The Home Secretary has commissioned Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of
Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to
undertake a thematic inspection of the police response to
group-based child sexual exploitation (CSE) at the earliest
opportunity.
The commission follows the recent Independent Inquiry into Child
Sexual Abuse report into CSE by Organised Networks and a number
of other reviews in local areas such as the Bradford district,
which have highlighted inadequacies in past responses to this
horrific crime. This national inspection will ensure learning
from past mistakes is being applied by police forces across the
country, so that they can respond effectively to all victims and
bring more offenders to justice.
Home Secretary said:
“Victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and exploitation
have told me how they have been failed by the state in the name
of political correctness.
“We need to understand how the police interacted with local
schools, healthcare providers, children’s services and other arms
of the state and pertinent questions will need to be asked to
ensure that previous failings are not repeated.
“Although I believe the policing response to these issues has
evolved, I want to ensure current practice is relentless in
protecting children, supporting victims and bringing perpetrators
to justice, which is why I am requesting this inspection.”
This national inspection will assess current policing practice
across England and Wales, to ensure all police forces are
employing the most effective approaches in protecting victims
from CSE and relentlessly pursuing offenders. The inspection will
include (but is not limited to):
- The effectiveness of police assessments of the nature and
scale of offending in their area, with particular attention paid
to information sharing, problem profiling, and the collection of
data, including on the characteristics of CSE offenders
- The attitudes of police towards victims
- The nature, adequacy and timeliness of responses, including
the use of proactive prevention and disruption tools and the
quality of criminal investigations.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
- The Government is firmly committed to tackling all forms of
child sexual abuse and exploitation right across the UK, and to
working with international partners to tackle the threat
globally.
- Our approach is underpinned by the Tackling Child Sexual
Abuse Strategy, which was published just over a year ago. The
strategy sets out firm commitments to drive action across every
part of Government and across all agencies - education, health,
social care, industry and civil society.
- This year, we have provided £4m for the Tackling Organised
Exploitation programme, which brings together local, regional and
national data to ensure police can effectively uncover and
prosecute exploitation.
- We are funding dedicated child sexual abuse and exploitation
analysts in every policing region, to improve data quality,
analysis, intelligence and tasking.
- We have also invested over £2m this year to the NPCC’s
Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme, which identifies
and shares best practice across forces.
- We have provided £500k to the College of Policing to deliver
specialist training for senior officers through the Public
Protection and Safeguarding Leadership programme.
- The Prevention Programme, funded by the Home Office in
each of the ten policing regions, is driving work with wider
partners - like those in the transport and night-time economy
industries - to combat exploitation.
