engineer who has shared social media posts about the rise of Islamism. Other donations have come from supporters of Rupert Lowe and individuals who have publicly called for migrants to be deported and housed in tents in their countries of origin. Last month, the parliamentary standards commissioner opened an investigation into whether Lowe declared the donations within the required 28-day timeframe. He has since been cleared of any breach of the rules.

Left Foot Forward, 'Who is funding Rupert Lowe’s ‘Rape Gang Inquiry’?', body block 4 of 19

Ben Habib, former deputy leader of Reform UK, and previously a Brexit Party MEP, donated £5,000 to the inquiry. The Advance UK website states that unlike the Tories and Reform, Habib’s new political party, will not “chop and change with the wind”. He said other right-wing parties “jump onboard an issue – like tackling the grooming gangs – when they decide it’s safe to do so”.

Left Foot Forward, 'Who is funding Rupert Lowe’s ‘Rape Gang Inquiry’?', body block 6 of 19

Rupert Lowe has donated £5,000 himself.

Left Foot Forward, 'Who is funding Rupert Lowe’s ‘Rape Gang Inquiry’?', body block 7 of 19

The former Reform MP, who was jailed almost 19 years ago for repeatedly kicking an ex-girlfriend, was also appointed to the panel. McMurdock recently removed the Reform whip from himself after the Times published an investigation into his use of government-backed Covid Bounce Back loans.

Left Foot Forward, 'Who is funding Rupert Lowe’s ‘Rape Gang Inquiry’?', body block 16 of 19

Quoted by GB News, the words of a Home Office spokesperson after GB News's own lead-in ‘A Home Office spokesperson has told GB News’

A Home Office spokesperson has told GB News: "The abuse of children by grooming gangs is one of the most horrific crimes imaginable.

GB News, 'Grooming gangs: Rupert Lowe's £600k inquiry hears shock claims of 'Eid rapes' and police cover-ups: 'Barbarians!'', paragraphs 45-46 of the page text blocks

Quoted by GB News, the words of a Home Office spokesperson

"We will do everything in our power to ensure that these crimes never happen again."

GB News, 'Grooming gangs: Rupert Lowe's £600k inquiry hears shock claims of 'Eid rapes' and police cover-ups: 'Barbarians!'', paragraphs 45-46 of the page text blocks

The question, asked by Rupert Lowe

As the Secretary of State knows, our independent rape gang inquiry hearings are ongoing just a short walk from this Chamber. Last week I sat opposite one woman who was raped by between 600 and 700 men. She estimated that 98% were Pakistani Muslims. The evidence we are collecting is brutal. We have been told again and again of attempts to traffic raped and abused women overseas to Pakistan and elsewhere; thankfully, those attempts failed, but how many did not? Will the Secretary of State agree to urgently review cases of missing girls in target areas and launch a full state investigation into reports of such trafficking?

Hansard, HC Deb 9 February 2026, vol 780, Topical Questions (Home Office)

Shabana Mahmood

The testimony of the victims that the hon. Gentleman has heard from is absolutely horrifying, and the grooming gangs scandal was one of the darkest moments in this country’s history. Victims and survivors of these hideous crimes deserve justice, and we will make sure that they get it. Our inquiry is a full, statutory independent inquiry, with all the powers under the Inquiries Act 2005 to deliver justice. I urge the hon. Gentleman and anybody else who has heard any allegations or evidence of criminality to share it with the police immediately.

Hansard, HC Deb 9 February 2026, vol 780, Topical Questions (Home Office), paragraph 1 of 1 of the contribution

Natalie Fleet

We will look at research, including on the role that ethnicity, culture and religion play in group-based offending so that our response can lead to lasting, systemic change that everybody in this House, including the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Rupert Lowe), is right to call for today.

Hansard, HC Deb 1 June 2026, vol 786, Westminster Hall, Child Sexual Offender Data (e-petition debate), paragraph 14 of 30 of the speech

Natalie Fleet

On rape gang inquiries, I again want to pay tribute to victims and survivors who have shared their experiences. I recognise how difficult and how personal that is. Their courage in speaking out is absolutely extraordinary and these issues cannot and will not be ignored. The independent inquiry into grooming gangs is an official statutory inquiry established under the Inquiries Act 2005.

