Civil servants delayed attempts to secure compensation for grooming gang victims, GB News can reveal.
Government sources who attended several key meetings have told this broadcaster that civil servants from multiple departments resisted political efforts to promote compensation for survivors.
One source who worked in Government during the previous Sunak administration said that civil servants were hesitant to engage with the issue of compensation during multiple cross-departmental meetings on the grooming gangs scandal.
They said that senior officials warned about significant costs if they proceeded with plans to include survivors in any payment scheme, due to the large numbers of victims from the national scandal.
A grooming gang victim speaking with GB News previously GB NewsThey told GB News that attempts to raise the issue were “pushed into the long grass” during meetings held with senior civil servants as the Sunak Government turned its attention to the grooming gangs scandal.
A survivor from the Rotherham abuse scandal told GB News that the Government were neglecting victims.
Elizabeth, not her real name, said: “Once again this shows that survivors are treated like second-class citizens by the Government.
“They don’t pay attention to what we need to finally tackle this national emergency and make sure it never happens again.”
Political aides expressed their frustration to this broadcaster over several months as then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman launched a grooming gangs crackdown, which included a taskforce headed up by the National Crime Agency.
In its first year, the force made over 500 arrests.
The Independent Inquiry to Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said that “victims and survivors are entirely justified in seeking financial redress”.
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Charlie Peters speaks to grooming gang victimGB NewsChaired by Professor Alexis Jay, it added: “Where victims and survivors are unable to pursue civil claims successfully, they may be able to obtain some financial redress from the State through a compensation scheme.”
A compensation scheme has yet to be established since IICSA was published in October 2022.
Scoping of the scheme was well underway following the Government’s response to IICSA in 2023.
In November, Prof Jay expressed her disappointment that none of the report’s 20 recommendations has yet to be implemented.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has hit out at the revelation, urging the Government to support grooming gang victims.
She said: “Survivors of the disgraceful grooming gangs scandal are some of the most vulnerable women and girls in our society. The least they are entitled to, after everything they have been through, is timely compensation.
“Any delay to compensation payments will make survivors and their families legitimately feel that under Labour the system is completely indifferent to their suffering.”
Suella Braverman said: “As Home Secretary, I raised the alarm and battled, day and night, often alone in Cabinet, to make the changes necessary . I made tackling these rape gangs a big priority. I, sadly, found other departments within Government unsupportive of the action we needed to take to get justice for victims.
“That’s why I visited Rotherham and Rochdale with the Prime Minister to meet with survivors – to get justice – and why I personally set up a specialist taskforce which led to hundreds of arrests – over 500 in the first year alone.
“I was committed to introducing the recommendations of the Jay report which includes a legal duty to report. The Duty was part of the Criminal Justice Bill introduced in November 2023. However, it never made its way through Parliament due to the early General Election being called when there was still much more to be done.
“Any individual involved in the industrial scale rape and grooming of young British girls must face the strongest possible justice.”
GB News has contacted the Government for comment.