To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the police's capability to tackle (a) fraud, (b) online abuse and (c) hate crime.
Answered on
26 April 2017
Improving the law enforcement response to fraud is a priority for the Joint Fraud Taskforce where we are working with law enforcement to improve the local, regional and national response to fraud. All police forces have access to regional support through the Regional Organised Crime Units and national support from the City of London Police.
We recognise that local policing capabilities in respect of the investigation of digital crime need to be further developed to meet the challenges the police face tackling fraud or online abuse in the digital era. We are supporting the work of the National Policing Lead for Digital Investigation and Intelligence. We are also providing £4.6 million through the Police Transformation Fund to enable to police to improve digital capability, funding police led programmes that will work to equip forces with the tools to effectively police a digital age and protect victims of digital crime.
The police have increased their capability to record and respond to hate crime. This is reflected in the increase in police recorded hate crime. The police have also improved their training to staff on the identification, investigation and prosecution of hate crime.