Written question asked by Oliver Dowden (Conservative) on Monday, 29 June 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 1 July 2026. It was answered by Natalie Fleet (Labour) on Monday, 6 July 2026 on behalf of the Home Office.
Sexual Offences
- Question
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To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidelines the police have for handling sexual offence cases.
- Answer
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We are funding the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Public Protection to improve the national police response to VAWG. Their work includes supporting forces to implement Operation Soteria, which consists of guidance and tools developed by academics to support officers to better support victims of rape and sexual offences and ensure investigations centre on the suspect.
In addition, every police force in England and Wales will have a specialist rape and sexual offence team by 2029. The Home Secretary provided guidance to policing to assist forces to deliver these teams in December 2025.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 13833
- Session
- 2026-27
- Grouped for answer
- Yes
- Subjects
- Police Sexual offences
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2026-07-06 15:28:47 +0100
- URI
- http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2026-27/13833
- In Indexing
- http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2026-27/13833
- In Solr
- https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2026-27/13833