The government today announced a new national-level "rapid audit" of grooming gangs, plus up to five new local inquiries.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says the government will launch a national three-month audit, led by Dame Louise Casey, which will examine "cultural and societal drivers" of child sexual exploitation.

More victims will be able to request their cases are re-examined, the Home Office announced today.

The plans follow renewed calls in recent weeks from the Conservatives, Reform, a handful of Labour MPs and Elon Musk for a new national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Thanks for sticking with us today. This page was edited by Jenna Moon and Owen Amos, with writing from Ian Aikman, Neha Gohil, Imogen James and Rachel Flynn.

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Ed Thomas
BBC News

BBC News spent time today with survivors of historic sex abuse in Oldham as they travelled to Birmingham to meet Jess Phillips MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls.

In two separate meetings, the women discussed their experiences and concerns. But at the same time, they all were told new details about the Governments updated response, including a national “rapid audit” and the introduction of stronger sentences for perpetrators.

Listening to Home Secretary Yvette Coopers statement, “Sarah” and “Amelia” exchanged a hug.

“We’ve been fighting for this,” they said through tears.

After spending time with Phillips, Amelia said “I feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off my shoulders. I’m satisfied for now but actions speak louder than words.”

But survivors Sam and “Jane” were not satisfied and said they did not feel they had been listened to.

“We want a Government Inquiry into Oldham and into other towns,” Sam told the BBC. ”We know what is right and what is wrong. We know that a Government-led inquiry differs from a council-led inquiry.”

The women expressed their frustration that the Government decision for today's announcement was already made before their meeting had taken place.

“It’s not just us being let down,” Jane explained. “We’re survivors, we’ve been through what we’ve been through. It’s the children now and other people going through it, we don’t want them to be let down. That’s the whole point of what we’re fighting for. We will not allow them to be let down in any shape or form. We will always stand up for them.”

• “Sarah,” “Amelia” and “Jane” are not the real names of these women, whose identities the BBC is protecting. Last week, they spoke to the BBC about their concerns. You can read that story in full.

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Prof Alexis Jay, the former chairwoman of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, says the recommendations from her 2022 report must be implemented "as speedily as possible", in comments reported by the PA news agency.

Jay welcomed the home secretary's announcement, but says "much valuable time has been lost" since her inquiry's final report was published, "causing even more trauma to many victims and survivors".

Jay's name was brought up several times in the Commons today, with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper saying her announcement followed conversations with the child protection expert.

The home secretary committed to implementing recommendations from Jay's report and said she would set out a timetable for doing so by Easter.

One of the main takeaways from the home secretary's speech earlier this afternoon was the launch of a "rapid audit" plan which will look the "current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country" and make recommendations to address the issue.

The home secretary says the audit will "be able to get much more extensive assessment of the prevalence" of the problem and "the nature of child sexual exploitation across the country".

Here's what we know about it so far:

• The three-month review led by Dame Louise Casey will start "imminently", the Home Office says
• The audit will look at further evidence including ethnicity data and demographics of gangs involved and their victims, including "cultural and societal drivers" for this type of offending

• The Home Office says it will review existing data to "equip law enforcement with the information and understanding they need to combat these crimes"
• The audit will be "supported by an expert advisory board and draw on the views of victims and survivors", according to the Home Office

In contrast, Alexis Jay's 2022 national inquiry into child sexual abuse was carried out over a seven-year period. It engaged more than 7,000 victims.

Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent

Downing Street says that it will “set out further details” about the five local inquiries into grooming gangs announced by the Home Secretary “following discussion with local councils”.

Asked at a regular briefing about the fact the inquiries can’t compel people to give evidence, a Downing Street spokesperson tells reporters “we stand ready to give the councils additional support for these inquiries.”

He says: “we will set out further details on these following discussion with local councils. But the point remains, we've already had a national inquiry that compelled witnesses. Took seven years, engaged more than 7,000 victims and had 15 separate strands”.

The spokesman adds that “a range of experts and victims groups have said these are the best way to investigate specific local crimes and issues, and we've already had a national inquiry.

"Our approach has always been led by victims who've told us loud and clear they finally want action after years of delay, and as we've repeatedly said, our focus is on action now, having listened to victims”.

A little earlier, tech multi-billionaire Elon Musk - one of the loudest voices behind the call for another national inquiry into grooming gangs - responded to the government's announcement.

On X, the social media site he owns, Musk writes: "I hope this is a proper investigation."

The message was a reply to a post from the Home Office detailing the home secretary's proposals.

For context, in a series of posts over several days earlier this month, Musk suggested the prime minister failed to prosecute gangs and said Home Office minister Jess Phillips "deserves to be in prison".

Image source, Reuters

Just joining us? Watch below as the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, explains the government's plans to tackle child sexual exploitation and grooming gangs.

Alex Forsyth
Political correspondent

After weeks of pressure this is clearly a shift in the government’s position.

The issue of grooming gangs shot up the agenda again after it emerged that the Home Office had refused a request for an inquiry from Oldham council.

Yet now the Home Secretary has agreed to provide government support for local inquiries with some funding and the expertise of the KC who led the investigation in Telford.

There’s also going to be a “rapid national audit” of the scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country, which will also look at the “cultural drivers”.

The government’s insisting it’s not a new national inquiry, but it has clearly decided there’s a need for further action.

