Correspondence

Letter from Baroness Casey to PM and Home Secretary

Published 10 December 2025

The Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer MP Prime Minister
10 Downing Street London
SW1A 2AA

The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP Secretary of State for the Home Department
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF

cc: Jess Phillips MP, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls

9 December 2025

Dear Prime Minister and Home Secretary,

On 6 June 2025 I submitted my National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in England and Wales (Grooming Gangs), which recommended a statutory National Inquiry on Grooming Gangs, which coordinates a series of targeted local investigations thereafter.

In October 2025, you, Prime Minister, announced I had agreed to support the work of the inquiry, including the appointment of a Chair and the development of Terms of Reference.

Since that time, I have worked closely with Home Office officials and the Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls on this task. I am grateful to them for their support throughout this period.

At all times during this process I have kept the intent behind my original recommendation at the forefront of my mind: that the Inquiry should be a very different approach to Professor Jay’s excellent and wide-ranging Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and other statutory inquiries; that is should be tightly focused on group-based child sexual exploitation committed by ‘grooming gangs’; that it must be time-limited and proportionate with close links to the national criminal investigation and a systematic approach to identifying areas; that it must hold individuals and statutory agencies to account for past failings; and that it must have statutory powers to compel attendance and evidence.

For these reasons, I believe that a model of having a single Inquiry Chair alone would not be sufficient as, to uncover the failings of statutory services, expertise will be required across policing, children’s services, local government more widely, and the criminal justice system. Getting to the truth will require those with inside experience, experts who know the system well enough not to be misled and who will not have the wool pulled over their eyes.

It was therefore my view that the model should include three experts, with one appointed as the Inquiry Chair alongside two Panellists appointed under the Inquiries Act 2025, with a track record of holding institutions and individuals to account.

Making sure that Inquiry has the right legal support in the form of legal counsel and an Inquiry solicitor will ensure the Inquiry has the appropriate legal expertise to compel attendance and evidence.

On this basis, I am very pleased to recommend to you that you appoint Baroness Anne Longfield CBE as Chair, with Zoë Billingham CBE and Eleanor Kelly CBE as Panellists under the Inquiries Act 2005.

Baroness Longfield has been a longstanding campaigner for the protection of children and has worked under Prime Ministers of different political parties. Her experience as Children’s Commissioner, under the previous administration, and leading children’s charities make her well positioned to be the Chair.

Zoë Billingham brings expertise in policing and the criminal justice system, having spent more than a decade holding policing to account as a highly respected HM Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, as well as a strong track record of leadership across a range of social issues.

Eleanor Kelly brings deep expertise in the inner workings of local government, having worked her way up from the most junior grades to lead two local authorities, and taking leadership roles in the aftermath of both the Grenfell Tower disaster and the London Bridge attack.

Appointing them will ensure you have a formidable team with the skills, expertise and tenacity to deliver the Inquiry and to earn and maintain the confidence and trust of victims and survivors. They have my full support and backing. Baroness Longfield has asked me to serve as an adviser to the Chair and Panel for as long as is necessary and I have of course agreed to do that.

When I carried out my Audit, it was with victims and survivors of these heinous crimes and criminals at the front of my mind, and it is essential they are at the forefront of the Inquiry’s approach. Survivors each have their own experiences and perspectives. Ultimately, the best way to deliver for them is to get to the truth and provide accountability and justice for those who have been failed for far too long. I am pleased to continue supporting this vital aim.

I will continue to work with the Home Office and other government departments on the delivery of all the recommendations of my Audit, including the national criminal investigation, improvements in the way these crimes are dealt with and, importantly, getting the agreed changes to our rape laws on the statute book so we finally make it abundantly clear that children of any age cannot consent to their own rape or abuse.

Thank you both for your support and for the work you have done to make these things happen.

With every good wish,

The Baroness Casey of Blackstock D.B.E. CB

Government Lead Non-Executive Director