Inquiries into British grooming gangs have been announced by the Home Secretary after weeks of growing pressure over the scandal.
Yvette Cooper told MPs she has ordered a three-month rapid review of the "current scale and nature of gang-based exploitation across the country".
Five local investigations, with a budget of £10million, will focus on the "cultural drivers" and ethnicity of child sexual exploitation gangs.
Police forces will also be expected to be asked to reopen "cold cases" relating to the abuse of children and young girls.
In a statement in the Commons on Thursday afternoon, Ms Cooper confirmed that she will implement all remaining recommendations of the child abuse inquiry's separate report on grooming gangs from February 2022.
The government will introduce "stronger sentences" for child sexual exploitation and new action to ensure more grooming gang investigations and prosecutions can get under way.
This will be done by extending the remit of the independent child sexual abuse review panel so it covers all cases since 2013, not just historic cases, Ms Cooper added.
Police forces will be expected to produce "problem profiles" on the nature of grooming gangs in their area, as well as reviewing past cases.
Ms Cooper told the Commons that Britain needs "much stronger action" to uncover the "full scale and nature of these awful crimes".
"As we have seen, effective local inquiries can delve into far more local detail and deliver more locally relevant answers, and change, than a lengthy nationwide inquiry can provide,” she added.
The three-month review will be led by Baroness Louise Casey, who previously led an inquiry into children's services at Rotherham Council.
It comes after growing calls for a national inquiry into the scandal was sparked by a flurry of social media attacks on the Prime Minister from tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Conservative, Reform UK and some Labour MPs have also spoken about the need for a UK-wide investigation into the sexual abuse of girls by gangs in areas across the country.
She proposed a national probe rolled out by the Home Office to areas that trigger the threshold for greater scrutiny.
The findings would then be fed back to government for response.
“Child sexual abuse is endemic in the UK and needs to be recognised as a national priority,” she said.
“It is clear that the public distrusts governments and authorities when it comes to preventing and prosecuting child abuse, especially child sexual exploitation.”
She set out a five-point plan of recommendations including a national inquiry and a “national audit” to see if grooming gangs are still operating or if cases have been missed.
On Wednesday, Ms Champion said: “Looks like the Government is accepting my five-point plan to prevent child abuse and expose cover-ups over grooming gangs.”
Mr Musk, a senior member of President Donald Trump’s incoming administration, launched a tirade of attacks on the Labour government after Christmas calling for a new UK general election as well as accusing Sir Keir Starmer of failing to bring "rape gangs" to justice when he was director of public prosecutions (DPP).
The PM has defended his record on prosecuting rapists when he was leading the Crown Prosecution Service.
He ordered the first prosecution of a grooming gang in Rochdale, he said.
As DPP between 2008 and 2013, Sir Keir also brought in a national network of specialist prosecutors for child abuse and sexual exploitation to oversee convictions against grooming gangs and changed Crown Prosecution Service guidance to focus on the credibility of allegations rather than whether victims would make good witnesses.
