Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assistance she has provided to the police to support the deployment of qualified specialist investigators to tackle domestic abuse, sexual offences and online crime.

Police training and guidance are the responsibility of the College of Policing, which has recently launched a sexual offences Special Investigator Development Programme, and has updated its Authorised Professional Practice on domestic abuse and rape. The College has also launched a new training programme developed by the voluntary sector called ‘Domestic Abuse Matters’ which focuses on improved evidence gathering and understanding of controlling and coercive behaviour. This training is being rolled out across forces.

Through the Police Transformation Fund, the Home Office has also awarded £1.9 million to the College to pilot a new ‘licence to practise’ which will ensure that only those officers who are qualified to carry out specialist investigations in high risk areas like child protection, are able to do so. And, up to £12.4million has also been awarded for the Digital Policing Programme, including the Digital Evidence Transfer Service. This is designed to allow forces to rapidly transmit the increasing body of digital evidence across the criminal justice system.