On Monday, June 16, 2025, the long-anticipated report by Baroness Louise Casey on grooming gangs is set to be released, shedding light on the nature and scale of group-based child sexual abuse across England and Wales. This report comes amid a nationwide police operation led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), designed to hunt down and bring to justice perpetrators who have exploited vulnerable children as part of grooming gangs.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced on June 14 that a full national statutory inquiry will be launched to investigate grooming gangs, covering England and Wales. This inquiry will have sweeping powers to compel witnesses and investigate historic and ongoing cases, aiming to uncover institutional failings by local authorities, police, and other agencies that have allowed such abuse to persist.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is expected to address Parliament in the afternoon, presenting the findings from Baroness Casey’s report and outlining the government’s next steps. Cooper emphasized the urgency and gravity of the issue, stating, “The vulnerable young girls who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of groups of adult men have now grown into brave women who are rightly demanding justice for what they went through when they were just children.” She added, “Not enough people listened to them then. That was wrong and unforgivable. We are changing that now.”
The NCA’s nationwide operation is a direct response to the Home Secretary’s call earlier this year for police forces to re-examine cases that were previously closed prematurely. Since January 2025, over 800 grooming gang cases have been reopened, reflecting a renewed commitment to justice for survivors. The agency will collaborate closely with local police forces, the Child Sexual Exploitation Taskforce, Operation Hydrant — a specialist unit addressing complex child sexual abuse cases — and the Tackling Organised Exploitation Programme.
The operation’s goals are clear: to imprison more perpetrators, protect potential victims, and improve investigative standards across the country. The Home Office has highlighted that this effort aims to “put an end to the culture of denial in local services and authorities about the prevalence of this crime.” Baroness Casey’s report reportedly recommends adopting “best practice law enforcement examples” from the NCA and West Yorkshire Police, both recognized for their expertise in tackling child sexual exploitation.
Alongside the police operation, the government is developing a “National Operating Model” as part of broader Police Reform plans to standardize investigations into grooming gang crimes across England and Wales. This model is expected to provide a framework for coordinated, effective responses to these complex cases.
Despite the announcement of the national inquiry and police operation, the issue remains politically charged. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp has vowed to hold Home Secretary Cooper accountable for an alleged “deliberate cover up” by police forces, local authorities, and the Crown Prosecution Service. Philp has called for misconduct in public office prosecutions for those implicated in negligence or cover-ups. Meanwhile, Labour MP Sarah Champion has voiced the “overwhelming public concern” and “intense frustration” felt by victims who have yet to see justice served.
Not everyone is fully convinced that a national inquiry alone will suffice. Nazir Afzal, former chief prosecutor for North West England, expressed “pragmatic doubts” about the inquiry’s effectiveness, stating that such inquiries “take forever and don’t deliver accountability.” He stressed that criminal investigations are the only route to real justice, not only for offenders but also for those who failed to act.
The grooming gang scandal has been a source of public outrage and political debate for years, but it gained renewed attention in early 2025 following a high-profile dispute between Prime Minister Starmer and tech billionaire Elon Musk. Musk had publicly criticized Starmer for not initiating a national inquiry sooner, spotlighting cases in towns such as Rotherham and Rochdale, where groups of men, predominantly of Pakistani descent, were convicted of sexually abusing young white girls. The issue is deeply sensitive, intersecting with concerns about race, community relations, and institutional failures.
Baroness Casey’s report is expected to explicitly address these complexities. According to The Times, it will link the grooming gang problem to men of Pakistani origin and suggest that authorities ignored victims’ pleas partly out of fear of accusations of racism. This dynamic has long complicated efforts to tackle the abuse and hold perpetrators accountable.
Earlier in 2025, the government had resisted calls for a full national inquiry, arguing that the matter had already been extensively examined during the seven-year Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse led by Professor Alexis Jay, which concluded in 2022. Jay’s inquiry made 20 recommendations, none of which were fully implemented. Instead, the government initially proposed five local inquiries and a rapid three-month audit by Baroness Casey.
However, growing public pressure and political debate led to the reversal of this position. Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper welcomed the announcement of the national inquiry but cautioned that it should not delay the implementation of previous recommendations. She said, “We have had the Jay Inquiry before, there are lots of recommendations already on the table so whilst I welcome this announcement, at the same time it shouldn’t be an excuse for the Government or other agencies to delay action in terms of implementing the recommendations of previous inquiries.”
Children’s charities have also urged swift action. Lynn Perry, chief executive of Barnardo’s, emphasized the urgent need for the government to act without waiting for the inquiry’s conclusion. “Children and survivors of abuse have already been waiting many years for action, so it’s vital the Government doesn’t wait for the outcome of this new inquiry to implement recommendations from previous ones,” she said. Perry highlighted the importance of training social workers and other professionals to spot abuse signs and investing in support services to protect children and help survivors.
The national inquiry will have the power to compel testimony and oversee investigations into historic grooming gang cases, ensuring that complaints of mishandling, wrongdoing, and cover-ups by police, agencies, and elected officials are brought to light. It will report to a single chairperson and include a panel with authority to call witnesses, aiming to hold those responsible accountable.
As the country awaits Baroness Casey’s report and the unfolding of the inquiry and police operation, the focus remains sharply on delivering justice for survivors and preventing further harm. The government faces the daunting task of rebuilding public trust, addressing institutional failures, and ensuring that the horrors endured by so many children are neither forgotten nor repeated.
