Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 3 February (HL12365), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, what assessment they have made of the change in rates of sexual abuse by women reported to police; and what assessment they have made of the impact of police recording suspects' self-identified gender on the number of cases of sexual abuse being recorded as committed by women.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
As set out in my response, information on sexual abuse committed by transgender women is not held centrally. Information on trends in sexual offences recorded by the police is routinely published by the Office for National Statistics. The most recent publication, is available here; https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingseptember2020.
The Office for National Statistics had made it clear that sexual offences recorded by the police do not provide a reliable measure of trends in these types of crime. Sexual offences, including examples of sexual abuse, are underreported and therefore cannot be used to accurately assess changes in perpetrator demographics.
The Government takes all forms of sexual abuse extremely seriously, regardless of between who it takes place or the profile of the perpetrator. Whether it is committed by a woman or a man, sexual abuse in any situation, is unacceptable.
We are taking action to improve outcomes for rape cases through our end-to-end review of the criminal justice response to rape, which commenced in Spring 2019. The review covers from the point of police report through to final outcome in court.
We are committed to ensuring victims receive the support they deserve - the Ministry of Justice has awarded £12 million to 91 rape support centres across England and Wales in 2020/21 to provide independent, specialist support to female and male victims of sexual violence. This represents a total investment of £32m over the last three years.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to amend Home Office guidance "so that only enrolled deed polls (through the Royal Courts of Justice) are accepted as a proof of name change", as set out in their response, dated 24 November 2020, to the petition Revoke the right of registered sex offenders to change their name by deed poll; and what assessment they have made of the impact the consequent publication of old names, new names and addresses will have on those who (1) have changed their names to avoid danger, and (2) may be in danger as a result of such publication.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The UK has some of the toughest powers in the world to deal with sex offenders. These include the notification requirements, which require registered sex offenders to notify their personal details, including their name and address, to the police. They must do this annually and whenever their details change. Failure to do so constitutes a breach which is punishable by up to 5 years’ imprisonment.
Home Office Ministers have written to the Master of Rolls and the Royal Courts of Justice requesting that a Judicial Working Group should consider criminality in regard to the enrolled deed poll process. Once the Judicial Working Group has completed its work, we will consider whether it is necessary to amend our existing Home Office guidance to better protect the public.
Should a change be made to the guidance, in the course of making the change we will take careful consideration of any potential impacts, including in relation to the protection of the people who have changed their name to avoid danger.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the change in rates of sexual abuse by women reported to police, and (2) the impact of reports of sexual abuse committed by transgender women in contributing to any such change; and what plans they have, if any, to undertake further research into these issues.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Information on trends in sexual offences recorded by the police is routinely published by the Office for National Statistics. The most recent publication, Crime in England and Wales: Year ending June 2020, is available here:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2020
Figures for the year ending December 2020 are due to be published on the 3 February. Information on sexual abuse committed by transgender women is not held centrally.
We know that sexual abuse disproportionately affects women and girls. We are currently running a Call for Evidence which is available on GOV.uk (https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/violence-against-women-and-girls-vawg-call-for-evidence ) and will help inform our forthcoming Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, due for publication this Spring.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment was made of compliance with (1) the Equality Act 2010, and (2) the exemptions under that Act, of the Security Industry Authority’s publication Trans customers: a guide for door supervisors, published in October 2018; and whether under this guidance a door supervisor presented with documentation as evidence of age by a trans customer where the image on such documentation does not match the appearance of that customer must admit such a customer.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Security Industry Authority (SIA) publication ‘Trans Customers: A Guide for Door Supervisors’ reflects the Government Equalities Office’ guidance ‘Providing Services for Trans Customers’. The SIA’s guide was reviewed by the Government Equalities Office prior to its publication in 2018.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what supplementary budgets and resources are being provided to Action Fraud and the Suspicious Email Reporting Service to handle incidents of impersonation and fraud relating to the NHS test and trace service, and to support effective action against the perpetrators.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Reporting fraud and suspicious emails forms part of the core business of Action Fraud (AF) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) respectively.
Whilst there is a risk that the number of fraud reports increases, we believe that AF’s services are sufficiently equipped to respond to these effectively from within their existing resources. We will work closely with City of London Police (owners of the Action Fraud service) to ensure that this still remains the case as the service is expanded.
With regard to any increase in reports to SERS, it is an automated system designed to triage and – if found to be malicious - act upon reports of suspicious emails. As an automated service it can scale accordingly, without the requirement for supplementary budget or resource. In the six weeks since its launch, it has received and automatically acted upon over 670,000 reports.
The Home Office, NCSC, City of London Police and other stakeholders are already working closely with the Department for Health and Social Care to ensure that the service is delivered in a way which minimises the risk of fraud.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 14 May (HL3707), what is the current status of their Suspicious Emails Reporting Service.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
In April 2020, the NCSC launched the Suspicious Email Reporting Service. This initiative by the NCSC makes a significant contribution to the Government’s aim to make the UK the safest place to live and work online.
