Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to require website providers to remove intimate online images that have been published without consent.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Where non-consensual intimate images are posted online via user-to-user services, then the providers who operate these services should have the technical ability to remove these images.
The Online Safety Act received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. This legislation will give online service providers new duties to implement systems and processes to tackle illegal content on their services and take this content down, including illegal intimate image abuse content.
The Act also updates the law, to make sure that offences criminalising intimate image abuse are fit for the digital age. The intimate image abuse offences, along with the other offences in Part 10 of the Act, will come into force on 31 January.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason 15,000 non-consensual images reported as part of Operation Makedom remain online; and what steps he is taking to seek the removal of that content.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Online Safety Act gained Royal Assent in October 2023 and seeks to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. It will, for the first time, place clear legal duties on technology companies to take proactive steps to identify, remove and prevent users encountering illegal content, including child sexual abuse material and non-consensually shared intimate images from their platforms. The Act also updates and improves legislation relating to the taking and sharing of intimate images.
The Government has funded the Revenge Porn Helpline to support victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing, colloquially known as ‘revenge porn’. since it was established in 2015. The Home Office is providing £150k to the Helpline in 2023/24.
The Home Office has developed the world-leading Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) which brings together all the images that the Police and NCA encounter. We have provided the Internet Watch Foundation with a connection to CAID, enabling them to share the images’ unique identifiers – called hashes - to allow more child sexual abuse material online to be identified and removed. Home Office investment also supports the National Crime Agency to remove the most horrific child sexual abuse material from the internet, including on the dark web.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were (a) arrested on suspicion and (b) convicted of people smuggling in UK waters since the start of January 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The data requested cannot be provided as it comes from live operational databases that have not been quality assured.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to help support British citizens fleeing the conflict in Gaza to obtain visas for family members to travel with them to the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The UK Government is monitoring the situation in Israel and Gaza closely to ensure that it is able to respond appropriately. Flights were initially facilitated to help British citizens wanting to leave Israel.
British citizens and their foreign national dependants (spouse, unmarried/civil partner, child under 18), may come to the UK provided they have valid travel documents and existing permission to enter or remain in the UK; or are non-visa nationals.
Individuals who do not meet these criteria should apply for a visa to enable them to enter the UK in the normal way.
UKVI is working closely with the FCDO in supporting family members of British nationals evacuated from Gaza who require a visa, signposting the necessary steps and expediting appointments at the Visa Application Centre.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to help ensure there are effective routes for refugee family reunion in the UK for Palestinian refugees seeking to join family members in the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government’s refugee family reunion policy provides a safe and legal route to bring families together. This route allows for family reunion applications from recognised refugees who have protection status in the UK.
The UK has a proud history of supporting refugees. Since 2015, we have offered a safe and legal route to over half a million people seeking safety in the UK. The UK continues to welcome refugees through our existing resettlement schemes which include the global UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), Community Sponsorship, the Mandate Resettlement Scheme and the family reunion route.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department is taking steps to help support local authorities to find accommodation for UK citizens who have fled Gaza.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
On 27 October the Government introduced emergency legislation to ensure British citizens and those eligible for support fleeing the violence in the Gaza Strip will be exempt from the Habitual Residence Test. This legislation will ensure those fleeing the conflict are eligible for benefits, social housing and homelessness assistance, where needed, without delay.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer to Question 189778 on 20 June 2023 on Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Disability, how many projects his Department have commissioned to increase high street accessibility for disabled people through local growth funding in the last three years by location.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We have engaged extensively with stakeholders including local authority officers, the LGA, charities and networks representing disabled people and sector leads to develop the pavement licensing measures. Pavement licence provisions were amended to ensure that the impacts on disabled people are fully taken into consideration by local authorities when making decisions.
The needs of disabled persons must be taken into account by the authority when determining whether furniture put on the highway would be an unacceptable obstruction. In doing so, authorities are required to have regard to the needs of disabled people and the recommended distances required for access by disabled people, as set out in guidance issued by the Secretary of State.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities does not centrally collect data on the number of projects delivered by local authorities which seek to increase high street accessibility.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of measures introduced to support outdoor dining during the covid-19 pandemic on disabled people and their access to pedestrian areas.
Answered by Jacob Young - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
We have engaged extensively with stakeholders including local authority officers, the LGA, charities and networks representing disabled people and sector leads to develop the pavement licensing measures. Pavement licence provisions were amended to ensure that the impacts on disabled people are fully taken into consideration by local authorities when making decisions.
The needs of disabled persons must be taken into account by the authority when determining whether furniture put on the highway would be an unacceptable obstruction. In doing so, authorities are required to have regard to the needs of disabled people and the recommended distances required for access by disabled people, as set out in guidance issued by the Secretary of State.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities does not centrally collect data on the number of projects delivered by local authorities which seek to increase high street accessibility.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with abortion providers on the implementation of safe access zones.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The timescales for commencing the new Section 9 offence of interference with access to, or provision of, abortion services will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the uptake of perinatal mental health services among ethnic minority communities.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The National Health Service is committed to addressing unwarranted variation and health inequalities and promoting equality, including for Perinatal Mental Health services. This includes supporting services to ensure appropriate access for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, to ensure that women from all backgrounds who need specialist Perinatal Mental Health support receive it.
NHS England’s Perinatal Mental Health programme is taking steps to ensure: training and development are available to ensure the workforce is culturally competent, diverse and representative of communities; equalities ambitions are embedded into strategic plans and governance arrangements; coproduction is embedded in service design, development and governance structures; regions and local health systems are supported to develop and achieve equality ambitions for their populations; data is available to understand trends in inequality in access, experience and outcomes to specialist Perinatal Mental Health services; third sector groups and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors are included to support groups at risk of health inequalities.
In addition, NHS England published its first Advancing Mental Health Equalities Strategy in October 2020, laying out plans for addressing inequalities in access, experience and outcomes in mental health care.