Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the use of operational assessment frameworks such as THRIVE (Threat, Harm, Risk, Investigation, Vulnerability and Engagement) in informing police training and decision-making.

Police forces across England and Wales use a structured way of assessing threat, harm and risk at point of point of contact and deployment. THRIVE is one particular definition and model of such an assessment. The adoption of THRIVE or similar models is based on local force need and procedures.

The College of Policing has published an evaluation of a pilot in one force of the Summary, Assessment, Response (SAR) approach designed to improve the application of THRIVE and other assessment models: Improving call management – summary, assessment, response (SAR) | College of Policing. The evaluation to date has highlighted improved threat, harm and risk assessments, improved dispatch times and improved delivery of information to dispatch. The pilot has also found reductions in call answer time and duration following implementation of the SAR approach.

The handling of incoming crime reports either via telephony or online is an operational matter for local forces, the Home Office does not provide a mandate or direct guidance to forces on practice.