Home Office delays could have led to evidence regarding grooming gangs being destroyed, a group of MPs has warned. The department took seven months to write to police forces and other agencies requesting them to retain material relating to the gangs, according to Freedom of Information requests.

The revelation comes just days before a national inquiry into grooming gangs is to get underway. The national audit on grooming gangs by Baroness Casey of Blackstock last June saw the Home Office instructed to formally request agencies to preserve relevant records. However, officials did not start making the requests until January 14, according to reports.

Dame Karen Bradley, chair of the Home Affairs Committee, has now written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood asking why it took so long for the requests to be made, reports The Times.

“The failure to provide timely direction to local authorities, police forces and other relevant agencies about the need to retain relevant documents means that some records which may be relevant to the independent inquiry into grooming gangs might have been destroyed,” she said.

Many local authorities and agencies’ policies allow records to be destroyed after six years.

The formal notice requesting the records be preserved is seen as vital as a significant number of the alleged offences occurred during the 2010s, according to The Times. The delays were uncovered through Freedom of Information requests by Conservative MP for Keighley & Ilkley Robbie Moore after he learned no call for action had been issued to authorities in Bradford.

Regarding the delays, he said: “This is a staggering failure at the heart of Government which once again undermines trust ahead of the national grooming gangs inquiry.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have established the independent inquiry into grooming gangs to get the answers that victims and survivors of these horrendous crimes deserve.

“Since [Casey’s] national audit, we have worked across Government to ensure records relevant to the draft terms of reference are appropriately retained by public sector organisations.

“The inquiry has the power to order the production of documents and failure to comply with such an order without reasonable excuse is an offence punishable by imprisonment.”