Ms Oliver says successive governments have yet to implement many of the child protection reforms recommended in the IICSA report
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Grooming gang whistleblower Maggie Oliver is taking the Government to court over failures on child sexual exploitation.
Ms Oliver’s charity is heading to the High Court next week to bring a judicial review against the Government over its alleged failure to implement recommendations following the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
The inquiry, chaired by Alexis Jay, was launched to examine how public and private institutions failed to protect children from sexual abuse.
It took seven years to complete, and cost £200 million.
Concluding in 2022, its final report recommended 20 major reforms to child protection in England and Wales.
Ms Oliver set up The Maggie Oliver Foundation after leaving Greater Manchester Police (GMP) where she was a whistleblower about the force’s inaction over grooming gangs.
She said despite repeated public commitments, successive governments have yet to implement many of the child protection reforms recommended in the IICSA report.
Key recommendations authorities are still not doing is collecting ethnic and religious data on perpetrators of child abuse.
A recent report by Baroness Louise Casey found a significant over-representation of Asian men who are suspects in grooming gangs, adding though authorities are in “denial”, more needs to be done to understand why this is the case.
Other recommendations still to be implemented are ensuring children in care have the same access to justice as others and ending the use of pain-inducing restraint on children in custody, a practice described in the IICSA report as “amounting to torture”.
Ms Oliver said: “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.
“Survivors of child sexual abuse were promised change. Instead, they are met with delay after delay. As a former police officer, I want our agencies to have the tools to effectively combat child abuse. As a mother, I want children to be able to walk the streets in safety.
“Why does our Government have to be dragged to court to be forced to protect children?”
The hearing in the High Court on March 5 will consider whether the charity’s case should be allowed to proceed to a full judicial review hearing.
If permission is granted, the charity said the Government will be required to explain its failure to implement the child protection measures recommended by the IICSA.
A government spokesperson said: “The government is committed to tackling the horrors of child sexual abuse and exploitation and getting justice for victims and survivors. There can be nowhere for these evil perpetrators to hide.
“As part of this work we have set out a clear strategy for delivering IICSA’s recommendations, including the introduction of legislation which is now going through Parliament.
“This includes introducing mandatory reporting, reforming the disclosure and barring system, removing the three-year limitation for victim personal injury claims, and making grooming a statutory aggravating factor in sentencing.”