The independent inquiry into grooming gangs has confirmed that London, Oldham, Bradford and Keighley will be the first towns and cities investigated, with hearings set to probe Whitehall departments, local councils, the NHS and national police institutions. Chaired by Anne Longfield, the inquiry will compel individuals and institutions to explain what they “did or did not do to protect children from being sexually abused”, according to a statement.
Background and Survivor Advocacy
Months of lobbying from survivors and campaigners preceded the announcement. The commissioners have previously stated the inquiry will not cover every area where grooming gangs operated, with more locations to be confirmed in subsequent phases. Fiona Goddard, who was 14 and living in a children’s home in Bradford when grooming began in the late 2000s, said it had been “a long fight”. “Bradford has evaded inquiries for many, many years and it’s time that the full truth about what happened comes out,” she said.
Oldham and Keighley Cases
According to a former solicitor for grooming gang survivors in Oldham, patterns of abuse were first noticed in the early 2000s. Girls in care homes, some as young as 12, were abused by groups of predominantly Asian men. Despite recent demands from the council for an inquiry, the Home Office told Oldham council in late 2024 it would not launch a statutory inquiry. That decision prompted Elon Musk, owner of X, to call for then-safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to be sent to prison. Concerns about Asian grooming gangs in Keighley were raised in 2003 by then-Labour MP Ann Cryer, after a group of mothers alerted her that their young daughters were being sexually exploited by older Asian men. After going public, Cryer faced accusations of racism and received threatening notes and phone calls, leading police to install a panic alarm in her home.
London's Role and National Recommendations
The inquiry team said London was chosen partly because it has the highest rate of referrals for child sexual exploitation in the country. The inquiry will assess “the wider network of grooming gangs across London’s satellite towns and cities” and investigate “the role of London in the national network of grooming gangs”. More than 800 recommendations relating to grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation and abuse dating back to the 1990s have been identified by the inquiry, with “significant inconsistency” in their implementation noted.
Phase Three and Technology Focus
The national accountability hearings in the third phase will investigate tech companies and the “role of technology in the exploitation of children by grooming gangs”. Longfield, a former children’s commissioner for England, was chosen to lead the inquiry despite demands from some survivors for a judge.
Operation Beaconport and Funding
The inquiry was set up after Louise Casey conducted a “rapid audit” on gang-based exploitation and recommended a national police operation and a national inquiry. Casey judged that evidence showing the disproportionate representation of men of Asian ethnicity exploiting white teenage girls in some areas “warrants further examination”. The first batch of grooming gang cases among the national review of previously closed files has been referred back to police forces where lines of inquiry may have been missed. Operation Beaconport is examining cases between January 2010 and March 2025 involving two or more suspects accused of sexual abuse who are still alive; a victim of a sexual offence with physical contact; cases not already reviewed; and where no further action had been taken. In November, 1,273 such investigations from 23 police forces had been referred to the National Crime Agency (NCA), 236 of which were prioritised because they involved allegations of rape. Beaconport will receive nearly £38m this year, up from £4m last year, but police sources have said the money will “likely fall short” of the amount needed.
Political Context
Labour has faced political pressure to tackle grooming gangs, which has become a central campaigning issue for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. Robbie Moore, the Conservative MP for Keighley and Ilkley, who had called on the government to include Bradford in the inquiry, said the decision marked “a significant turning point”.