Hansard, HC Deb 1 June 2026, vol 786, Westminster Hall, Child Sexual Offender Data (e-petition debate), paragraph 26 of 30 of the speech

Natalie Fleet

The inquiry has a clear mandate to uncover the truth and to deliver justice for victims and survivors. I want to be clear that if the rape gang inquiry encounters any evidence of criminal conduct as part of its work, that evidence should be passed on to law enforcement. I welcome the previous commitment of the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth to work constructively with the statutory inquiry.

Hansard, HC Deb 1 June 2026, vol 786, Westminster Hall, Child Sexual Offender Data (e-petition debate), paragraph 27 of 30 of the speech

Lee Anderson (Ashfield) (Reform)

I thank the hon. Member for giving way; he is being very generous with his time. I met the panel of the rape gang inquiry just a few months ago. I asked that information from the inquiry of the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Rupert Lowe) be passed on to that panel, and they agreed on that.

Hansard, HC Deb 1 June 2026, vol 786, Westminster Hall, Child Sexual Offender Data (intervention during Robbie Moore's speech), paragraph 1 of 1 of the contribution

That this House notes the publication of the independent Rape Gang Inquiry Report, established to examine the organised sexual exploitation of children across the United Kingdom; pays tribute to the survivors, whistleblowers, parents, campaigners and professionals who gave evidence; expresses profound concern at testimony detailing decades of rape, trafficking, violence, murder and abuse, alongside repeated failures by police forces, local authorities, social services, health bodies and successive Governments to protect vulnerable children; further notes the Inquiry's findings regarding the scale of organised child sexual exploitation and the institutional reluctance to confront its causes and characteristics; believes that many victims were failed not only by their abusers but by the very institutions charged with their protection; calls on His Majesty's Government to formally engage with the Inquiry's findings and recommendations, to provide a full written response to Parliament, to publish a timetable for action, and to set out which recommendations it intends to implement; and urges the Government to demonstrate that no consideration of political sensitivity, community relations, or fear of causing offence will ever again take precedence over the protection of children.

UK Parliament, Early Day Motion 380 (ID 66091), 'Independent Rape Gang Inquiry Report', the motion text

Is the number of girls raped in the United Kingdom by grooming gangs definitively documented to be 250,000? No, that's not true: That figure is an extrapolation using an unclear methodology based on data from smaller communities with headline-grabbing scandals and is not an actual count of rape cases across the United Kingdom. A 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse said, "it is simply not possible to know the scale of child sexual exploitation by networks."

Lead Stories, 'Fact Check: Figure of 250,000 Girls Raped by U.K. Grooming Gangs NOT Definitively Documented -- Rhetorical Extrapolation', body block 1 of 15

The 250,000 figure, according to page 12 of The Rape Gang Inquiry Report, is not based on government or law enforcement data but, instead, on a rhetorical question (archived here) posed in the House of Lords by Lord Malcolm Pearson of Rannoch on Oct. 22, 2018. He asked:

Lead Stories, 'Fact Check: Figure of 250,000 Girls Raped by U.K. Grooming Gangs NOT Definitively Documented -- Rhetorical Extrapolation', body block 7 of 15

Quoted by Lead Stories, the words of Lord Pearson of Rannoch in the House of Lords

Do the Government accept that if we extrapolate nationally the Jay report on Rotherham and other reports from Telford and Oxford, there appear to have been upwards of 250,000 young white girls raped in this century, very largely by Muslim men, usually several times a day for years?

Lead Stories, 'Fact Check: Figure of 250,000 Girls Raped by U.K. Grooming Gangs NOT Definitively Documented -- Rhetorical Extrapolation', body block 8 of 15

Nearly seven months later, on May 14, 2019, Pearson repeated the claim (archived here) in the House of Lords, referring to what he said were "the 250,000 victims of radical Muslim grooming gangs, which in itself is probably an underestimate." He continued:

Lead Stories, 'Fact Check: Figure of 250,000 Girls Raped by U.K. Grooming Gangs NOT Definitively Documented -- Rhetorical Extrapolation', body block 10 of 15

Quoted by Lead Stories, the words of Lord Pearson of Rannoch in the House of Lords

I say that because, if you take the accepted figure of 1,400 victims in Rotherham alone and extend it across the country, you come to a much larger figure. Indeed, Rotherham's MP, the courageous Sarah Champion, has put the figure at 1 million... It is still going on. I have contacts on the ground in Rotherham who say that grooming gangs are still active there.

