Amid ongoing political pressure, Yvette Cooper has announced an urgent national review into the scale of grooming gangs as part of a series of new measures to tackle the issue.

The review, scheduled to last three months and led by Louise Casey, who led a report into sex abuse in Rotherham, is not the full national inquiry the Conservatives have called for, but does mark a significant step forward for the government. change.

Announcing the plans in the House of Commons, the Home Secretary said Casey would review data that was not available during the initial national inquiry into the gang led by Professor Alexis Jay, and would look into the ethnicity and gender of abusers and victims. Demographic data, and “cultural background.” and the social drivers of such crime, including crime between different racial groups.”

Meanwhile, Cooper said Tom Crowther KC, who led a highly acclaimed local inquiry in Telford, would help design a model for a series of similar inquiries. She said this would start with five pilot areas, including Oldham.

It was the government's decision to reject Oldham Council's request for a second national inquiry that was noted by billionaire Donald Trump aide Elon Musk, who subsequently wrote on the issue on X A series of misleading posts has brought the topic back into the spotlight. public awareness.

Other new initiatives proposed by Cooper include expanding the remit of the Child Sexual Abuse Review Panel so victims can seek a review of their cases even if they occurred after 2013; pushing police chiefs in England and Wales to look at past grooming cases; and improve recording of offender racial data.

Cooper and Downing Street rejected calls for a national inquiry, saying their belief - which they said was shared by most victims and experts - was that they should prioritize implementation of the recommendations of the Jay inquiry, which was launched in 2022 Report.

Cooper announced that ministers would set out timetables for implementing Jay's recommendations by Easter, with the Home Office accepting four of them as relevant to its work.

Speaking in the House of Commons, she defended the focus on local inquiries, saying they could "dig into more local detail and provide more locally relevant answers" than their national counterparts.

Sarah Champion, the Labor MP for Rotherham who has long campaigned against sexual exploitation, asked Cooper whether local investigative agencies had the power to call witnesses and, if not, how they could investigate potential cover-ups of abuse. Condition.

Cooper said that while the investigation would not be on a statutory basis, which would give such legal powers, the planned "Hillsborough Law" would impose a duty of candor on public bodies and could potentially mislead or obstruct Investigation and criminal sanctions. Ensure proper review.

"For too long this horrific abuse has been allowed to continue, with victims ignored, perpetrators going unpunished and too many turning a blind eye," Cooper told MPs.

"Even when these shocking crimes are exposed and national inquiries are commissioned to uncover the truth, the final reports are often shelved as their recommendations settle. So, under this government, the situation has Changes have occurred.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp condemned the proposals, saying the starting point for five trials was "wholly inadequate" given the number of towns affected, while a lack of statutory basis made them pointless.

"In that case, how could they possibly know the truth by concealing it?" he said.

Cooper responded that one of the key findings of Jay's investigation was the lack of information and data about the crimes.

“That’s why this government has now commissioned Baroness Louise Casey to launch a rapid review to reveal without reservation the prevalence of this shocking crime across the country,” she said.

"We understand she will conduct this investigation to actually fill in the gaps in the evidence rather than re-raise the same questions without the evidence and data we desperately need."