FOI 819/25

Request

Please provide the number of child sexual abuse (CSA) and child sexual exploitation (CSE) allegations/reports or cases that were referred to or assessed by any Independent Advisory Group (IAG) within your force for the purposes of advising on whether the case should proceed to charge and/or prosecution.

Please provide this information broken down by calendar year or financial year from 2000 to 2024 (or as far back as records permit).

If available, please also indicate:

1.Whether the IAG advice was formally recorded in case files or meeting minutes.

2.What proportion of CSA/CSE cases were referred to an IAG in each year.

3.The role or remit of IAGs in influencing charging/prosecution decisions in such cases.

If no such referrals have ever taken place, or if your force does not involve IAGs in such decisions, please confirm this.

Response

We consulted with our Safeguarding & Public Protection department who have provided the below response to your request.

South Wales Police do not have an IAG in relation to CSA & CSE within force. Therefore we hold no information in relation to your request.

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.

The force has invested in an Exploitation Team considering of a Detective Inspector, four sergeants and 17 constables to cover the three Basic Command Units. There is also a fourth team to cover the strategic element of both CSE and CCE (Child Criminal Exploitation)

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.