A public inquiry into grooming gangs in Scotland will start next week, the Scottish government has announced.

Led by expert Prof Alexis Jay, the investigation will look into group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation.

Education Secretary Mairi McAllan said the inquiry would have the "strongest possible powers" to examine the issue.

It comes after a survivor of grooming gang abuse accused ministers of taking too long to deliver on promises to work "at pace".

Holly Alex, 36, told BBC Scotland News she was abused by groups of men in Edinburgh and Livingston while in care as a teenager.

She said: "If you say you'll do something at pace, do it at pace.

"Don't just pay lip service to it. Some people's lives depend on the truth coming out."

Social care records show that staff recorded concerns that she was being "groomed" for sex by "adult Asian men" as a teenager.

Holly's records indicate social workers and police knew of the risks she faced.

Addressing parliament, McAllan said the inquiry would have the "strongest possible powers to examine the full extent of sexual abuse and exploitation".

She told MSPs that the inquiry, which will begin on Wednesday, would examine group-based abuse from 1996 until the present day.

"It's purpose is not only to understand what has happened but to ensure it can't happen again," she said.

McAllan said the inquiry would examine the extent and prevalence of group-based child abuse, as well as its impact on survivors. It will also look at the characteristics of perpetrators and failings by authorities, including any deliberate concealment.

The inquiry will not "determine, attribute or rule upon civil or criminal liability", the minister added.

"Its purpose is to provide clear evidence-based recommendations that strengthen the protection of children and help ensure that failures are never repeated."

She said the Scottish and UK inquiries would "complement and not replicate" the work of each.

The inquiry will consider action to improve the response to child abuse while the inquiry is ongoing, not wait for its final recommendations.

The Scottish government ordered a public inquiry into group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation in February, eight months after a similar inquiry was announced in England and Wales.

The Statutory Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs in England and Wales was announced by former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in June 2025 and started work in April.

It faced problems before launching, when abuse survivors called on former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips to quit amid claims that the government was seeking to widen the scope of the inquiry to other forms of child abuse.

A national review, published in September, found a lack of data meant there was no reliable national picture of the scale of grooming gang offending in Scotland.

That review was also overseen by Jay, who is a child sexual abuse expert.

In 2014, she led an independent investigation into child sexual abuse in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

Her initial report, published 2014, identified that at least 1,400 children had been sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013 - and led to a series of investigations into how South Yorkshire Police had responded to complaints of child sexual abuse.

Scottish Labour's Katherine Sangster said her party would give the grooming gangs inquiry its full support but questioned why it had taken nine months since the inquiry was first announced to get to this point.

Scottish Lib Dem MSP Duncan Dunlop said he was concerned that the inquiry would produce "another set of recommendations" only for there to be "little change in practice".

The Scottish Conservatives' Meghan Gallacher said she was "baffled by the lack of urgency" and said survivors – some of whom had been waiting decades - had also criticised the timeframe.

She asked how confident McAllan was that the inquiry would "finally deliver the answers and justice" and "when will they see it happen?"

McAllan said she was confident that the inquiry would deliver answers – and one of the things that gave her confidence was the "unrivalled experience" of Jay.

She added that the inquiry would have the "strongest possible powers" to investigate; the extent and prevalence, the impact on victims and survivors, the characteristics of perpetrators and any failures of institutions.

Jay said: "This marks the beginning of our work, and I am clear that the focus of the inquiry will be on making practical recommendations that improve policy, practice and, where necessary, legislation to better protect children in Scotland."