Chief Constable sets out policing response to child sexual exploitation and abuse

Scotland’s Chief Constable outlined policing’s role in the system-wide approach to protecting children from sexual exploitation and abuse.

Chief Constable Jo Farrell detailed Police Scotland’s engagement with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the National Crime Agency’s work in response to Baroness Louise Casey’s audit into the scale, nature, and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation in England and Wales.

To support the UK law enforcement approach, Chief Constable Farrell said Police Scotland is identifying child sexual exploitation crimes recorded since January 2013 involving one or more victims and two or more suspects and where the victim is under the age of 18 and will continue to engage with the NCA.

The Chief Constable said that resourcing this important work must be balanced with the ongoing requirement to respond to increasing online child sexual exploitation and abuse as well as offending in the physical space.

During a public meeting of the Scottish Police Authority Board in Edinburgh today, Thursday 27 November, Chief Constable Farrell also set-out policing’s role as co-chairs of Scotland’s Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group.

The Chief Constable’s report is available here, and her update is below.

 

A key responsibility for society is to build cohesive and resilient communities where concerns are identified quickly and the whole system supports children to thrive and flourish.

Instances where young people, vulnerable young people, are victims of group-based child sexual exploitation rightly appal communities.

Preventing this vile offending – groups of men targeting and trafficking children for sexual abuse – and bringing perpetrators to justice sits right at the core of my motivation as a police officer and the entire mission of Police Scotland to keep people safe.

The threat and challenge has developed, with increasing reported child sexual abuse and exploitation and globally connected and digitally enabled offenders operating in the online space, with a 20 per cent year on year increase in reported online child sexual abuse. I have been explicit about the duty on policing to build capability and capacity to address this harm online and in the physical space.

Working with social work, education, health colleagues and the third sector to create and hold safe spaces for young people, identify concerns, and take action to support and safeguard lies right at the heart of community policing.

Legacy police services in Scotland and Police Scotland have, over a period of years, investigated group-based child sexual exploitation, working closely with prosecutors to build evidence and achieve important, albeit a limited number, of criminal justice outcomes, including convictions and deportations.

This is a vital area of public protection where the establishment of Police Scotland has driven improvement, including through the establishment of a National Child Abuse Investigation Unit in 2015.

A key role of the unit has been to improve our understanding, investigative response, intelligence, and our multi-agency approach to bring about changes in policy, practice, and training in relation to child sexual exploitation.

Police Scotland has worked closely with local authorities and social work, criminal justice colleagues and the third sector, to review and learn from investigations to improve the whole-system response and better support victims.

Baroness Louise Casey’s audit into the scale, nature, and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation in England and Wales, published in June, powerfully detailed necessary change, with a rallying call to protect children which everyone should support.

In Scotland, along with the chief social work adviser, we co-chair the National Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation Strategic Group, which has been in existence since September 2024 and brings together Social Work Scotland, the Scottish Government, health care, COSLA, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Education Scotland, the Scottish Children’s Reporter, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers, and a range of third sector agencies.

The group, which met this week, seeks to improve co-ordination and capability to address child sexual abuse and exploitation and we remain committed to playing our role in that whole system approach. That group has discussed Baroness Casey’s Audit and its recommendations on partnership working, and the members are committed to identifying areas for improvements.

I would state my commitment that Police Scotland will continue to take learning from any source which contributes to keeping people safe.

In response to Baroness Casey’s recommendations, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the National Crime Agency established Operation Beaconport, to identify cases where police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service made the decision to take no further action against suspects involved in group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Police Scotland undertook an aligned exercise to ensure a UK wide law enforcement approach could be achieved.

We are identifying crimes recorded between January 2013 and the present which involve one or more victims and two or more suspects and where the victim is under the age of 18.

Following investigation, a number of these crimes were reported to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and, as described, some have resulted in criminal justice outcomes. Others, for example in relation to reports involving young people as the offender and the victim, may have been progressed through other routes, for example the Children’s Reporter.

Of crimes which fit the criteria mentioned and which remain unsolved, we continue to be in contact with Operation Beaconport to assist with a UK law enforcement approach and understanding and provide additional, independent ratification around further investigative opportunities. Should the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service request any further investigation of matters previously reported, we will undertake those enquiries.

