Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to ensure that each police service in England and Wales invests in training on the prioritisation, investigation and evidence-gathering for digital crime and abuse.

The cyber threats we face continue to grow in scale and sophistication. This is why the National Cyber Security Strategy 2016-2021 is supported by £1.9billion of transformational investment. Through the National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP), this Government continues to invest in law enforcement capabilities at the national, regional and local levels to ensure delivery agencies have the capacity to deal with the increasing volume and sophistication of cyber crime.

The College of Policing Cyber Digital Career Pathway Project will create a Cyber Digital Investigation Profession across law enforcement providing a career pathway and professional certification for professionals at the core of digital investigations – setting the industry standards.

With £4.6m from the Police Transformation Fund (PTF) 2016-17 the NPCC set up the Digital Policing Portfolio (DPP) to help provide a step-change in digital capability, equipping forces with the tools to police effectively in a digital age and protect the public from digital crime. In addition, the Police Transformation Fund awarded £1.5m to the ‘Crystallise’ project; ‘Defining the Digital Intelligence & Investigations Service Model for Local Policing’. This aims to make Digital Intelligence and Investigation part of day-to-day local policing by creating a service model.

Individual police forces are responsible for ensuring that their officers and staff have the necessary training to do their job. The College of Policing supports forces by setting standards for professional practice, supported by the best available evidence, and ensures that those working in policing have access to the right training to meet those standards.