Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 11
11
Accepted
Paragraph: 92
Inconsistent funding for Operation Soteria hinders effective implementation of police rape response improvements
Recommendation
It is clear that the way the police respond to reports of rape is vital when it comes to increasing the volumes of rape charges and prosecutions. We welcome the focus on improving these volumes, for example through the Police-CPS Joint National RASSO (Rape and Serious Sexual Offences) Action Plan and Operation Soteria. We agree that the project has enormous potential. However, the Government cannot expect some police force areas to participate in Operation Soteria and to implement learning with dedicated funding, and others to roll out the approach without any extra funding or input from academics into their own force-specific challenges in investigating rape.
Government Response Summary
The government committed an additional £5 million this financial year to continue Operation Soteria in five pathfinder forces and expand it to a further 14 police force and CPS areas, with the aim of developing a new national operating model by June 2023.
Paragraph Reference:
92
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
We welcome the Committee’s recognition of the importance of key actions from the Rape Review Action Plan, such as Operation Soteria. To build on Operation Soteria’s firm foundations, we will be investing a further £5 million this financial year to continue work in the five pathfinder forces and expand into a further 14 police force areas and their corresponding CPS Areas. This work will culminate in a new national operating model for the investigation of rape cases which will be available from June 2023. Operation Soteria is one of the actions in the Rape Review Action Plan that we will continue to deliver. Our cross-system governance regularly reviews the data from the dashboards and delivery against the Action Plan.