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Since 2010, Police Scotland investigations into child grooming gangs have found only 22 victims and 20 suspects compared to 17 100 victims and 700 suspects in just one year in England & Wales

From Police Scotland: Child sexual exploitation operations and grooming gangs – no. victims and suspects identified Date and time of release: August 25, 2026 09:12:

1. A list of all Police Scotland operations into group-based child sexual exploitation and grooming gangs since 2010 (including Operation Cerrar, Dash, Cotswold, and any others).

2. For each operation, please provide: Number of victims identified, Number of suspects identified

Response:

For the time period requested, I can confirm there have been 5 operations involving child sexual exploitation, of which only one related to ‘group-based’ CSE and ‘grooming gangs’, specifically, details of it are provided below.

Operation Betony – Number of victims identified – 22, Number of suspects identified – 20 named suspects:

https://www.scotland.police.uk/access-to-information/freedom-of-information/disclosure-log/disclosure-log-2026/august/child-sexual-exploitation-operations-and-grooming-gangs-no-victims-and-suspects-identified/

Since 2010 how many group-based child sexual exploitation and grooming gangs police investigations have there been in England and Wales? With how many victims and how many suspects?

There is no reliable official total, and the 2025 National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (Casey audit) explicitly stated it was unable to quantify the national scale due to incomplete data, inconsistent definitions, under-reporting, and fragmented recording across police, local authorities, and the justice system.

Best available estimates: These draw from high-profile inquiries, force-level data, the Grooming Gangs Taskforce, COCAD recorded offences, and ongoing reviews such as Operation Beaconport. They are approximate and incomplete:

• Victims (identified): Mid-thousands to low tens of thousands (roughly 5,000–15,000+).
  Major operations and inquiries account for several thousand alone (e.g., Rotherham/Stovewood ~1,100–1,150; other cases in Rochdale, Oxford, Newcastle, Telford, Greater Manchester, etc.). The Taskforce identified/protected over 4,000 in its first year (2023–24). Annual recorded group-based CSE offences are around 700 (2023 COCAD figure), within broader CSE-flagged contact offences of ~17,000 in a recent year—these are undercounts of unique victims. gov.uk
• Suspects (identified): Low-to-mid thousands.
  Taskforce: over 550 arrests in its first year. Force examples include ~1,000+ in Greater Manchester live multi-offender investigations. Partial earlier data (e.g., 2014 Children’s Commissioner from 19 forces) showed ~1,200 group-based CSE offenders. Beaconport has already flagged 1,200+ closed cases for potential reinvestigation (with more expected). Convictions are substantially lower (dozens to low hundreds in the most publicised multi-defendant cases). https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/child-sex-abuse-suspects-rochdale-5Hjd6jn_2/

22 victims in Scotland would be equivalent to 240 in England but there were at least 17 000 in one year, 71 times as many in one year

Help Talking-up Scotland keep going

Crowdfunder at: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/help-talking-up-scotland-keep-going

Or by direct bank transfer to: JOHN WATSON ROBERTSON Sort Code – 08-91-04 Account – 12266421