What has the UK government done so far?

Ministers are facing growing calls for a national inquiry into gang activity in cities across the UK, after Elon Musk reopened the decades-old scandal.

However, the 2022 intensive study has created a blueprint for how to solve the problem.

“We have had enough questions, discussions and debates,” report author Professor Alexis Jay said on Tuesday. “We have explained what action is required and people should continue with it.”

What should be done?

Jay’s report into child sexual abuse made a total of 20 recommendations, calling on the then Conservative government to announce what action it had taken within six months.

These included the introduction of legislation requiring professionals to report allegations of child sexual abuse to relevant authorities.

The inquiry also calls for the creation of a national reparation plan to provide compensation to victims, and the creation of a Child Protection Authority with the power to investigate any institution involving children.

Many of the proposed changes have yet to materialize, either because they were not implemented or because last year’s general election stalled the laws going through Parliament.

What has happened?

A key recommendation was for stronger age verification on websites, as well as mandatory online screening for child pornography.

Although the previous government brought in the Internet Safety Act 2023, which expected social media platforms to enforce age limits and age screening, it did not include pre-screening for images of child and adolescent sex. This law became the Internet Security Act, which will take full effect this year.

A major recommendation of Jay’s review was that people who work with children face criminal penalties if they fail to report allegations of sexual abuse. On Monday, home secretary Yvette Cooper promised this would feature in the upcoming Crime and Policing Bill.

He also said that the government will enact a law to make pride an aggravating factor for child sexual offenses.

Downing Street stressed that plans were already underway to bring these changes into law before the issue was raised by Musk last week.

“We are working fast to follow all the recommendations,” it said. “These proposals were made in 2022 and were not made by the previous government, this government has already started working on the recommendations.”

What hasn’t happened yet?

However, many recommendations have not yet been implemented. These include ending the three-year cap for victims of sexual assault to make an injury claim; a national financial compensation scheme for victims; and changes to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme.

After Jay’s review came out, the previous Conservative government promised to discuss the measures, but did not put them into law.

The report also calls for medical support for victims, something that has not been implemented.

The expansion of the framework that prevents certain people from working with children, and the expansion of children overseas, has also not been done.

It has also been proposed to appoint a dedicated cabinet minister for children, although the Tory and current Labor governments have said the responsibility now rests with the education secretary.

What happens next?

On Wednesday, the opposition Conservative party will seek to increase pressure on the government by trying to force a vote in the House of Commons on a new inquiry into the grooming scandal.

The Tories have introduced a “considered amendment” to the Child Welfare and Schools Bill which calls for a full national inquiry.

They argued that Jay’s report examined only six cities – while clean-up teams were active in more than 40 cities in the past – and accused the government of “obstructing a full national investigation”.

But Minister for Victims Alex Davies-Jones said Jay had already completed a thorough report with evidence from more than 700 victims.

He added: “If, once those (Jay’s) recommendations are implemented, there is more work to be done, we will certainly do that work.”

What about charges and convictions?

In 2014, the UK launched Operation Stovewood, described as “the single largest law enforcement investigation into abuse and exploitation of non-familial children in the UK”.

As many as 39 people have been convicted, according to the National Crime Agency, and jailed for a total of nearly 500 years.

Ten trials are listed for this year and 2026, and there have been more than 40 ongoing investigations, according to the NCA. More than 220 people have been arrested or voluntarily joined the police.

Two brothers will be sentenced in Sheffield next week after being charged last month with raping girls 18 years ago, abusing the young victims with drugs and alcohol before attracted to the places where they attacked them.

In October, three brothers were found guilty of sexually abusing children in Barrow and Leeds between 1996 and 2010. The girls who were abused by the two brothers were as young as six or seven when the abuse began, and lasted several years, according to the Crown. Prosecution Service.

Sentences last year also included a former limousine driver who the CPS said “groomed and molested” young girls in the Rotherham area between 2005 and 2015. The man was jailed for 24 years after ‘a to be found guilty of several. sexual offenses against eight girls, aged between 12 and 17 at the time.