Our commitment to transforming rape investigations

South Wales Police has today welcomed a report which outlines progress in the transformational changes required to improve experiences of rape and serious sexual assault victims, tighten our grip on offenders and improve conviction rates.

Following a UK-wide rape review, South Wales Police is part of a new approach to investigating rape, which seeks to improve the investigation and response to rape and serious sexual assault.

The new approach, named Operation Soteria, aims to reduce the likelihood of reoffending and make investigations more thorough and effective.

Today, the Home Office has published a progress report on how the new approach, which has already seen an increase in charging rates in South Wales, the introduction of specialist rape teams and more effective working with partner organisations – with more improvements to come in the new year. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/rape-response-overhaul-delivers-progress

Detective Chief Superintendent Phil Sparrow, who is leading on Operation Soteria for South Wales Police, said: “The Operation Soteria findings provided the evidence base for a significant uplift in resourcing, enabling South Wales Police to introduce specialist rape investigation teams across the force. The support from the Operation Soteria team in the ongoing development of this specialist capability has been invaluable.

“Regular continual professional development and participating in the pilot for the rape investigators development programme, developed in partnership with the College of Policing, are seen as essential in the journey of our staff to become specialist rape investigators. Our work with our partners from New Pathways, health and the Crown Prosecution Service has been enhanced and we have seen specialist officers and CPS identifying opportunities via a suspect focused approach.

“One such case resulted in a non-recent rape investigation, where the suspect was identified as having committed an offence elsewhere in the country. The cases were subsequently joined and heard at court at the same time, where he was convicted for both offences.

“Working closely with our CPS Wales colleagues, we have seen gradual increases in the use of early advice, and since the introduction of the specialist teams, our charging rate has increased from 5.7% to 9.6% so far this year. In addition, His Majesty’s Inspectorate have provided some positive feedback in relation to the quality of our rape team investigations.

“We will be launching our new implementation plan in the new year when further details will be released on how we will use the learning from Operation Soteria to embed new practices across our teams in South Wales to drive further change and improvements.”