Tag: Press Release

The press release issued by the Home Office on 19 May 2026.

The Home Office has announced £100 million to fight child sex offences and protect victims and survivors, including £38 million for Operation Beaconport.

A historic £100 million will drive a crackdown on child sexual abuse, including tracking down vile grooming gang members, protecting victims and bringing offenders to justice. Perpetrators who thought they got away with horrific grooming gang offences will be held to account as closed cases are reopened.

Operation Beaconport will receive a tenfold cash injection, building on the £4 million the operation received when it launched last autumn. £38 million has been set aside for the National Crime Agency (NCA) and operational partners to reopen and investigate cases and put more offenders behind bars. It is focused on furthering critical work to protect victims wherever abuse takes place – in our communities, families, online and institutions.

Police forces in England and Wales will also have greater access to pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) technology to weed out and bring predators to justice more rapidly. To support this, the Tackling Organised Exploitation Programme, led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), will receive £9.3 million this year.

This includes a suite of advanced, AI-enabled intelligence tools, ensuring all forces, regardless of size or local resources, can use cutting-edge technology to pursue offenders faster and better safeguard victims.

This enables officers to analyse large datasets, translate foreign-language material in seconds, and identify patterns and relationships between suspects. By reducing manual processes and unifying access to proven tools, the programme focuses on accelerating investigations and creates a more consistent, intelligence-led national response.

£11.7 million will also back the Undercover Child Abuse Online Network, which targets predators in the darkest corners of the internet and stops abuse before it happens. The network tracks and identifies offenders, intervenes early and drives arrests and prosecutions. Their work helped safeguard 1,748 children between April 2024 and 2025, with 1,797 arrests also made.

Today’s funding sits alongside the Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs, which seeks to root out past failures wherever they occurred. It is laser‑focused on grooming gangs and will explicitly examine the role of ethnicity, religion and culture of the offenders and the response of institutions.

Shabana Mahmood, Home Secretary, said:

The grooming gangs scandal is one of the darkest moments in our country’s history – where the most vulnerable people were abused and exploited at the hands of evil child rapists.

There will be no hiding place for the predatory monsters who committed unimaginable crimes of child sexual abuse and exploitation. We will track down these vile rapists and put them behind bars.

Last year, the police delivered record levels of enforcement – with 10,693 prosecutions and 8,681 convictions for child sexual offences. This investment increase means forces can take this vital work even further, reach more victims and stop more offenders in their tracks.

A further £8.9 million will go towards a key part of the NCA’s work targeting the highest-risk offenders like Jamie Beckett who was sentenced to 23 years after he sexually abused 7 vulnerable children by offering cash for medical appointments in exchange for indecent images.

NCA investigators were able to bring him to justice through an investigation which traced complex digital and financial trails. Increased NCA funding will enable even faster and stronger investigations to bring more high‑harm predators like Beckett to justice.

NCA Director of Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Investigations Jav Oomer said:

We welcome the continued Home Office funding to support the NCA’s vital work in tackling the highest harm offenders, whether they operate in our communities or online, and will use the full force of our capabilities to protect children.

We continue to see the increasing complexity and severity of CSA offending, with offenders becoming more technologically sophisticated, but also producing more severe and more sadistic material.

NCA co-ordinated efforts across UK policing result in almost 1,000 arrests and 1,200 children being safeguarded each and every month.

Adult survivors who, as children, experienced sexual abuse will also be supported through £3.2 million of funding to help rebuild their lives through the National Support for Adult Survivors.

The grooming gangs scandal is one of the darkest moments in this country’s history, where the most vulnerable were abused at the hands of evil child rapists and let down by a system meant to protect them.

That is why part of the Operation Beaconport funding will strengthen how police forces investigate these crimes, ensuring a consistent response wherever abuse is reported and better, trauma‑informed support for victims.

The remaining spend will be spread across a series of vital work through law enforcement and partner agencies to address child sexual exploitation and violence against women and girls.

