Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police forces have a strategy in place to tackle cybercrime; and if she will make a statement.

The response to threats within each police force area and consequent allocation of resources is a matter for each Chief Constable, in consultation with their Police and Crime
Commissioner. However the Strategic Policing Requirement (SPR) articulates the national threats to which local forces must have regard, and cyber crime and a large-scale cyber incident included, meaning they must be taken into account when deciding resource allocations.

Cyber, including cyber crime, was recognised as a Tier 1 threat to national security in the 2010 National Security Strategy. The Government has responded by investing £860 million over five years through the National Cyber Security Programme (NCSP). Approximately 10% of this has been invested in building law enforcement agencies’ capabilities to respond to this threat, including setting up the National Cyber Crime Unit in the National Crime Agency, and cyber teams in each of the Regional Organised Crime Units, as well as providing training for officers in local police forces.