The national inquiry into grooming gangs announced by Keir Starmer earlier this year is yet to get underway because no senior jurist so far has been willing to chair it. Citing a source, The Guardian , which broke the story, said “judges and lawyers appear to be reluctant to head the inquiry”, probably due to its “politically sensitive” subject matter and the prospect of “intense media scrutiny”.

Grooming gangs were among the issues looked at by an independent inquiry into institutional sexual abuse of children – which also covered child exploitation by organised networks, as well as abuse within the care system, in penal institutions and in the Catholic and the Anglican Church . That inquiry, launched in 2015 and led by social work expert Alexis Jay, published its final report

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