A public inquiry in Britain into the grooming gangs scandal—which saw thousands of mainly white girls abused for years by men who were often of Pakistani heritage—has announced plans to call to account individuals and institutions who may have failed to protect the victims.
The Independent Inquiry Into Grooming Gangs was set up in June 2025 on the orders of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, after he came under pressure from opposition lawmakers and from figures such as Elon Musk.
In a statement on June 24, the inquiry’s chair, Baroness Anne Longfield, a former children’s commissioner for England, 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.”
In the statement, the inquiry said it was announcing plans to hold its first national public accountability hearings by the end of 2026, and it said individuals and institutions would be compelled “to explain publicly what they did or did not do to protect children from being sexually abused and harmed by grooming gangs.”
The inquiry also named the first four areas for specific local investigations. They are the towns of Bradford, Oldham, and Keighley in the north of England, and the capital, London.
But it said other areas would be announced later in the year.
Action on Recommendations
In the statement, the inquiry said it would also review whether institutions and individuals in other areas, which have already had reviews into grooming gangs, such as Rochdale, Rotherham, Telford, and Oxford, had implemented a series of recommendations that they had been given.
“The inquiry has 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,” it said.
For decades, children, specifically poor white girls in various towns, largely in northern England, were targeted and groomed by Pakistani-heritage men, while—as later investigations, court cases, and reporters revealed—local officials turned a blind eye to the abuse due to fears of being labeled racist or of destabilizing community relations.
In June 2025, then-Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said a review of data from three police forces found “clear evidence of over-representation among suspects of Asian and Pakistani heritage men” among the predators who targeted girls and young women.
On June 16, an independent report commissioned by Rupert Lowe, a UK lawmaker, estimated 250,000 predominantly white girls were sexually exploited by grooming gangs across the country.
Lowe, who stood as a Reform UK candidate in the July 2024 election and was duly elected, later fell out with the party’s leader, Nigel Farage, and formed his own party, Restore Britain.
In recent years, hundreds of men have been convicted for historic sexual abuse of girls.
Earlier this week, three brothers were jailed for their roles in the rape of a 12-year-old girl in Sheffield, England.
Kamar Ilyas, 39, was jailed for 10 years and his brother Kamran, 38, for three years, but their elder brother Amar, 41—who was nicknamed Killer—fled to Pakistan after being released on unconditional bail in 2023. He was sentenced in absentia for 27 years.
In a June 24 post on X, Conservative lawmaker Robbie Moore, who represents Keighley, welcomed the inquiry’s decision to prioritize the town and said it came almost two decades after one of his predecessors, Labour MP Ann Cryer, “first had the courage to raise this issue”
‘Watershed Moment’
“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,” Moore said.
Moore pointed out that the inquiry had statutory powers to compel witnesses and evidence.
“And where there is evidence of wrongdoing or cover-ups, it will be able to refer matters to the police,” Moore said. “No one will be able to hide.”
Ann Cryer’s son, John Cryer, himself a former lawmaker and now a peer, told the House of Lords in June 2025 that when his mother first raised the issue, she was the subject of an immediate backlash.
“The first person who raised the issue of the rape gangs—in other words, the first whistleblower—happened to be my mum, Ann Cryer MP, who started raising this in 2003,” John Cryer said.
“She was then smeared and attacked—particularly by Labour figures, I have to say—for being a racist.
“I am talking about councillors, councils, and other institutions that went on the attack, and lied and smeared about the rape gangs. It is possible that some of them genuinely thought that they could not bring themselves to believe it, but … I think some of them were complicit.
“Some of them knew it was going on and they decided to cover up. If there is evidence to that fact in those cases, they should be brought before the courts and prosecuted.”
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