E-petition relating to collection and publication of child sexual offender data

The petition

The e-petition Mandatory collection and publication of certain child sexual offender data is being debated in Westminster Hall on 1 June 2026. The petition calls on the government to introduce a statutory requirement on councils, the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and other related institutions to “collect, record and publish the nationality, ethnicity, immigration status and religion of child sexual offenders, including gang based crime.”

The petition states that this data would “protect children and inform public policy” and “allow for better understanding of offender demographics, ensure transparency, and support targeted safeguarding strategies.” The petition also states that without this information “critical patterns may be missed, weakening efforts to prevent abuse and protect vulnerable children.”

The petition ran for six months and closed in January 2026. It received 260,974 signatures.

Government response

In its response to the petition, given on 5 December 2025, the government stated:

The Government is already taking action to increase the collection and transparency of data on the demographic characteristics of individuals responsible for group-based child sexual exploitation.

The government also outlined the action it is taking, including:

• accepting all the recommendations in Baroness Casey of Blackstock’s audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse, including making it a requirement for the police to collect the ethnicity and nationality data of individuals suspected of being members of grooming gangs or perpetrators of other group-based child sexual exploitation,
• writing to all Chief Constables in July 2025 to set out the “clear expectation that ethnicity data on child sexual exploitation and grooming gang suspects should be collected in every case”, and to urge them to make sure they are “fulfilling their obligation to collect suspect ethnicity data”,
• looking at how safeguarding agencies (including the police, local authorities, schools and health services) are “using information and intelligence to disrupt and prosecute those committing these terrible crimes and ensure victims and survivors are protected”, and
• working to “deepen our understanding of the drivers behind child grooming gangs and other group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse” and ensuring that “as many as possible of the perpetrators […] are investigated and brought to justice.”

The government stated that Baroness Casey did not recommend the collection of data on religion and immigration status of individuals suspected of being members of grooming gangs and that “there is no current mechanism to collect such data on religion, other than through any declaration made by the perpetrator themselves, which would weaken both the accuracy and comprehensiveness of any analysis based on that data.”

The government also stated that the Ministry of Justice “already includes data on the nationality of persons within the prison system in its quarterly offender management statistics” and that the Home Office has “committed to review the data that it collects and publishes regarding the nationalities and offences committed by foreign national offenders who are subject to deportation proceedings.”

Further details on government action Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

The Library’s The Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs briefing provides an overview of Baroness Casey of Blackstock’s National Audit on Group-based Child Exploitation and Abuse.

In January 2025, the government asked Baroness Casey of Blackstock to run a “rapid audit” on gang-based exploitation and report to the government on what further work was needed. Baroness Casey reported in June 2025, recommending that the government establish both a national police operation and a national inquiry into group-based child sexual exploitation, commonly referred to as ‘grooming gangs’.

Baroness Casey also recommended the “mandatory collection of ethnicity and nationality data for suspects in child sexual abuse and criminal cases, as well as improving the collection of ethnicity data for victims.”

Speaking about the need to collect ethnicity data, Baroness Casey wrote:

Our collective failure to address questions about the ethnicity of grooming gangs – has led to this issue dominating the political and institutional focus, with energy devoted to proving the point on one hand, or avoiding or playing it down on the other, and still with no definitive answer at the national level.

When we looked at data held in three local areas, there is evidence that men of Asian ethnicity are over-represented as perpetrators in group-based child sexual exploitation in those areas. Taken together with the significant number of prosecutions of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds evident in local reviews and prosecutions across the country, this should have, and indeed still does, warrant further examination.

[…]

The appalling lack of data on ethnicity in crime recording alone is a major failing over the last decade or more. Questions about ethnicity have been asked but dodged for years. Child sexual exploitation is horrendous whoever commits it, but there have been enough convictions across the country of groups of men from Asian ethnic backgrounds to have warranted closer examination.

Instead of examination, we have seen obfuscation. In a vacuum, incomplete and unreliable data is used to suit the ends of those presenting it. The system claims there is an overwhelming problem with White perpetrators when that can’t be proved. This does no one any favours at all, and least of all those in the Asian, Pakistani or Muslim communities who needlessly suffer as those with malicious intent use this obfuscation to sow and spread hatred.

The government accepted all of Baroness Casey’s recommendations. Details on how the government is implementing Baroness Casey’s recommendation for the mandatory collection of ethnicity and nationality data for suspects in child sexual abuse and criminal cases are provided below.

Formal requirement for ethnicity and nationality data to be recorded in all cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation

In June 2025, the then Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced that the government would “make it a formal requirement for the first time to collect both ethnicity and nationality data for all cases of child sexual abuse and exploitation.” Ms Cooper stated that this would “provide accurate information to help tackle serious crimes.”

In July 2025, Ms Cooper, wrote to all Chief Constables to set out the “clear expectation that ethnicity data on child sexual exploitation and grooming gang suspects should be collected in every case”, and to urge them to make sure they are “fulfilling their obligation to collect suspect ethnicity data”. The letter is not publicly available.

In September 2025, the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips, provided further details on the contents of the then Home Secretary’s letter to all Chief Constables. Ms Phillips stated that the then Home Secretary had told Chief Constables that the “current data collection across ethnicity and nationality is unacceptable, and that this data must be improved as a matter of urgency.”

The government’s violence against women and girls strategy, Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls, which was published in December 2025, stated that the government “intends to legislate to mandate collection of ethnicity data for suspects in future.” It also stated that the Home Office “continues to work closely” with the Child Sexual Exploitation Taskforce to “improve the collection of data.”

Policing White Paper

On 26 January 2026, the Home Office published a white paper on police reform, From local to national: a new model for policing. The Library briefing Policing in the UK: Current structures and proposals for reform provides an overview of the government’s planned changes to policing structures.

The white paper stated that the government will “work with policing to create a framework for mandating clear national data standards in a timely way, to improve how data is collected, recorded and used across England and Wales.”

The government states that the new framework “will provide the necessary statutory powers to ensure the delivery of Recommendation 4 of Baroness Casey’s National Audit into Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, which recommended that the collection of ethnicity data in such cases should be mandated.”

A timeframe for the introduction of this new framework has not yet been announced.