It is welcome that police are committing a serious sum of money to prevent the exploitation of children but there should be a question over the timing.

The force — which is under significant financial pressure, it must be remembered — is setting aside £500,000 to investigate whether the sexual exploitation of children is a more widespread problem than first feared.

It comes three months after the first arrests in Operation Bullfinch, the alleged sex ring that police have said may have targeted up to 50 girls.

More latterly the details of gangs preying on young girls in northern England have emerged.

The scale and sophistication of these gangs has taken many by surprise, including, we suspect, police.

Yet the investigations in the north of the country pre-date Oxford’s own Bullfinch by years and, given the extent of them, police nationally have questions to answer about when the scale was recognised and forces told to be more vigilant.

Now Chief Constable Sara Thornton has secured £500,000 to dig deeper into the issue over the next 18 months and it will be interesting to see what emerges.