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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that the questioning by police of children and vulnerable adults who are possible victims of child abuse is both effective at gathering evidence and sensitive to the vulnerability of those being interviewed.

Karen Bradley

Tackling abuse is a priority for this Government. We will continue the work of overhauling how our police, social services and other agencies work together to protect vulnerable children. To this end, we have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat like serious and organised crime, which means police forces now have a duty to collaborate with each other across force boundaries to safeguard children.

The provision of police training is an operational matter. The College of Policing and the National Policing Lead for child protection and abuse investigation have set the requirement for all forces to train all new and existing police staff to respond to child sexual exploitation and abuse, including call handlers, Police Community Support Officers, police officers, detectives and specialist investigators.

The College of Policing has issued Achieving Best Evidence guidance and training for all officers engaged in interviewing children and vulnerable witnesses. This includes training on the sensitivity needed when dealing with victims and witnesses who may be vulnerable as well as working with partners – such as social workers – and their involvement in interviews.

Specialist courses for child sexual abuse and rape specialist investigators also expand on these requirements in relation to interviewing children and vulnerable adults.

The role of social workers in these investigations, including their training, is a matter for the Department for Education. The guidance issued by DfE in March 2015, “Working Together to Safeguard Children”, sets out how social workers and their managers, as well as other agencies including the police, should work together and follow the Achieving Best Evidence guidance.

The Department of Health are responsible for the training of social workers working with vulnerable adults who may have been sexually abused as children or in adulthood.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what training her Department provides to police officers and social workers for interviewing children and vulnerable adults who are possible victims of child abuse.

Karen Bradley

Tackling abuse is a priority for this Government. We will continue the work of overhauling how our police, social services and other agencies work together to protect vulnerable children. To this end, we have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat like serious and organised crime, which means police forces now have a duty to collaborate with each other across force boundaries to safeguard children.

The provision of police training is an operational matter. The College of Policing and the National Policing Lead for child protection and abuse investigation have set the requirement for all forces to train all new and existing police staff to respond to child sexual exploitation and abuse, including call handlers, Police Community Support Officers, police officers, detectives and specialist investigators.

The College of Policing has issued Achieving Best Evidence guidance and training for all officers engaged in interviewing children and vulnerable witnesses. This includes training on the sensitivity needed when dealing with victims and witnesses who may be vulnerable as well as working with partners – such as social workers – and their involvement in interviews.

Specialist courses for child sexual abuse and rape specialist investigators also expand on these requirements in relation to interviewing children and vulnerable adults.

The role of social workers in these investigations, including their training, is a matter for the Department for Education. The guidance issued by DfE in March 2015, “Working Together to Safeguard Children”, sets out how social workers and their managers, as well as other agencies including the police, should work together and follow the Achieving Best Evidence guidance.

The Department of Health are responsible for the training of social workers working with vulnerable adults who may have been sexually abused as children or in adulthood.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department issues to police forces on the presence of social workers at the questioning of children and vulnerable adults who are possible victims of child abuse.

Karen Bradley

Tackling abuse is a priority for this Government. We will continue the work of overhauling how our police, social services and other agencies work together to protect vulnerable children. To this end, we have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat like serious and organised crime, which means police forces now have a duty to collaborate with each other across force boundaries to safeguard children.

The provision of police training is an operational matter. The College of Policing and the National Policing Lead for child protection and abuse investigation have set the requirement for all forces to train all new and existing police staff to respond to child sexual exploitation and abuse, including call handlers, Police Community Support Officers, police officers, detectives and specialist investigators.

The College of Policing has issued Achieving Best Evidence guidance and training for all officers engaged in interviewing children and vulnerable witnesses. This includes training on the sensitivity needed when dealing with victims and witnesses who may be vulnerable as well as working with partners – such as social workers – and their involvement in interviews.

Specialist courses for child sexual abuse and rape specialist investigators also expand on these requirements in relation to interviewing children and vulnerable adults.

The role of social workers in these investigations, including their training, is a matter for the Department for Education. The guidance issued by DfE in March 2015, “Working Together to Safeguard Children”, sets out how social workers and their managers, as well as other agencies including the police, should work together and follow the Achieving Best Evidence guidance.

The Department of Health are responsible for the training of social workers working with vulnerable adults who may have been sexually abused as children or in adulthood.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what changes have been made to the implementation of Achieving Best Evidence procedures in relation to investigations into domestic and sexual abuse in the last 10 years.

Mike Penning

Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) is a guide to best practice when interviewing vulnerable and intimidated witnesses. It was last updated in 2011 and we are currently revising this guidance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which of the recommendations of the report by the Independent Police Complaints Commission on Operation Gullane have been implemented; and what form that implementation has taken.

Karen Bradley

The IPCC report on Operation Gullane makes a number of recommendations relating to police investigation of non-recent child sexual abuse.

Since the publication of those recommendations the Home Office has:

• prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat to empower police forces to maximise specialist skills and expertise to prevent offending and resolve cases

• provided £1.7 million to Operation Hydrant which coordinates the handling of multiple non-recent child sexual abuse investigations specifically concerning institutions

In addition:

• the College of Policing has issued updated Authorised Professional Practice guidance for police in relation to child abuse and exploitation, and

• a joint National Policing Lead and CPS review panel has been established to re-examine non-recent cases of sexual abuse where a decision was made that no further action would be taken and identify whether any issues require further exploration and investigation.

Combined, these measures significantly improve the quality of police investigations non-recent child sexual abuse.

I understand that the IPCC will write directly to the Honourable Member regarding implementation of the report’s recommendations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Barry Sheerman on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many payments of what amount were made by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority to former residents of the Bryn Alyn Community in each year since 1992.

Mike Penning

The information requested is not held centrally.

Three cases have been identified from central records where Bryn Alyn care home has been recorded as the incident location. The date and amount of each payment is shown below:

Payment made	Value of payment (£)
2010	20295
2014	15150
2015	16500

As part of records management policy, records of older cases have been destroyed. It is likely that other cases relating to Bryn Alyn may have been included, but it is not possible to identify these.