Safeguarding officials reject abuse inquiry calls
BBCA public inquiry examining child sex abuse in Bradford is "unlikely to provide us with any new learning", according to a safeguarding partnership.
Conservative MP Robbie Moore told the Commons on Monday that "rape gangs" and the grooming of children had "haunted" the district for decades.
But Phillipa Hubbard of the Bradford District Safeguarding Children Partnership said an independent review was published in 2021 so "all the agencies in our district who work with children can implement the learning from past cases".
Mr Moore described not holding an inquiry "is a complete and utter dereliction of duty".
The comments came as the Conservatives and Reform UK called for a national inquiry into grooming gangs after the subject came under the spotlight, in part due to interventions on social media from Elon Musk.
The Labour government has rejected calls for a new inquiry, saying it would enact the reforms set out by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) which was published in 2022.
During his remarks in the Commons, Moore said the scale of child sexual abuse and exploitation across the Bradford district was feared to "dwarf that of Rotherham".
In 2014, a report by Prof Alexis Jay described how more than 1,400 children were sexually exploited by gangs of men in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.
Ms Hubbard said a public inquiry into abuse in Bradford "would cost a huge amount of money, use precious officer time and is unlikely to provide us with any new learning that would better protect children from being abused."
She added: "Like many local authorities up and down the country, we know that agencies in our district have made mistakes in the past.
"This is why we commissioned an independent review into child sexual exploitation which was published in 2021 so that all the agencies in our district who work with children can implement the learning from past cases."
Ms Hubbard said the review by an independent author was "extremely detailed and thorough" and looked "in-depth at local and national learning and best practice".
She said: "In addition to the review, our multi-agency safeguarding team undergoes regular independent scrutiny from Ofsted and the partnership also publishes an annual report, which anyone can read and which is open to public scrutiny.
"All the local agencies who are working in our district to keep children safe are committed to continued development and improvement."
In response, Moore said: "Bradford Council spent over £40m of public money on an empty music venue, but say a rape gangs inquiry would be too expensive.
"The idea that a Bradford inquiry would bring about no new information is an outright falsehood and I am completely shocked by these comments."
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