Grooming
gangs whistleblower pursues judicial review over failure by government to
implement recommendations of independent inquiry
03.Mar.2026
The High
Court is this week (5 February) to hear an application brought by a charity,
the Maggie Oliver Foundation, for permission to bring a judicial review against
the Government over its “failure to implement” the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into
Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
The
inquiry, chaired by Alexis Jay, was launched to examine how public and private
institutions had failed to protect children from sexual abuse.
Concluding
in 2022, its final report recommended 20 major reforms to child protection in
England and Wales.
However,
the Maggie Oliver Foundation claims that despite “repeated public commitments”,
successive governments have yet to implement many of the recommendations, more
than three years later.
The
charity said: “Key recommendations that remain unimplemented include the
introduction of national standards for collecting data on perpetrators of child
abuse, including ethnicity, religion and occupation; ensuring that children in
care have the same access to justice as other children; and ending the use of
pain inducing restraint on children in custody, a practice described in the
IICSA report as ‘amounting to torture’.”
In
January 2025, following receipt of a formal letter from the charity warning of
legal action, the Home Secretary committed to setting out a timeline for
implementing of all of IICSA’s recommendations.
However,
Ms Oliver, who set up the Maggie Oliver Foundation after leaving Greater
Manchester Police, where she was a whistleblower about the force’s inaction
over grooming gangs, said this commitment has “not been honoured”.
On 5
March, the Court will consider whether the charity’s case should be allowed to
proceed to a full judicial review hearing.
Maggie
Oliver said: “Based on the Government’s own figures, over 1.5 million children
have been sexually abused since the IICSA made its recommendations in October
2022. I was repeatedly sexually abused. The authorities and police turned a
blind eye. I do not want other girls or children going through what I went
through. I simply cannot understand why the Government will not act to prevent
the abuse of children.
“[…] The
Government has promised another national inquiry, this time focused on
so-called ‘grooming gangs’. Survivors have every right to be heard, but why
launch another inquiry when the recommendations of the last one remain
unimplemented? After years of testimony and hundreds of millions of pounds
spent, survivors should not be asked to relive their most traumatic experiences
only to see no meaningful action follow.
“Our
charity has been deeply involved in the wider work to tackle child sexual
abuse. I have long campaigned for proper national data collection, including on
the ethnicity of perpetrators, because without reliable evidence these crimes
cannot be properly understood or prevented. I introduced survivors to Baroness
Casey during her national audit, which again underlined the importance of
implementing IICSA’s recommendations before moving forward.”
She
added: “Alongside this fight to see implementation of IICSA’s recommendations,
we are campaigning to ensure any new inquiry is shaped in the best interests of
survivors, with meaningful survivor input into its terms of reference and a
clear commitment that its findings will lead to action.”
The
Department for Education has been approached for comment.
Lottie
Winson
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