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Utopia Talk / Politics / Cucked UK: grooming gang report censored
Rugian
Member
Sat Feb 22 13:53:13
Grooming gang review kept secret as Home Office claims releasing findings ‘not in public interest’

Exclusive: Freedom of Information request refused so ministers have ‘safe space’ to discuss policy

Lizzie Dearden
Home Affairs Correspondent @lizziedearden
22 hours ago

The government is refusing to release official research on the characteristics of grooming gangs, claiming it is not in the “public interest”.

Survivors accused ministers of making “empty promises”, while a man who prosecuted abusers in Rochdale called for the Home Office to “show some courage and publish” its findings.

It comes after The Independent revealed that almost 19,000 suspected child sexual exploitation victims were identified by local authorities in just one year, sparking renewed calls for prevention efforts.

Sajid Javid promised the review as home secretary in July 2018, pledging that there would be “no no-go areas of inquiry”.

“I will not let cultural or political sensitivities get in the way of understanding the problem and doing something about it,” he said at the time.

“We know that in these recent high profile cases, where people convicted have been disproportionately from a Pakistani background.

“I’ve instructed my officials to explore the particular contexts and characteristics of these types of gangs.”

But the government has made no further announcements on the review following Mr Javid’s move to the Treasury last year. It has, however, said it will soon publish a national strategy that will set out a “whole system response to all forms of child sexual abuse”.

In December, The Independent was told that the work had been completed but would only be used for internal policy-making and would not be publicly released.

In response to a freedom of information (FOI) request asking for the research carried out and any reports drawn up as a result, the Home Office confirmed it held the information but would not release it.

In a letter to The Independent, officials said they had applied a “public interest test” but the information was exempt from the act because it concerned the development of government policy.

“One of the main purposes of the exemption is to protect the ‘safe space’ necessary for ministers and officials to consider policy options in private without risk of premature disclosure,” it added.

“Disclosure would risk pre-empting decisions still to be made by ministers. In addition, the information could be misleading if made public and used out of context.”

The Home Office’s FOI unit said the documents also included “operationally sensitive” information from police and could prejudice ongoing investigations.

The letter added: “We recognise that this topic in general and any insight and learning are matters of strong public interest, although it does not necessarily follow that it is in the public interest to disclose any specific information relating to it.”

Sammy Woodhouse, a Rotherham victim who helped expose the scandal, told The Independent she believed the research was going to be made public.

“I always got the impression they were going to do a full report and get something official,” she said.

“A lot of people were backing it, it’s ridiculous they’re not releasing it.

“We keep hearing ‘we’re going to do this and that’, and when it actually comes to it there’s nothing. It’s empty promises all the time.”

Another woman, who was also sexually abused by a grooming gang in Rotherham and wanted to remain anonymous, said she was “disappointed and frustrated” by the decision not to release the report.

“The government’s repeated failure to acknowledge the role of racism and religious bigotry in grooming gang crime has led to inadequate investigation, protection and prosecution,” she said.

“Prevention of future grooming gang crime can only come through counter-narrative sex and relationships education.”

The woman is campaigning for changes to hate crime guidance and the creation of a parliamentary committee to examine gender-based violence linked to faith and belief.

A former chief prosecutor who initiated charges against a grooming gang in Rochdale warned that far-right groups were using a “vacuum” of reliable information to spread their beliefs and gain support.

Nazir Afzal said he had been calling for formal research on potential links between ethnicity and street-based abuse since 2012.

“The misinformation and anecdote are exploited by white supremacists and others with an agenda,” he added.

“The sooner we have evidence, the sooner we can truly confront it. The Home Office should show some courage and publish.”

Mr Javid’s original pledge was in response to a letter from a cross-party group of politicians who called for the Home Office to undertake research into common patterns of behaviour and drivers of grooming gangs.

Sarah Champion, the Labour MP for Rotherham, was among the signatories and voiced hope at the time that the review would prevent abuse and protect children.

The Home Office has said it will soon publish a national strategy that will set out a “whole system response to all forms of child sexual abuse”.

