Number Of Sexual Offences Investigative Trained Officers - 069/20

Date Responded 30 January 2020

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

Please can you tell me how many SOIT (sexual offences investigative trained officers) Northumbria Police has in total.

In Response:

Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted within Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.

I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows.

Northumbria Police have 8 fully qualified Sexual Offences Investigative Trained (SOIT) officers in force. There are an additional 32 officers qualified in phase 1 of the SOIT Development Programme and a further 23 who are on the programme and working towards Phase 1 accreditation.

Due to a change in our Force operating model however, those qualified in/ working towards Phase 1 will now be given a ‘SOLO’ qualified status, and will come together with officers who are trained in Achieving Best Evidence (ABE), to perform the ‘SOIT’ role.

Disclaimer

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.