Labour’s grooming gang plan doesn’t go far enough

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has finally bowed to pressure and announced five local reviews alongside a ‘rapid national audit’ into grooming gangs. But the plan falls short of the national inquiry that many, including some Labour MPs, want. Cooper’s plan is insufficient.

Cooper’s statement in the Commons yesterday encouragingly included a pledge to enact recommendations made by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), which concluded with its flagship report published back in October 2022. These include the creation of a single core data set which covers the characteristics of victims and alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse, including age, sex, and ethnicity. The government-backed three-month audit, which will be led by Dame Louise Casey, will look at “cultural and societal drivers” of child sex abuse – a positive development in the area of group-localised child sexual exploitation (GLCSE), where prosecutions have been dominated