Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2025, to Question 21677 on Offences against Children, what funding is being made available to support council-led local inquiries.

In January, the Home Secretary announced to Parliament a raft of measures and an investment of £10 million that will allow us to protect more victims and survivors and drive change at a local level.

This includes appointing Baroness Louise Casey to oversee an audit to improve our understanding of the scale, nature and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse at a national and local level, and to make recommendations on what additional action is needed to improve our response.

We will provide stronger support for local areas which are interested in undertaking work to better understand local grooming gang issues and improve their own local responses going forward. £5 million has been made available to support this work.