Asked by: Lord Bishop of Derby (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to introduce a requirement for the Gangmasters Licensing Authority to ensure that gangmasters have a Disclosure and Barring Service check as part of the licence application process.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Government has no current plans to introduce a requirement for a Disclosure and Barring Service check in the Gangmasters Licensing Authority licence application. A public consultation on the role of the GLA in labour market enforcement was published on 13 October and invites views on operation of the licensing regime.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Derby (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to require gangmasters to have a Disclosure and Barring Service check as part of their licence application process.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Government has no current plans to introduce a requirement for a Disclosure and Barring Service check in the Gangmasters Licensing Authority licence application. A public consultation on the role of the GLA in labour market enforcement was published on 13 October and invites views on operation of the licensing regime.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Derby (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many child victims of human trafficking were interviewed in 2013 by competent authority staff, as opposed to specialist interviewers.
Answered by Lord Bates
"There were 450 potential victims of trafficking who were minors at the time of exploitation referred into the National Referral Mechanism in 2013. These referrals were considered by UK Visas and Immigration and the UK Human Trafficking Centre.
The UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) do not conduct interviews with potential victims of trafficking. Interviews may take place with other agencies, for example the Police or Social Services, however UKHTC does not keep a record of who conducts the interviews, or when the interviews take place.
UK Visas and Immigration do conduct interviews where appropriate. Information on the training received by the staff involved in interviewing is not collated centrally and establishing this would incur disproportionate cost. However, all UKVI staff undertaking interviews with children must have undertaken specialist training. In addition, staff may also have received Competent Authority training which includes a two day specialist training course. All reasonable grounds and conclusive ground decisions are taken by trained Competent Authority staff."
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Derby (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many individuals on domestic worker visas have been identified as victims of human trafficking offences in each year since 2010.
Answered by Baroness Northover
The Home Office does not collect the information that has been requested. However, domestic workers who are abused or exploited, regardless of their immigration status, can receive care and support in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Derby (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many individuals on domestic worker visas have sought assistance as victims of human trafficking through the National Referral Mechanism.
Answered by Baroness Northover
The Home Office does not collect the information that has been requested. However, domestic workers who are abused or exploited, regardless of their immigration status, can receive care and support in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Derby (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what auditing steps they have taken since 2010 to ensure that public bodies and publicly-funded projects are not using forced or trafficked labour in their own supply chains.
Answered by Baroness Northover
We do not hold central information on the number of audits commissioned or auditing steps taken regarding publically funded projects, as these would be a matter for individual contracting authorities to commission.
All suppliers are required to comply with UK law, including relevant human rights and employment rights law. Social, environmental and ethical issues are taken into account in the procurement process, where relevant and proportionate.
In particular, EU procurement rules require contracting authorities to exclude suppliers that have been convicted of certain offences, and allow authorities to exclude suppliers for grave professional misconduct. The new EU procurement Directives, which are currently being transposed into UK law, update the mandatory exclusion offences to explicitly include offences of "trafficking in human beings".
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Derby (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many audits of supply chains have been undertaken to ensure that public bodies and publicly-funded projects are not using forced labour through their supply chains.
Answered by Baroness Northover
We do not hold central information on the number of audits commissioned or auditing steps taken regarding publically funded projects, as these would be a matter for individual contracting authorities to commission.
All suppliers are required to comply with UK law, including relevant human rights and employment rights law. Social, environmental and ethical issues are taken into account in the procurement process, where relevant and proportionate.
In particular, EU procurement rules require contracting authorities to exclude suppliers that have been convicted of certain offences, and allow authorities to exclude suppliers for grave professional misconduct. The new EU procurement Directives, which are currently being transposed into UK law, update the mandatory exclusion offences to explicitly include offences of "trafficking in human beings".