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Statement on Baroness Casey’s audit of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse

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Baroness Newlove has welcomed the announcement of a new national inquiry but stressed that survivors cannot afford further delays. "Victims need answers – and action,” she said, urging urgent delivery of the therapeutic support survivors have long been promised.

The government has announced a new statutory public inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal, following the publication of a damning audit by Baroness Casey.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed that all 12 recommendations from Casey’s rapid review will be accepted in full – including the establishment of the national inquiry into institutional failures.

Casey’s report details how young and vulnerable predominantly white girls across the country have been plied with drugs and alcohol before being passed to men who groom them into sex, using violence and coercion.

The Home Secretary said there had been “too much denial’ and “too little justice” for victims as she announced a string of measures, including the time-limited national inquiry and mandatory collection of data on the nationality and ethnicity of perpetrators.

The Home Office has also confirmed that the National Crime Agency (NCA) will follow up on more than 800 cold cases and work with police to re-examine past cases that “were not progressed through the criminal justice system.”

The recommendations accepted by the government include:

  • A national statutory inquiry, bringing together five existing local investigations under a single independent commission with full legal powers.
  • Mandatory data collection on the ethnicity and nationality of all suspects in child sexual abuse and exploitation cases.
  • Legal reform to remove any exception in cases involving the sexual penetration of children under 16 – ensuring these are always treated as rape.
  • A national research programme into the drivers of group-based exploitation, including cultural factors, social media, and group dynamics.
  • A national police records review, requiring every force in England and Wales to re-examine cases of child sexual exploitation that were reported but not prosecuted in the past decade. The review also calls for the quashing of criminal convictions against many of the young victims, who continue to face serious stigma.

Victims’ Commissioner Baroness Newlove welcomed the recommendations from the Casey review and the new national inquiry, but warned victims cannot wait for its outcome.

“Victims must remain at the heart of this work. Sharing experiences of child sexual abuse is deeply personal and often retraumatising,” she said.

“Thousands came forward to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) – often for the first time. Yet years on, too little has changed. We must not repeat those mistakes.

“This inquiry must not drag on, and progress must not pause while it runs. Victims need answers – and action.”

But Baroness Newlove also pressed the need for timely, trauma-informed care and warned that victim support services are under “intolerable pressure” adding some providers “stand on the brink of collapse”.

“This situation is unsustainable, and as yet the recent Spending Review has offered no reassurance.”

Full statement from the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Baroness Newlove:
“I welcome the Home Secretary’s announcement of a new national inquiry and the full implementation of the Casey Review’s recommendations.

“At nearly 200 pages, the Review will take time to absorb. But as Baroness Casey rightly says: to prevent this abuse, we must first understand it – and to date, we have failed in that duty. This inquiry must be fearless in confronting uncomfortable truths. Too many girls were failed by the very institutions charged with their protection. This is our chance to lift the stone, expose those failures, and ensure they are never repeated.

“Victims must remain at the heart of this work. Sharing experiences of child sexual abuse is deeply personal and often retraumatising. Thousands came forward to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) – often for the first time. Yet years on, too little has changed. We must not repeat those mistakes. This inquiry must not drag on, and progress must not pause while it runs. Victims need answers – and action.

“The IICSA process came at a personal cost for many. In recognition of this, the inquiry provided continuous, trauma-informed support before, during, and after testimony – ensuring victims were prepared, supported and safeguarded throughout what can be a highly triggering process. This must be the model for the new inquiry.

“Survivors consistently tell me their greatest need is timely, trauma-informed care. In 2022, Professor Alexis Jay called for a national guarantee of therapeutic support for children. I have urged this be extended to adults too. Yet we have seen no detail on how or when this care will be delivered – and none was offered today.

“The reality is that survivors and the services that support them are under intolerable pressure. Demand is rising while resources are stretched thin. Some providers stand on the brink of collapse. This situation is unsustainable – and the recent Spending Review offered no reassurance.

“Victims deserve to be heard, treated with dignity, and assured that no stone will be left unturned. But they also deserve timely, trauma-informed support – and that cannot begin and end with this inquiry. The Government must now deliver the care survivors urgently need, and which Professor Jay called for over two years ago.”