IPCC outlines investigation into North Yorkshire Police’s handling of child abuse intelligence

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has outlined the terms of reference for its investigation into the actions North Yorkshire Police (NYP) took between November 2013 and September 2014 in response to information provided by the National Crime Agency (NCA) in November 2013.

Information currently indicates that 25 individuals, believed to be resident in the North Yorkshire area at the time, were named in the Project Spade intelligence and that there were delays in acting on the intelligence received until late September 2014. NYP has confirmed that 17 individuals have now been arrested and bailed, four have been sent to other forces to deal with, two had previously been arrested on other relevant offences, one was dealt with other than by way of arrest and one is now deceased.

The IPCC investigation will examine:

• whether NYP dealt with the intelligence as they should have according to national and force policies; - any difficulties accessing the intelligence data and what action was then taken; - whether NYP’s Intelligence Bureau had enough expertise and resources to deal with such intelligence; - whether NYP replied properly to requests from the NCA for updates on what they’d done with the intelligence; and - what action NYP took based on the intelligence passed to it by the NCA.

IPCC Commissioner Kathryn Stone said:

"How police deal with child abuse is rightly of great concern to the families of those involved and society in general. It is vital that our investigation should examine how North Yorkshire Police dealt with the intelligence given to them by the NCA and what actions they took. We will be conducting a thorough and comprehensive investigation into this matter.”

IPCC investigators have already obtained information about the Intelligence Bureau, and its staffing, and have requested the email archive relating to the intelligence from the NCA.