Operation Soteria is a 'game-changer for policing'

Today sees the release of the very first His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) report into the national Operation Soteria programme.

Operation Soteria seeks to deliver cross-system transformational change, improving support for victims and ensuring more perpetrators are bought to justice. This needs to be achieved by radically and sustainably improving procedural and outcome justice for victims of RASSO and those involved in the investigation of RASSO.

The Op Soteria joint unit, headed by ACC Dee Perkins as Strategic Programme Director, consists of the NPCC, College of Policing and Home Office, to help create a national operating model to tackle rape and sexual offences. This was a transformative new approach to rape investigations and prosecutions. It supports the many police officers and staff working across policing to better protect women and girls and be relentless in their pursuit of the perpetrators.

Chief Constable Sarah Crew, Operation Soteria’s Senior Responsible Officer, welcomed the report saying:

“I am pleased to see that this first HMICFRS report found Soteria to be a true ‘game-changer’ for policing.

“This highlights the reason why it is so important that in early adopter forces a positive cultural change in the way policing views these types of investigations is already taking place. In fact, within our own evidence gathering, we have seen more cases being referred to prosecutors and we are seeing more suspects being charged. For example, in the year ending December 2023, charges for sexual offences were up by 18% compared to the previous year, while adult rape charges increased by 38% in the same period.

“I also welcome their comments around the positive efforts of investigators, forces and those working at a national level in policing in England and Wales to put Operation Soteria and the NOM in place. We know that we are asking a lot of forces, as adopting the six-pillar way of working and the NOM do require transformational change at every level. This can often be impacted by the amount of resources available and this is again picked up in the report in terms of resource pressures and short-term funding arrangements being a major risk to the delivery of Soteria.

“As the report says, the system wide benefits this programme offers are ‘a major opportunity for the criminal justice system to finally give victims the service they deserve’ and only by working together and making this a national model, not only for RASSO but even for other types of crime, can we achieve this.

"It is important to note that we were at an early stage of implementation at the time of the inspection and, while the signs are positive and strong, we still have much to do to transform.

“Force problem profiles still need to be improved, Early Advice from CPS isn’t used consistently and we continue to have a shortage of RASSO trained detectives although we are offering increased support and advice for these challenges and the College of Policing are working to provide appropriate, timely, training to all involved in this area of policing. For example, we recently ensured 4,000 detectives were given specialist training – over double the target set by the Government at that time."