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The last Conservative government issued an “awful, inconsequential, insubstantial” response to a seven-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse, according to its chair.
Prof Alexis Jay, who led the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA), told MPs the written response from the then home secretary, Suella Braverman, to the 20 recommendations had “committed to nothing”.
Her condemnation comes amid the current Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s criticism of Keir Starmer for falling short of launching another national inquiry into grooming and rape gangs.
The IICSA report, which included an examination of child sexual exploitation by organised networks, was released on 20 October 2022 in the final days of Liz Truss’s administration.
Jay told MPs the initial response from Grant Shapps, the then Tory home secretary, had left her feeling “much encouraged”. But after the collapse of Truss’s government, Braverman returned as home secretary. The government’s written response in May 2023 to the report under Braverman was “awful”, Jay said.
She told MPs: “It was awful. I cannot tell you how it felt to constantly read the response, when we got the final printed version of the government’s response.
“It was inconsequential, insubstantial, committed to nothing. And the wording that was used very often amongst the 20 recommendations was ‘we accept the need for’ whatever it was, but made no specific commitment. The reaction of all of us, but mostly victims and survivors, was such huge disappointment and anger.”
Jay said she had been criticised by a Home Office special adviser after she had written to the Times describing the government’s response to her inquiry as “weak”. She told the home affairs select committee on Tuesday: “I was on holiday and I had a call or I had a message that somebody from the Home Office wished to talk to me.
“What then happened, which I thought was improper, was a special adviser came on demanding to know why I had written to the Times and complaining. I was very clear that I was not accountable to this person, as an independent chair, for any actions.”
Describing the tone of the conversation as “adversarial”, she said it “led to quite a long silence” from the Home Office until James Cleverly took over as home secretary in November 2023.
In response, a former adviser to the Home Office said Braverman’s team had tried “very hard” to push through a redress scheme for victims, in line with Jay’s recommendations, and said the chair’s criticisms were unfair.
Badenoch has said “peasants” from “sub-communities” in some countries are involved in grooming and rape gangs, and that a national inquiry would seek to identify those in authority who did not act.
The prime minister has faced calls from the Conservatives and the Reform UK party, among others, to launch an inquiry after the tech billionaire Elon Musk seized on the longstanding scandal this month.
Starmer has said he instead plans to press ahead with implementing recommendations from the previous inquiry into child sexual abuse, which went beyond just grooming gangs, led by Jay.
Braverman has been approached for a comment.
