Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has issued guidance to police services on using an intelligence-led approach to identify children who are at risk of online exploitation.

The College of Policing, as the professional body for the Police Service is responsible for providing guidance to the police. The College of Policing’s “Vulnerability” training package, aimed at ensuring a consistent approach across all police forces, includes a programme on Child Sexual Exploitation. Further details are provided on their website:https://www.college.police.uk/What-we-do/Development/Vulnerability/Pages/Vulnerability.aspxing

We have begun to drive a step change in our approach to dealing with crimes against vulnerable children and people across the country and have invested significantly in a programme of reform to help the police to respond to changing crimes. This includes significant extra investment through the Police Transformation Fund (PTF) to transform policing in response to crimes against vulnerable individuals such as child sexual abuse.