(BBC) Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced plans for a nationwide review of grooming gang evidence and five government-backed local inquiries.
She stopped short of launching a statutory national inquiry, as called for by the Conservatives and some Labour MPs, but this marks a clear shift in the government’s position.
Cooper said top lawyer Tom Crowther, who led an inquiry in Telford, would help Oldham and four other pilot areas yet to be named develop their own reviews.
She also announced a “rapid” three-month national audit headed by veteran government trouble-shooter Baroness Louise Casey to examine the demographics of the gangs and their victims, as well as “cultural drivers” behind the offending.
