First locations for grooming gang inquiry announced

The first places to be investigated in a national independent inquiry into grooming gangs will be Oldham, Bradford and Keighley, and London.

The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, which will be chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield CBE, will compel individuals and institutions to explain what they "did or did not do to protect children from being sexually abused", the organisation said.

The review will also examine if changes have been made in places where there have been past reviews, such as Oxford and Rotherham.

Abuse survivor Fiona Goddard, who resigned from the inquiry in October 2025, said it had been "a long fight".

"Bradford has evaded inquiries for many, many years and it's time that the full truth about what happened comes out," she said.

Goddard left the panel over concerns that two of the shortlisted chairs had backgrounds in policing and social services.

Keighley and Ilkley Conservative MP Robbie Moore, who called on the government to include Bradford in the inquiry, said it marked "a significant turning point".

"This inquiry must seek the truth - however horrific it may be. And bring about justice to those who have been failed for far too long," he said.

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan welcomed the inquiry's focus and called for "justice for every single victim".

"These children have not only suffered terrible abuse at the hands of the perpetrators but have been woefully let down by the authorities meant to protect them from harm," they said.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said the announcement was a "huge step towards getting to the truth".

Amy Clowrey, director of Switalskis Solicitors in Wakefield, which represents some of the victims, said the women she supported had "repeatedly" been refused inquiries into safeguarding failings.

"These investigations mean the public will now find out the true scale of grooming and abuse and how badly our public bodies failed our children," she said.

In a letter to stakeholders, inquiry organisers said the first set of hearings would focus on government departments, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, councils and the NHS.

It said despite 800 recommendations being identified by the inquiry, there had been "significant inconsistency" in how these recommendations have been implemented.

A statement said the "experiences of victims and survivors in those areas will be at the heart of these investigations".

Baroness Longfield said she hoped the inquiry would mean "no further inquiries into grooming gangs will ever be needed".

"These hearings will help us to establish what national institutions and services should have been doing to implement these findings and to protect children from abuse and harm - and what, if any, progress has been made in areas where investigations have taken place," she said.

The national inquiry into the sexual exploitation of children by grooming gangs in England and Wales was announced by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in June 2025.

But it faced turbulence when five abuse survivors called on safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to quit.

Baroness Longfield will be supported by Zoe Billingham, a former member of the independent police inspectorate, and Eleanor Kelly, former chief executive of Southwark Council.

Oldham was first selected as a local area for investigation last year by the then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

Survivors in Oldham had called for a new investigation into historical child sex abuse cases because they felt a local review in 2022 was "too limited".

In Bradford, concerns have been raised over many years by victims and survivors, and new Reform UK council leader Stephen Place recently wrote to Baroness Longfield requesting the city be included as one of the five focus areas.

The inquiry said London would provide "a different context because of its scale and complexity", as it has multiple boroughs and overlapping systems.

A BBC News report by Sima Kotecha looked into the problem in the capital in January and discovered that girls as young as 13 were being exploited for sex by groups of men. We understand that its findings contributed to London's inclusion in the inquiry.

Further local areas will be announced later this year.

Rotherham MP Sarah Champion, who has campaigned on child protection for more than a decade, said on social network X that she was "pleased" with the announcement.

The South Yorkshire town was one of several areas where gangs of men, predominantly of Pakistani descent, raped and trafficked children as young as 11 between 1997 and 2013.

An independent report, published by Prof Alexis Jay in 2014, estimated 1,400 girls had been abused in Rotherham.

Posting on Wednesday, the MP said: "Really pleased to see this, the right decision if we want to understand the bigger picture."

BBC Social Affairs editor Alison Holt said there had been no shortage of reviews, reports and inquiries since the late 1990s as the 800 recommendations identified by Baroness Longfield's team demonstrated.

"The question for this inquiry will be why so many have not been implemented. And most importantly what will be different this time?

"The inquiry has promised to put the voices of those who were abused and exploited at is heart. Many survivors speak of their deep distrust of those in authority, not just because of what happened at the time of their abuse, but also because of the lack of action over the longer term.

"Past reviews have found in some organisations and in some parts of the country an attitude that the exploitation of children by grooming gangs does not happen here.

"The challenge for the inquiry will be to ensure everyone remains alert to the possibility that this sort of abuse can and does happen anywhere."