Latest news with #nationalinquiry
Sky News
6 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News
Jess Phillips condemns 'idiot' councils that don't believe they have grooming gang problem
Why you can trust Sky News Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has told Sky News that councils that believe they don't have a problem with grooming gangs are "idiots" - as she denied Elon Musk influenced the decision to have a national inquiry on the subject. The minister said: "I don't follow Elon Musk's advice on anything although maybe I too would like to go to Mars. "Before anyone even knew Elon Musk's name, I was working with the victims of these crimes." Mr Musk had called Ms Phillips a "rape genocide apologist" in one of a series of inflammatory posts on X in January and said she should go to jail. Mr Musk, then a close aide of US President Donald Trump, sparked a significant political row with his comments - with the Conservative Party and Reform UK calling for a new public inquiry into grooming gangs. At the time, Ms Phillips denied a request for a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham on the basis that it should be done at a local level. But the government announced a national inquiry after Baroness Casey's rapid audit on grooming gangs, which was published in June. Asked if she thought there was, in the words of Baroness Casey, "over representation" among suspects of Asian and Pakistani men, Ms Phillips replied: "My own experience of working with many young girls in my area - yes there is a problem. There are different parts of the country where the problem will look different, organised crime has different flavours across the board. "But I have to look at the evidence… and the government reacts to the evidence." Ms Phillips also said the home secretary has written to all police chiefs telling them that data collection on ethnicity "has to change", to ensure that it is always recorded, promising "we will legislate to change the way this [collection] is done if necessary". Operation Beaconport has since been established, led by the National Crime Agency (NCA), and will be reviewing more than 1,200 closed cases of child sexual exploitation. Ms Phillips revealed that at least "five, six" councils have asked to be a part of the national review - and denounced councils that believed they don't have a problem with grooming gangs as "idiots". "I don't want [the inquiry] just to go over places that have already had inquiries and find things the Casey had already identified," she said. She confirmed that a shortlist for a chair has been drawn up, and she expects the inquiry to be finished within three years. Ms Phillips's comments come after she announced £426,000 of funding to roll out artificial intelligence tools across all 43 police forces in England and Wales to speed up investigations into modern slavery, child sex abuse and county lines gangs. Some 13 forces have access to the AI apps, which the Home Office says have saved more than £20m and 16,000 hours for investigators. The apps can translate large amounts of text in foreign languages and analyse data to find relationships between suspects.
BBC News
13-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Bradford Council has 'nothing to hide' over grooming review
A council has said it has "nothing to hide" and will fully cooperate with a national review into grooming of Bradford Council met on Tuesday for the first time since Baroness Casey published her report and called for a full national inquiry into child sexual exploitation (CSE) in England and Rebecca Poulsen said there had been calls for a national inquiry for years – including by Keighley MP Robbie Moore - but the council and West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin previously said it was not Leader Susan Hinchcliffe said the authority would now work with the review and hand over un-redacted documents. She said: "Child sexual exploitation is a terrible crime and has a long lasting impact on its victims."Anyone who has spoken to victims know how appalling and brutal the perpetrators are."The victims should have been protected and loved, not tortured in this way."She said it was clear victims had been let down because this was the finding of numerous reviews on this issue that had been published by the council. "These reviews made for stomach churning reading," she went on to tell members the way the council and police dealt with CSE was now vastly different from a few years Brendan Stubbs shared concerns about the council redacting information that could "hinder the national review".He asked: "Can you assure us that Bradford Council will only redact what is totally necessary and not hinder victims from getting the justice they deserve?" Ms Hinchcliffe responded that she had "sent all reports we've done unredacted to the Home Secretary, so we've got nothing to hide here".Meanwhile, Ms Poulsen said the council's co-operation into the review was "about time"."We welcome your U-turn, but you have broken your trust with the victims I have spoken to," she leader councillor Imran Khan said there was "no more abhorrent crime that we will ever talk about in this Council chamber"."Every community finds this crime abhorrent," he added. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
The Guardian
01-07-2025
- The Guardian
Calls grow for national childcare inquiry after Melbourne worker charged with sexual abuse offences
There are growing calls for a national inquiry into Australia's childcare sector after a Victorian worker was charged with dozens of child sexual abuse offences. Victoria police on Tuesday announced Point Cook resident Joshua Brown, 26, had been charged with more than 70 offences relating to eight alleged victims aged between five months and two years. More than 1,200 children will now be tested for infectious diseases after the charges were made public. While Brown is yet to enter a plea and the allegations are yet to be tested by the courts, parent advocacy groups, politicians and the child protection organisation Bravehearts have called for a national review of child protection protocols and more rigorous screening, monitoring and reporting systems. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The director of Childlight UNSW, Prof Michael Salter, said: 'Systematically, in Australia, we have real challenges around investigating and prosecuting the sexual abuse of very young children. I think this is a particularly vulnerable group of victims of sexual violence.' Salter said there was a lack of regulation in the industry. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'There's no question that regulation is a huge issue here,' he said. 'It includes not just the enforcement of quality standards, but making sure that there's always a certain number of staff in a childcare centre and breaches of standards are taken seriously. 'We need a national inquiry into child maltreatment in childcare. We need a targeted, focused inquiry to make sure children are getting the care they deserve.' Appearing on ABC on Tuesday afternoon, the national children's commissioner, Anne Hollonds, accused the system of having 'absolutely' failed families. 'These are issues and risks that we've known about for a long time … Child safety and wellbeing is not a priority in this country.' The Greens are also calling for a royal commission into safety and equality in the early childhood education system, while Liberal senator Jonno Duniam called on the government to 'urgently review Australia's child safety safeguards – including those under the national quality framework'.
