Why was it set up and what do they hope to achieve?
13 August 2026
The work of the Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs is underway, with their National Listening Project launched last month, and applications for core participants being accepted until 28 August 2026.
In this article, we provide an overview of the inquiry's purpose, terms of reference, and what to expect from the inquiry.
Chaired by Anne Longfield CBE, with panellists Zoë Billingham CBE and Eleanor Kelly CBE, the inquiry was set up this year to address child sexual exploitation, trafficking and abuse by "grooming gangs" (i.e. instances where at least two perpetrators were directly involved in or facilitated this abuse) in England and Wales. The inquiry will examine the responses of statutory services responsible for protecting children and will determine why this was permitted to happen, what statutory institution or systems failures occurred to prevent this from happening, and will make recommendations to stop this type of abuse from occurring in the future.
Baroness Casey's National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Abuse, published in June last year, was the catalyst for the formation of the inquiry. The audit found that systemic failures and "institutional paralysis" meant that grooming gangs had been able to abuse children for many years; a statutory inquiry was one of her recommendations.
The inquiry is conducting national accountability hearings, and local investigations in various areas, such as Oldham, Bradford, Keighley and London, to understand what was happening, what institutional responses were where this abuse was known, and how and why children came to be abused in this manner. The inquiry intends to examine systemic, institutional and individual failures, address any misconduct in public office, and ensure justice is delivered to victims and survivors.
The inquiry will be focusing on all of England and Wales, not just specific areas, and has indicated that its work will last no more than three years. Scotland is undertaking a similar national inquiry, which was announced in February 2026.
The inquiry intends to put victims and survivors at the centre of its approach, and ensure that they are heard. The inquiry has outlined that it will consider how victims and survivors were viewed and treated by professionals (including the criminalisation of some victims and survivors), whether there were any missed opportunities, whether there was any intentional or unintentional inaction on the part of statutory services, and whether anything was covered up.
The inquiry will also consider the role of ethnicity, religion and culture when examining the factors that enabled the abuse and exploitation.
The inquiry has limited its scope to issues dating back to 1 January 1996 and involving children only, although it will consider matters where the abuse and exploitation continued into adulthood.
The terms of reference may, of course, expand as the inquiry progresses, but currently, the inquiry has indicated that they will be considering the actions or inaction on the part of the following services or organisations:
As a statutory inquiry, the inquiry will not be able to make findings of criminal or civil liability, however, criminal allegations will be referred to Operation Beaconport, a specific taskforce led by the National Crime Agency, for any alleged offence taking place from 1996 to the end of the inquiry, which is expected to be 2029.
The inquiry has indicated that it will be looking at delivering justice and accountability for victims and survivors, including addressing any misconduct in public office.
Whilst no civil determinations can be made, claims for compensation may be pursued either during the inquiry, or at its conclusion. With the recent removal of the limitation period for personal injury claims involving child sexual abuse, there will be fewer barriers for victims and survivors, and publicity of the inquiry's work may encourage people to come forward to pursue claims.
As the inquiry's work will take three years to complete, it is difficult at this stage to predict whether a national compensation scheme may be one of the inquiry's recommendations. A scheme in practice may be difficult logistically if there are multiple potential overlapping compensators across counties and across the individual cases, complexities around responsibility for third party acts, or arguments (for the state institutions) that no duty of care is owed.
As the inquiry progresses, its findings will likely have significant implications for statutory services, safeguarding frameworks and institutional accountability across England and Wales. We await further updates about the inquiry's important work with interest. For anyone wanting to know more about the inquiry, access their website here.
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The information in this article is correct at the time of writing. It is intended as general guidance and should not be treated as legal advice. Every situation turns on its own facts, and tailored advice should be sought before taking any action.
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