22 October 2026
The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs has today announced further details of its National Accountability Hearings.
The opening phases of the National Accountability Hearings will take place in London during the weeks of 14 December 2026 and 11 January 2027, with further hearings planned for March and April 2027. The opening phase of the hearings will focus on the experiences and perspectives of victims and survivors.
The National Accountability Hearings will build on Baroness Louise Casey’s 2025 National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and examine why lessons identified through previous inquiries, reviews, inspections and investigations too often failed to result in meaningful change. They will require organisations and institutions to explain what action they took to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse, what progress was made, and why recommendations did not deliver the improvements that were promised.