Chief Constable Becky Riggs, National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Child Protection and Abuse Investigation said:

Protecting children and young people and supporting all victims and survivors of abuse and exploitation must be at the heart of everything we do. This investment is a significant step forward in ensuring that anyone who has experienced these crimes is met with a response that is compassionate, consistent and trauma informed.

No single agency can tackle child abuse and exploitation alone. The strength of this approach lies in the way policing and law enforcement are working together with partners across government and specialist services to build a truly whole-system response.

By bringing together expertise, intelligence, and support services, we are better equipped to prevent harm, safeguard victims and survivors, and pursue those responsible for these crimes in all their forms.

The additional investment in advanced technology, through the Tackling Organised Exploitation Programme, will transform the pace at which we can identify and disrupt offenders. By enabling us to analyse large volumes of digital material more quickly and effectively, we can act faster to protect those at risk and bring perpetrators to justice sooner.

Above all, this funding helps ensure that all victims and survivors are seen, heard, and supported – whether their experiences are recent or non‑recent, online or offline. It strengthens our collective ability to respond with care, consistency, and determination, as we continue to improve how we disrupt these devastating crimes.

Gabrielle Shaw, Chief Executive, National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said:

This funding is a positive and necessary step towards improving the national response to child sexual abuse and exploitation. Meaningful investment in preventing abuse and supporting survivors is essential if victims and survivors are to receive the protection, care and justice they deserve.

As a thematic co-lead for victim and survivor engagement within the CSE taskforce, NAPAC is heartened by the collaborative approach that government, policing and the third sector are taking to deliver better outcomes for survivors. There is still a long way to go, but progress is being made at a national level.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 19 May 2026.

Organised crime gangs will be hit with raids, shop closures, and cash seizures in a £30 million crackdown on dodgy high street shops.

Organised crime gangs operating across Britain’s high streets will be hit with a major police offensive in a new nationwide crackdown on dodgy shops.

Rogue barber shops, vape stores, mini-marts and sweet shops linked to organised crime will face raids, closures and cash seizures under a new £30 million crackdown targeting money laundering, tax evasion, and illegal working over 3 years.

£20 million of funding will go towards an enhanced law enforcement response, including establishing a new multi-agency co-ordination cell based out of the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Police officers will also be uplifted across forces in hotspot regions. Altogether, 75 new police officers will be recruited across the NCA, Greater Manchester Police, West Midlands Police and a joint Kent Police and Essex Police Unit, to build intelligence at a national level and increase the number of dedicated officers tackling organised crime on the ground.

Trading Standards will also be backed with £6 million in new funding to bolster the response to sham businesses in at-risk local authorities. New officer training will be rolled out to identify suspicious businesses, strengthen business compliance, and boost enforcement.

A new High Street Organised Crime Unit has also been established to bring together government departments, policing partners, and Trading Standards. Together, the additional funding and new unit builds on strong enforcement action such as Operation Machinize, to boost the national and local response to targeting criminal networks operating in plain sight on Britain’s high streets.

Overseen by the Security Minister, Dan Jarvis, the unit will be responsible for identifying what more is needed – from stronger powers to better co-ordination – to stop this criminal activity from happening in the first place.

A rapid review of local responders’ powers is underway to explore how these can be strengthened, starting with a consultation on extending the duration of closure orders, where appropriate, to shut criminal businesses down for longer.

Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said:

Criminal gangs have exploited our high streets to launder their dirty money and undercut honest businesses.

We are hitting back with a nationwide crackdown to shut these fronts down, seize dirty cash and drive organised crime off our high streets and put bosses behind bars.

It comes as the NCA estimate at least £12 billion of criminal cash is generated in the UK each year, with £1 billion laundered through high street businesses like mini-marts, barber shops, vape stores and sweet shops. Some businesses are also connected to the sale of fake goods, tax evasion, illegal working, and illegal drug supply.

Thousands of businesses are expected to be raided, hundreds of arrests made and millions in cash seized as a national intensification campaign will be put on permanent footing annually to drive co-ordinated enforcement across the country.

