(BBC) More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the release of Home Office research into the “characteristics” of grooming gangs.
The government has refused to release the information, telling the Independent it was “not in the public interest” to do so.
The issue will now be considered for a debate in Parliament, having passed the required number of signatures.
The Home Office said work on the issue was “ongoing.”
In 2018, the then-Home Secretary Sajid Javid ordered research into the “characteristics and contexts” of gangs abusing children, arguing that ignoring issues such as ethnicity is more likely to fuel the far-right.
