FOI 477/25

REQUEST 

I would like to know how many adults (18+) you issued with Child Abduction Warning Notices (CAWNs) as a result of their suspicious behaviours with a child - for the calendar years 2022. 2023, 2024 & any data you have for 2025.

RESPONSE

We consulted with our Business Intelligence unit who have provided the following information regarding your request.

Please note, the figures provided are where the person receiving the CAWN is 18 or older as requested, but only counts each individual once per year if a person were to be issued one or more notice.

The figures for 2025 are from 01/01/2025- 11/04/2025.

The ability to react to incidents of abuse against children is of the highest priority for South Wales Police. We actively pursue every opportunity to identify children at risk, focussing our efforts in making sure victims are appropriately safeguarded through multi-agency involvement and offenders are brought to justice.

Each of the three Basic Command Units in force has a dedicated CSE team who work closely with dedicated Missing Persons teams. They assist with CSE investigations and will attach relevant flags and markers on the police systems to assist with safeguarding and identifying relevant individuals. The teams include dedicated Child advocates, whose role is to de-brief suspected victims of CSE and provide intelligence to the teams to assist in safeguarding victims and identifying perpetrators.

The force has also invested in a new Exploitation Team. The team consists of a Detective Inspector, four Sergeants and 17 Constables to cover the three basic command units (BCU’s). There is also a fourth team based at Headquarters to cover the strategic elements of both Child Criminal Exploitation and Child Sexual Exploitation.

The BCU teams will take investigative ownership of all criminal investigations linked to child exploitation, to include:

• Modern Slavery Act 2015
• CSE offences outside a familial environment
• Child National Referral Mechanism referrals, where investigation is required
• Group based CSE offences

The aforementioned resources work with analytical

The aforementioned resources work with analytical support to pro-actively identify potential victims and perpetrators, as well as working with partner agencies to provide the necessary safeguarding of victims and disruption of offenders.