Police figures from 2023 reveal, external that group-based child sexual abuse accounted for 3.7% of all sexual offences against children reported to police.
According to the data, 26% of group-based child sexual abuse happened within families, compared with 17% involving groups including grooming gangs.
Schools, clubs and religious institutions accounted for 9%.
There have been numerous investigations into the systematic rape of girls and young women by organised gangs, including in Rotherham, Cornwall, Derbyshire and Bristol.
Inquiries into Greater Manchester Police’s (GMP) handling of historical child sex abuse cases in Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale have also been carried out.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham said tackling grooming gangs was “not something to be politicised”.
“We’ve done this when others were looking in a different direction,” Burnham added.
“This is something to be faced up to fully and unflinchingly in my view.”
Earlier on Friday, health minister Andrew Gwynne suggested Musk “ought to focus” on US politics, where he is set to act as an unelected adviser to the Trump administration on cutting federal spending.
Speaking to LBC Radio, Gwynne added that child grooming was a “very serious issue”, pointing to previous investigations which had taken place into sexual abuse scandals.
“There comes a point where we don’t need more inquiries, and had Elon Musk really paid attention to what’s been going on in this country, he might have recognised that there have already been inquiries,” he said.