Lead Stories, 'Fact Check: Figure of 250,000 Girls Raped by U.K. Grooming Gangs NOT Definitively Documented -- Rhetorical Extrapolation', body block 11 of 15

An inquiry (archived here) into abuse in Rotherham said its "conservative estimate is that approximately 1,400 children were sexually exploited" between 1997 and 2013. How the 250,000 figure -- or the 1 million number -- was calculated is unclear. Pearson did not explain.

Lead Stories, 'Fact Check: Figure of 250,000 Girls Raped by U.K. Grooming Gangs NOT Definitively Documented -- Rhetorical Extrapolation', body block 12 of 15

The population of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in England is estimated at more than 270,000. Extrapolating Rotherham's experience to the entire United Kingdom, which has a population of about 70 million, would be difficult. The difficulty lies not in the math but in the assumption that the incidence of child sexual abuse and reporting of those crimes are broadly similar throughout the country, whether in urban or rural settings. The data also does not include a breakdown by gender. It is unknown how many of the 1,400 children were girls.

Lead Stories, 'Fact Check: Figure of 250,000 Girls Raped by U.K. Grooming Gangs NOT Definitively Documented -- Rhetorical Extrapolation', body block 13 of 15

The figure of 250,000 girls raped by grooming gangs in the United Kingdom could be too low or too high because there's no national figure. The Jay report in its "Prevalence" section stated that criminal justice data does not capture the full scope of such crimes. The report read:

Lead Stories, 'Fact Check: Figure of 250,000 Girls Raped by U.K. Grooming Gangs NOT Definitively Documented -- Rhetorical Extrapolation', body block 14 of 15

Quoted by Lead Stories, the words of the report it calls the Jay report, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse's ‘Child sexual exploitation by organised networks’ (2022)

Offence codes: Police data collection and reporting is generally driven by type of offence but there is no specific offence of child sexual exploitation. Instead, four criminal offences are listed under the heading 'child sexual exploitation' in the Sexual Offences Act 2003.[1] In 2018/19, offenders were charged with 1,012 offences within this group.[2] In 2019/20, the latest full year for which figures are available at the time of writing, this rose to 1,363.[3] However, these categories do not include more serious crimes such as rape, which may also involve child sexual exploitation.[4] For that reason, crime statistics for offences listed as child sexual exploitation fail to capture the most serious child sexual exploitation crimes.

Lead Stories, 'Fact Check: Figure of 250,000 Girls Raped by U.K. Grooming Gangs NOT Definitively Documented -- Rhetorical Extrapolation', body block 15 of 15

Inquiry highlights Britain's treatment of grooming gangs as a series of local scandals when they were actually a national phenomenon

IBTimes UK, 'Rape Gang Inquiry Claims Grooming Gangs Operated in 149 UK Local Authority Areas', standfirst

An independent report into group-based child sexual exploitation has claimed that organised grooming networks operated in at least 149 local authority areas across the United Kingdom, raising fresh questions about the true scale of the abuse and whether it was treated for too long as a series of isolated scandals rather than a national problem.

IBTimes UK, 'Rape Gang Inquiry Claims Grooming Gangs Operated in 149 UK Local Authority Areas', body block 1 of 15

According to the report, evidence gathered from court records, witness testimonies and previous investigations suggests organised exploitation occurred in at least 149 local authority districts.

IBTimes UK, 'Rape Gang Inquiry Claims Grooming Gangs Operated in 149 UK Local Authority Areas', body block 4 of 15

However, the figure of 149 local authority areas has not been independently verified by the government's ongoing statutory inquiry, which is continuing to gather evidence using its formal investigative powers.

IBTimes UK, 'Rape Gang Inquiry Claims Grooming Gangs Operated in 149 UK Local Authority Areas', body block 7 of 15

While campaigners, survivors and policymakers remain divided over some of the report's conclusions, there is broader agreement that serious safeguarding failures occurred in multiple parts of the country. The government's inquiry is now expected to test many of the claims made in the report, including whether organised exploitation was as widespread as its authors contend.

