Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps are being taken to ensure police officers are trained to identify and help tackle instances of online abuse.

The College of Policing sets standards for police training and development, including the national policing curriculum and accreditations for those who work in high risk or specialist roles. It also works with police forces to support standards of ongoing training and development.

On 2 February 2025, we announced a step-change in approach to the way that policing responds to VAWG crimes, through a new National Policing Centre for VAWG and Public Protection. The new centre launched in April 2025, and we are investing £13.1 million pounds this financial year (25/26). This funding includes an uplift of nearly £2 million to enable policing to better target these crimes – including online VAWG - demonstrating the government’s steadfast commitment to halving violence against women and girls in a decade.

The new Centre provides coordinated, national leadership within policing to tackle VAWG and child sexual abuse. Centralising policing expertise to tackle these crimes will drive national coordination, with the development of strengthened specialist training for officers across the country ensuring they offer consistent protection for victims and relentlessly pursue of these vile crimes.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms are required to take steps to remove content where it is illegal, including violent material, to protect users and our communities from online harms.

Ofcom have set out their expectations for platforms to adhere to: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/open-letter-to-uk-online-service-providers/

The government funds an online hate crime reporting portal - True Vision - that was designed so that victims of all types of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report.

The government also funds the National Online Hate Crime Hub which supports individual local police forces in dealing specifically with online hate crime – the Hub provides expert advice to police forces to support them in investigating these abhorrent offences.