Sexual Offences

(asked on 2nd March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government plans to take to ensure that all police forces in England contain a dedicated rape and serious sexual offences unit; and what estimate he has made of how quickly those units could be established in all forces.


Answered by
Rachel Maclean Portrait
Rachel Maclean
This question was answered on 7th March 2022

We recognise that having police officers with the right skills is critical in ensuring rape and sexual offences cases are managed appropriately and effectively. We are supporting the police to ensure this is the case through:

  • funding Operation Soteria, which includes reviewing the learning and development offer to officers and sharing learning nationally;
  • supporting the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme, run by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, which drives improvement in the policing response to all safeguarding crimes (including adult sexual offences); and
  • the three-year Spending Review settlement secures an additional £540m for the Police Uplift Programme by 2024/25. This will enable forces to recruit and maintain the full 20,000 officer uplift, delivering on this Government’s commitment to recruit additional officers and keep the public safe.

The deployment of officers and structure of forces is ultimately an operational matter for Chief Constables as there will be different considerations in different force areas.

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