Police will require now licencing to work with vulnerable sex crime victims.
The Home Secretary said the new qualification — which will be on top of traditional police training — was needed to improve the way that complex investigations into “high harm” crimes were carried out.
She added that officers dealing with vulnerable victims required specialist skills in the same way as those conducting firearms operations and that too many probes were being blighted by inadequate standards.
Officials indicated that rape and child abuse victims will be among those whose cases are restricted to officers with the new specialist licence.
Ms Rudd’s announcement, during a speech to the College of Policing, follows heavy criticism in a report by a former judge of Scotland Yard’s bungled inquiry into false allegations of a VIP paedophile ring.
The Met handling of other child protection cases was also denounced last week in a separate report by the police inspectorate in one of the most damning assessments ever published by the watchdog.
In her speech , Ms Rudd said the new “licence to practise” would ensure that only officers who could “continuously demonstrate competency in a specialist area” and were “on a register of professionals” would investigate the “most complex” crimes.
She said the aim was to ensure consistent standards and to avoid the risk of inadequately trained staff being used on difficult cases.
The content of the new qualification and how long the new licence will last will be decided after a consultation by the College of Policing.
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