FOI 1152-2024/25 Historical Child Abuse

Request
Q1. If a victim of historical child abuse wanted to report a crime  to your police force what would be the correct procedure to follow. Please provide me with all your force policies and procedures and all other background information regarding this. 

Q2. If a victim of historical child abuse wanted to report a crime to your police force that alleged that a member of your police force was present when the abuse occurred then what would be the correct product to follow. Please provide me with all your force policies and procedures and all other background information that you hold regarding this.

Please also provide the rationale if the information provided above is different to the information provided here. 

Q3. If a victim of historical child abuse  wanted to know how a allegation(s) would be recorded under the current legislation , for example misconduct in a public office, please provide me with what section or sub- section of the current legislation such a allegation would be recorded .

Please provide me with all your force policies and procedures and all other background nformation that you hold regarding this.

Clarification request – 6 March 2025
Charges brought against an individual whose crimes were committed historically must reflect the law at the time the offence was committed, therefore can you please clarify the timeframe you require? 

Can you also clarify what allegations you are referring to? For example, are you referring to "Misconduct in Public Office" or to the offences of child sexual abuse? 

Clarification received – 10 March 2025
I am looking for the policy that was in place that covers the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

I am referring to misconduct in a public office.

Extent and Result of Searches to Locate Information
To locate the information relevant to your request searches were conducted within North Yorkshire Police.

I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by North Yorkshire Police.  

Decision
I have today decided to disclose the following information to you.

Q1. This would reported via the same methods as any other crime, by contacting the Force Control Room or reporting online. Please see the below link which provides further information on reporting methods:

Report a crime | North Yorkshire Police

Q2. As above, this would be reported via the normal reporting methods, and this would directed to most appropriate unit to undertake an investigation. Please see the below link which provides further information on child abuse:

Advice about child abuse | North Yorkshire Police

Q3. This is dependant on the specific crime alleged and crime recording would advise on the correct Home Office crime recording at the time of the report.

Please note that systems used for recording information are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data.  It should be noted therefore that this force’s response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other responses you may receive.