Grooming gangs inquiry expanded to Birmingham and Wales

A national inquiry into child sexual abuse by grooming gangs has announced that targeted investigations will take place in Birmingham and Wales.

The inquiry said the probes would "examine the sexual abuse and exploitation of children by grooming gangs and the response of organisations responsible for protecting children" in both areas.

Oldham in Greater Manchester, Bradford and Keighley in West Yorkshire and London were announced as the first locations for investigations earlier this year.

It is unclear whether further locations will be selected. Some survivors have expressed frustration that their area has not yet been included and said they were concerned about expanding the inquiry's scope.

Fiona Goddard, who was sexually abused as a child by groups of men in Bradford, said there was clearly evidence from Birmingham and Wales "that needs to be properly heard" and welcomed their inclusion.

But she told the BBC that the scale of the inquiry "must not come at the expense of the depth of investigation". This was especially concerning, Goddard added, given "we are already almost a year into the inquiry with relatively little progress".

Carly, not her real name, was 12 years old when she was first groomed in Huddersfield in 2004. She said she could not understand "how an investigation covering an area as enormous and complex as Wales can be described as a deep dive".

"How are survivors in Huddersfield supposed to have confidence that our experiences will not simply be absorbed into a much bigger national picture and effectively watered down?"

Meanwhile, Welsh grooming gang victim Emily Vaughan, not her real name, welcomed the announcement - saying it marked "a day that has been needed for a very long time".

"It's about institutions that failed children and the questions that have remained unanswered. The expansion of the inquiry means those failures can no longer simply be brushed aside."

The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs in England and Wales was announced by former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in June 2025 and started work in April.

It previously faced turbulence prior to launching, when abuse survivors called on former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to quit amid claims that the government was seeking to widen the scope of the inquiry to other forms of child abuse.

Chaired by former children's commissioner Baroness Anne Longfield, it has the power to compel individuals and institutions to explain what they "did or did not do to protect children from being sexually abused".

Alongside national accountability hearings, local investigations will examine what happened in specific areas, including how grooming gangs operated and what institutions knew.

The inquiry has previously said that areas are chosen for investigation based on criteria including how victims and survivors were treated when they came forward, and whether opportunities to prevent harm were missed.

A National Listening Project, inviting victims and survivors to share their experiences, has also been expanded, with people able to contribute through written or recorded submissions from next month.

But Amy Clowrey, a director at Switalskis solicitors, which represents more than 50 survivors who are participating in the national inquiry, warned that clarity was needed over how evidence "from places without a local investigation" would be examined by the inquiry.

The inquiry said its decision to conduct an investigation in Birmingham reflected a combination of factors "including victim and survivor experience, indications of prevalence, harm and risk, and public concern".

Panel member Zoë Billingham said: "We will look carefully at what organisations knew, how decisions were made, how agencies worked together, and why opportunities to protect children were missed".

The investigation in Wales will also examine the operation of devolved arrangements and cross-border working between organisations in Wales and England.

The Welsh government welcomed the announcement, and said minister Delyth Jewell had met Baroness Longfield earlier this week to press for "dedicated activity" in Wales as part of the national inquiry.

The Welsh Conservatives and Reform also supported the news. Both parties have previously called for a Wales-only grooming gangs inquiry, but failed to win support from the government under both Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru.