Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced that the government will fund several inquiries into grooming gangs.
Outlining the new plan, Ms Cooper said the government would fund five local inquiries into child sexual exploitation as part of a pilot, which could then be rolled out to other areas.
She added: “We will provide stronger national backing for local inquiries where they are needed, to get truth and justice for victims and survivors.”
The Home Secretary announced £10 million of additional funding to tackle grooming gangs and better support victims.
Police forces will also be ordered to reopen some historic grooming cases and there will be tougher sentences for child grooming, making it an “aggravating factor” to organise abuse and exploitation.
Ms Cooper told MPs: “The most important task should be to increase police investigations into these horrific crimes and get abusers behind bars.”
There will also be a three-month “rapid audit” into child sexual exploitation, led by Baroness Louise Casey.
An “Easter 2025” deadline to lay out a timetable in which they will act on the recommendations from a 2022 inquiry has been set.
The local pilot inquiries will be supported by Tom Crowther KC, who chaired the council-led inquiry into grooming gangs in Telford in 2022.
The move comes after Labour MPs Dan Carden, Sarah Champion and Paul Waugh publicly expressed support for a national inquiry.
Andy Burnham and former MP Harriet Harman also joined the calls, saying they would support a limited new inquiry.
The announcement is in line with a five-point plan written by Sarah Champion which called for “the Home Office to mandate local inquiries around the country to hold authorities to account – which then report back to the government”.
Part of the reasoning for demanding such inquiries was so they could summon witnesses to give evidence, in order to “satisfy the public concern of cover-ups”.
It’s unclear whether the government announcement will include such powers.
Rotherham MP Ms Champion has campaigned to tackle child sexual exploitation and violence against women and girls throughout her career in politics.
So far, the government has resisted calls to hold a national inquiry.
The debate around tackling grooming gangs was thrust into the spotlight after Elon Musk attacked Sir Keir Starmer and his government, accusing them of being “complicit” in the scandal.
The Conservatives and Reform UK responded to Mr Musk’s outbursts by calling for a national inquiry.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch tried to force a vote on the issue but the amendment to a Labour bill on safeguarding children was defeated.
Responding to the new announcement, Ms Badenoch said:
“I don’t think that local inquiries are enough.”
The PM hit out at the Tories for not acting on the recommendations of the 2022 inquiry, insisting “they’ve been tweeting and talking, we’ve been acting”.