Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has promised “a moment of reckoning” for those who turned a blind eye to the the scandal of grooming gangs.
The scale of abuse was set out by Prof Alexis Jay’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in 2022, but when Labour won the general election in July 2024, none of her 20 recommendations had been implemented.
Baroness Louise Casey was then commissioned to audit the “culture and societal drivers” of the abuse in a rapid review, which Downing Street has said is concluding this month.
Pressure for a fresh inquiry from some victims and political opponents has been resisted, with the government focused on implementing the 2022 recommendations.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK’s Nigel Farage have backed calls for an 18-month national inquiry with powers to compel witnesses to attend.
Under the proposal, which is backed by some Labour politicians, the inquiry would name any institutions or individuals responsible for covering up child sex abuse perpetrated by grooming gangs.
On Sunday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was challenged by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg about the government’s rejection of a national inquiry and the “lack of urgency” on implementing recommendations already made.
Cooper did not rule out a national inquiry but said it will depend on the findings of the Casey report.
Speaking to the Spectator, Mahmood said there is still an “outstanding question of why so many people maybe looked the other way”.
The Justice Secretary set out how many of the perpetrators are now in prison, but many victims still don’t feel they have seen justice because failures by the authorities have yet to be addressed.
“On one level you could say, well, accountability is occurring because these criminals are facing the full force of the law,” she said.
“But the way that this scandal has played out asks a bigger question, which is that you might be getting accountability and justice through the criminal justice system, [but] it doesn’t feel like proper accountability and justice for all of the victims.
“And that’s because there is still [an] outstanding question of why so many people maybe looked the other way, or why this wasn’t picked up and given the prominence that was needed, and so that’s why justice might technically have been delivered — But there’s still a moment of reckoning to come.”
Prof Jay’s seven-year investigation found tens of thousands of victims had been failed by institutions across the country, including in children’s services and the police.
Mahmood said these institutional failures had caused “such visceral pain and a total shattering of trust in people who should have done a better job locally”.
“Whether local authorities, children’s services, police officers, all sorts of people you would feel you can trust, and that trust has been fundamentally shaken, if not totally broken, in some of these places,” she said.
“There is that need for reckoning. I hope I’m not overstating it as truth and reconciliation, but in my mind, that’s what it feels like is needed.”
The national audit by Baroness Casey will look at the scale, nature and profile of grooming gangs, including offender characteristics, after Prof Jay found “widespread failure” to record the ethnicity of perpetrators, many of whom are of Pakistani-heritage, due to concerns around racism.
The government has also announced specific support for five local inquiries in areas like Oldham, but it has resisted pressure from political opponents and some victims to commission another full national inquiry, saying its focus is on implementing recommendations made by Prof Jay’s 2022 report.