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Hello, I'm Sean Curran, and this is yesterday in Parliament from BBC Radio 4.

On Tuesday, the 2nd of September, the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips,

told MPs that a new national inquiry into grooming gangs

would have survivors and victims at its heart.

But the Conservatives accused the government of making almost no progress on the investigation.

Having long resisted calls for an inquiry, the Prime Minister changed tack in June,

following a report from the Whitehall troubleshooter Louise Casey,

who'd been asked to look into the scale of group-based child sexual abuse in England and Wales.

Updating MPs, the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips, said the government had laid the foundations

for a robust inquiry and set up a new national policing operation. She said police forces had been asked

to identify cases involving grooming and child sexual exploitation that had been closed with no

further action. As a result of that commission, 1,273 cases have now been identified for formal review.

And with the new national operation has identified 216 highest priority cases that are those

involving an allegation of rape, which are being accelerated as a matter of urgency.

The minister said before the new National Inquiry could start work, it needed terms of

reference and someone to lead it.

Following a recruitment process over the summer, Home Office officials, the Home Secretary

and I have met with prospective candidates for the chair of the inquiry, and we are now in

the final stages of that appointment process.

And she said a panel of victims and survivors would help select the chair of the inquiry.

But the Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp was unimpressed.

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