The British Home Office has released the first volume of its investigation into the police handling of the Rotherham sexual abuse scandal. The report concluded that the Home Office's own methodologies in dealing with the abuse were sufficient but instead recommended that law enforcement should in future place greater emphasis on abuse allegations and to include it and other government departments when investigating them.
"If an allegation of child abuse is made it must be recorded and the file marked as significant. That significance should then inform the Home Office as to how to handle that file, its retention and the need to document when [if at all] it is destroyed. This approach is relevant, not only to the Home Office, but could usefully be adopted across Government as well," the reports authors stated in their recommendations.
The extent of child grooming and sexual abuse centred in the northern English town of Rotherham came to light in 2015 and revealed the victimisation of at least 1,400 girls between 1997 and 2013. Police and the UK media came under severe criticism for insufficient coverage and investigation of the crimes due to alleged fears of accusations of racism, given the Asian backgrounds of most of the perpetrators.