As of 14 May, the Suspicious Email Reporting Service has had more than 300,000 emails submitted, leading to over 2,500 unique URLs, which resulted in 600 bogus sites being taken down. Examples of threats the NCSC has removed with the help of the reporting service include:
- Scam web pages that have been flagged include mock-ups of official GOV.uk and TV licencing websites (visitors are lured into giving their billing information to scammers posing as these legitimate organisations).
- Scam web pages purporting to sell coronavirus linked bogus products such as testing kits, face makes and even vaccines. (The NCSC noted a rise in cyber crime exploiting the coronavirus pandemic last month.)
This automated email reporting service makes it easier than ever for people to help protect others from falling victim to scams. To use the reporting service, people are asked to simply forward suspect emails to report@phishing.gov.uk. If they are found to link to malicious content, it will be taken down or blocked, helping prevent future victims of crime.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what plans there are for the (1) long-term evaluation, and (2) follow-up, of the Valuing Everyone training sessions.
Answered by Lord McFall of Alcluith
Valuing Everyone is a training module designed specifically for Parliament that aims to raise awareness of, and confidence to tackle, bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct, as well as to highlight the sources of support available to those who have experienced this behaviour. Variations of this training are offered to staff of both Houses, members of both Houses and members’ staff.
The training is part of a suite of initiatives that together ensure that Parliament is a safe and respectful workplace, with zero tolerance of bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct. The two Houses will continue to conduct regular surveys, among other measures, to evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives.
Participants are routinely asked to complete feedback forms, and the results of these (including those from MPs and Peers) demonstrate that participants have an overwhelmingly positive experience of the training, and in particular report that they are better able to recognise and call out unacceptable behaviour. These, together with ad hoc feedback from participants, allow an ongoing dialogue enabling the course to remain relevant and suitable for all parts of the parliamentary community. In addition, the training provider submits regular anonymised reports to the two Houses on themes that have emerged during the training, so that appropriate steps can be taken to address risks or to communicate more effectively about Parliament’s response to bullying, harassment and sexual misconduct.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to add a link to the SAFERjobs scheme to webpages where they advise the public on how to report suspicious emails and phishing attempts.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
It is up to SAFERJobs to include any guidance that the government provides. The Government is, however, continuing to put out general advice to the public on staying safe online.
On 21 April the Government launched a revised Cyber Aware campaign, to coincide with the launch of the NCSC’s new Suspicious Email Reporting Service. The new campaign will:
We also recently launched a gov.uk page on coronavirus-related fraud and cybercrime. The page includes easy-to-follow steps for people to better protect themselves and signposts other relevant advice and tips. It can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-fraud-and-cyber-crime
The public should make all reports of fraudulent phishing emails and telephone calls to Action Fraud which is the national reporting facility for fraud and cyber crime https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what their policy is on the reporting by the public of fraudulent and phishing emails and telephone calls; to what email addresses or on what web pages such reports should be made; and what action the public may expect to be taken when such reports are made.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The public should make all reports of fraudulent phishing emails and telephone calls to Action Fraud which is the national reporting facility for fraud and cyber crime.
Action Fraud takes reports via its call centre and website. The contact centre’s operating hours are from 08:00 to 20:00 (Monday to Friday) but reports can be made at any time using their online reporting tool. There is also a dedicated 24/7 call service for live cyber incidents. The web pages can be found at: https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/
Crime reports received by Action Fraud are considered by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), both of which are operated by the City of London Police, the UK's national lead force for Fraud. Where enough evidence is available and viable leads are identified, actionable intelligence packages are created and sent to the appropriate local police force for them to consider whether they will adopt the report and commence enforcement activity. It remains the responsibility of local police to consider whether to progress any enforcement activity even where viable lines of enquiry have been identified by NFIB. Individuals can check the status of their reports through the website to see whether it’s been disseminated to a local force for investigation, and if an outcome has been recorded.
NFIB can also take down fraudulent websites, telephone numbers and close bank accounts linked to fraud.
Reports not deemed viable for investigation remain under constant consideration for links to newly reported crimes. The intelligence is also used to identify opportunities to disrupt offenders and to protect victims and prevent further frauds through warnings given out by Action Fraud through various channels and in collaboration with other counter fraud bodies and organisations.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their policy regarding the use of the phrase 'gender identity’, as opposed to the protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 of ‘gender reassignment’ in such official documents as the Hate Crime Operational Guidance and the Crown Prosecutions Service’s LGBT Hate Crimes Schools Pack.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
In the context of Government publications related to hate crime, the terms race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity are used to refer to the characteristics which offences can be aggravated by.
This terminology is consistent with the national definition of hate crime agreed between the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Crown Prosecution Service, and relevant legislation, including sections 145 and 146 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.