Grooming gangs inquiry announces first areas for investigations

The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs has announced the first locations for its local investigations and confirmed plans for national public accountability hearings, with a focus on institutional failures, support for victims and why recommendations from previous reviews have not been consistently implemented.

Oldham, Bradford and Keighley, and London have been selected as the first areas to undergo detailed local investigations. The inquiry will examine how children were targeted and exploited in each location, how agencies responded, and what changes are needed to improve safeguarding. Further locations will be announced later this year.

Alongside the local investigations, the inquiry has confirmed that its first national public accountability hearings will begin before the end of 2026. These hearings will examine how national and local institutions responded to grooming gangs and seek to understand why more than 800 recommendations made over the past two decades have largely failed to result in sustained change.

The inquiry has also published its Victims and Survivors Charter, setting out how victims and survivors will be supported, listened to and involved throughout the process.

Inquiry chair Baroness Anne Longfield CBE (pictured) said the national hearings would focus on understanding why previous recommendations had not been acted upon.

“Our national accountability hearings will be a vital part of our inquiry. Our starting point are the many inquiries and reviews into grooming gangs that have taken place over the past 20 years. And together they put forward over 800 recommendations, the vast majority of which we know have not been implemented. These hearings help us establish what national institutions and services should have been doing to implement these findings, and we'll hold them to account.”

The hearings will examine the roles played by organisations responsible for safeguarding children and supporting victims, including central government departments, policing bodies, the Crown Prosecution Service, local authorities and the NHS.

Inquiry panellist Zoë Billingham CBE said: “The first national accountability hearings will take place at the end of this year. And we'll focus on national and local organizations and individuals responsible for supporting victims and survivors. The services that should have identified and stepped in when these terrible atrocities were happening. This will include many different organizations, central government departments, national police organizations, the CPS, local council, the NHS, to name but a few. These organizations sit across and above local services, so understanding their role helps explain what happened in different areas across the country, not just in one place.”

A second phase of the hearings will consider how organisations responded to previous local inquiries and reviews, while a third will examine the role of technology companies in preventing and responding to child sexual exploitation.

Panellist Eleanor Kelly CBE said: “The second part of these accountability hearings will examine the response to previous local investigations, inquiries, and reviews. They will look at what steps were taken to carry out recommendations that have been made, including in areas that have already had local reviews and investigations. We know too often that there has not been meaningful change. Our approach means we will understand why that is the case. We will connect what we hear nationally with what has actually happened in local areas. Our national accountability hearings will tell us more about why lessons that were identified repeatedly across many areas did not always happen. And why organizations did not change following those recommendations as they should have done. Finally, part three of the national accountability hearings will be to investigate tech companies. We will examine the role of technology and exploitation by grooming gangs. We know this is an area that has increased significantly over the last decade and for many victims and survivors where their exploitation began.”

Baroness Longfield said the inquiry would issue recommendations as its work progresses rather than waiting until its conclusion, with implementation monitored throughout.

“The inquiry will make early recommendations on all three parts of these national accountability hearings, which will then be tracked throughout the inquiry. And we will check what we hear in the national hearings against evidence from local investigations and information from across England and Wales. What we learn locally will shape our national recommendations, which would have been tested with victims and survivors. Towards the end of the inquiry, we will check that the work we've recommended is actually being done. And if not, why not? We're determined that there should never have to be another inquiry like this into grooming gangs again.”

She also stressed that the inquiry's remit extends beyond the first three investigation sites.

“These are the first investigations, more will follow. Even where an area is not selected for a local investigation, what happened there is still crucially important for the inquiry and will still be part of the national work and inform our findings and recommendations.”

The inquiry is expected to examine the actions of agencies responsible for protecting children, including social care services, as it seeks to identify the systemic failures that enabled child sexual exploitation to continue and to ensure lessons from previous investigations are finally translated into lasting reform.