Keir Starmer’s national grooming gangs inquiry has stalled amid wrangles over its remit and difficulties in finding a senior legal figure willing to become its chair, the Guardian has been told.
Terms of the statutory investigation are still being discussed by a panel of stakeholders including survivors of abuse rings, four months after the prime minister bowed to pressure and set it up.
The search for a chair of the panel is still to be completed, the Home Office has confirmed. Judges and lawyers appear to be reluctant to head the inquiry, a source said.
Officials are said to be working to appoint a chair who will then play a central role in shaping the terms and scope of the inquiry and identify a first area for review.
Starmer previously resisted pressure for a new national inquiry into grooming gangs, and said earlier this year such a move would delay justice for victims and had already been examined in the seven-year independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) led by Prof Alexis Jay.
But after a three-month audit by Dame Louise Casey, and pressure from survivors and Elon Musk, the government launched a national inquiry in June.
A dedicated panel of survivors and stakeholders has been set up to contribute to the selection of a chair and set the inquiry’s terms.
There have been disagreements on the panel over whether to include cases of child sexual exploitation and abuse committed by those other than street-based grooming gangs, sources said.
There have also been rows over suggestions to expand the inquiry to include other types of sexual abuse such as child sexual exploitation and abuse and widen the remit to examine sexual abuse across whole regions, it is understood.
A source said: “We could end up with another sprawling inquiry like IICSA’s seven-year investigation, which was too vague.”
Survivors are also to be consulted over a possible chair, but officials have struggled to find suitable candidates to put before them.
Senior legal figures have turned down informal approaches about chairing the new inquiry – a sign that the government may be finding it hard to find a suitable candidate to cover a politically sensitive subject.
Grooming gangs remains a “toxic issue” because chairs will have to explore why men of Pakistani origin have dominated many of the abuse rings, a source said.
Some will have been put off by the intense media scrutiny of chairs of the IICSA inquiry, which was set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal.
The first two IICSA chairs, Lady Butler-Sloss and Fiona Woolf, stepped down after perceived closeness to individuals under investigation. A third chair, Dame Lowell Goddard, resigned after concerns about her conduct were raised with the Home Office. All denied any wrongdoing.
Richard Scorer, head of abuse law and public inquiries at Slater and Gordon, who represented the largest single group at the IICSA inquiry and now represents about 30 grooming gang victims, said he was not surprised that the inquiry was struggling to find a chair.
“Serious candidates may not wish to stand given that none of the recommendations of IICSA have yet [been] implemented.
“It is difficult to find senior people willing to sacrifice several years of their life on a controversial inquiry if there is no assurance that any of it will be implemented properly.
“The problem with the IICSA grooming gangs investigation was that it was nothing like thorough enough, it was too superficial and took very little evidence from victims. So no one who is being tapped up as a possible chair of this inquiry will want to repeat that mistake,” he said.
Ministers came under pressure over grooming gangs in January after Musk spotlighted the government’s decision to refuse Oldham council’s request for a second national inquiry. The US billionaire’s flurry of tweets on the subject brought the scandal back into public consciousness.
Jess Phillips, the home office minister, told MPs last month that the appointment of a chair was in its “final stages” and that a panel of survivors and victims would be part of the final approval.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The abuse of children by grooming gangs is one of the most horrific crimes imaginable.
“We will do everything in our power to ensure these crimes never happen again.
“That is why we have launched a statutory inquiry – equipped with the powers and resources required to get to the truth and deliver justice to the survivors.
“We are working urgently to appoint the best chair to take forward this work, to get to the truth and deliver justice to the survivors.”
