Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of reports that young people are receiving criminal records for sending indecent images without having been charged with an offence.

A criminal record for the offence of sending an indecent image will only result where the offender, child or adult, is charged to court (and found guilty) or cautioned by the police. Where the police resolve such cases by other means no criminal record is established.

The Government is clear that where a crime has been committed it should be recorded as such. This is critical to understand the extent of this issue, to identify any pattern of repeat or high-risk behaviour, and providing transparency and accountability.

However, the police have wide discretion as to how to address such behaviour. Working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Department for Education new guidance has been issued to police and schools in relation to children sending indecent images and which has a focus on safeguarding. We have introduced a new outcome for police to apply in cases where they consider it appropriate to undertake no criminal investigation and which will highlight that any subsequent disclosure should only be in the most exceptional cases.