Home Affairs Committee chair Dame Karen Bradley has raised concerns over Whitehall delays in demanding councils preserve records related to grooming gangs.
The Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs began this week, with chair Baroness Anne Longfield outlining its scope and approach.
Baroness Longfield had told then Cabinet Secretary Sir Chris Wormald on 9 December it was ‘vital' that councils were ‘made aware of the need for full transparency and cooperation with the inquiry and will be ready to meet their legal obligations to provide relevant records, information and data to the inquiry as it is requested'.
Baroness Longfield wrote: ‘This includes ensuring that no material of potential relevance to the inquiry is destroyed – including emails, text or WhatsApp messages and other communications.'
However, it has now emerged that it was not until 26 February – 11 weeks later – that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government forwarded Baroness Longfield's letter to council chief executives, apologising for the delay.
Dame Karen said the ‘failure to provide timely direction to local authorities about the need to retain relevant documents means that some records that may be relevant to the Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs might have been destroyed'.
