Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the HMIC report on Police Effectiveness 2016, whether she plans to issue further guidance on the use of the investigation outcome type 16, evidential difficulties: victim does not support police action.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council are currently consulting forces on the extent to which additional guidance would be useful. The Home Office will carefully consider any proposals brought forward.

The outcomes framework provides police forces with valuable data that we expect them to examine rigorously in order to understand and identify how the way in which investigations are progressed can be improved, and ensure that victims are being supported.