IBTimes UK, 'Rape Gang Inquiry Claims Grooming Gangs Operated in 149 UK Local Authority Areas', body block 15 of 15

Rupert Lowe’s “Rape Gang Inquiry Report”, published yesterday, has brought the issue of organised child sexual abuse back to the forefront of Britons’ minds. This is especially pertinent given the slow progress of the ongoing Government inquiry, which Baroness Casey criticised yesterday on the anniversary of the publication of her National Audit into grooming gangs. It’s well established now by official reports that even with inadequate data, there’s a clear perpetrator and victim profile: Pakistani men and underage white British girls. Also apparent is the complicity of institutions in covering up these crimes. In her audit, Casey even explicitly instructed local authorities not to delete files.

UnHerd, 'Rupert Lowe’s rape gangs report is a missed opportunity', body block 1 of 8

There are also specific factual claims in the report that warrant scrutiny. The figure of 250,000 victims has been circulated widely today, presented as an established minimum. In fact, it originates from a 2019 House of Lords question by former Ukip leader Lord Pearson, who extrapolated from Rotherham’s 1,400 victims to suggest a national estimate. Sarah Champion, Rotherham’s MP, has put the number as high as one million on similar reasoning. While there are many towns that share Rotherham’s failures, not every town is Rotherham, and that kind of extrapolation doesn’t hold up. Many survivors used this report as an opportunity to speak publicly for the first time, and claims that don’t withstand scrutiny risk overshadowing their testimonies.

UnHerd, 'Rupert Lowe’s rape gangs report is a missed opportunity', body block 5 of 8

By framing this as a civilisational conflict, the new report mistakes the nature of what it is describing, making it harder to understand and harder to prevent. An analysis rooted in clan culture and institutional failure would be more accurate, leaving us better equipped to address the rot that actually allowed these horrors to take place.

UnHerd, 'Rupert Lowe’s rape gangs report is a missed opportunity', body block 8 of 8

The question, asked by Vikki Slade (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)

The abuse of children is the most disgusting of crimes, and anyone who is involved in it, or who protects someone involved in it, must face justice. The hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Rupert Lowe), who I note is not in his place, published his report this week, and my constituents are eager to understand why the statutory inquiry will take three years—[Interruption.] Another two years—several years. Why is the Government-backed inquiry going to take so long?

Hansard, HC Deb 18 June 2026, vol 787, Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry (urgent question)

Sarah Jones

The hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Rupert Lowe) has done a piece of work. I welcome the work that he has done, and hope that he will pass on to the police and the inquiry any evidence, criminal or otherwise, that he has gathered. This is an independent statutory inquiry—it is a very different thing. It will be absolutely ruthless in making sure that we can outline every single part of what has gone wrong here and learn every single lesson that we have to learn, so it is a completely different thing.

Hansard, HC Deb 18 June 2026, vol 787, Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry (urgent question), paragraph 1 of 2 of the contribution

Sarah Jones

Statutory inquiries have taken years and years in the past, and Louise Casey was very clear that she wanted it to be time limited, so we have said that we want it finished, which is unusual for an inquiry—some inquiries that the previous Government set up are still ongoing. It will be done by 2029, but it is a completely different piece of work. It will be enormously thorough, get to the bottom of what happened, and bring us the answers that I know victims and the whole country want to see.

Hansard, HC Deb 18 June 2026, vol 787, Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry (urgent question), paragraph 2 of 2 of the contribution

The question, asked by Sir Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con)

The Minister has referred to the grooming gangs inquiry carried out by our friend, the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Rupert Lowe), and early-day motion 380 makes a number of recommendations. Will the Minister engage with the hon. Member to ensure that his ideas and recommendations can be taken forward, because we do not want to have to wait until Baroness Casey’s report in three years’ time?

Hansard, HC Deb 18 June 2026, vol 787, Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry (urgent question)

Sarah Jones

First, I reassure the hon. Gentleman that we are not waiting three years until the inquiry’s report to act. We are already doing a lot of work, as I have outlined—such as Operation Beaconport to reopen cases—and we are using the legislative process to do what we need with data collection and ending the statutory rape definition. We are doing a whole raft of work, and we of course have our wider piece of work on violence against women and girls, with our ambition to halve it in 10 years.

Hansard, HC Deb 18 June 2026, vol 787, Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry (urgent question), paragraph 1 of 2 of the contribution

Sarah Jones

I hope the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Rupert Lowe) is talking to Anne Longfield, who is chairing the independent inquiry and will take all information from all places. I hope he is feeding his information to her, and that if he has criminal evidence he is passing that to the police. I am sure he has uncovered the most grievous harm and talked to victims of it, and we want to make sure that they see the Government are acting in the most appropriate way.

