London, Bradford and Oldham selected as first locations for local grooming gang investigations

Oldham, Bradford and Keighley, and London have been confirmed by the national inquiry into grooming gangs as the first locations selected for local investigation.

More areas will be confirmed soon as the inquiry sets out its phases of investigation.

The inquiry has confirmed that its three-part hearings will investigate Central Government departments and politicians alongside local councils, the NHS and national police institutions.

Led by Baroness Anne Longfield, the probe will then assess efforts made in towns and cities that have already had reviews, such as Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford and Newcastle, to assess what has been learned from that process.

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The inquiry team said that it had 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.”

The inquiry team said that there had been “significant inconsistency” in how these recommendations have been implemented.

The national accountability hearings in their third phase will investigate tech companies and the “role of technology in the exploitation of children by grooming gangs.”

Reaction has poured in from campaigners and victims in Bradford who have long campaigned for a gangs inquiry in the city.

Solicitor David Greenwood, who has represented hundreds of grooming gang victims across the country, told GB News: “The women I’ve been helping have been repeatedly refused an inquiry into safeguarding failings.

"My hunch is it’s because the council, police and NHS know the scale and seriousness of the failings and wanted to avoid the deep embarrassment and shame it will generate.

“Alongside the Inquiry, I’ll be pushing for accountability and proper support for the women harmed.”

Tory MP for Keighley and Ilkley, who has campaigned for a Rotherham-style investigation into Bradford for years, told GB News: “This is a watershed moment and marks a significant turning point in the pursuit of justice, truth and accountability for victims and survivors right across our area.

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"It comes almost two decades after Anne Cryer first had the courage to raise this issue in Parliament.”

In a lengthy statement, he said: “Today's announcement is a testament to the perseverance of those victims and survivors who refused to be silenced.

“Whilst no inquiry can undo the pain and suffering they have endured, it can help ensure the truth is uncovered and that those who were failed finally receive the answers they have spent years fighting for. Finally.”

The inquiry team said that London had been picked for investigation in part because it has the highest rate of referrals for CSE in the country.

It said that it would assess “the wider network of grooming gangs across London’s satellite towns and cities” and that it will “investigate the role of London in the national network of grooming gangs.”

It comes after a political row over grooming gangs in the capital last year, with the Met later confirming that it was investigating dozens of cases similar to those seen across the rest of the country.

Tory London Assembly leader Susan Hall told GB News: “At last the survivors of rape gangs in London will be given a proper hearing. Make no mistake, this is down to journalists never giving up.

"This will prove to be one of the biggest scandals in history.

"I will never understand why those in authority have turned a blind eye for so many years, utterly disgusting.”

Noting that Oldham had a “specific” place in the establishment of the inquiry, the team noted that it had already been selected for a local investigation before the national inquiry was established.

Barrister Tom Crowther, who led the review into Telford that found 1,000 victims in the town, was named as the chair of that inquiry by the then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, but the probe was never launched amid delay.

Mr Crowther told GB News this morning that he was pleased about Oldham being selected, but said that he was concerned about how it had been set up.

“I've met the Chair and Panel and I've no doubt they're sincere and committed. Sadly, though, this Inquiry doesn't have the structure, capacity or focus to give the Oldham survivors what they were promised - a deep, granular, local inquiry that will tell them in detail who did what and when.

“That's what my Inquiry did for Telford and the tragedy is that we were weeks away from launching in Oldham this time last year until the Home Office cut its funding offer by 80 per cent - which killed it.

"I hope that this Inquiry engages with the remarkable women I met in Oldham last year and wins their confidence, and is able to give them at least some of the answers they deserve.”

Baroness Anne Longfield, Chair of the Inquiry, said: “The Inquiry’s task is to find out why this catastrophic failure of the state happened and continues to happen, to establish why victims and survivors of abuse were failed, and to hold to account those institutions and individuals who failed them.”

“Our National Accountability Hearings will begin before the end of the year. There have beenmany inquiries and reviews into grooming gangs and Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuseover the past 20 years, putting forward over 800 recommendations, many of which have notbeen implemented.

"These hearings will help us to establish what national institutions andservices should have been doing to implement these findings and to protect children from abuse and harm - and what, if any, progress has been made in areas where investigations have taken place.

“We are determined that our work ensures that no further inquiries into grooming gangs wil lever be needed.”

Panellist Zoe Billingham said: “These are the first three local area investigations - more will be announced as the Inquiry progresses.

"We will continue to follow the evidence wherever it leads, gathering and analysing evidence from across England and Wales, including from areas not yet selected for a local investigation.

“We will be forensic in examining what happened in these areas - how institutions responded, why children were not protected, and why opportunities to prevent harm were missed.

“We will look at what was known, how decisions were made, and why earlier action that could have protected children did not happen. 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.”

Panellist Eleanor Kelly said: “Our Victims and Survivors Charter shows our deep commitment to ensuring victims and survivors are at the heart of this Inquiry, and that they will continue to shape our work throughout.

"If victims and survivors have information to share with the Inquiry, they can do so in a way that feels safe for them, with support available every step of the way.

“The Inquiry is determined to find the answers that victims and survivors have been denied for so long.

We will set out what must change and hold those responsible to account, so that children are protected as they should be - and these horrific failures are never allowed to happen again.”

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