A former children’s commissioner will chair the national inquiry into grooming gangs after months of delays.Baroness Anne Longfield will lead the inquiry over three years with a budget of £65 million.Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood set out the appointment and the inquiry’s terms of reference in the Commons on Tuesday.Of her appointment, Baroness Longfield said: “The Inquiry owes it to the victims, survivors and the wider public to identify the truth, address past failings and ensure that children and young people today are protected in a way that others were not.“The Inquiry will follow the evidence and will not shy away from difficult or uncomfortable truths wherever we find them.”There has been mounting pressure on the Government to move forward with the inquiry, first announced by the Prime Minister in June.In October, the final two candidates to chair the inquiry dropped out of the process which led to concerns it could take months to get someone in post.Five women also resigned from the inquiry’s victim liaison panel in a row over the scope of the probe being potentially widened.The inquiry follows a recommendation made by Baroness Louise Casey in her rapid audit looking at the scale of grooming gangs across the country.Baroness Longfield served as children’s commissioner from 2015 to 2021 and last year founded the Centre for Young Lives think tank aimed at improving the lives of children and families.She was made a Labour peer for her work devoted to children’s rights earlier this year, and she will step down from the party as she carries out the inquiry’s work, Ms Mahmood said.
