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Part three of the review into Operation Span and the investigation of non-recent child sexual exploitation in Rochdale found little evidence of licensing efforts to disrupt the exploitation in Rochdale.
The review covers 2004 to 2013 and sets out a series of failed investigations by Greater Manchester Police (GMP). In the report it states:
- "We found only one record of an attempt at disruption based on liaison with Rochdale Council’s licensing department taxi enforcement team (presumably to seek to revoke an individual’s licence) and no evidence that covert tactics were considered." (2.19)
- "GMP and Rochdale Council failed throughout the period to consistently use disruption tactics to break up the activities of these men. There is only very limited evidence of GMP using child abduction warning notices and risk of sexual harm orders and very few examples of GMP liaising with the council’s licensing and environmental health departments to tackle the sexual exploitation of children within the taxi and restaurant industries. This was even though the prevalence of CSE in these industries was well known to GMP and Rochdale Council." [2.47, Emphasis Added]
- "GMP and Rochdale Council failed throughout the period to consistently use disruption tactics to break up the activities of these men. There is only limited evidence of GMP using child abduction warning notices and risk of sexual harm orders and very few examples of GMP liaising with the licensing and environmental health departments to tackle the sexual exploitation of children within the taxi and restaurant industries. This was even though the prevalence of CSE in these industries was well known to GMP and Rochdale Council." [10.3, Emphasis Added]
On the issue of objecting to licence applications, the report found that:
- "We also found only very few examples of working with the licensing authority to oppose the licences of the premises or taxi companies that had been identified as central to the exploitation67 or use of non-traditional police tactics such as surveillance." (11.26)
Leaders at Rochdale Council and GMP repeated previous apologies, with council leader Neil Emmott saying:
"I want to reassure the public that those responsible are gone and long gone.
"Rochdale was already investigating these historical cases when the mayor's review began in 2017 and a number are still ongoing, and we want to ensure the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice."
Chief Constable Stephen Watson said the handling of CSE across Greater Manchester had been "overhauled since the early-2000s to ensure that victims and survivors are cared for and receive the expected level of service".