Grooming Gangs Inquiry Must Investigate Every UK Council and Police Force, Victim Demands
A survivor of child sexual exploitation has issued a powerful call for the national grooming gangs inquiry to investigate every single council and police force across the United Kingdom. This demand comes as the inquiry, which has a substantial budget of £65 million and a maximum duration of three years, recently outlined its formal terms of reference.
Survivor Calls for Expanded Scope and Historical Review
Sammy Woodhouse, a survivor of the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal, has publicly urged inquiry chiefs to significantly broaden the investigation's scope. She argues that the probe should not only cover every local authority and police service in the nation but also extend its historical review period beyond the current 1996 cutoff point. "This issue goes back many more decades," Woodhouse emphasized, highlighting the deep-rooted nature of institutional failures in addressing grooming gangs.
Posting on social media platform X, Woodhouse stated: "The national inquiry has made an update today. They need to be speaking with whistleblowers, parents, and people born from the rapes, as well as survivors, to give a better understanding of what has happened in the UK." She further insisted that the inquiry must investigate every council and police force comprehensively to uncover systemic weaknesses.
Inquiry Details and Institutional Focus
The £65 million inquiry is tasked with examining how grooming gangs have operated across the country and how key institutions—including police forces, local authorities, health services, social care providers, and schools—have responded to child sexual exploitation. Local investigations will be conducted in areas where serious failures have been identified, with Oldham already confirmed as one location for review. Inquiry leaders are still deliberating on which additional local areas will be scrutinized.
Woodhouse, who was targeted, groomed, and abused as a teenager, previously participated in Restore Britain MP Rupert Lowe's private investigation into grooming gangs. That investigation claimed to have uncovered evidence of child sexual exploitation in 85 local authorities throughout the UK, underscoring the potential scale of the issue.
Political and Official Responses
Earlier this month, inquiry chairwoman Baroness Anne Longfield wrote to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood requesting permission to modify the investigation's scope. In a letter published recently, Longfield advocated for terms of reference that include a "more explicit requirement to consider how ethnicity, religion, and culture, both in relation to perpetrators and victims, may have influenced offending patterns, as well as institutional responses." Home Secretary Mahmood accepted these recommendations in full, stating: "The chair and I have agreed that the inquiry will be laser focused on grooming gangs and will explicitly examine the role of ethnicity, religion and culture of the offenders and in the response of institutions."
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch remarked that the terms of reference appear to have been "significantly strengthened," while Reform UK leader Nigel Farage expressed skepticism, saying he has "absolutely no faith" that the inquiry will achieve justice for victims. Farage criticized the government's approach, arguing that without subpoena powers for police officers, social services, and civil servants, the inquiry risks being ineffective. "I think everything this Government has done on this issue is an attempt to literally kick the can down the road, to not fully open this up," he stated.
Support from Victims' Commissioner and Inquiry Procedures
Claire Waxman, the Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales, welcomed the updated terms of reference, emphasizing the need for a trauma-informed approach. "The inquiry must now move at pace, taking a trauma informed approach and ensuring survivors are meaningfully engaged and properly supported throughout. It is right that it follows the evidence wherever it leads," she said.
The inquiry will feature public hearings that will be livestreamed, with transcripts published after each session. Findings will be released progressively rather than being withheld until a final report, promoting transparency. The investigation is scheduled to conclude no later than March 2029, operating within its three-year maximum duration and £65 million budget.
This comprehensive probe aims to address longstanding concerns about institutional failures in protecting children from sexual exploitation, with survivors like Sammy Woodhouse advocating for an uncompromising and far-reaching examination of every council and police force in the United Kingdom.
