The UK's national inquiry into grooming gangs has taken a significant step, setting out the first areas it will examine and confirming that its work will reach into central government. The development was announced as the inquiry, led by Baroness Anne Longfield, began to map out how it intends to investigate years of organised child sexual abuse across the country.
London has now been confirmed as one of the first areas of focus. According to the chair, the capital will be among the first areas the inquiry looks at, joining places already named, including Oldham, Bradford and Keighley. The inclusion of London follows reporting and evidence suggesting that victims and survivors were trafficked to the capital for the purpose of abuse.
Crucially, the inquiry is not limiting itself to individual towns and cities. It will move into what has been described as a three-part national accountability hearing process, a structure intended to look beyond local failings and examine how institutions across the country responded to the abuse over many years.
The first of those hearings is set to be wide-ranging. It will look at central government departments and politicians, alongside local councils, the NHS and national police institutions. In effect, the inquiry signalled that decisions taken at the highest levels of the state, not just by local authorities, will come under scrutiny.
That focus addresses a concern that had been raised about the inquiry's reach. There had been fears that targeted local investigations would not be able to examine the role that Whitehall and the central state played in how the abuse was handled. The announcement indicated that this will not be the case, and that central government decisions will be part of the process.
The first hearing is also expected to take stock of work already done. As part of the national accountability process, it will review all of the reviews that have already been conducted into the towns and the city affected, drawing together previous findings rather than starting entirely from scratch.
On the policing side, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, confirmed that officers were assessing historic cases of grooming gangs, as has been seen elsewhere in the country. Taken together, the announcements pointed to a broader and more centrally focused inquiry than some had anticipated, with both national institutions and local bodies facing examination.