Prime Minister Andy Burnham has ordered every police force in England and Wales to establish specialist rape and sexual-offence teams by December 2027, bringing the national deadline forward by 18 months.
The teams had originally been due to be in place by the end of the Parliament in summer 2029 under the Government's Violence Against Women and Girls strategy.
Burnham has now said that timetable is too slow, as ministers also announced a £13.3 million funding pot for up to ten specialist protection-order teams designed to intensify the monitoring and management of offenders.
The package, announced by the Home Office on Friday, forms part of the Government's wider commitment to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.
Every police force to have specialist team by December 2027
Under the accelerated timetable, every police force in England and Wales is expected to have a dedicated rape and sexual-offence team operating by December 2027.
The specialist units will focus on investigating rape and sexual offences, supporting victims and pursuing perpetrators.
The policy itself is not new. It was first announced in December 2025 as part of the Government's cross-departmental Violence Against Women and Girls strategy.
At that point, the national rollout was scheduled to be completed by summer 2029.
Burnham has now brought the deadline forward by a year and a half.
£13.3m for new protection-order teams
Alongside the accelerated rape and sexual-offence teams, up to ten police forces across England and Wales will receive a share of a £13.3 million Home Office funding pot to establish specialist protection-order teams.
The units will test new ways of enforcing court orders designed to protect victims and manage perpetrators more closely.
Measures available under protection orders can include electronic monitoring or tagging, strict exclusion zones and requirements to attend behaviour-change programmes.
If an offender breaches the conditions imposed by a court, they can face imprisonment.
The Government says the £13.3 million will come from existing Home Office budgets.
Orders can be imposed without a criminal conviction
A significant feature of the protection-order regime is that the orders do not depend on a criminal prosecution or conviction.
Courts can impose them where the legal test for an order is met even if the perpetrator has not been convicted of a criminal offence.
The Government is also rolling out new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders covering a broad range of abuse, including physical violence, controlling or coercive behaviour, economic abuse and stalking.
Those orders can be imposed with no maximum duration, meaning victims should not have to repeatedly return to court to seek renewed protection where an ongoing order remains necessary.
Original 2029 deadline came from Labour's VAWG strategy
The specialist rape and sexual-offence teams were first promised under the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy published in December 2025.
The original plan stated that by 2029 every police force in England and Wales would have a specialist rape and sexual-offences team.
The strategy was built around the Government's wider ambition to halve violence against women and girls within ten years.
It also included measures aimed at tracking prolific offenders, using new forensic technology to pursue perpetrators and expanding the use of intelligence techniques against abuse taking place online.
Burnham's intervention does not change the underlying policy, but it substantially shortens the timetable for forces to put the specialist teams in place.
Government points to scale of sexual and domestic abuse
The Home Office says recent figures indicate that around 900,000 adults experienced sexual assault in the most recent year covered by its announcement.
It also cites estimates of approximately 3.8 million adults experiencing domestic abuse and 1.4 million experiencing stalking.
Those figures underline the scale of the challenge ministers say the accelerated policing measures are intended to address.
The Government is also rolling out domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms and deploying online operatives using covert intelligence techniques to identify offenders.
Perpetrator programme also being expanded
The Government says it is continuing to expand programmes that work directly with perpetrators in an effort to prevent repeat abuse.
That includes interventions addressing factors such as drug misuse and alcohol dependency alongside intensive offender management.
The Home Office said the Drive Project has worked with almost 7,000 high-risk perpetrators over the past decade, helping to protect close to 7,750 adult victim-survivors and more than 14,000 children.
Police leaders welcome accelerated timetable
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Millichap, director of the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls and Public Protection, welcomed the additional funding and accelerated timetable.
She said work was already under way with forces to develop specialist rape and sexual-offence teams and to establish up to ten pilot protective-order teams.
Burnham puts pressure on forces to deliver sooner
The political significance of the announcement lies primarily in the timetable.
The Government had already committed every force to introducing specialist rape and sexual-offence teams, but Burnham has now effectively told police chiefs that they must deliver the reform 18 months earlier than planned.
The Home Office has not presented the £13.3 million protection-order fund as new funding for the nationwide rape-team rollout itself. The money is specifically earmarked for up to ten specialist protection-order teams and will be met from Home Office budgets.
That distinction matters: the headline change is an accelerated national policing deadline, accompanied by a separate targeted fund for tougher management of offenders.
Sources
- Home Office: PM accelerates roll out of police rape and sexual offence teams
- UK Government: New VAWG strategy will leave offenders with nowhere to hide
- Home Office: Freedom from violence and abuse — cross-government strategy
- Home Office: Statement to Parliament on the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy