HMICFRS - Inspection of the effectiveness of police and law enforcement bodies' response to group-based child sexual exploitation

Between 2015 and 2022, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse exposed harrowing failures across public institutions to protect children from organised and group-based child sexual exploitation. Its findings revealed not only the devastating scale of these crimes but also how agencies repeatedly failed to recognise, prevent and respond to them.

In 2023, HMICFRS inspected how the police, law enforcement agencies and other public bodies were tackling this challenge. While some progress was identified, HMICFRS found that deep-rooted problems remained and made nine recommendations and identified one area for improvement.

In this report, HMICFRS review progress against these recommendations, and issue six new recommendations to make sure group-based child sexual exploitation is consistently identified, properly understood and addressed with urgency.

The report can be viewed here.

The PCC's response can be viewed here.