Hansard, HC Deb 18 June 2026, vol 787, Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry (urgent question), paragraph 2 of 2 of the contribution

Restore Britain’s report Rape Gang Inquiry Report launched on Tuesday (16th June 2026) highlights institutional failures to meaningfully respond to and support survivors of group-based rape and sexual abuse. This report states that the “root cause” of this particular form of sexual violence and abuse is “immigration”. The report is focused on Pakistani Muslim men’s group-based offending.

Rape Crisis England & Wales, 'RCEW comments on Rape Gang Inquiry Report', body block 1 of 12

A 2023 report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services concluded that the majority of offenders in the cases they reviewed were white, data from the National Police Chief's Council showed that in cases where ethnicity had been known, 70% of grooming gang suspects in 2023, and 63% in the first nine months of 2024, were white. And the Home Office's 2020 review of group-based child sexual exploitation concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support claims that any one ethnic group is disproportionately responsible at a national level.

Rape Crisis England & Wales, 'RCEW comments on Rape Gang Inquiry Report', body block 10 of 12

We urge policymakers and commentators to focus on what is proven to make a difference for the overwhelming majority of survivors: well-resourced, quality-assured and specialist services, robust safeguarding and well supported professionals with reasonable caseloads, early intervention, improved criminal justice responses, and an education system that challenges harmful attitudes. Survivors deserve nothing less.

Rape Crisis England & Wales, 'RCEW comments on Rape Gang Inquiry Report', body block 12 of 12

It might be based on clear falsehoods and have used dodgy and carefully-curated data to support a fervent anti-Muslim narrative, but Lowe’s report will be believed by millions

Nick Lowles (Substack), 'We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril', standfirst

Earlier this week, Restore Britain leader and MP for Great Yarmouth Rupert Lowe released The Rape Gang Inquiry report. Running to 219 pages and costing £600,000 crowdfunded by public donations, the report purportedly examines “the systematic targeting of vulnerable girls, overwhelmingly White British, by predominantly Muslim Pakistani gangs across towns and cities throughout the United Kingdom.”

Nick Lowles (Substack), 'We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril', body block 1 of 29

Its findings were as stark as they were shocking. Lowe’s central claim is that 250,000 young white girls have been subjected to repeated rape, gang rape, trafficking, torture, pregnancy, forced Islamic conversion, and lifelong trauma at the hands of predominantly Pakistani gangs, though he states that the real figure could be much higher.

Nick Lowles (Substack), 'We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril', body block 2 of 29

Even Lowe’s central claim that 250,000 young white girls were victims of rape gangs crumbles under scrutiny. The figure has its origin in a 2018 House of Lords debate when UKIP peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch stated that “upwards of 250,000 young white girls” were raped this century “largely by Muslim men”. Ignoring any commitment to data accuracy, the figure was extrapolated to a national level from the findings of local inquiries (such as those in Rotherham, Oxford, and Telford).Pearson’s claim would be laughable if the matter wasn’t so serious and its implications so grave.

Nick Lowles (Substack), 'We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril', body block 13 of 29

A cursory look at the online viewing stats shows what we are up against. Lowe’s initial post on X, with a link to the report, has been viewed an incredible 48 million times, reposted 71,000 times and liked 183,000 times. And that’s before we count up the views and likes of those reposting Lowe and writing their own related content.

Nick Lowles (Substack), 'We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril', body block 16 of 29

Inevitably, Elon Musk was quick out of the gate with repeated endorsements of Lowe and the report. One, where he wrote:: “This report is just the tip of an enormous iceberg of evil”, has been viewed 37m times and liked 204,000 times.

Nick Lowles (Substack), 'We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril', body block 17 of 29

Stephen Lennon has also posted regularly in support of the report. One post, which depicted multiple men hanging from gallows with the caption “Pakistani Rope Gangs”, has been viewed over one million times and liked by 70,000 people.

Nick Lowles (Substack), 'We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril', body block 18 of 29

#Lowe’s rape gang narrative gains strength from our government’s failure to act, and will almost certainly cut through with the public, three-quarters of whom think concerns about being accused of racism and upsetting specific ethnic minority groups were a significant factor in police and local authorities’ failure to act on child grooming gangs in the early 2010s.

