Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 October 2018 to Question 182082 on drugs: crime, which body will be responsible for the operation of the new national police capability to tackle gang related activity on social media; and what the planned timescale is for the establishment of that body.

The new social media hub is hosted within the Metropolitan Police Service and is a new hub under the National Police Chiefs Council banner that builds on the lessons learnt from MPS’ Operation Domain.

The hub will initially look to target the highest harm gangs in London. The hub will be formally established early next year, when it will engage with other forces in England and Wales as the concepts and tools are developed, in order to build capabilities nationally and share best practice approaches to tackling online violent content.