A spokesperson for the government department said: “Child sexual abuse is a sickening crime and predators who abuse children will face the full force of the law.

“We’re pursuing work on a number of fronts to understand the characteristics of group-based offending and the contexts in which it occurs. This includes ongoing work commissioned by the previous home secretary and will inform future government policies on child sexual abuse.

“New sentencing laws will also ensure the most serious violent and sexual offenders spend time in prison that matches the severity of their crimes, protecting victims and giving the public confidence in the criminal justice system.”

http://www...-office-findings-a9344896.html
Rugian
Member
Sat Feb 22 13:54:30
lol @ "we can't release information if the government is making policy based off it" argument. What weak bullshit.

Just be careful what you say in this thread though. In the UK, covering the Pakistani grooming gangs runs the risk of landing you in prison (RIP Tommy Robinson).

Why does your country suck so much Seb?
sam adams
Member
Sat Feb 22 16:16:40
Maybe seb has to disagree with us because of the censorship in his country? No matter how retarded he sounds... maybe he is afraid if he states the truth he will go to jail, and therefore toes the retard line instead?

Lol
Seb
Member
Sun Feb 23 03:37:33
A draft of the report leaked a few weeks back and was damning of the police - the major dynamic being the police believed the girls consented to their abuse. But rugian isn't interested in sexism and mysoginy by the police.

RE FOI, yes, there's an exemption on policy advice. The logic is fairly sound: that if civil servants had to write everything with a view to it being published, then they would not be able to write down things that might be politically dangerous for their ministers.

This is however subject to a public interest test which is reviewable by the independent Information Commissioner's Office. The govt often loses on appeal.

The Home Office has a culture of secrecy which is lamentable. I once had to have an argument with one of their SPADs (ministerial political appointees, not civil servants) that was blocking my response to an FOI request.

So all in all this is pretty much a *shrug*. Depts, especially the HO, routinely try to claim policy formulation exemption. The exemption exists for good reason, even if regularly abused. Depts also routinely get slapped down by the ICO and forced to publish. Such is the functioning of separated powers and checks and balances.
Seb
Member
Sun Feb 23 03:40:47
Tommy Robinson went to jail because he repeatedly attempted to prejudice the trials of the perpetrators of this abuse, which would have let them walk free.

It's highly likely that he did this precisely in order that that happened, so he could then claim the courts were favouring then.

Meanwhile the whole abuse scandal and subsequent inquiries were covered in full by all national press as front page news - and amazingly none of them ended up in Jail.

Tommy Robinson has also attended a conference in Russia about causing the collapse of Britain, run by some of Putin's advisors.

Rugian, get that Russian cock out of your mouth. You don't know where it's been.
Dukhat
Member
Sun Feb 23 03:48:20
Rugian couldn't care less about stopping pedophiles. It's all about about driving the single reactionary narrative that he lives his life by.
sam adams
Member
Sun Feb 23 09:54:13
Seb, if you criticize your government too much, you might actually go to jail.
Seb
Member
Sun Feb 23 10:48:27
Sam:

No.
sam adams
Member
Sun Feb 23 19:15:27
You have to say that.
Seb
Member
Mon Feb 24 08:07:22
If that were true, I'd not be able to say that I'd happily feed every member of cabinet into a wood chipper. Feet first.
Nimatzo
iChihuaha
Mon Feb 24 10:20:40
Can you say it about the Queen?
Paramount
Member
Mon Feb 24 10:29:09
You can but not directly to her face.
Nimatzo
iChihuaha
Mon Feb 24 10:56:27
That would be gauche!
swordtail
Anarchist Prime
Wed Feb 26 12:58:08
Westminster child sex abuse: Senior police and politicians knew about widespread paedophilia but ‘turned a blind eye to it’, inquiry finds

Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher was aware of rumours about Tory MP ‘but did nothing’, probe claims

Chiara Giordano
1 day ago





http://www...inquiry-vip-ring-a9356796.html
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