UK grooming gangs inquiry to begin as report reveals shocking failures
What Happened
Baroness Louise Casey’s 197-page audit has exposed “blindness, ignorance and prejudice” in institutional responses to UK grooming gangs, revealing a shocking pattern of failing to protect vulnerable children—some as young as 10—over the past 15–20 years. The report found that authorities often avoided recording ethnicity for two-thirds of suspects, even though local force data (from Greater Manchester, South and West Yorkshire) showed an over-representation of men from Asian and Pakistani backgrounds among offenders. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper offered an unequivocal apology and announced the government will implement all 12 recommendations, including a three-year national inquiry, reforms to rape laws, mandatory ethnicity data recording, and review of more than 1,000 cold cases.
Read Baroness Louise Casey’s 197-page audit
What Next
A statutory national inquiry will begin soon, coordinating existing local probes and holding public bodies to account. Police will reopen over 800–1,000 cases, and legislation will be introduced to tighten rape charges for under-16 offences. Authorities must begin mandatory ethnicity recording and apologise or quash convictions where victims were criminalised. The Home Affairs Committee will oversee Casey’s findings, while critics like Nazir Afzal warn that only criminal prosecutions—not lengthy inquiries—can deliver real justice. The government faces a delicate challenge: tackling systemic failures without inflaming community tensions or providing fodder to far-right groups.