Sunak to finally set out grooming gangs task force plans

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will announce plans for a police taskforce to assist officers in combating grooming gangs later.

According to the government, specialist officers will be dispatched to assist local law enforcement with their investigations.

It also promised improved ethnicity data to ensure that abusers “cannot evade justice due to cultural sensitivities.”

Labour claimed that it called for more police specialist teams nearly a decade ago, but the government “failed to act.”

Mr Sunak will be in Leeds and Greater Manchester on Monday to meet with victims and local police to mark the taskforce’s official launch.

“The safety of women and girls is paramount,” he said.

“For too long, political correctness has stopped us from weeding out vile criminals who prey on children and young women.

“We will stop at nothing to stamp out these dangerous gangs.”

Downing Street also stated that legislation will be introduced to make membership in a grooming gang an aggravating factor during sentencing.

It also stated that improved data on perpetrator ethnicity would be used to help ensure suspects “cannot hide behind cultural sensitivities as a way to evade justice.”

However, Sabah Kaiser, the ethnic minority ambassador to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), warned that making child sexual abuse “a matter of colour” was “very, very dangerous.”

“Child sexual abuse does not have a skin colour, a religion, or a culture,” she said, “Child sexual abuse does not discriminate.”

The NSPCC’s chief executive, Sir Peter Wanless, stated that it is “critical that by raising an issue such as race, we do not create other blind spots.”

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He stated: “Because there are undoubtedly many predators who prey on vulnerable children from various cultural backgrounds.

“And there are many victims who are not white girls who deserve to be heard and supported.

It comes after the government announced that anyone who works with children in England will be required by law to report child sexual abuse or face prosecution.