National Audit into Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse published by UK Government

The UK Government has published the findings of Baroness Louise Casey’s National Audit into Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (‘grooming gangs’) in England and Wales.

Commissioned in January 2025, the audit examined existing data and evidence on the nature and scale of child sexual exploitation and grooming gangs.

The report:

·         outlines what can be learnt about the scale, nature and characteristics of group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

·         considers the drivers of this type of offending, including the role of ethnicity and culture; and

·         brings together the response to group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse at local and national level to date.

In a statement in the UK Parliament, the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said that the Government accepted all 12 of the recommendations the report makes pledging that the Government will:

·         launch a full national inquiry into child sexual exploitation in England and Wales, overseen by a national commission with statutory powers, that has the voices, experiences and insights of survivors at the heart of this process,

·         introduce legislation to tighten the law in England and Wales so adults who have sex with a child under 16 are always charged with rape,

·         introduce the mandatory collection of ethnicity and nationality data for all suspects in child sexual abuse and criminal exploitation cases; and

·         introduce measures so that the convictions of children who were criminalised when they should have been protected will be disregarded.

·         The Government also said the National Crime Agency would launch a national criminal operation into group-based child sexual exploitation.

Read the full report here.