The Guardian
17-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Louise Casey criticises Tories for politicising her grooming gangs report
Update: Date: 2025-06-17T08:17:25.000Z Title: Louise Casey Content: Good morning. After the Home Office yesterday published 's audit of the grooming gang scandal, none of the political parties at Westminster seriously challenged any of her conclusions, or recommendations. But, of course, that does not mean there was consensus. As reported here yesterday, an almighty blame game commenced (or resumed, to be more accurate). In an interview on Newsnight last night, Casey said she was 'disappointed' by the way her report was being politicised and criticised the Conservatives in particular. Asked what she felt about the 'politicisation' of her report, Casey replied: I'm disappointed by it, to put it mildly. I really hoped – and hope still – that the report is so clear, it's so straightforward. We need to change some laws. We need to do a national criminal investigation. We need to get on with the national inquiry with local footprint in it. And ideally, wouldn't it be great if everybody came behind that and just backed it and got on with it? Asked what she felt about the proceedings in the Commons yesterday, Casey said: I just felt, dare I say it, I felt the opposition could have just been a bit, 'Yes, we will all come together behind you.' Maybe there's still time to do that. I think it's just so important that they do. It almost doesn't matter right now, does it, what political party people are part of. We've identified there's a problem, it's been a problem there a long time, and it's about time we drew a line in the sand. There does not seem much chance that Kemi Badenoch will take any notice. She has scheduled a press conference today and, judging by her X feed last night, she intends to celebrate what she perceives as a victory for her campaigning. The 10 most recent posts on her feed are either tweets or retweets about the grooming gang scandal. This is the one she has pinned. This national inquiry is a hard-won victory for the brave survivors who refused to be silenced — who gave up their anonymity to expose the institutions that failed them. Labour fought it every step of the way. They voted against it. Mocked campaigners. Smeared them. Branded it a 'far-right bandwagon' and a 'dog whistle.' Now they're pretending they supported it all along? Disgraceful. Their hand was forced. Our job now is to make sure this inquiry delivers justice for every survivor. No more delays. Here is the agenda for the day. 9.30am: Angela Rayner, deputy prime minister, chairs cabinet. Keir Starmer is still in Canada at the G7 summit. 10.30am: , the crossbench peer and former civil servant, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee about her grooming gangs report published yesterday. 11am: Kemi Badenoch holds a press conference. Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing. 1pm: John Swinney, Scotland's first minister, gives a speech on independence at the Scotland 2050 conference in Edinburgh. Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, is speaking at 2.10pm. Early afternoon (UK time): Starmer takes questions from British print journalists and broadcasters at the G7 summit. Late afternoon: MPs debate amendments to the crime and policing bill relating to abortion. They will vote at 7pm. If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can't read all the messages BTL, but if you put 'Andrew' in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word. If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @ The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary. I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can't promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
The Sun
16-06-2025
- The Sun
Grooming gang scandal survivor welcomes U-turn on national inquiry after giving up hope one would happen
GROOMING gang survivor Christina O'Connor has welcomed the U-turn on a national inquiry into the scandal. Christina says she had given up hope of one and hopes it will now bring change. 2 The 33-year-old, of Huddersfield, West Yorks, is a survivor of the biggest UK grooming gang scandal. She was main prosecution witness in trials in which 11 men were convicted of 43 offences against her, including 22 of rape. The gang got a total of 221 years' jail. She said: 'Every day, I'm reminded about what happened. 'I want to put it behind me and move on, but I can't. 'My childhood was stolen and I'll never get it back. 'So much pain still remains. 'I haven't had the support I needed, and I don't think any of the girls did. 'We were just left to cope alone.' She added: ' A national inquiry is a chance for the government to show that they support the victims, and accept the failures. 'There were so many mistakes by the very people who should have been looking after me. I was locked up & raped in dingy flat for days by grooming gangs - only to find out one sicko was a POLICE officer who's never seen justice 'They must now be held to account. 'The damage done to me and to my family impacts me every day and I want those responsible to acknowledge this. 'Most importantly, a national inquiry is needed because the same mistakes are being made right now with other children. 'Lessons must be learned.'
