A non-statutory, privately funded inquiry chaired by independent MP Rupert Lowe and backed by the group Restore Britain says “at the very least” 250,000 girls were victimised by organised child sexual exploitation networks over decades, while acknowledging that national data is incomplete and the overall scale cannot be precisely quantified.
A first-phase report from the so-called “Rape Gang Inquiry,” chaired by independent MP Rupert Lowe and promoted by the political group Restore Britain, alleges that organised groups sexually exploited children across the UK for decades.
The report’s executive summary claims that “at the very least” 250,000 girls were subjected to repeated rape and sexual exploitation, describing the figure as an estimate drawn from a past statement in the House of Lords and other previously published material rather than a count based on a comprehensive national dataset.
The inquiry report also says it identified evidence of activity in at least 149 local authority districts, a figure it ties to an appendix listing areas where it says gangs are known to have operated.
On offender demographics, the report asserts that perpetrators were “predominantly” of Pakistani Muslim background and cites an analysis that it says found about 87% of convicted offenders in certain group-based child sexual exploitation cases had “distinctively Muslim names.” The report frames that percentage as drawn from “court records and official inquiries,” but the figure is not presented as an official national statistic by UK authorities.
The report alleges that victims—often described as vulnerable and frequently from white, working-class backgrounds—were groomed with gifts, alcohol and drugs, then abused in locations such as houses and hotels, and in some cases trafficked between towns and cities.
It further argues that police, social services and other institutions repeatedly failed to intervene, claiming that concern about community tensions and fear of being seen as racist contributed to reluctance to confront patterns in group-based exploitation.
Separately, a government-commissioned national audit led by Baroness Louise Casey, published in June 2025, found major weaknesses in how agencies record and share data on group-based child sexual exploitation, including gaps in the collection of ethnicity information. Casey’s review said the lack of consistent national data has hindered understanding of patterns and prevention, and it cited concerns inside institutions about raising issues seen as racially sensitive.
Restore Britain’s inquiry calls for reforms including mandatory recording of offender ethnicity and nationality, along with tougher measures for foreign offenders. The group has said it intends to publish additional material in later phases, though—unlike a statutory public inquiry—it does not have legal powers to compel witnesses or evidence.
