Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, published in June 2025, what progress she has made on implementing recommendation 4.

The government has committed to make it a requirement for the police to collect ethnicity and nationality data of perpetrators of group-based child sexual exploitation. This data is vital in enabling us to develop the most accurate and robust picture of the nature of this offending.

In July this year, the former Home Secretary wrote to all Chief Constables to set out the clear expectation that ethnicity data on grooming gang suspects should be collected in every case, and to urge them to make sure they are fulfilling their obligation to collect suspect ethnicity data as part of the government's commitment to transparency and accountability. The Home Office is closely monitoring data collection and provision from forces, and continues to engage with individual forces on where improvements are required.

If we do not see improvements, we will not hesitate to put this requirement into legislation.