Scottish grooming gangs inquiry to start next week

She said the Scottish and UK inquiries would “complement and not replicate” the work of each.

The inquiry will consider action to improve the response to child abuse while the inquiry is ongoing, not wait for its final recommendations.

The Scottish government ordered a public inquiry into group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation in February, eight months after a similar inquiry was announced in England and Wales.

The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs in England and Wales was announced by former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in June 2025 and started work in April.

It faced problems before launching, when abuse survivors called on former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to quit amid claims that the government was seeking to widen the scope of the inquiry to other forms of child abuse.

A national review, published in September, found a lack of data meant there was no reliable national picture of the scale of grooming gang offending in Scotland.

That review was also overseen by Jay, who is a child sexual abuse expert.

In 2014, she led an independent investigation into child sexual abuse in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

Her initial report, published 2014, identified that at least 1,400 children had been sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013 – and led to a series of investigations into how South Yorkshire Police had responded to complaints of child sexual abuse.