Report Summary
This report provides members of the Policing Performance Committee with an overview of an overview of the Progress Towards HMICS Recommendations in respect of Policing Online Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation.
To provide members with an overview of progress made by Police Scotland in response to the Recommendations made by HMICS in its Strategic Review of Police Scotland’s Response to Online Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation published in February 2020 and its subsequent progress review, HMICS’ Review of Online Child Sexual Abuse, published in August 2021.
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Meeting
The publication discussed was referenced in the meeting below
Policing Performance Committee - 7 December 2022
Date : 07 December 2022
Location : online
Current Statistics
Work continues under Operation PARROR with enforcement action undertaken in respect of 1813 NOCAP Investigation enquiries since September 2020. Currently Police Scotland recover Child Sexual Abuse Material in 63% of enforcements. 1710 children have been protected through this work and 984 people arrested.
Despite these figures, enduring challenges remain with demand increases continuing to place a strain on resources. The Internet Investigations Unit has always had a workload queue, however ongoing retirals and transfers alongside prolonged staffing gaps are exacerbating the wider demand increases. In October the unit had circa 900 undeveloped intelligence referrals, an unprecedented level. Not all of these will result in a NOCAP investigation, but the majority will.
Despite resource uplifts, Digital Forensics’ capacity is still not in equilibrium with the greater (by contrast) enforcement capacity that exists across NCAIU and Local Policing teams. Consequently there is an enduring enforcement backlog for NOCAP enforcement. This has always existed to some extent but has risen steadily in the past 18 months and presently is 229 (14/11/2022 - across both NCAIU and Local Policing Public Protection Teams).
This remains under active consideration by the Force Executive.
