Select committee: Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 17
Eighth Report - Investigation and prosecution of rape
Published 12 Apr 2022
Paragraph 108
Addressed to Home Office
Home Affairs Committee Investigation and prosecution of rape All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Government must start collecting and publishing data on the number of police forces with specialist police rape teams in place, and the number of police officers with specialist rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) training in each force (for example, the number trained on the Rape and Specialist Sexual Assault Investigation Development Programme (SSAIDP) and the number of Sexual Offences Liaison Officers (SOLOs)). This should be published in the next Progress Update, and in each subsequent update. Further, the police officer uplift programme should not be referred to in Rape Review Progress Updates unless the Government has data on the number of recruited police officers who will be or are developing a RASSO specialism. We would strongly encourage the Home Office to collect that data, working closely with the College of Policing and the NPCC, currently conducting a skills gap analysis of the number of specialist trained staff, relative to current demand, covering the number of SOLOs and those on the SSAIDP.
From: Home Affairs Committee, Eighth Report - Investigation and prosecution of rape (HC 193), paragraph 108, 12 April 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 25 July 2022 (deadline 12 June 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response to the Committee's report says it has made "important progress" under its Rape Review Action Plan, and it agrees with some recommendations while stating that others are for Chief Constables, the judiciary or ongoing work to determine.
- On governance, it "welcome[s] and agree[s]" with the recommendation to write to the Committee every six months, in line with the cycle of Rape Review Progress Update publications.
- On specialist police rape teams, it "agrees that specialism is crucial" but says Chief Constables "remain best placed to make decisions about the local deployment of resources".
- On a sexual violence commissioner, it recognises "there may be benefits", says the Home Office and Ministry of Justice are considering the recommendation, and will "update the Committee on progress in due course".
- On Operation Soteria, it commits £5m this year, with a national operating model for rape investigation "by June 2023", though adoption "will be a decision for operationally independent forces".