What the National Inquiry means for Oldham

A local inquiry into child exploitation in Oldham may have to be paused as the government and council work out how to ‘avoid duplication’ with a newly-announced national investigation, the Local Democracy Reporting Service understands. 

The Home Secretary set out details of the UK-wide inquiry in Parliament yesterday (June 16) alongside a series of other measures, including a new nationwide operation into historic cases. 

Yvette Cooper told MPs about a ‘damning’ report by Baroness Louise Casey, which identified ‘continued failures’. 

Oldham council had already started a local inquiry into grooming gangs. Unlike the national inquiry, it has no statutory powers to command witnesses to give evidence or organisations to hand over files. 

The local review was due to be led by Tom Crowther KC, who worked on the Telford Inquiry. Mr Crowther had already informally agreed to spearhead the Oldham inquiry and is believed to have met with a number of survivors last week in preliminary talks. 

The town hall is currently in the ‘procurement’ stage of the inquiry, meaning Mr Crowther’s appointment is going through legal and financial checks before it can be formalised. 

That process has effectively been paused while the coundil works with the government, a town hall spokesperson confirmed. 

A Home Office spokesperson told the LDRS: “Baroness Casey’s review set out clearly that local areas who want to hold independent inquiries have the chance to work with the new independent, national Commission to avoid duplication, ensure consistency, keep the focus on supporting victims and survivors, and bring about meaningful institutional change. 

“We continue to engage closely with Oldham, and our offer of support for a full local independent inquiry in Oldham remains in place, but we will now discuss with them how they want to proceed in the context of the independent national Commission announced today.”

Survivors and Oldham council sources say they are still keen to forge ahead with the investigation under Mr Crowther and are hopeful they can find a way to work with the national inquiry that will imbue the local inquiry with statutory powers. 

Council boss Arooj Shah said: “We are already in the process of commissioning Tom Crowther KC to chair a local inquiry into CSE. Our priority now is to work with the home office to understand how our local inquiry is aligned with the national inquiry to get the answers that survivors and those affected so desperately want and deserve.”

On Tuesday (June 17), Baroness Casey said she wanted to see ‘a national inquiry with local footprints’, adding: “I want very strong footprints locally. I want it to be a different type of inquiry to perhaps things that have happened before and I do see a link between those two. I think that they should feed into each other.”