A Metropolitan Police spokesperson added: “Any sexual offending against children is abhorrent but group-based offending, often characterised as ‘grooming gangs’, is particularly insidious and devastating in its profound impact on the children affected. 

“The Met takes all allegations or concerns about child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation incredibly seriously and always investigates, following the evidence without fear or favour.

“Since 2022, there have been significant improvements to how the Met identifies and investigates group-based offending, including training for 11,000 frontline officers and the expansion of our child exploitation teams. In the last year we have solved three times more cases of child sexual exploitation – representing 134 more suspects charged.

“As part of the national reinvestigation into group-based child sexual exploitation recommended by Baroness Casey, we are currently undertaking a review of approximately 9,000 cases covering a 15-year period. In line with the IICSA definition, these include many cases of such as intra-familial, peer-on-peer and in institutional settings, along with those which do not fit the common understanding of a ‘grooming gang’. 

“Our commitment to safeguarding all victims of such terrible offences and bringing those responsible to justice is absolute.”

The Express has chosen to publish Sir Mark’s letter in full below.

Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley’s letter in full

Dear Sadiq,

I am writing to respond to the questions you have raised and the matters on which you have sought clarification concerning Child Sexual Exploitation. As you know from our regulardiscussions over the last three years, public protection has been a key area of focus as we have delivered New Met for London. Any sexual offending against children is abhorrent but group-based offending, including that characterised as ‘Grooming Gangs’, is particularly insidious and devasting [sic] in its profound impact on the children affected.

We know that, historically and across the UK, the cases of these child victims have not always been recognised and thoroughly investigated. Too often, victims have been disbelieved and even judged at times. The Met is committed to safeguarding all victims of these terrible offences and wherever possible bringing those responsible to justice.

Baroness Casey’s review into Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation which was published earlier this year has rightly placed a spotlight on how policing nationally, and other partners,have responded to such offending historically. As you know, this was already a priority for us following HMICFRS’s review of our work in this area in 2022/23 which led to sustainedimprovements in our approach. Given the ongoing public concern about these issues, I wanted to share an update on how the Met is tackling current cases of child sexual exploitation, as well as our role, as part of the national policing and law enforcement response, in progressing Baroness Casey’s recommendations for a national criminal investigation.

Current cases

The Met investigates all allegations or concerns about Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE), and we will follow the evidence without fear or favour. Across the Met we have had 716 CSE (involving lone or multiple offenders) and 654 CCE cases reported since the beginning of the financial year (April 2025). Over that same period the MPS recorded approximately 14,500 sexual offences in total against both adults and children. We have seen an increase in CSE identification over the past year as a result of our improvement work. It is important to note we often see significant crossover between sexual exploitation of children, and the criminal exploitation of young people.

Progress made to date

Over the past two years we have made significant improvements in how we track child sexual abuse and exploitation allegations and concerns to identify any group-based element. We take a partnership approach to all cases working with the NCA, CPS, Local Authorities, Children’s Social Care, Health and Education. This approach is underpinned by a framework that ensures concerns are recorded and managed even where information is incomplete, enabling safeguarding and intelligence-led investigation.

In the last 6 months, we have solved three times the number of cases of Child Sexual Exploitation compared with the same period last year (from 63 to 207 suspects charged – againa mix of lone and multi-offender cases). This improvement is a direct result of the commitments we made in New Met for London.

So far, we have:• Trained over 11,000 frontline officers to identify all forms of child exploitation, leading to a sustained increase in the identification and recording of child exploitation investigations, not limited to CSE but across the board.• Uplifted our Child Exploitation Teams by 72 officers and provided specialist training to 1200 detective constables in the identification of exploitation and trauma-informed practice.• Introduced new terms of reference for our Child Exploitation Teams with an enhanced focus on perpetrator identification and disruption.• Published and begun delivery of our Children’s Strategy which embeds a Child First approach in how we both police and serve London’s children, including training for 23,000 officers and staff by independent experts on the risks of adultification and victim-blaming, and how to avoid these.

National Re-Investigation

As you know Baroness Casey recommended a national re-investigation into unsolved Child Sexual Exploitation, this will be overseen by the National Crime Agency and the National PoliceChief’s Council. This is a significant undertaking, but one that the Met is committed to playing its part. The exact scope of this national operation is still to be finalised; I have set out below our understanding of the scope of this work. This is subject to change based on the final terms of reference which will be confirmed by the NCA and NPCC.

The first stage of this work is for each police service to identify any group-based case where there has been a sexual offence against a child involving two or more suspects and at least one victim which has resulted in no further action by either the police or CPS. This national definition is drawn from the IICSA definition. The definition applies to a range of settings including organised CSE, gang- related CSE, intrafamilial abuse, institutional abuse (e.g. schools, care homes), peer-on-peer abuse and single incidents with more than one suspect. IICSA and law enforcement use this much wider definition to ensure we do not miss child sexual exploitation cases which may not be captured by a narrower definition. We are aware public and media commentary focuses on a narrower definition when they refer to ‘grooming gangs’ and their victims.

Based on the wider definition, the Met is undertaking an assessment of all such offences over the past 15 years, alongside all other forces. The current criteria will require us to re-assessapproximately 9,000 investigations over the period, approximately 600 per year, to identify whether there are any potential missed or new investigative lines of enquiry or extant risks,including any safeguarding requirements or opportunities to bring offenders to justice. Recent reports in the Evening Standard and other media of historic group-based offending will bereviewed as part of this work. The initial assessments will be completed by April 2026.

The Met currently has 26 public protection officers dedicated to the initial assessments phase. We expect to have to increase the size of these teams as we move from assessment intoreinvestigation. We will also have to consider carefully how we resource this, as these reinvestigations will require a very specific skill set; drawing officers from Child Exploitation,Child Abuse Investigation and Rape and Serious Sexual Offences teams in to support this effort. There are only a limited number of officers with the skills and experience to do this work. The reality of this means taking resources away from current investigations and, as per Baroness Casey’s recommendations, will require significant Government funding to sustain withoutdamage to current investigations.

Balancing current caseloads, and the reopening of non-recent investigations without impacting on our service to victims of crime today, will be extremely challenging even with additionalfunding, and this is something we are giving careful thought to. As Baroness Casey also highlighted in her report there are limitations to what policing knows about this crime type. Thereis likely to be underreporting of group based CSE and we continue to have data limitations on suspect demographics, especially their ethnicity. Based on the data we do have, we seesuspects who are broadly reflective of London’s population, but improving our data quality is a continued focus so that we can be transparent with Londoners.

I will continue to keep you updated as we progress this work. I would also value MOPAC considering whether it is able commission [sic] specific victim support and navigation services as we embark on this important work.

Sir Mark Rowley QPMCommissioner