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
Progress in Other Key Areas
A pertinent feature of the HMICS Inspection was the assessment that Police Scotland was not as effective in its pro-active policing of OCSAE as it might or should be, including lawful exploitation of covert tactics. Related to this was a wider perception that OCAG’s (Online Child Abuse Activist Groups) were filling that void, often in a manner that compounded or created further risk.
Police Scotland has since reformed structures to better support the covert, proactive mission and an Operational Lead Team has been created within the NCAIU structures to target offenders. The team was established in July 2021 bringing together open source researchers, intelligence operatives, and investigators with specialist child protection knowledge and experience all under the management of a dedicated Senior Investigating Officer and Deputy with specific roles in managing undercover operations. The Operational Lead Team works jointly with the Special Operations Unit to improve and implement a structured approach to pro-actively targeting OCSAE offenders active in Scotland, ensuring that we work to national standards in line with all UK Law Enforcement.
The creation of this team implemented a recognised UK-wide structure, ensuring Police Scotland is much better placed to manage the demand and associated risks that come with undercover policing in general, and to service newly granted lawful authorities.
The Operational Lead team, along with the Special Operations Unit, has delivered a number of successful target operations since July 2021. We continue to progress in this area and are a valued member of the UK network.
The process by which individuals are referred into Police Scotland who have or are being targeted by other UK Law Enforcement Operational Lead Teams has been reviewed and moved from IIU to the NCAIU. This means the Police Scotland SPOC, referral review, intelligence development and enforcement sit within one business area under the direction of dedicated NCAIU OCSAE SIO’s. This has realised investigative benefit, capacity gains for IIU (meaning IIU has improved capacity to deal with the NCMEC referrals demand). It has increased demand on certain NCAIU teams, however the process is under trial and subject of monthly review and is assessed to be working well.
The NCAIU has championed the use of Cyber Kiosks in support of OCSAE enforcement where appropriate. (They are typically NOT used for IIOC triage). This is mainly in the execution of Undercover Online (UCOL) Investigation packages and aims to reduce unnecessary examination demand on Digital Forensics.
As detailed herein, SCD Public Protection NCAIU has undertaken significant work to reform and improve processes and structures and to realise efficiency gains. There have been successes but critical areas of reform remain outstanding around resourcing of the end-to-end OCSAE process and more enhanced technical solutions.
