A long awaited national statutory inquiry into grooming gangs in England and Wales will now examine whether ethnicity, culture, or religion influenced both offending and the institutional response.
The inquiry has published its terms of reference, which will be presented to Parliament when it returns from recess on April 13, before launching a full investigation into group-based child sexual exploitation.
It will investigate how grooming gangs operated and how institutions; police, local authorities, schools, health and social care services responded to abuse. The inquiry has legal powers to compel witnesses and require organisations to provide documents.
Set up following a recommendation from Baroness Louise Casey’s National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation, any evidence of criminal conduct by professionals will be referred to Operation Beaconport, the national police review of previously closed cases.
The inquiry will investigate local areas where serious failings in responding to grooming gang abuse have been identified, starting with Oldham.
Chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield CBE, former Children’s Commissioner for England, she will be joined by panellists Zoe Billingham, ex-HM Inspector of Constabulary, and Eleanor Kelly, former CEO of Southwark Council.
Public hearings will be live-streamed with transcripts published afterward, and findings released gradually. The three-year inquiry, running until March 2029 with a £65 million budget, follows an audit that found systemic failures and institutional inaction enabled grooming gangs to operate for years.
The grooming gang scandal first emerged in 2003 in ‘The Times’ and has remained in public debate ever since. It resurfaced in early 2025 after tech billionaire Elon Musk criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not launching a national inquiry, highlighting cases where groups of men, mostly of Pakistani descent, abused predominantly young white girls in towns like Rotherham and Rochdale.
Musk’s comments prompted Starmer to announce the national inquiry in June 2025.
Lady Longfield said, “Children across England and Wales were and are sexually abused and exploited… We will follow the evidence wherever it leads. We will not flinch from uncomfortable truths.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood added, “The independent national inquiry will uncover how these crimes were allowed to happen… There will be no hiding place for the predatory monsters who committed these vile crimes.”
Victims’ Commissioner Claire Waxman said, “Transparency, including publishing findings as the work progresses, will be vital to rebuilding trust.”
The inquiry faces potential gaps from the start, including its three-year timeline, limited reliable data, and insufficient focus on victims’ ethnicity. It is unclear who will ensure these issues are fully addressed. MPs have also reported that key documents may have been lost due to Home Office errors, which could cause delays and exclude some cases. (For more information see page 3)
Lives shattered as inquiry moves slowly
The grooming gang scandal isn't just a record of systemic failure; it is a landscape of shattered childhoods and stolen futures. For many women, the trauma isn't a past event, it is a lifelong sentence.
These girls were children with dreams, lured by false promises of love or snatched from the cracks of broken homes, only to have their potential extinguished by a society that looked the other way.
The BBC reported on the harrowing experience of Penny (pseudonym) a survivor who was groomed at age 12. Initially won over with gifts, she was soon subjected to extreme violence, stating, "I was covered in very deep cigarette burns... By the time I was 13 and a half, I weighed six stone." Penny was trafficked to strangers across the country, kept in a drug-induced state so she "didn't know what day it was."
While some men were convicted, Penny remains sceptical of the justice system, noting that "hundreds of men" who abused her remain free. She is now calling for "accountability for the failings" of authorities who allowed this exploitation to persist, demanding that a public inquiry expose the reality of grooming to ensure "it cannot go on."
Similarly, Fiona Goddard saw her girlhood slip away within the very walls meant to protect her. While living in a Bradford children’s home in the late 2000s, 14-year-old Goddard was subjected to grooming and abuse that authorities repeatedly ignored. Despite her mother’s warnings and Goddard being found with older men, police and social services downgraded her frequent disappearances to "unauthorised absences," avoiding a serious rescue response. Though nine men were eventually jailed in 2019, Goddard has waived her anonymity to call out the "insulting dismissal" she continues to face from West Yorkshire Police and Bradford Council during her legal battle for accountability.
One pressing issue is why the girls had to endure such suffering, simply trusting adults who were supposed to protect them tragically led them into a devastating cycle of abuse. Many of these then young victims placed faith in institutions and caregivers, only to be let down repeatedly, highlighting the profound failure of those tasked with safeguarding them.
Another major concern is the inquiry’s extended timeline, which is set to run until 2029. By that time, the UK is likely to be preparing for or holding a general election, creating a real risk that the inquiry could be sidelined, delayed, or lose momentum as political priorities shift during campaigning.
Similar inquiries in the past have experienced slow progress or postponements due to election cycles, raising serious questions about whether this investigation will receive the consistent attention, resources, and political will it urgently requires to deliver meaningful justice, accountability, and protection for current and future victims.
Critics slam ‘Asian’ term for grooming gangs
One key issue highlighted in reports on grooming gangs is the lack of reliable data on ethnicity, described as “appalling” and a “major failing.”
In two-thirds of cases, the ethnicity of perpetrators is not recorded, making national conclusions impossible. Yet when ethnicity is mentioned, the perpetrators are often broadly labelled as “Asian” rather than specifying their actual background, most of whom are Muslims/British Pakistanis.
In 2025, Indian politician Priyanka Chaturvedi criticised this terminology on X (formerly Twitter), stating: “Repeat after me, they aren’t Asian grooming gangs but Pakistani grooming gangs. Why should Asians take the fall for one absolute rogue nation?” Her post sparked debate over the misleading use of “Asian” to describe these crimes.
Critics argue that using “Asian” as a blanket term obscures the perpetrators’ true ethnic and religious background and can lead to racial profiling. British Indians, Sikhs, and Hindus have expressed frustration at politicians, including PM Keir Starmer, for using the term. Krishna Bhan, chair of Hindu Council UK, said: “Our Hindu and Sikh girls were also victims.” Jay Shah of Friends of India Society International UK added: “Why should we be classified as part of these gangs? They should specify who they are. Politicians seem to protect perpetrators rather than victims.”
Organisations like Sikh Youth UK and the Hindu Council UK have long supported victims and raised awareness, yet the vague label persists. Sikh Federation UK said: “Until politicians call out the specific identity of grooming gangs, they are accused of covering up the truth.”
But the real question is: will the specific identities of the perpetrators finally be disclosed? Reports say the ethnicity of offenders is often “shied away from,” and with the current Labour government having over 75% Muslim councillors and 19 Muslim MPs, it remains to be seen how far they will go in addressing this issue.