Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what training members of the police are undertaking to communicate and assist victims of image-based abuse.

Intimate image-based abuse can have a devastating impact on the lives of its victims and this Government will treat violence against women and girls (VAWG), online and offline, as a national emergency.

The College of Policing set the curriculum for policing which includes educational outcomes on image-based abuse. At present, individual forces choose how to deliver this training, often by commissioning local experts and support services.

The Government is determined that every force must have the right specialist capability to investigate these crimes properly. We will therefore work closely with the College of Policing and National Police Chiefs' Council to strengthen the training for officers on VAWG.

Under the Online Safety Act 2023, it is an offence to send, share or threaten to share “deepfake” pornography. This is part of a new “base offence” that criminalises someone for sharing an intimate image without consent. This Government has committed to banning the creation of sexually explicit “deepfake” images.