Over 200 cases of child sexual exploitation have been reported in Cambridgeshire in the past two years.

Between April 1 2013 and March 31 2014, 82 children – 66 girls and 16 boys - were referred in relation to child sexual exploitation.

Additionally, from April 1 2014 and March 31 2015, 134 children – 76 females and 58 males - were referred.

The startling figures come from a Freedom of Information request, asking Cambridgeshire County Council how many cases of child exploitation they have acted upon each year from 2010 to 2015.

It also asked where the referrals came from, relating to schools, police, health services and other.

Throughout the 2013 to 2015 financial years, 56 of the referrals came from police, 46 from housing local authority, 39 from local authority services, 26 from schools and education services and 24 referrals by health services. 25 referrals were however not recorded.

The FOI also asked how many victims received support from social services and also specialist therapeutic support. However, this information has not been revealed.

“Collecting this information would involve manually searching through each child’s record,” the response said.

“Each record would require a detailed investigation to be undertaken in order to ascertain if any of the children received the types of support requests.

“We estimate that it would take 20-30 minutes to search each record.

“With a total of 216 children being referred in both the 2013/14 and 2014/15 financial years where there was a subsequent assessment factor of child sexual exploitation, collecting this information in addition to the data already provided would greatly exceed the appropriate limit of £450 or 18 hours of officer time at £25 per hour.

“Therefore, this part of the request is being refused under section 12 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.”

*No data from April 1 2010 to March 31 2013 was given in the report.