Reports of cuckooing from January 2018 to September 2022

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026838

I note you seek access to the following information:

• The forces definition of cuckooing
• The number of reports of cuckooing in the last five years; 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 (to date)
• From the above figures; how many resulted in a conviction
• How many officers are dedicated to cuckooing. Are there dedicated teams?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose some of the requested information. Some data has been withheld as it is exempt from disclosure and therefore this response serves as a Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) by virtue of the following exemptions:

Section 23(5) – Information supplied by, or relating to, bodies dealing with security matters.

Reason for decision

(5) The duty to confirm or deny does not arise if, or to the extent that, compliance with section 1(1)(a) would involve the disclosure of any information (whether or not already recorded) which was directly or indirectly supplied to the public authority by, or relates to, any of the bodies specified in subsection (3).

Disclosure

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

Q1 - The forces definition of cuckooing

The MPS definition of cuckooing is as follows (taken from the Vulnerability and Protection of Adults at Risk Policy):

“Cuckooing is a process whereby criminals target the homes of vulnerable adults, resulting in them losing control of their property. They may use property for any criminal purpose, including drug dealing, sexual crimes and firearms. The vulnerable adult can be exploited and coerced to participate in criminal acts. Young people vulnerable to criminal exploitation can also be associated with these properties.”

Q2 - The number of reports of cuckooing in the last five years; 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 (to date)

The number of reports of cuckooing in the past five years are as follows:

2018 – 1
2019 – 79
2020 – 108
2021 – 156
2022 (to Sept.) - 109

Please note, these are the number of crime reports with the flag ‘AC – Address Cuckooed’. This flag was only created on the 5 April 2019, but earlier reports may have had the flag added retrospectively. This may account for the lower numbers in 2018 and 2019. Please also note that this is a count of crime records and therefore addresses that have been cuckooed and not a count of offences.

Q3 - From the above figures; how many resulted in a conviction

Cuckooing is not an offence and therefore there are no convictions for this specifically. If cuckooing has occurred, the MPS would look to charge for other related offences, for example drug offences etc.

Q4 - How many officers are dedicated to cuckooing. Are there dedicated teams?

Cuckooing forms part of criminal exploitation, such as County Lines. Although there are no officers dealing solely with this matter, this is tackled both by frontline teams on BCUs and Specialist Crime and Central Specialist Crime teams including the Modern Slavery and Child Exploitation Team and Orochi (MPS County Lines Taskforce working in partnership with County Forces) to pursue County Line Holders and close drugs lines, preventing further harm.

The MPS can neither confirm nor deny that any additional information may be held in relation to this matter.