Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the ONS statistical release of 13 February 2020, Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2019, what steps her Department is taking to reduce trends in the number of (a) baby girls and (b) toddlers being killed.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Every child’s death is a tragedy. That is why the Government has called on everyone who comes into contact with babies, children and families to recognise the role we all play in keeping them safe, and the need to work together to identify concerns, share information and take prompt action.
As part of this, the Government has already taken the following steps:
We reintroduced the Domestic Abuse Bill in March 2020 to better protect and support the victims of abuse and their children and bring perpetrators to justice. The Bill transferred to the Lords on 7 July having completed its Commons stages.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will increase support available to victims of child abuse when they are attending court.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to meeting the needs of vulnerable victims and witnesses. It provides the Witness Intermediary Scheme to assist those with communication difficulties, including victims of child abuse.
The majority of requests for Registered Intermediaries (RIs) - a communications specialist who helps witnesses with communication difficulties - concern the assistance of children.
In 2019, RIs assisted more than 4,500 children, 560 of whom were less than 5 years old.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what enforcement mechanisms Ofcom will be given to regulate tech companies.
Answered by James Brokenshire
In February 2020, the Government published the initial consultation response to the Online Harms White Paper and announced that it was minded to appoint Ofcom as the online line harms regulator.
Subject to remaining government and parliamentary processes, the regulator will have strong enforcement powers to deal with non-compliance and drive remedial action. The new regulatory framework will introduce a duty of care, overseen by the independent regulator. This will ensure that companies, where appropriate, take prompt, transparent and effective action to address online harms.
In the White Paper we set out that the regulator will have sufficient powers to take effective action against companies that breach regulator requirements. We have consulted on the most appropriate enforcement powers for the regulator, and are considering measures including notices, warning, fines and business disruption measures. Further information will be included in the full government response which will be published in the autumn.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will allocate long-term funding to the National Wildlife Crime Unit.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office will be providing specific funding of £136,000 to support the work of the National Wildlife Crime Unit in 2020/21. This will be in addition to specific funding for the Unit provided by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the funding central Government will be providing police forces in England and Wales to tackle all types of crime, including wildlife crime.
Decisions about Home Office funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit beyond March 2021 will be taken as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the reports of 31 October 2019 by the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale and sexual exploitation of children on the abuse by tourists of children in The Gambia, what steps the Government is taking to (a) identify and (b) prosecute British tourists that have committed that offence.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse wherever and however it occurs. There can be no safe space for paedophiles to operate either here or abroad and we will do all we can to keep children safe. We continue to work closely with law enforcement in the UK and international partners to stop sex offenders from travelling abroad to prey on children, close down online networks and bring offenders to justice. We announced in the 2019 Spending Round an investment of an £30 million to support UK law enforcement to bear down on child sexual exploitation and abuse.
We are also funding projects overseas to build capacity internationally against this heinous crime through Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) overseas development aid. We have sponsored a project to reduce the vulnerability of high-risk destination countries from the threat posed by UK transnational child sex offenders (TCSOs) through targeted, sustainable capacity-building in support of National Crime Agency (NCA) operational activity. The project is in its second year and will deploy a team from the NCA internationally in direct local support of international law enforcement agencies working to combat high-risk child sexual abuse and exploitation. This includes a training and mentoring programme that builds sustainable capacity locally to safeguard children and prosecute offenders in collaboration with UK and international law enforcement agencies.
In 2012, the law was strengthened to ensure that all registered sex offenders must notify the police of any foreign travel. Police are able to assess the risk an offender may pose while abroad and engage with international law enforcement or apply to the courts for a civil order to restrict foreign travel. Breach of the requirements or a civil order is a criminal offence punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment. The Government has carried out a review of the use of civil orders for transnational offenders and will draw on the findings and recommendations from the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse’ recent ‘Children Outside the UK’ report to ensure the police have the tools and powers they need to target offenders and protect children from sexual abuse.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will adopt the Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendation on reducing the salary threshold for skilled migrants seeking to reside in the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Following the UK’s exit from the European Union and the end of free movement, we will deliver a new points-based immigration system that allows us to attract the brightest and best talent from around the world.
The independent Migration Advisory Committee published its report on salary thresholds and the points-based system on the 28 January. We are considering its findings and recommendations carefully before taking any final decisions.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to recent acts of vandalism on a Synagogue and a Mosque in London, if she will introduce further measures to protect religious buildings and congregations.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Attacks on places of worship are completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Through the Government’s Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme, and the Jewish Communities Protective Security Grant, the Government provides reassurance and appropriate measures to better protect all faith groups from hate crime. Funding for the Places of Worship scheme has been increased in the current year to £1.6 million (double the amount awarded last year), and the Chancellor has announced a further increase to £3.2 million for 2020/21.
Tackling faith related hate crime is a key commitment in the Cross-Government Hate Crime Action Plan, and we regularly engage with faith representatives and organisations.
In addition, we have committed £5 million over three years for the provision of security training to places of worship, and we have committed to consult with communities on what more can and should be done to protect faith communities.
We have also asked the Law Commission to conduct a wide-ranging review into hate crime, looking at the breadth of hate crime legislation, and whether new strands should be introduced.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding from the public purse she plans to allocate to Violence Reduction Units in each of the next three years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Of the £100million Serious Violence Fund that was announced in March 2019 for 2019/20, £35million was invested towards Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in England and Wales.
VRUs provide leadership and strategic coordination of the local response to serious violence by bringing together police, local government, health and education professionals, community leaders and other key partners to identify the drivers of serious violence and agree a multi-agency response to them.
We are pleased with the early progress that has been made in establishing the VRUs and the work they are now beginning to deliver to ensure that the right support and services are directed to children and young people most at risk of involvement in serious violence.
On 29 December 2019 the Home Secretary announced a further £35 million to continue funding VRUs in 2020/21. These first two years of funding will provide local areas with the resources to start building and developing a public health approach to serious violence. We expect them to build on this platform over time and we hope to see VRUs operating beyond the end of 2021. That is why future funding for VRUs will be a key element of our spending review bid.