This afternoon the Home Office announced it will publish a paper looking into group-based child sexual exploitation, in order to better understand the characteristics of group-based offending and help deliver justice for victims. Priti Patel’s department will set up an external reference group of experts to review the research before its publication. Coincidentally, 27 boys and men were arrested in Bradford today in connection with online child sexual exploitation…

This paper will be in addition to the new cross-government Child Sexual Abuse Strategy, set to be published in the coming weeks.

Describing grooming gang victims as having been “let down by the state in the name of political correctness”, Priti Patel described the treatment of these children as “shameful” and “one of the biggest stains on our country’s conscience”. In announcing the paper, she said that she is “determined to deliver justice for victims and ensure something like this can never happen again.” About time…