Overview
- Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced new funding to track down offenders and reopen hundreds of previously closed child sexual exploitation cases.
- Police forces in England and Wales will get AI-enabled tools through a £9.3 million NPCC programme to analyse large datasets, translate foreign-language material, and spot links between suspects.
- Targeted allocations include £38 million for the National Crime Agency, a tenfold boost for Operation Beaconport to pursue offenders who thought they were beyond reach, and £11.7 million for the undercover online network.
- The statutory Independent Inquiry, chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield, has a £65 million budget to report by March 2029 and can compel witnesses and documents while testing evidence on ethnicity, culture, and religion.
- The inquiry plans public hearings that may call tech firms as police seek to build on last year’s 10,693 prosecutions and 8,681 convictions, aiming for faster, more consistent support for victims across all forces.