Mr Tom Watson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Tom Watson on 2014-03-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2014, Official Report, column 325W, on the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, how many NCA employees who work in Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command have arrest powers.

Damian Green

[holding answer 20 March 2014]

I refer the Honourable Member to my reply of 13 March 2014, Official Report, column 326W.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Command is fully integrated within the National Crime Agency (NCA). As part of the NCA, the CEOP Command is able to draw on the whole of the NCA’s resources. The NCA works as a flexible organisation and as such there will be NCA officers whose work covers a range of serious and organised crime threats.

In total the NCA has 1,900 officers who currently hold arrest powers who can be called upon to tackle child exploitation. This number is for NCA permanent officers and does not include secondees or those attached to the NCA.