To be clear, Police Scotland will progress any opportunities for further investigation and take immediate safeguarding steps where concerns are identified.

Police Scotland will conduct any reinvestigation in a trauma-informed way which places victims and survivors at the heart of our approach.

As part of this work, we will develop an overview of the demographics of suspects and offenders to identify any patterns, trends or concerns.

As Chief Constable, I remain a core participant in the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), which was instigated in 2015 to consider the abuse of children in care in Scotland between 1933 and 2014. We remain closely engaged with the inquiry and will continue to share information requested by the inquiry.

Chair, as you know, I briefed the First Minister John Swinney, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs Angela Constance, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills Jenny Gilruth, Minister for Victims and Community Safety Siobhan Brown, and Minister for Children and Young People Natalie Don-Innes on these matters during a session at Bute House on Monday afternoon.

This was an important opportunity to outline policing in Scotland’s response to the evolving challenge of violence against women and girls and child sexual exploitation and abuse as part of a whole system approach.

I underlined our commitment to playing our part in protecting the most vulnerable, placing victims and survivors at the centre of investigations, and bringing perpetrators to justice.

We continue to watch developments closely and will update the Authority as required.

I’ll now turn to my report.

As we approach the traditionally busy festive period and the end of 2025, I want to thank officers and staff for their service throughout the year, which has been set against an intensifying operating environment.

Poverty, geopolitics, cybercrime, and civil unrest is driving a high level of demand and the challenge for policing is evolving rapidly, illustrated by increasing online harm and threat, violence associated with organised crime, and a high level of protests.

My report reflects some of those challenges, and highlights action and outcomes driven by the hard work, skill and commitment of our officers, staff, and volunteers during October and November.

Officers provide a hugely valuable service for our communities, stepping forward at times of danger to protect others.

The conviction of a man for the attempted murder of an officer in Paisley in May 2024 this week is an important reminder of the violence and threat our officers can face in the course of their duties.

It is worth pausing to recognise that this involved a marked police car being rammed before officers were confronted by Liridon Kastrati, a 32-year-old man, who was brandishing a chainsaw.

Kastrati was arrested and was convicted of attempted murder this week. He’ll be sentenced later.

I pay huge tribute to the bravery officers demonstrated when confronted by acute and completely unacceptable levels of violence and highlighting the criminal justice outcome is important to send a clear message that violence against officers and staff will not be tolerated.

Returning to my report, I detail a number of criminal justice outcomes following murder investigations. Although homicides remain at an extremely low level in Scotland, each one is a tragedy for the victim and their loved ones and each presents its own investigative challenges.

Our commitment to achieving answers for families continues to be illustrated by our very strong detection rate in relation to what are devastating crimes which also impact wider communities.

I want to thank the officers and staff, including forensic colleagues, for their skill, professionalism and resilience in these crucial cases.

My report outlines human trafficking operations, money laundering, and further arrests in relation to Operation Portaledge, an investigation into targeted attacks in the East and West of the country.

This includes an update on the sentencing of a man to over six years in prison following investigations under Operation Portaledge.

I also provide an update in relation to policing around criminality and disorder associated with the Bonfire Night period.

A significant partnership drive, supported by strong community policing, sought to address the root causes of criminality and disorder which has been experienced during recent years.

Under Operation Moonbeam, Police Scotland was prepared to respond this year, while officers in many areas of Scotland were equipped with Body Worn Video as our national roll-out passed the halfway point ahead of Halloween.

We made a very small number of arrests and, importantly, fireworks related calls to the police reduced by just over a third compared to last year.

I want to thank our officers and staff, fire and rescue officers, other blue light colleagues, and partners at local authorities and the third sector including Crimestoppers, and communities for the support and cohesion demonstrated.

This positive outcome underlined the value of proactive, community-based policing – the young people we worked with partners to reach around fireworks disorder are a similar group to those at risk of being recruited and exploited by organised criminals for example, in relation to County Lines.

In my report, I outline progress on an embedded, enhanced community policing model, with a test of change having commenced in Forth Valley at the end of September.