Nick Lowles (Substack), 'We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril', body block 19 of 29

In a YouGov poll carried out late last year, only 2% of people had a “great deal” of confidence in the Government’s planned national inquiry into grooming gangs, while another 14% had a “fair bit” of confidence. By contrast, 66% had “little or no” confidence in the inquiry. These results are hardly surprising, given that the government had to be forced to agree to it. We are now a year on from the announcement and nothing has happened.

Nick Lowles (Substack), 'We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril', body block 20 of 29

The danger that focuses solely on on-street grooming by gangs, like Lowe, Musk and Lennon like to do, is that we ignore other types of sexual abuse. The stats speak for themselves. Almost one in three women will experience domestic abuse, and sexual offences are at the highest level recorded. One woman every four days in the UK is murdered by a partner or ex-partner. More than 90% of perpetrators of rape and sexual assault are known to their victims, while one in two rapes against women are carried out by a partner or ex-partner. One in three adult survivors of rape experience it in their own home. Lowe, Musk and Lennon have nothing to say about any of this.

Nick Lowles (Substack), 'We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril', body block 23 of 29

The anger generated by Lowe’s report and the 250,000 victim claim will inevitably have a chilling impact on community relations. What happens online goes offline. The outpouring of crude racism and calls for violent retribution that have accompanied the online posts will poison the minds of many across Britain, further dividing communities and possibly even leading to acts of violence. As I write this, a 36-year-old man has been charged following a series of suspected anti-Muslim attacks in Edinburgh that left five men injured. A video of the incident, circulated on social media, showed the alleged attacker shout: “I’m protecting your country from these fucking Muslim bastards raping our daughters, raping our kids. Enough is enough.”

Nick Lowles (Substack), 'We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril', body block 24 of 29

But that is a subject for another day

Nick Lowles (Substack), 'We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril', body block 29 of 29

HOPE not hate CEO Nick Lowles has written an article smearing Rupert Lowe's Rape Gang Inquiry Report as a "racist polemic". C.J. Strachan fact-checks Lowles's article and finds victims being ignored yet again.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', standfirst

In his new Substack post ‘We ignore Rupert Lowe’s Gang Rape Inquiry report at our peril‘, Nick Lowles (CEO of HOPE not hate) concedes that child sexual exploitation is a “national scandal” and “one child victim would be one child too many”. He even nods to government failures and public distrust. Then he pivots hard: the 219-page crowdfunded ‘Rape Gang Inquiry Report‘ organised by Restore Britain leader and MP Rupert Lowe is “full of inaccuracies”, “dodgy and carefully-curated data”, a “polemic,” “racist propaganda” and driven by an “anti-Muslim narrative” and “rabid anti-immigration agenda”. The 250,000 victim figure is a “laughable” extrapolation from a biased UKIP peer. The claimed cultural religious context is “bizarre”. The real peril, Lowles implies, is the report itself fuelling division.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 1 of 37

Reality. The estimate originates in Pearson’s 2018-2019 House of Lords comments citing the Jay Report and others. Lowe’s report treats it as a conservative national figure, noting it could be higher, and grounds it in:

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 5 of 37

Rotherham (Alexis Jay Independent Inquiry, 2014): at least 1,400 children (mostly white girls aged 11-16, many in care) were sexually exploited between 1997 and 2013 by groups predominantly of Pakistani heritage men. Gang rapes, trafficking, violence and intimidation were routine.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 6 of 37

Telford Independent Inquiry (2022): more than 1,000 girls were abused over around 40 years (some dating to the 1970s), again predominantly by South Asian (Pakistani) men. Agencies blamed victims; “nervousness about race” suppressed action.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 7 of 37

Similar patterns documented in Rochdale, Oxford, Newcastle, Oldham, Sheffield and dozens more towns. Lowe’s report maps activity across at least 149 local authority districts (around 40% of UK districts).

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 8 of 37

Underreporting was catastrophic. Inquiries repeatedly cite destroyed files, disbelieved victims, ethnicity data not recorded and victims criminalised or silenced. Baroness Casey’s 2025 ‘National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse’ notes data gaps are so severe that “it is simply not possible to know the scale” nationally, precisely because of historical suppression.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 9 of 37

Reality. The pattern in the specific phenomenon of organised on-street grooming gangs (taxis, takeaways, group attacks on vulnerable white working-class girls) is not invented:

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 12 of 37

Jay Report and multiple local inquiries: perpetrators were “predominantly British-Pakistani men”.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 13 of 37

Quilliam Foundation (2017) analysis of 264 convictions for grooming gang-type offences 2005–2017: 84% Asian (overwhelmingly Pakistani Muslim heritage).

