Sexual Offences: Criminal Investigation

(asked on 24th October 2019) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many sexual offence cases, excluding rape, were subject to digital disclosure of mobile phone data in each month since May 2019.


Answered by
Kit Malthouse Portrait
Kit Malthouse
This question was answered on 1st November 2019

The Home Office does not collect data on the number of offences recorded by the police in England and Wales that were subject to digital disclosure of mobile phone data.

The guidance issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions to police and prosecutors is explicitly clear, that seeking to examine the mobile telephones of complainants and witnesses is not a matter of course, and there will be cases where there is no requirement for police to take a complainant’s media devices at all. It is crucial that only the reasonable lines of inquiry are pursued, to avoid unnecessary intrusion into a complainant’s personal life.

It is vital that victims of sexual offences feel empowered to come forward and receive the support they need to recover from the trauma of these crimes. They must not be deterred by a perception about how their personal information is handled. They can and should expect nothing less than that it will be dealt with in a way that is consistent with both their right to privacy and with the interests of justice.

The Information Commissioner’s Office is currently conducting an investigation into this issue. The police and CPS will continue to work with victim groups and the Information Commissioner’s Office to ensure their approach offers the necessary balance between the requirement for reasonable lines of inquiry and the victim’s right to privacy.

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