Yvette Cooper will look at “different ways” to compel witnesses to speak out about child sexual exploitation, she has said.
The Home Secretary faced calls from Rotherham MP Sarah Champion to launch a new statutory inquiry into gangs which sexually exploit children.
She did not commit to a new national probe, but instead announced a £10 million package to tackle abuse, with half going towards local inquiries.
Sarah Champion said local inquiries into grooming gangs need to have the ability to ‘compel witnesses’ (UK Parliament/PA)
But Ms Champion, a Labour MP, said these local inquiries need “the ability to compel witnesses”.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham, which covered the period 1997 to 2013 and was led by Professor Alexis Jay, made a “conservative estimate” that around 1,400 children were sexually exploited over the 16 years.
Ms Champion told the Commons on Thursday that a similar inquiry in Telford “was victim-focused”.
She added: “What they said they lacked, what Greater Manchester said they lacked, was the ability to compel witnesses, and a big strand of what we need to do is make sure there have been no cover-ups, and it’s only if it’s on a statutory footing that we can do that.”
The Home Secretary replied that the Telford and Rotherham inquiries “did manage to uncover truths in different areas”.
Ms Cooper added: “There also need to be other new arrangements on accountability, and that is what we are working with the Cabinet Office and also with mayors and councils to draw up what new accountability arrangements would be, to ensure that there is proper either follow up or as part of those initial inquiries, that you have that proper accountability framework in place and we will link that to the duty of candour as part of the Hillsborough law.”
A Hillsborough law to compel public servants to tell the truth was in the Labour Party’s 2024 manifesto, named after the fatal crowd crush at Hillsborough Stadium in 1989.
Dame Karen Bradley, the Commons Home Affairs Committee chairwoman and Conservative MP for Staffordshire Moorlands, asked: “Will the local inquiries have the statutory powers to compel witnesses? Yes or no?”
Deputy Leader of Reform UK Richard Tice (Jacob King/PA)
Ms Cooper said in her reply that “there are different approaches we can take”, adding: “We believe that the current system is not strong enough, and that is why we have set out work under way, involving the Cabinet Office and involving local mayors and local councils in order to make sure that we can strengthen the accountability arrangements.”
The Home Secretary had earlier praised “effective local inquiries” which “can delve into far more local detail and deliver more locally relevant answers than a lengthy nationwide inquiry can provide”.
She said Tom Crowther, who led the Telford inquiry, “has agreed to work with the Government to develop a new framework for victim-centred locally led inquiries where they are needed, and as a first step to work with Oldham Council and up to four other pilot areas”.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice later said: “There’s much to welcome in the Home Secretary’s statement this afternoon but she’s resisted six invitations from honourable members to confirm that these Government-supported local inquiries will have statutory powers.”
He asked: “So let me try a different way – is the Home Secretary 100% certain that the duty of candour, responsibility, and accountability is equivalent to ‘statutory’?”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper faced questions on inquiries into grooming gangs (Lucy North/PA)
Ms Cooper said: “The first stage has to be for the police to have full powers to be able to pursue these crimes and to be able to follow them wherever the evidence takes them in order to be able to put perpetrators behind bars because frankly, that is where they should be in order to protect children and to keep them safe.
“And we also need to ensure that where things have gone wrong, there are sufficient powers to be able to get to the truth, sufficient ability for local organisations to be able to do that and that no one can hide from accountability – no one can run away or obfuscate or use bureaucracy to get away with providing the answers and the justice and the accountability that victims need.”
The Government would look at how to “strengthen the powers available, how you strengthen the accountability available”, the Cabinet minister said.
Rebecca Smith, the Conservative MP for South West Devon, warned that tight budgets might “disincentivise” town halls from following up on local inquiry recommendations.
She asked: “What funding is going to come forward for the interventions that might be recommended following the inquiries because we know local authorities are incredibly cash-strapped?”
Ms Cooper said: “This has to be part of the mainstream work that agencies do, that police forces do, that local councils do as well because tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse cannot just be an add-on. It can’t be something that is only done if there is a particular announcement from the Government, it’s actually got to be done as part of their core responsibilities.”