What is the Casey report on UK grooming gangs – and why did Labour U-turn?

The British authorities has announced a nationalist enquiry into organised kid intersexual maltreatment pursuing the merchandise of a damning study by Baroness Louise Casey that criticised decades of organization nonaccomplishment to support children from alleged “grooming gangs”.

It marks a singular U-turn by the Labour Party authorities of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, which had resisted months of calls for an inquiry, stating that it was focusing connected recommendations already made successful an earlier seven-year probe.

But what precisely is the Casey Report, and what drove Labour’s abrupt alteration of course?

What is the Casey Report?

Commissioned earlier this twelvemonth by Starmer, the Casey Report is simply a reappraisal of however United Kingdom institutions person tackled kid intersexual exploitation.

The reappraisal focused connected “grooming gangs” – groups of men who targeted susceptible girls for intersexual abuse, often implicit extended periods of time.

What does the study say?

The study identified an organization nonaccomplishment to support children and teenage girls from rape, exploitation and superior violence.

Among its recommendations, the Casey Report suggested a alteration successful the instrumentality truthful adults successful England and Wales look mandatory rape charges if they intentionally penetrate a kid nether property 16.

In her report, Casey concluded that excessively galore grooming cases person been dropped oregon downgraded from rape to lesser charges due to the fact that a 13- to 15-year-old is perceived to person been “in emotion with” oregon person “consented to” enactment with the perpetrator.

Her reappraisal besides highlighted reluctance by the authorities to “examine the ethnicity of the offenders”, saying it was not racist to bash so.

In the section information that the audit examined from 3 constabulary forces, they identified wide grounds of “over-representation among suspects of Asian and Pakistani-heritage men”.

However, the reappraisal besides criticised the ongoing nonaccomplishment to cod ethnicity astatine a nationalist level, with it not recorded for two-thirds of perpetrators, making it intolerable “to supply immoderate close appraisal from the nationally collected data”.

Britain’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper answers questions connected the Casey Report successful the House of Commons successful London connected June 16, 2025 [Handout UK Parliament via AFP]

Were the recommendations accepted?

Yes.

The UK’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed the authorities would judge each 12 recommendations successful the Casey Report.

This means the constabulary volition motorboat a caller nationalist transgression cognition targeting grooming gangs, overseen by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

This cognition would beryllium overseen by an autarkic committee with powers to compel witnesses to supply evidence.

It would besides spell up with a nationalist inquiry, with Starmer stating that helium had work “every azygous word” of the study and would judge Casey’s proposal for an investigation.

What led to Labour’s U-turn?

Richard Scorer, the caput of Abuse Law and Public Inquiries astatine Slater and Gordon, a instrumentality firm, told Al Jazeera that the sheer size of the ungraded and the information that it had affected thousands of children made it “inevitable” that determination would request to beryllium a nationalist enquiry astir it astatine immoderate point.

US billionaire Elon Musk’s online references to the grooming ungraded that emerged a decennary agone successful respective towns and cities successful bluish England had besides pushed the “issue up the governmental agenda”, helium said.

In June 2022, an autarkic reappraisal recovered that the constabulary and section assembly had failed to forestall intersexual exploitation of young girls by gangs successful Oldham, a municipality successful Greater Manchester successful England.

Two years later, governmental leaders successful Oldham Council called for the authorities to analyse further, but then-Home Office Minister Jess Phillips rejected the council’s request, saying it should pb an probe itself.

In January this year, Musk threw his value down far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by the sanction Tommy Robinson and had been outspoken connected the issue.

He called for Robinson, a arguable governmental figure, past serving an 18-month jailhouse word for contempt of court, to beryllium freed, penning connected his ain societal media level X, “Why is Tommy Robinson successful a solitary confinement situation for telling the truth?”

Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, besides known arsenic Tommy Robinson, arrives astatine Westminster Magistrates’ Court successful cardinal London connected April 22, 2024 [Adrian Dennis/AFP]

Musk besides accused Starmer of failing to prosecute kid rapists erstwhile helium was manager of nationalist prosecutions betwixt 2008 and 2013.

He besides took purpose astatine Minister for Safeguarding Jess Phillips, calling her “a rape genocide apologist”.

Starmer responded astatine the time, without mentioning Musk by name. “Those that are spreading lies and misinformation arsenic acold and arsenic wide arsenic imaginable are not funny successful victims, they are funny successful themselves,” the PM said.

Will this study bring astir change?

Experts accidental it’s surely a affirmative step.

William Tantam, a elder lecturer successful anthropology astatine the University of Bristol, who has worked connected a erstwhile autarkic enquiry into kid intersexual abuse, said that from a researcher’s perspective, the main affirmative was that determination would beryllium much consistency and clarity successful data.

He said that different affirmative is that enquiry sheet volition person the authorization to compel agencies to participate.

Scorer noted that bringing successful the NCA to analyse cases that haven’t progressed successful the past is besides a precise invited result of the report.

He said successful the UK, antithetic constabulary forces person not ever succeeded successful coordinating their efforts to tackle grooming gangs, truthful a much centralised overview from the NCA mightiness unafraid “a amended coordination of constabulary activity”.

Cooper told Parliament connected Monday that much than 800 cases person present been identified for ceremonial review, and she expects that fig to emergence supra 1,000 successful the coming weeks.

But Scorer warned that the authorities would request to delegate an further fund for the implementation of the changes recommended by Casey.

“If you are asking the NCA to reopen and investigate, perchance up to 1000 cases, that’s going to necessitate a immense magnitude of resources,” helium said. “Who’s going to wage for that? That’s 1 of the questions that the authorities is going to request to answer.”