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 14 of 37

In analysed conviction lists cited in Lowe’s report and elsewhere: 87-90% (or more) of names consistent with Muslim background in group-based cases.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 15 of 37

Baroness Casey audit (local data from police forces where ethnicity recorded): Clear over-representation of Asian (Pakistani-heritage) suspects in group-based exploitation.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 16 of 37

Lowles acknowledges failures and low public confidence in the Government’s national inquiry (66% have “little or no” confidence, according to YouGov). But he attacks Lowe for blaming “elite obsession with diversity” and mass migration.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 24 of 37

Nick Lowles’s Substack is not a serious critique: it is damage-control dressed as concern. By labelling a survivor-informed compilation of official inquiry findings, conviction patterns and testimonies as “clear falsehoods” and “racist propaganda”, he gaslights victims who were failed for decades precisely because people in authority refused to name patterns. He gaslights the public by implying that noticing demographic overrepresentation (where data exist) or cultural contributors equals hating all Muslims or opposing all immigration.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 34 of 37

The 250,000 figure may be an upper-end extrapolation; official sources admit we lack precise national numbers because data was deliberately poor. But the existence of a large-scale, organised scandal with clear patterns in multiple towns, enabled by institutional cowardice and political correctness, is not in serious dispute. It is documented in statutory reports.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 35 of 37

Rupert Lowe’s inquiry is imperfect (crowdfunded, non-statutory). It deserves scrutiny on methodology. But it forces a conversation that was long suppressed. The proper response is not to attack it as dangerous but to demand a full, transparent, fearless national inquiry with mandatory ethnicity and religion recording, no sacred cows and accountability for past failures.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 36 of 37

Lowles ends by saying we ignore Lowe’s report “at our peril”. He is half right. The real peril is continuing to gaslight about uncomfortable truths while more victims pay the price. The girls deserved better then. They deserve the unvarnished truth now.

The Daily Sceptic, 'Fact-Checking HOPE Not Hate CEO’s Attempt to Smear Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Inquiry Report as “Racist”', body block 37 of 37

Our independent Rape Gang Inquiry has received an official request for information and evidence from the Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs.

Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) on X, paragraph 1 of 5 of the post

We will cooperate in full where possible, when and only when the survivor who has provided testimony or evidence is happy and comfortable to do so - our safeguarding team will remain involved every step of the way and speak to each survivor to see exactly how they wish to proceed.

Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) on X, paragraph 2 of 5 of the post

The decision is entirely up to them, and we will support them in whatever they decide to do.

Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) on X, paragraph 3 of 5 of the post

With ongoing police investigations, we will ensure that that everything is done responsibly and carefully so that no investigation is disrupted in any way.

Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) on X, paragraph 4 of 5 of the post

I want to thank the national inquiry for reaching out, and we will do everything in our power to assist their investigations in order to finally deliver justice.

Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) on X, paragraph 5 of 5 of the post

Far from protecting children, the report exploits the suffering of abuse survivors to portray British Muslims as an existential threat and legitimise their exclusion from national life

Middle East Eye, 'Grooming gangs report: How Rupert Lowe turned child abuse into anti-Muslim propaganda', standfirst

The statistical architecture has been fabricated layer by layer. The 250,000 victim figure originates with Lord Pearson of Rannoch, who claimed in the House of Lords there were "upwards of 250,000 young white girls raped in this century, very largely by Muslim men", extrapolating from victim estimates in Rotherham, Telford and Oxford.

Middle East Eye, 'Grooming gangs report: How Rupert Lowe turned child abuse into anti-Muslim propaganda', body block 16 of 34

Lowe's own arithmetic destroys his argument. White suspects account for 63 percent of group-based cases where ethnicity was recorded, compared with 13.7 percent for Pakistani suspects. On his own numbers, that implies over a million victims of white gang perpetrators. His report says virtually nothing about them.

Middle East Eye, 'Grooming gangs report: How Rupert Lowe turned child abuse into anti-Muslim propaganda', body block 18 of 34

A Hope Not Hate investigation found at least 20 cases of English Defence League members convicted of child sexual exploitation offences. The movement that appointed itself guardian of Britain's girls has members convicted of abusing them.

