Home Office written question – answered at on 20 October 2025.
Alberto Costa
Chair, Committee on Standards, Chair, Committee on Standards, Chair, Committee of Privileges, Chair, Committee of Privileges
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that every police force has specialist officers trained to investigate cyber crime.
Alberto Costa
Chair, Committee on Standards, Chair, Committee on Standards, Chair, Committee of Privileges, Chair, Committee of Privileges
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department plans to increase the number of police officers with expertise in tackling cyber crime in the next three years.
Alberto Costa
Chair, Committee on Standards, Chair, Committee on Standards, Chair, Committee of Privileges, Chair, Committee of Privileges
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of collaboration between the National Crime Agency and local police forces in responding to cyber crime incidents.
Sarah Jones
The Minister of State, Home Department
We are committed to ensuring we have the workforce needed to tackle the threat of cyber crime and protect our people and businesses. Since 2017, in partnership with local Police and Crime Commissioners, the Home Office has directly funded a national network of specialist officers trained to investigate cyber crime and support local communities in efforts to prevent crimes that occur online. In the financial year 2025/26, this has included funding of c.£30m.
Across England and Wales, Regional Cyber Crime Units (RCCUs) operate in the Metropolitan Police and each Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU). Each of the 43 local police forces has a dedicated Force Cyber Crime Unit (FCCU). These teams have the specialist skills required to respond to cyber crime and are provided with ongoing training to ensure they can respond to the rapid pace of technological change and the increasingly complexity of cyber crime investigations.
Close collaboration between the National Crime Agency (NCA) and wider policing is vital in ensuring an effective response. The NCA play an important role in leading and coordinating the cyber crime network, supported in policing by the City of London Police as the Lead Force for fraud and cyber crime. The NCA’s operational leadership is driven by statutory national governance structures that drive strategic coordination of the law enforcement response and strengthen the relationship between the NCA and wider policing to effectively respond to cyber crime incidents.
The size of the cyber crime network is under constant review. The Home Office is currently in internal negotiations on the distribution of the departmental allocation provided as part of the recent Spending Review. As part of this process, we will consider the number of officers in policing required to tackle the challenge of cyber crime over the next three years.
Yes1 person thinks so
No1 person thinks not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
