TOEX Economic Update

The TOEX Programme prides itself on recognising the importance of an evidence-led approach.

Crest Advisory (2021/2)

Over a two-year period, the programme commissioned Crest Advisory, who are specialists within the field of crime and criminal justice, to undertake an independent evaluation to assess the pilot year and first year of TOEX national implementation.

That report, which focused on activity between 2021 and 2022, was published earlier this year and concluded that TOEX was providing “vital capacity to the SOC system, supporting a growing number of investigations and ensuring they are moved forward and then closed down when appropriate” and the programme “continues to identify hidden harm through proactive investigation of OE”. In addition, “national stakeholders are confident that TOEX is having a positive impact on the SOC system through its whole-system approach and nationally coordinated, regionally delivered model”.

Crest also evaluated the technical innovation across the network, finding that “the technical capabilities developed by TOEX are innovative and possess significant potential for the programme, wider law enforcement, and the state of police technology” and the “tools already developed for use within the capabilities environment have demonstrated significant value and efficiency”.

Economic update (2022/3)

We’re now pleased to share an updated economic report, which has found that TOEX is delivering additional capacity, novel capabilities, and continues to make significant savings to law enforcement year on year.

The TOEX approach in tackling organised exploitation, particularly the identification and scoring of threats faster, has saved a total of £6.59 million per year in resources, compared to what would have been required to identify the same threats without TOEX.

The 2022 – 2023 report also finds that TOEX-supported investigations have further improved the time and cost efficiencies of each investigation by supporting the early identification (and subsequent disruption) of threats.

In 2021-22, Crest Advisory calculated that TOEX saved £1.27m - the equivalent of £43,943 per threat. In 2022-23, this rose to the equivalent of £67,286 per threat. Assuming that each threat has equal resourcing assigned to it, TOEX has saved 358 days of resourcing that would otherwise have been needed to identify them. The resourcing ‘days’ is based on the allocation of an Intelligence Development Officer (IDO)/Analyst and Researcher on each case.

Crest Advisory calculated a saving of £151,542 for 2021-22 based on the 10% median and estimated that, based on 2022/23 resourcing expectations, this would amount to an annual saving of £585,444 through the use of the TOEX model to provide focussed resourcing against the organised exploitation threat.

The full national resourcing cost for 2022/23 has resulted in a higher than estimated annual saving of £747,619 based on a 10% median saving (Deloitte, 2010)

TOEX Programme Director, T/Detective Chief Superintendent Kate Thacker, said: “TOEX recognises the importance of developing and dynamically maintaining an evidence base, which demonstrates programme outcomes; capturing learning as well as what works well. Therefore, we are committed to an ongoing cycle of continuous review.

“I am extremely proud of what the team has achieved to date, both operationally and technically, and I also offer my thanks to the numerous partner organisations and individuals who have supported and collaborated with us along the way.

"The TOEX model continues to respond to threats that may otherwise fall through the gaps in law enforcement, supporting organised exploitation investigations across all tiers of policing and making a fundamental difference to the way policing understands and ultimately disrupts these SOC threats.

“Not only is the intelligence and analytical service TOEX provides being very well received by investigators, it is scalable and represents a potential blue-print for whole-systems policing.”