Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Deferred
Paragraph: 107
Home Office lacks data on RASSO-trained police officers, rendering uplift figures misleading.
Conclusion
It is very concerning that the Home Office does not have the numbers of police officers who are RASSO-trained. The emphasis on the uplift programme in the Rape Investigation and prosecution of rape 79 Review Progress Update is also potentially misleading, when the Government does not know how many of those officers will actually receive the necessary training in order to work on such complex cases competently.
Government Response Summary
The government outlined the timeline and publication of the CPS' Pre-trial Therapy Fundamental Principles and updated pre-trial therapy guidance, following the Attorney General’s Office review of its Disclosure Guidelines, but did not address the committee's concerns about data on RASSO-trained police officers.
Paragraph Reference:
107
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
In October 2020 the CPS completed a public consultation exercise on draft pre-trial therapy guidance. In February 2022, the CPS published the Pre-trial Therapy Fundamental Principles which confirmed its commitment to a number of fundamental principles not impacted by the AGO review. These covered the prioritisation to be given to victim health and wellbeing, the need for practitioners to comply with data protection legislation and guidelines when handling victim’s personal material, and the limited circumstances when the content of therapy notes will be disclosed to the defence in criminal proceedings. Publication of the finalised guidelines was delayed in order to allow the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) to complete its annual review of its Disclosure Guidelines as the principles are directly relevant to pre-trial therapy, specifically in relation to when the prosecution team has a duty to obtain therapy notes as part of a criminal investigation. The Attorney General’s Disclosure guidelines were published on 26 May and CPS published its updated pre-trial therapy guidance at the same time.