Issue - meetings

The Panel was invited to consider the PCCs Report on current and non-recent sexual offences and determine whether it would wish to make any recommendations to the PCC for consideration.

At its June meeting, the Panel received a briefing paper on current and non-recent sexual offences, following which the Chairman requested that the PCC provide the Panel with a more detailed response to address the Panel's concerns about the increased volume of sexual offences, the number of offences resulting in action being taken and the resource related concerns.

The Chairman thanked the PCC for the Report which addressed most of concerns raised except for the query regarding whether there was a reduction in other criminal investigations or policing caused by the substantial rise in such cases, which the PCC advised that that it was not possible to estimate or quantify.

The PCC confirmed that the grants made to other organisations to support victims of sexual violence had been protected and in some cases increased. Coping and recovery of survivors of sexual crimes was vitally important and although it was early days in terms of being able to provide quantifiable victim satisfaction work some work had been commissioned in this area.

In response to the question about why there was an overall upward trend for rape and other sexual offences, the PCC advised that there was no proven answer but society had changed its attitude toward sexual violence and victims were now more confident to report crimes in this area. Also, the attitude of the Police towards victims had changed and victims now believed that they would be taken seriously.  Reporting standards and recording was more accurate and although the figures were continuing to rise, this wasn't necessarily an indication that that the crime was rising.

It was confirmed that specialist training was provided to all staff involved in this area.

In view of the Panel's concern for this area of work, the PCC agreed to consider enhancing the Sexual Offences section in the Performance Summary to provide more detail.