We are listening carefully to the experiences of officers, staff, the community and partners in Forth Valley as we assess the impact of the model to capture any learning as we move forward. I am grateful for the Authority's ongoing interest in this work and we will continue to report as progress is made.

While we are hearing some positive feedback, I have set out my desire to invest an additional 600 officers in local policing over the next two years to address harm and vulnerability, contribute to community cohesion, ensure public trust to share information and public confidence that policing can prevent crime and tackle anti-social behaviour.

This is part of an overall resource requirement to strengthen our workforce, address pressure on our people and our policing performance and deliver on our vision of safer communities, less crime, supported victims, and a thriving workforce.

Investment will enable policing to strengthen our response to digitally enabled and globally connected crime to target sex offenders, organised criminals, and extremists who are radicalising, recruiting, exploiting and abusing our children, and bringing illegal drugs and violence to the streets of Scotland.

I have discussed child sexual exploitation and we have noted the long-term increases in reported sexual offences, up 45% in the last 10 years. This evidences that we must continue to improve our response to violence against women and girls and in my report I outline work, including policing's role in campaigning to call on men to reflect on their behaviour, to prevent offending and tackle misogyny.

We have set out further details on our resourcing requirement for the coming years to the Scottish Parliament's Criminal Justice Committee in a written evidence submission and during a session earlier this month where, as mentioned Chair, you represented the Authority along with the Chief Executive in a later session.

Throughout our evidence, we underlined the success of policing reform as an outlier in the Scottish public sector, as well as evidencing ongoing efficiencies and affirming our commitment to continuous improvement.

One example of ongoing improvement introduced this week is our move from legacy analogue technology platforms to a modern digital contact system under our Unified Communications and Contact Platform.

The platform brings together different contact types such as 999, 101 and digital forms of contact from the public into a single unified platform – with future capability to offer the public more ways to contact us, for example webchat and messaging services.

While the public won't notice this different system when they contact us, it will speed up our work and strengthen our system resilience while also providing more flexibility in contact handling.

Although we continue to drive improvements and efficiencies, I have been clear around our funding requirements for the coming years.

A flat cash scenario is not deliverable. It would require an immediate recruitment pause, and attrition of our workforce would lead to a significant reduction in visible policing, prevention work, delays in responding to calls from the public and a severe impact on our ability to respond to major events. Difficult decisions would be required.

Of course, the UK budget was announced yesterday and the Cabinet Secretary for Justice Angela Constance provided her perspective during an evidence session to the Criminal Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament and, with the Authority, we will pay close attention to these developments and their implications.

Detailed engagement with the Authority and communication with the Scottish Government at ministerial and official level will continue ahead of the Scottish Budget in January.

My report outlines our latest intake of recruits earlier this month which maintained officer establishment at around 16,500.

Police officers, staff, and volunteers are the key to the success of policing in Scotland.

Over a period of years, Police Scotland has driven a focus on our values and standards of behaviour, including through the Policing Together programme and the culture dashboard.

I know the professionalism and compassion our people demonstrate right across the country, day in, day out, as I have set out today.

I am constantly blown away by what officers do – the care, the pride and the sacrifices they make to do their duty.

My report outlines our ongoing work to implement the Police (Ethics, Conduct & Scrutiny) Scotland Act 2025, including a refreshed code of ethics which provides further depth to what we mean by integrity, fairness, respect, and upholding human rights.

I also outline our continued work with the Scottish Government on new vetting and conduct regulations.

This important work will ensure our resolve to deliver professional, values-based policing for communities is underpinned in legislation.

At the same time, we must constantly seek to improve the experiences of our officers and staff and my report outlines progress on this year’s workforce survey, which I have committed to conducting annually.

We are working hard to understand the results, which will be further shared across the organisation and with the Authority as part of an extensive engagement and communications programme.

My commitment is that the Chief Officer Team will again act on what the survey tells us and support leaders right across the organisation to take targeted action so that we improve the experiences of our people.

Lastly, I outline some changes to our Chief Officer Team's responsibilities following Assistant Chief Constable Emma Bond’s secondment to a UK police reform role.