Grooming gangs investigators handed 'critical' new tools

All police forces investigating grooming gangs in England and Wales will be given access to new AI tools to help speed up their investigations.

The artificial intelligence tools are already thought to have saved officers in 13 forces more than £20m and 16,000 hours of investigation time. The apps can translate large amounts of text in foreign languages from mobile phones seized by police, and analyse a mass of digital data to find patterns and relationships between suspects.

'We must punish perpetrators' The rollout is part of a £426,000 boost for the Tackling Organised Exploitation (TOEX) programme, which supports officers to investigate complex cases involving modern slavery, county lines and child sex abuse. The increased access to the AI technology follows Baroness Casey's recommendation for a national operation to review cold grooming gang cases.

That operation will review more than 1,200 closed cases of child sexual exploitation. "The sexual exploitation of children by grooming gangs is one of the most horrific crimes, and we must punish perpetrators, provide justice for victims and survivors, and protect today's children from harm," said safeguarding minister Jess Phillips.

"Baroness Casey flagged the need to upgrade police information systems to improve investigations and safeguard children at risk. Today we are investing in these critical tools." Read more from Sky News:Harry criticises report into charityReeves told to find 'substantial' tax rises Lack of ethnicity data 'a major failing' Police forces have also been instructed by the home secretary to collect ethnicity data, as recommended by Baroness Casey.

Her June report found the lack of data showing sex offenders' ethnicity and nationality in grooming gangs was "a major failing over the last decade or more". She found that officials avoided the issue of ethnicity for fear of being called racist, but there were enough convictions of Asian men "to have warranted closer examination".

The government has launched a national inquiry into the abuse and further details are expected to be announced in the coming weeks..