Hundreds of historic child grooming gang cases to be re-examined

A national task force is expected to reopen 287 closed cases relating to child sexual abuse.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper made the comment to a committee of MPs on Tuesday, months after vowing for a local inquiry to take place in Oldham, where she says work is "well under way".

Five suspects were arrested this morning (04/06/2025) in Oldham and Tameside as part of an investigation into historic child sexual exploitation.

GMP has confirmed the men are being held in connection with alleged offences against one victim between 2011 and 2014.

Ms Cooper first called for cold cases to be reopened in January, where she also announced a rapid review by Baroness Casey into the nature and scale of gang-based exploitation across the country. 

“As you will know, I have always said the most important thing is to get perpetrators behind bars and to make sure that they face justice for these horrendous crimes,” she said, speaking to the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday.

“I did ask all police forces to review historic cases. We’ve asked them to review cases that were closed, where no further action was taken and where there are cases, to then work with the police child sexual exploitation task force … which has considerable expertise, to then review those cases and to look to reopen and pursue any new lines of inquiry that have not been properly pursued.

She said half of the country's police forces had reported back after reviewing past investigations. “For those forces," she said, "287 historic cases have been identified for review by the police child sexual exploitation task force.”

Councillors in Oldham voted unanimously for an independent local inquiry into abuse in February, after a government-led inquiry was turned down by ministers. 

It followed a major report published in 2022, which found children in Oldham had been 'failed' by Greater Manchester Police and Oldham Council.  

The report highlighted that Oldham Council "consistently attempted to develop best practice in addressing the threat of child sexual exploitation", and that many of the borough's specialist services were strategically ahead of other areas'. 

However, the report noted that Oldham's approaches did not always translate into an 'appropriate' level of safeguarding for at-risk children. Childcare social work teams for the Messenger service did not always give cases 'sufficient' oversight and direction, and there were failures in Oldham Council's investigations into offenders previously employed by the council. 

It was previously announced a funding pot of £5 million would be available for local authorities to support locally-led work on grooming gangs.

However, in April, MP Jess Phillips told Parliament the money would instead be administered to authorities with a 'flexible approach', meaning councils would have to bid for money from the government to support inquiries.

Despite the change, Oldham Council said there would be no impact on their own local inquiry. 

Ms Cooper said the government was now planning to set out the next steps for local inquiries across England and Wales, after Baroness Casey completes the national audit. 

“Once the Casey review and the Casey audit has reported back to us, we will set out those next steps, both about how we will then expect local inquiries to be taken forward, and also the funding support that we will give,” she said.