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Politics latest: Baroness Casey asks people to 'keep calm' about grooming gang ethnicity data

The grooming gangs report author appeared at the home affairs committee. Meanwhile, the conflict between Israel and Iran has been top of the agenda at the G7 summit, taking place in Canada this week.

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Do the Tories not owe grooming gangs victims an apology?

While we were watching the Home Affairs Committee, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch held a news conference with the victims of grooming gangs.

She also took a number of questions from the media, including our political correspondent Tamara Cohen

Tamara asked Badenoch whether the Conservatives owe survivors of this abuse an apology for not doing more when in government.

Badenoch said: "My brief didn't cover this area. I was women and equalities minister. I had a separate scandal. 

"I was looking at the Tavistock scandal. We got that clinic closed."

She went on to say that the Tories are "very focused on getting a national inquiry".

"There were issues, for instance, with Conservative politicians being criticised when we highlighted that ethnicity should be looked at."

'Bigger issue' of men's violence risks being lost in race argument, Baroness Casey says

Baroness Casey turns to another issue, saying that she feels "the bigger issue which is men's violence towards women is in danger of being lost".

This is because officials have not done the job properly of collecting ethnicity data, she says.

"There are so many good men who need to step into the space of helping to do something around that," she says, not just around child abuse but "more generally".

"If we're still arguing about data around ethnicity we wont get to the bigger issue which is no matter ethnicity, religion, age or whatever - why do men commit these offences against girls?"

Baroness Casey says: "Child sex abuse that we're talking about today is largely men - if not all men - against girls and some of them are young."

Three year limit on grooming gangs inquiry, Baroness Casey suggests

Baroness Casey has suggested that a national statutory inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal should have a deadline of three years.

She previously suggested a time limit, after her report into group-based child sexual exploitation was published on Monday.

Asked what this time limit should be, Baroness Casey suggested three years.

She said: "In anything we've said so far, we've said three years."

Baroness Casey also suggested a "team effort" rather than an individual running the inquiry.

Good people need to grasp difficult issues, Baroness Casey says

Turning back to the matter of ethnicity, Baroness Casey says people don't find looking at this "straightforward in certain circumstances".

But in others, she says, "they find it really easy to look at it".

Baroness Casey adds: "If good people don't grasp difficult issues there's plenty of bad people who will grasp them for you.

"My advice to everybody is get ahead of trouble and grasp it, because you're a good person, and there's plenty of people out there who grasp the bad stuff and make it even worse than it needs to be."

Baroness Casey says Alexis Jay did a "stunning job" of holding institutions like the Catholic Church and the Church of England to account.

"Her and her team... journalists and victims have pushed it, and she lifted that lid and showed it for what it was."

Baroness Casey: 'I hope this is a line in the sand'

Baroness Casey has insisted that the 12 points made in her report are "achievable" for the government to implement.

Addressing the Home Affairs Committee, she said: "I hope this is a line in the sand.

"I think the 12 things we are asking for are not impossible - they are not pipe dreams, they are achievable."

You can learn more about Baroness Casey's report below:

'We don't know how much sexual abuse there is in the country'

Sarah Kincaid, a policy adviser for the Home Office, is also appearing before the Home Affairs Committee with Baroness Casey this morning.

She was asked about gaps in data, and whether these had an impact on her team's ability to put together their report on grooming gangs.

Kincaid says: "Our job was to assess the scale of group-based child sexual exploitation, and in that we have not been able to provide an answer because of the data systems.

"We don't know how much sexual abuse there is in the country."

She says there are a few "reasonably educated estimates", but nothing conclusive.

"We don't have anything up to date," she adds.

'Things came to light' during audit that changed Casey's mind on national inquiry

Baroness Casey is now explaining why she decided to back a national statutory inquiry, after initially being reluctant to do so.

She explained she was initially of the view that "perhaps we ought to implement the recommendations of [Alexis Jay's] report before we start thinking about anything else.

"I was definitely there, and I own that."

But, she says, while conducting her review it became "abundantly clear on a number of fronts that if we didn't have a national inquiry, as opposed to just a series of local inquiries, then we wouldn't get to the issue of accountability".

Baroness Casey said she "is pretty tough on crime", explaining she "likes finding criminals and I like locking them up".

She explained that during her audit, a "few things came to light very clearly".

"First of all, when they made an announcement in January that they had the money for at least five areas to do local inquiries... only Oldham bit the bullet and said yep we want to do a local inquiry," she says.

"My understanding is that no one else did that."

Baroness Casey says: "That tells you something, doesn't it?"

Baroness Casey urges 'calm' over how race data is 'interrogated'

Baroness Casey went on to explain that the data on child sexual exploitation suspects points disproportionately to people of Asian heritage.

鈥淚 would say that鈥檚 putting it mildly, and I feel very strongly on issues that are as searing as people鈥檚 race, when actually we know the prejudice and racism that people of colour experience in this country, to not get how you treat that data right, actually, I think is a different level of public irresponsibility,鈥� she says.

"If you look at the data on child sexual exploitation suspects and offenders it's disproportionately Asian heritage.

She adds: "If you look at the data for child abuse it is not disproportionate - and it is white men.

"Let's just keep calm here about how you interrogate data and what you draw from it."

Baroness Casey goes on to insist that responsibility for tackling child exploitation should not just fall on the Home Office - but the departments of health, education and local government.

She urges better sharing of data between services and agencies, asking how this can be made mandatory.

She adds that the Home Office should not "drag their feet" on looking at police intelligence systems - "given we live in the 21st century".

"None of the issues in the audit sadly are new," Baroness Casey says. "I felt that other colleagues possibly could have found that, if they looked harder before us.

"We didn't do anything particularly clever, we just put together the facts as best we could and presented them."

She says: "This always causes me a bit of concern."

Baroness Casey: I'm fairly sure grooming gangs are still active

Baroness Louise Casey, who published her report into grooming gangs yesterday, has said she is "fairly sure" that grooming gangs are still active in the UK.

Addressing the Home Affairs Committee, she said children should be "at the heart of any discourse going forward".

She said: "What is called group-based child sexual exploitation... is thankfully still rare. 

"It may be at the most heinous end of crimes, but we have to get a sense of proportionality of where it fits in the 100,000 crimes of child abuse that have been reported in the last 12 months.

"I'm fairly sure that it's still  happening today. I think that we can explain that if necessary later, I think people don't necessarily look hard enough to find these children in particular."

Baroness Casey later reiterated that from the evidence that she saw while putting together her report, "it is clear that it is still happening".

She adds that she is calling for a national criminal operation, led by the National Crime Agency, to address these issues.

Baroness Casey goes on to say that data around race should be collected in full.

"My view is collect something or don't collect it - for God's sake don't half collect it. That's a bloody disaster."

Baroness Casey appears at Home Affairs Committee - watch live

The author of a report into grooming gangs - published yesterday - is appearing before the Home Affairs Committee this morning.

Baroness Louise Casey is facing questions from senior MPs on the topic of child sexual exploitation, largely relating to the findings of her report.

We'll bring you any major updates in the Politics Hub - or watch in the stream above.