'Police will never be able to record all offender ethnicity

POLICE will never be able to record 100% of offenders' ethnicities, despite the Home Secretary saying the information should be collated, service leaders have said.

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Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood wants forces to record the information in the wake of the grooming gangs scandals, the Telegraph reported.

But speaking as new police data on child sexual abuse and exploitation was published on Thursday, the heads of two major child protection programmes cast doubt on whether the move will ever be possible.

Gareth Edwards, head of the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme, said: "We're never going to get to 100% completion rate. Sometimes we won't know who the suspects are.

"Sometimes victims may not engage, there might be third-party reports... there are different reasons why we won't always have that data available.