Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Home Affairs, how many cases of sexual abuse of children by sports coaches are under investigation by the police.

Child sexual abuse investigations are an operational matter for the police. Police and Crime Commissioners and chief constables are best placed to decide how to deploy their officers to investigate these crimes. The police are operationally independent of Government; therefore, the Government does not hold information about the number of police officers allocated to investigate these crimes.

The Home Office is providing £1.9m financial support through Police Special Grant funding to Operation Hydrant towards the coordination of child sexual abuse and exploitation investigations concerning institutional settings. Operation Hydrant publishes statistics quarterly at: https://www.npcc.police.uk/NPCCBusinessAreas/OtherWorkAreas/OpHydrant/Statistics.aspx.

Latest published statistics by Operation Hydrant feature 329 sport institutions on the Operation Hydrant database up to and including the 30 September 2018. In relation to abuse in football specifically, 300 alleged suspects have been identified up to and including 29 March 2018.