Birmingham and Wales Named as Latest Targets of National Grooming Gangs Inquiry

Birmingham and Wales have been selected as the next two locations for in-depth local investigations forming part of a broader national inquiry into child sexual abuse carried out by grooming gangs, the inquiry announced on Wednesday.

The statutory inquiry, which is being led by Baroness Anne Longfield, the former children's commissioner for England, is conducting a series of targeted investigations in communities across England and Wales. Its stated purpose is to examine both the scale and nature of grooming gang abuse in each selected area, as well as the responses of the organisations that were supposed to protect children from harm.

The announcement means Birmingham and Wales join a growing list of areas already subject to investigation. Previous locations named include Oldham in Greater Manchester, Bradford and Keighley in West Yorkshire, and London. Each of these local strands feeds into the national inquiry's wider effort to understand how such abuse was able to persist and why safeguarding failures occurred.

The inquiry holds statutory powers that allow it to compel individuals and institutions to provide evidence about what they "did or did not do to protect children from being sexually abused." This legal authority is significant because it means witnesses cannot simply refuse to cooperate, and organisations cannot shield themselves from scrutiny by declining to hand over documents or testimony.

In explaining why Birmingham was chosen, the inquiry said the decision reflected a combination of factors. These include the experiences reported by victims and survivors, indications about the prevalence of abuse in the area, evidence of harm and ongoing risk, and the level of public concern about the issue locally. The inquiry has previously said that areas are selected based on criteria such as how victims and survivors were treated when they first came forward, and whether there were missed opportunities to prevent harm.

Panel member Zoë Billingham commented on the approach the inquiry will take in these new locations. She said the panel would look carefully at what organisations knew, how decisions were made, how different agencies worked together, and why opportunities to protect children were missed. Her remarks underline the inquiry's focus not only on the abuse itself but also on the institutional failures that allowed it to continue.

Baroness Longfield addressed the situation in Wales directly, saying that victims and survivors there had waited far too long for answers. She said the inquiry would help the panel understand why children were not protected and what needs to change in the future. Her comments suggest the inquiry intends to produce findings that go beyond describing past failures and instead point toward concrete reforms.

The national inquiry into grooming gangs in England and Wales was first announced by former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in June 2025. Its creation followed years of campaigning by survivors and pressure from politicians who argued that earlier investigations had not gone far enough in addressing the specific dynamics of grooming gang abuse.

However, the inquiry's path has not been smooth. It faced turbulence when abuse survivors publicly called on former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to resign, reflecting deep frustration among victim communities about the pace and direction of official responses. Such tensions highlight the sensitive political environment in which the inquiry is operating, and the high expectations placed upon it by those directly affected.

The inquiry formally began its work in April of this year, with a budget of £65 million. That funding reflects the scale of the task, which involves examining historical abuse across multiple regions, reviewing the conduct of police forces, councils, social services and other agencies, and gathering testimony from victims and survivors who may have been waiting years for their voices to be heard.

The decision to conduct separate investigations in Birmingham and Wales means the inquiry will now examine the specific circumstances in each area, including how local authorities, police and other safeguarding bodies responded to reports of abuse. In doing so, it will consider whether there were systemic failures, whether warning signs were ignored, and whether the treatment of victims discouraged others from coming forward.

For victims and survivors in Birmingham and Wales, the announcement may bring a mixture of hope and apprehension. Many have long argued that their experiences were dismissed or downplayed, and that authorities failed to grasp the seriousness of what was happening. The inquiry's willingness to compel testimony could provide a mechanism for accountability that previous processes did not deliver.

The inquiry has emphasised that its local investigations are not simply about cataloguing abuse but about understanding the institutional response. By examining how agencies worked together — or failed to do so — the panel hopes to identify patterns that may recur in other parts of the country. This systemic focus is intended to produce recommendations that could prevent similar failures in the future.

As the inquiry continues to announce additional locations, scrutiny will intensify on how effectively it manages its broad remit within its budget and timeframe. The inclusion of Birmingham and Wales signals that the panel intends to examine a wide geographic spread, ensuring that the inquiry's findings reflect experiences from different regions with varying demographic and institutional characteristics.

The coming months will see the inquiry begin its detailed work in these new areas, gathering evidence from victims, survivors, officials and institutions. How transparent and thorough that process proves to be will likely shape public confidence in the inquiry's final conclusions — and, crucially, in whether the lessons learned will lead to meaningful change in how children are protected across England and Wales.