Cooper's announcement walks a careful linepublished at 15:59 Greenwich Mean Time 16 January

15:59 GMT 16 January

Alison Holt
Social affairs editor

This is an announcement which tries to walk a careful line between political arguments over a national inquiry into grooming gangs, and the varying needs and demands of survivors of abuse.

In the last 24-hours, the Victims Commissioner, Baroness Newlove, has written to the Home Secretary saying she has spent the last week speaking extensively to abuse survivors.

The priority for most, she says, is better support and therapeutic help.

Professor Alexis Jay, who led the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), has been clear she believes a new national inquiry would be a mistake and instead the recommendations she made after seven years of evidence need to be implemented.

At the same time those who were abused by grooming gangs in places like Oldham feel they have yet to have their voices heard so want an inquiry.

The combination of measures including local inquiries and a rapid audit of the scale of the problem are an attempt to navigate these different demands.

Rapid audit

• The home secretary announced a "rapid audit" looking at the "current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country"
• The review - to be led by Dame Louise Casey - will look at "ethnicity data and demographics of gangs involved and their victims", and "cultural and societal drivers"

Five local inquiries

• Cooper also announced government backing for new "victim-centred" inquiries at the local level
• They will take place in Oldham, plus up to four other pilot areas
• Cooper said "effective local inquiries can delve into far more local detail and deliver more locally relevant answers, and change, than a lengthy nationwide inquiry can provide"

The national audit, plus the local inquiries, follow calls from the Conservatives, Reform, and a handful of Labour MPs, for a new national inquiry.

In response, shadow home secretary Chris Philp repeated the Conservatives' call for a "full national inquiry".

He said Cooper's plan was "totally inadequate", and claimed the inquiries would not have the power they need.

Responding to Labour MP Sarah Champion, the home secretary says "we are not redoing the Telford inquiry" as this was already "extensive", and "crucially involved victims and survivors throughout".

Cooper says it "led to very substantial change" and is an effective model.

As part of this new £5m funding, the home secretary says Tom Crowther KC will work specifically with the first five local authorities who want inquiries, and then use this as a model for other areas as well.

Labour MP for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, asks for clarity over whether the government will be adopting all 20 recommendations from the 2022 Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), or just those from the "grooming gangs strand".

Do local authorities as well as the police forces have to review their cases of child sexual exploitation, Champion also asks.

The MP says it's important to ensure that there's been no cover-ups, which she says can only be done on a "statutory footing".

She also asks why they need another inquiry in Telford, when it is known to be happening nationally.

• As a reminder, Sarah Champion was one of three Labour MPs to call for new national inquiries

Cooper responds to Philp by saying the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) ran for seven years, hearing testimony from 7,000 survivors across the country.

Too often, those survivors' voices have "just been ignored", she says.

The home secretary says the Conservative Party had 10 years to introduce a duty to report child abuse, to make it an offence to cover up child abuse.

"We have lost a decade as a result," she tells MPs.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp says government support for five local inquiries is "wholly inadequate when we know up to 50 towns are affected".

Philp's challenges the home secretary on how "the other 40-plus towns are supposed to get answers".

Philp goes on to say it appears the inquiries will not be "statutory inquiries" adding, "these local inquiries will not have the power to compel witnesses to attend".

"How can they possibly get to the truth when faced with cover-ups?" Philp asks.

The shadow home secretary urges a "proper full national public inquiry covering the whole country".

We're now hearing from shadow home secretary Chris Philp.

He says the prime minister characterised the raising of these issues as a "far-right bandwagon", which prompts some raised voices in the Commons and an interruption from the deputy Speaker.

He asks Cooper whether she'll apologise for the PM's comments.

Cooper and Starmer both met survivors from Telford last week, she tells the House. They had praise for the way the local inquiry in their area was conducted after years of failings.

That local inquiry led to "tangible change'", including piloting CCTV in taxis, and appointing child sexual exploitation experts in secondary schools.

Effective local inquiries can deliver "more locally relevant answers" than a "lengthy nationwide inquiry" can provide, she says.

The government will develop a new framework to deliver locally led inquiries where they are needed, first in Oldham and in up to four other pilot areas.

This new package of local support will be backed by £5m additional funding, Cooper says.

She also says the Home Office will bolster its undercover online network of police officers to target online offenders.

The home secretary says she's asked Baroness Casey to oversee a "rapid audit" of the "current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country" and make recommendations on this.

The audit will look at further evidence including ethnicity data and demographics of gangs involved and their victims, including "cultural and societal drivers" for this type of offending.

Yvette Cooper goes on to say that the data on the ethnicities of both perpetrators and victims is still "inadequate".

She says she has asked the child sexual exploitation taskforce to expand its data on ethnicities.

The police child sexual exploitation taskforce and panel will be given £2m of additional funding, Cooper says.

All police forces will be expected to implement the 2023 recommendations from His Majesty's Inspectorate, including producing "problem profiles" on the nature of grooming gangs in their area.

As well as reviewing past cases, Cooper says, we also need "much stronger action" to uncover the "full scale and nature of these awful crimes".

The home secretary confirms the government will implement all remaining recommendations in the child abuse inquiry's separate report on grooming gangs from February 2022.

Cooper adds the government's most important task to take things further is to increase investigations and prosecutions of these "horrific crimes".

The government will introduce "stronger sentences" for child grooming and new action to ensure more investigations and prosecutions can get under way.

Cooper says this will be done by extending the remit of the "independent child sexual abuse review panel" so it covers all cases since 2013, not just historic cases.