Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on how many (a) police officers, (b) officials of local authorities and (c) social workers (i) lost their jobs, (ii) faced legal proceedings and (iii) suffered other punitive measures due to having knowledge of Pakistani heritage grooming gangs and not taking action.

I refer the Rt Hon Member to the Home Secretary's statement made on 16 January 2025, in which she announced the appointment of Baroness Louise Casey to lead a rapid three-month audit into these issues. The audit will examine all the currently available data and evidence to help us to better understand the nature, scale and profile of group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation being dealt with by police forces in the UK today, including ethnicity; to identify gaps in existing knowledge; and to make recommendations that can then be applied at local level.