Middle East Eye, 'Grooming gangs report: How Rupert Lowe turned child abuse into anti-Muslim propaganda', body block 23 of 34

The consequences of this rhetoric did not wait long to materialise. A 36-year-old white Scottish man attacked five Muslims across Edinburgh, two of them as they left a mosque after prayers.

Middle East Eye, 'Grooming gangs report: How Rupert Lowe turned child abuse into anti-Muslim propaganda', body block 28 of 34

Yet notice the hierarchy of outrage. MP Zarah Sultana asked why no emergency Cobra meeting was convened, pointing out that Starmer had called one following attacks on Jewish men in Golders Green in March. Five Muslim men were attacked in a single evening by a man screaming about rape gangs. No Cobra. The conditional tolerance, made visible in real time.

Middle East Eye, 'Grooming gangs report: How Rupert Lowe turned child abuse into anti-Muslim propaganda', body block 31 of 34

It was always about getting rid of Muslims.

Middle East Eye, 'Grooming gangs report: How Rupert Lowe turned child abuse into anti-Muslim propaganda', body block 34 of 34

What was claimed

It is established that 250,000 children have been victims of rape gangs this century.

Full Fact, '‘250,000 victims of rape gangs’ is not a reliable estimate', verdict box, element 1 of 2

Our verdict

This figure is not calculated reliably. It is an estimate derived from unevidenced assumptions, and based on some figures that count victims of child sexual exploitation in general, not of rape gangs specifically.

Full Fact, '‘250,000 victims of rape gangs’ is not a reliable estimate', verdict box, element 2 of 2

On a recent episode of the Joe Rogan podcast, the Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe MP discussed a report on rape gangs he has published, saying: “We’ve estimated that a minimum of a quarter of a million rapes have taken place.”

Full Fact, '‘250,000 victims of rape gangs’ is not a reliable estimate', body block 1 of 21

The report itself, which was published last month, says that “it has been previously established that, at the very least, 250,000 young white girls” have been the victims of so-called “rape gangs” or “grooming gangs”.

Full Fact, '‘250,000 victims of rape gangs’ is not a reliable estimate', body block 2 of 21

The sexual abuse of children is common, and often unreported, which means it is under-reported in official statistics. But it is estimated that around half a million children are sexually abused in some way in England and Wales each year.

Full Fact, '‘250,000 victims of rape gangs’ is not a reliable estimate', body block 5 of 21

The new report cites comments in Parliament by Lord Pearson of Rannoch in 2018 and 2019 as the original source of the 250,000 figure.

Full Fact, '‘250,000 victims of rape gangs’ is not a reliable estimate', body block 9 of 21

Describing “Lord Pearson's working out behind the 250,000 number”, his office provided the following explanation, to which we have added notes highlighting a number of issues.

Full Fact, '‘250,000 victims of rape gangs’ is not a reliable estimate', body block 14 of 21

The June 2026 report led by Mr Lowe repeats some of Lord Pearson’s calculations, and goes further, saying:

Full Fact, '‘250,000 victims of rape gangs’ is not a reliable estimate', body block 17 of 21

Quoted by Full Fact, the words of the Rape Gang Inquiry Report

“This extrapolation now has greater support due to further data that has been collected, derived from scaling the patterns documented in major inquiries... When the Rotherham/Telford scale is applied across the documented national distribution, and multiplied by the extreme under-reporting factor accepted by official reviews, the total reaches the 250,000 threshold as a bare minimum."

Full Fact, '‘250,000 victims of rape gangs’ is not a reliable estimate', body block 18 of 21

Last year’s national audit led by Baroness Casey made clear that CSE is under-reported, but it did not mention a numerical “under-reporting factor” that could be used to estimate the number of unknown victims. We also cannot find any details of “further data” beyond what was in Lord Pearson’s original calculation anywhere else in this report, although it claims to have found evidence of similar gang-based CSE in 149 local authority districts across the UK.

Full Fact, '‘250,000 victims of rape gangs’ is not a reliable estimate', body block 19 of 21

At this stage, we can see nothing in the new report that further substantiates Lord Pearson’s estimate. And even on its own terms, it is not an estimate of the number of white female victims of Muslim rape gangs specifically.

Full Fact, '‘250,000 victims of rape gangs’ is not a reliable estimate', body block 21 of 21