A specialist child abuse policing team has now made over 1,000 arrests, the Home Office said.
The CSE Taskforce, established after a GB News investigation, made 597 arrests in the last nine months of 2024.
Fresh data released by Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips has shown that the taskforce has surpassed, in that nine month period, what it had achieved in its first full year of its operation.
Phillips said that 4,228 group-based offences were identified by the CSE Taskforce, of which 1,125 were family abuse.
A specialist child abuse policing team has now made over 1,000 arrests, the Home Office said
GB News/ Getty
The minister said that 717 were sexual exploitation cases. In a troubling trend, the Home Office data said that there was a rise in the number of recorded cases where the perpetrators are under 18.
Last year, it was announced that the taskforce had made 550 arrests from April 2023 and had protected some 4,000 victims.
Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman MP, who launched the force in April 2023 under the Rishi Sunak administration, told GB News: “As Home Secretary I established and was the driving force behind setting up the CSE task force.
“To see 600 arrests have been made by the Task Force in the last nine months of 2024 shows that these vile gangs have no place to hide. You will be caught.
“This means over 1,000 arrests have now been made by the task force I established.
“The systematic rape of young vulnerable British girls by Islamic grooming groups and the subsequent cover up across the country is the biggest stain in our nations history. It is a national disgrace that must never be repeated.
“I’d like to congratulate everyone who has continued with this Taskforce. There is still a huge amount to do: the work must continue urgently.”
Braverman launched the force after GB News revealed that grooming abuse gangs had been identified or prosecuted in at least 50 different towns and cities across the country.
The fresh arrest data comes as Phillips gave a wide-ranging update on the government's approach to tackling the grooming gangs scandal.
She announced that a new Child Protection Authority will be established to improve national oversight and consistency of child protection practice.
In January, it was announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper that there would be five local inquiries into the gangs.
But today Phillips said that the £5m fund for inquiries will now become a “flexible” pot of money to support “locally-led work on grooming gangs.”
Katie Lam MP, Shadow Home Office Minister, said: “Children across Britain have been sexually tortured by gangs of men. We must confront the reality of these crimes and how so many people in positions of power let them go on so long.
“Local inquiries are not good enough — they can’t compel witnesses, they can’t look at themes across the country, and they can’t address national issues like deportation.
“Now the Government is watering them down even further. We won’t let them get away with it.”
Jess Phillips, Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, said: “It is paramount we do more to protect vulnerable children from the horrors of child sexual abuse and exploitation.
“Today, we have set out the next steps in our work to address the issues raised in Alexis Jay’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
“This will put victims at the heart of the government’s work to combat child sexual abuse by creating a Child Protection Authority, providing national leadership and learning on child protection and safeguarding.
“And we must address the harsh reality that the majority of child sexual abuse continues to be perpetrated within families.
That is why we are making sure the next Joint Targeted Area Inspection is on child sexual abuse in the family environment.
“We will also expand therapeutic support for victims and survivors, doubling Home Office funding for support services for adults who were subjected to this form of vile abuse as children. This will provide access to the help they need to recover and rebuild their lives.
“With today’s updates, and the measures and funding we have already announced, we will protect more children, find more criminals, and deliver support and justice for more victims and survivors. We are adopting a whole of government approach, built on consultation with victims and survivors, experts, local authorities, police, and other stakeholders.
“But this is not the end point; it is just the beginning. We will continue to drive forward reforms to protect more children from abhorrent abuse and support more adult survivors of these traumatic crimes.”
