Yesterday, education secretary Jenny Gilruth stood up in parliament to announce that the SNP government will, after all, grant a public inquiry into grooming gangs.
That’s a welcome U-turn and the very least that Scottish survivors and victims’ support groups deserve. They, and the Scottish Conservatives, have been calling for this for months, but the SNP had – for reasons that still seem bewildering – fought against it tooth and nail.
Most people’s response will be to wonder why on earth Nationalist ministers have taken so long to do the right thing.
Not only was it the obvious response to the most appalling and repulsive crimes, as Ms Gilruth admitted, survivors produced shocking testimonies of their abuse and ‘quite rightly, called for meaningful change’.
With remarkable gall, she was able to stand up yesterday and produce a string of reasons why the inquiry should now proceed at pace, and with ‘the fullest investigatory powers required’. What was less clear from her statement was why John Swinney’s government could not have come to this conclusion months ago.
There was similar reluctance to launch an inquiry into organised abuse of children in England and Wales by Keir Starmer’s government, but they eventually accepted its importance last June.
Even at that stage, it was obvious that such vile crimes did not stop at Hadrian’s Wall.
Yet the SNP continued to insist that an existing inquiry, into historical child abuse, would be sufficient, and that they were not convinced by victims’ calls for a full investigation of systemic sexual exploitation by organised gangs, even though it might well be ongoing.
Abuse victims have felt ignored by the SNP
They had the opportunity to correct that, when I tabled an amendment to their Victims Bill which would have allowed for a full inquiry. But instead, we got a Victims Bill in name only. The SNP and Greens shamefully voted together to reject my amendment.
While they were at it, they voted down measures to ensure that victims would always be informed if a decision were taken not to prosecute someone, and that they would be told when plea deals were struck between defence and prosecution lawyers.
But that was not the limit of their failure to act. Disgracefully, in the course of that debate, justice secretary Angela Constance misrepresented the views of Alexis Jay, an expert on grooming gangs, in an attempt to shore up her decision to block an inquiry.
After Professor Jay complained, Ms Constance had to apologise for misleading parliament – twice – yet was backed to the hilt by John Swinney and remained in her job, despite this clear breach of the ministerial code.
The message sent by the SNP was clear – protecting Ms Constance, even when she had distorted the facts to frustrate the clear wishes of victims, was the priority. The protection of the public and the pursuit of justice were secondary considerations.
The SNP’s refusal to budge from their position became even more baffling when, late last year, shocking reports emerged of the abuse of Taylor, a girl in care in Glasgow, by an organised gang. Though the police had been made aware of the allegations, nothing further had been done.
John Swinney, challenged about this disgraceful case at First Minister’s Questions, praised the victim’s courage but still refused to commit to an inquiry. That was in spite of other brave survivors offering their testimony and demanding that the UK probe be extended to Scotland.
It included the account of one victim trafficked from England to Glasgow as a child and raped by groups of men.
It came after a Romanian grooming gang in Dundee was convicted of sexually abusing ten women and the case of a gang of seven men and women in Glasgow convicted of 49 charges that included abuse towards children.
Even after police confirmed that reports of online child abuse had doubled in a year, the First Minister continued to bury his head in the sand.
There were warm words for victims, but ministers continued to argue that a dedicated inquiry was not the best use of resources, or that it would somehow interfere with the operation of the investigation into historical abuse.
Yesterday, at long last, Jenny Gilruth conceded that the inquiry which the Scottish Conservatives and victims’ groups had long called for, specifically looking at Scotland’s handling of group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation, was ‘essential’.
Scottish Conservative Justice Spokesman Liam Kerr says a public inquiry into grooming gangs is the least survivors and victims’ support groups deserve
In an extraordinary reversal, it has now been confirmed that Professor Jay will lead this belated inquiry.
The Cabinet Secretary promised that institutions which had had the power to act when victims spoke up, but failed to do so, would be held to account.
It is a welcome concession. But the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. Survivors and victims have not been provided with answers, only the first step towards the rigorous investigation that they called for and deserve.
This cannot be another SNP tick-box exercise from a government that we know is addicted to secrecy and has an aversion to accountability.
It is crucial that the inquiry’s independence is guaranteed and that it will, as Ms Gilruth promised, leave no stone unturned. We must also be told its terms of reference and timescale.
Survivors have felt ignored and betrayed prior to the SNP being forced into this U-turn.
This inquiry is essential to uncovering the scale of organised abuse in Scotland, to discovering why it was allowed to go unchecked and to prevent gangs targeting more vulnerable children in future.
The SNP should be ashamed of how long it has taken them to do the right thing. They must ensure that victims are not let down again.
