Fresh investigations could be launched into 287 child sexual exploitation cases that had been dropped by local police forces, Yvette Cooper has told MPs.
The home secretary said the cases had been handed to a national police taskforce which will look at whether to reopen them and “pursue any new lines of inquiry that have not been properly pursued”.
In January, Cooper asked all police forces in England and Wales to “look again at historic gang exploitation cases where ‘No Further Action’ was taken”.
So far half of the forces have reported back, with 287 cases identified for review by the national Police Child Sexual Exploitation Taskforce.
“Now we are awaiting reports back from the other half of police forces,” Cooper told the Commons Home Affairs Committee earlier on Tuesday.
The government has resisted opposition calls for a national inquiry into grooming gangs with powers to compel witnesses to give evidence.
Instead, it has pledged £5m in funding for at least five local inquiries, including in Oldham, Greater Manchester, where Cooper said work is “under way already”.
The Home Office also commissioned veteran Whitehall troubleshooter Dame Louise Casey to carry out a “rapid” review of the nature and scale of group-based child sexual abuse, and to draw up a framework for the local inquiries.
Casey had been due to release her report last month but has asked for a “short extension,” Cooper told MPs.
“We do need her audit to inform the next steps and decisions around the local inquiries,” she said.
In January, the national taskforce reported that there were 127 major police investigations underway on child sexual exploitation and gang grooming across 29 different police forces.