The latest report from Scotland’s child protection register show that 23 red flags were raised for cases of child sexual exploitation (CSE) last year.
This form of abuse is more commonly known as child grooming and it is recorded separately to both sexual abuse and criminal exploitation of children.
The Scottish Government statistics show that 2,087 children were on the register at July 31, 2025, with a total of 6,022 ‘concerns’ flagged by social workers and police. Of those, 23 related to child sexual exploitation.
Nine of these red flags were recorded in West Lothian, with six in Aberdeenshire, three in East Ayrshire, two in Renfrewshire and one each in East Lothian, Fife and Highland. As the Express has reported previously, similar ‘clusters’ of grooming cases have been identified in the register multiple times over the past decade.
SCOTTISH DAILY EXPRESS
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