Professor John Robertson OBA

From BBC Bradford today:

Two abuse survivors have resigned from their role in the national [sic] inquiry into grooming gangs, the government has confirmed. Fiona Goddard, who was abused by gangs while living in a Bradford children’s home, quit the victims’ liaison panel over concerns about the inquiry’s shortlisted chairs, one of whom is reportedly a former police chief and the other a social worker.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy5qkq7zex3o

This may trigger another attempt by Scottish Labour in a massive Scottish cringe move, to have a comparable inquiry here. They will of course not remind us of their dark past in this matter so here it is:

From Sky News, 11 years ago:

The former head of a paedophile group said Harriet Harman “didn’t even try” to stop his organisation’s involvement with the civil liberties council she worked for. Tom O’Carroll, who was chairman of the now defunct Paedophile Information Exchange, said neither Ms Harman or her Labour colleagues wanted to “rock the boat” for fear it might damage their careers.¹

Many younger readers will wonder what on earth can this be.

The Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) was a British pro-paedophile activist group, founded in October 1974 and officially disbanded in 1984. The group campaigned for the abolition of the age of consent. It was described by the BBC in 2007 as “an international organisation of people who trade obscene material“. Although it had a few women paedophiles as members, the organisation’s membership was mainly young, professionally educated male paedophiles, including youth and care workers. Its membership in 1977 was around 250, mainly in London and the South East;  the same number for membership was also reported in 1981…..A document penned on the organisation’s behalf by Harriet Harman (later deputy leader of the Labour Party), working as a legal officer at the time, placed the onus of proving harm on prosecutors and warned of the dangers of increasing censorship²

Many younger readers will still be wondering what on earth those boomers were thinking.

From the 1980s and well into the 21st Century, several ‘grooming’ gangs (mass child rapists) were operating across, especially the Midlands and North of England. Thousands of young girls, mostly from care homes run by unregistered staff, unlike in other parts of the UK, were raped repeatedly and a relatively small number of men, mostly Asian, were jailed. During that long time, successive Conservative and Labour governments did nothing to protect these children.

Only in 2022, was there an independent inquiry.³ It’s recommendations have not been applied and the same Conservative politicians now calling for a new inquiry, were the same ones responsible for the failure to do so then.

Although there have been no comparable scandals in Scotland and although all child care home staff must be registered here, the SNP Government tried in 2016, to further protect all children, with a Named Person Scheme:

It is a scheme that would assign every single child in Scotland under the age of 18 a state-appointed “named person”, with the aim of creating a single point of contact for parents or children who need advice, information or support relating to the welfare of children and young people.⁴

Despite widespread professional, expert and research support for the scheme, Scottish Labour and Conservative MSPs called for it to be paused⁵ and the UK High Court ruled against it.⁶

I find it difficult not to wonder how many young and vulnerable girls in England might have been saved terrible abuse, if the Labour and Conservative governments had cared more, if long before, they had insisted that care home staff must registered and if a scheme like the SNP’s Named Person Scheme had not been blocked for petty political point-scoring before then being copied across the UK.

Sources:

1. https://news.sky.com/story/harman-did-not-act-over-paedophile-group-10415858
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paedophile_Information_Exchange
3. https://www.iicsa.org.uk/
4. https://archive.news.stv.tv/politics/1362047-what-is-the-named-person-scheme-and-why-is-it-controversial.html#:~:text=It%20is%20a%20scheme%20that%20would%20assign%20every,to%20the%20welfare%20of%20children%20and%20young%20people.
5. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-36903513#:~:text=Judges%20at%20the%20UK%27s%20highest%20court%20have%20ruled,the%20Court%20of%20Session%20in%20Edinburgh%20last%20year.
6. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-36903513#:~:text=Judges%20at%20the%20UK%27s%20highest%20court%20have%20ruled,the%20Court%20of%20Session%20in%20Edinburgh%20last%20year.

Here’s a more detailed explanation as to why a grooming inquiry request from Scottish Labour was rejected:

Readers will be aware no doubt of new Labour MP Joani Reid’s shameless u-turn on national inquiries into grooming gangs – no in England where they are many, to save her boss a red face, but yes in Scotland, where there are none, proving that as Jimmy Reid’s granddaughter, the apple can fall pretty far from the tree at times.

Reid also wrote to FM Swinney, demanding an inquiry here but his response published on 4th July 2025 has had no MSM coverage.

You can see why:

However, in order for any action to be effective, we must appropriately consider the relevance of these recommendations for our specific legislative, statutory service and regulatory landscape, and the scale of this specific form of organised gang-related sexual abuse of children and young people in Scotland.

I would firstly like to clarify that the recent case of child sexual abuse in Glasgow cited in your previous letter, which is now subject to a learning review, whilst horrendous, was of a different nature to the organised gang grooming observed in England and the cases reported in Baroness Casey’s recent National Audit.

Furthermore, Police Scotland have advised the Scottish Government that there are no current investigations in Scotland involving offences against children which would mirror the investigations described in Baroness Casey’s audit as being perpetrated by “grooming gangs”.

and:

In Scotland, all healthcare and education professionals already have a duty to report child abuse to social work or the police, including child sexual abuse and exploitation. A practitioner’s failure to report child abuse, including child sexual abuse and exploitation, could constitute a breach of their employment contract, lead to disciplinary action, or give rise to a claim for civil damages. Practitioners could also be struck off from social work, teaching, or medical registers for gross misconduct.

Not in Swinney’s response but an important factor, mentioned in the last line above – all care staff must be registered in Scotland but in the English report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse October 2022:

There is no system of registration for the approximately 35,000 workers “mainly or solely providing care for children” (that is, in a care role) in England. In Wales (as well as in Scotland and Northern Ireland), children’s social care workers must register with a regulatory body.

https://www.iicsa.org.uk/reports-recommendations/publications/inquiry/final-report.html

Full FM response at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/ukg-audit-on-group-based-child-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse-first-ministers-response/

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