Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police forces operate specialist rape and sexual offence investigation teams; and which forces do not yet have such teams in place.

Rape and sexual offences are amongst the most harmful crimes in society and can have a devastating impact on victims, their loved ones and our communities. Despite this, we assess only half of police forces in England and Wales have a specialist team to respond to and investigate these offences.

We have therefore instructed all police forces in England and Wales to implement a specialist rape and sexual offence team by 2029 and are working with National Centre for VAWG and Publication to ensure consistency nationally.

Our efforts will mean that by the end of this parliament, victims and their supporters can be confident that, wherever they live, police forces have the right skills, knowledge and capability to deploy every tool available to bring sex offenders to justice and provide the best possible support to victims.