Sal Melki, Deputy Director of Illicit Finance at the National Crime Agency, said: 

For the past 18 months, the NCA, in conjunction with policing partners, has led Operation Machinize, the largest operation against economic crime on our high streets. By bringing together policing, HMRC, Immigration Enforcement, Trading Standards, and other partners in a co-ordinated approach, over 950 people have been arrested and over £10 million worth of criminal value seized.

This criminal activity makes our communities less safe and less prosperous. It undermines legitimate business, deprives public services of tax revenues, and fuels a range of predicate offences such as the drugs trade, illicit goods, trafficking, and organised immigration crime.

We will not stop and having the support of the High Street Organised Crime Unit to grow the Machinize partnership will enable us to target and disrupt more high harm offenders. The HSOCU will be key to a whole of government response, where enforcement action is backed up with the laws, policies and powers required at all levels to get this criminal element out of our high streets.

Lord Bichard, Chair, National Trading Standards, said:

Organised high street crime, including the illegal sale of tobacco and counterfeit goods, is damaging communities across the country. These criminal networks undercut honest businesses, draw money away from local economies and expose consumers to unregulated and potentially unsafe products. They are also often linked to wider offending, including money laundering, exploitation, and violence.

The creation of a new High Street Organised Crime Unit will help drive a co-ordinated national response while strengthening local enforcement capability through additional support and funding for Trading Standards, police and partner agencies on the ground, who will work together to disrupt organised offenders, protect the public and support honest businesses that play by the rules.

The latest Operation Machinize in November saw 2,734 premises visited and raided, 924 individuals arrested, over £13 million of suspected criminal proceeds seized or restrained, and more than £2.7 million worth of illicit commodities destroyed. It builds on the £300 million in criminal assets recovered by law enforcement last year, with money invested back to the front lines to support agencies leading the fight against crime.

The new National Police Service will go further by bringing together the National Crime Agency, Counter Terrorism Policing, and regional organised crime units’ capabilities to strengthen the response to serious and organised crime.

Deputy Commissioner Nik Adams, City of London Police and National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Financial Investigation and Asset Recovery, said:

Our high streets should be places where legitimate businesses can grow, not places where organised criminals hide behind shopfronts.

This task force will harness the efforts of the National Crime Agency, national economic crime leads, local community policing, specialist officers and partners to target the businesses being used to launder criminal money, recover criminal assets and protect legitimate traders.

Operation Machinize has shown that the most effective response comes when neighbourhood officers, financial investigators and national agencies work as one team. Local officers understand their communities and can identify suspicious activity, while financial investigators, the City of London Police as national lead force, and the NCA help connect that activity to the organised crime groups and the money flows behind it.

The message to organised criminals is clear. If criminal cash is being pushed through high street businesses, policing and our partners will act. Through the High Street Organised Crime Unit, we will use intelligence, asset recovery and financial investigation to turn local disruption into lasting national impact.

Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said:

The new High Street Organised Crime Unit will be welcome news for people across the country. Illegitimate businesses and retail theft are major issues and too often linked to criminal gang activity. Stolen goods are commonly funnelled through illicit supply chains and resold through unscrupulous businesses, helping fund further criminality. This harms businesses, puts colleagues at risk, and pushes up prices for honest shoppers.

Tackling it requires prioritisation from police and government, and co-ordination and intelligence sharing between retailers, law enforcement, and local partners. We look forward to working together to deliver real progress.

Association of Convenience Stores Chief Executive Ed Woodall said:

Local shops tell us that rogue traders on high streets are causing massive damage to their businesses and the wider community, so we strongly welcome this Government action to back responsible retailers and crack down on the organised crime gangs that are fuelling the illicit trade.

John Herriman, Chief Executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, (CTSI), said:

CTSI welcomes the introduction of the High Street Organised Crime Unit, which will bring together partner agencies – including Trading Standards – to tackle organised criminality on our high streets. The proliferation of so called “dodgy shops” puts consumers at significant risk and undermines the legitimate businesses who drive economic growth across the UK. The new unit will bring a much-needed focus to help clamp down on a blight on our high streets and communities.