Reported abuse referred to the MPS by NSPCC from January to April 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.024211

I note you seek access to the following information:

In April last year (2021) the NSPCC-managed Report Abuse in Education helpline was set up in response to thousands of reports of recent and non-recent abuse of young people, particularly in schools and colleges.

By December, of the 979 reports into the helpline, it was reported 95 allegations were referred on to police forces through the national child sexual abuse hub at Operation Hydrant.

As a Freedom of Information request can I ask whether your force received any of these 95 referrals? If so, how many?

If you did not receive any could you please specify that.

Have any other referrals been passed to police from the same helpline between 31 December 2021 and 1 April 2022? If so, how many?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

INFORMATION DISCLOSED
The MPS can provide figures upon the number of referrals it has received from the NSPCC Report Abuse in Education Helpline within set dates. The MPS cannot comment on how its figures relate to reports received by the NSPCC or referrals it made to other police forces.

From the 1 April 2021 to 30 December 2021, 18 referrals were made to the MPS by the NSPCC Report Abuse in Education Helpline via Operation Hydrant.

From the 31 December 2021 to 1 April 2022, a further 1 referral was made to the MPS by the NSPCC Report Abuse in Education Helpline via Operation Hydrant.

The figures provided are based on the date that the information was first shared with the police. It should be noted that only referrals that were clearly received via the NSPCC Report Abuse in Education Helpline have been captured in the figures. NSPCC referrals where the source of the report is unclear have been excluded from the figures provided.