Key points What Casey audit found and what the inquiry will set out to achieve

The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has said she will commission a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation by grooming gangs and enact a series of law changes.

- Jessica Elgot

It comes after a 197-page report by Louise Casey examined what more could be done to bring perpetrators to justice. Here are the key points from the report.

Lady Casey said local inquiries should be coordinated by an independent commission that has full statutory inquiry powers.

The report said that the inquiry would set strict timescales and terms of reference for the local investigations, and be able to compel witnesses where they refuse to cooperate. There should be a charter for victims about what they should reasonably expect from this process, Casey said.

Cooper said the national inquiry will go ahead, with details of the chair and funding announced in due course. It will not be an overarching inquiry like the one into child sexual abuse conducted by Prof Alexis Jay. The purpose would be to combat "denial, resistance and legal wrangling among local agencies".

Casey said there should be "a vigorous approach to righting the wrongs of the past" and state agencies should be held to account for any part they played in allowing these crimes to go undetected and unpunished.

"Blindness, ignorance, prejudice, defensiveness and even good but misdirected intentions all play a part in a collective failure to properly deter and prosecute offenders or to protect children from harm," she said.

Data from three police forces had identified "clear evidence of overrepresentation among suspects of Asian and Pakistani heritage," Cooper said, citing the report.