Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the provision of health services for women.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Women’s health is a priority for this government. We are considering how to take forward the Women’s Health Strategy and aligning our work on women’s health with the forthcoming 10-Year Health Plan.Work continues to improve health outcomes for women, including the £25 million women’s health hubs pilot, new NICE guidance on endometriosis and menopause and extending the Baby Loss Certificate service.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the scale of commercial sexual exploitation across the country.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation is a truly horrific crime. This Government has set out a mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, and we will use all of our levers available to deliver.
The Government is working closely with law enforcement to tackle the drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation, including through operational intensifications to target prolific perpetrators.
We have several ways to estimate the scale of sexual exploitation. Victims of sexual exploitation make up a significant proportion of referrals to the National Referral Mechanism (the framework for identifying and referring potential victims of modern slavery to appropriate support). The most recent statistics show that in 2023, sexual exploitation accounted for 10% (1,679) of all referrals, a 2% increase from the previous year, with 9% (1,470) of referrals relating to women.
Online platforms are a significant enabler of sexual exploitation. The Online Safety Act 2023 sets out priority offences, including sexual exploitation and human trafficking offences, and companies will need to adopt measures and put in place systems and processes to identify, assess and address these offences based on a risk assessment.
To help support victims, we are providing £1.36m over three years to Changing Lives for their Net-Reach project, which provides early intervention and targeted support for women and girls at high-risk of commercial exploitation. We are also providing £378,811 to Trevi Women who provide trauma-informed support to women wishing to exit on-street prostitution.
In addition, the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract provides support to adult potential and confirmed victims of modern slavery in England and Wales. This support includes financial support and a support worker to help them access wider services, including medical treatment, legal aid, legal representatives, and legal advice.
Home Office Ministers regularly meet with stakeholders, including NGOs and law enforcement partners, to promote the better identification and prosecution of perpetrators, and to enhance support for victims who are trapped within commercial sexual exploitation under the guise of prostitution.
The Government will set out policies in this area in due course.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support the Government is providing to help victims of sexual exploitation exit prostitution.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation is a truly horrific crime. This Government has set out a mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, and we will use all of our levers available to deliver.
The Government is working closely with law enforcement to tackle the drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation, including through operational intensifications to target prolific perpetrators.
We have several ways to estimate the scale of sexual exploitation. Victims of sexual exploitation make up a significant proportion of referrals to the National Referral Mechanism (the framework for identifying and referring potential victims of modern slavery to appropriate support). The most recent statistics show that in 2023, sexual exploitation accounted for 10% (1,679) of all referrals, a 2% increase from the previous year, with 9% (1,470) of referrals relating to women.
Online platforms are a significant enabler of sexual exploitation. The Online Safety Act 2023 sets out priority offences, including sexual exploitation and human trafficking offences, and companies will need to adopt measures and put in place systems and processes to identify, assess and address these offences based on a risk assessment.
To help support victims, we are providing £1.36m over three years to Changing Lives for their Net-Reach project, which provides early intervention and targeted support for women and girls at high-risk of commercial exploitation. We are also providing £378,811 to Trevi Women who provide trauma-informed support to women wishing to exit on-street prostitution.
In addition, the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract provides support to adult potential and confirmed victims of modern slavery in England and Wales. This support includes financial support and a support worker to help them access wider services, including medical treatment, legal aid, legal representatives, and legal advice.
Home Office Ministers regularly meet with stakeholders, including NGOs and law enforcement partners, to promote the better identification and prosecution of perpetrators, and to enhance support for victims who are trapped within commercial sexual exploitation under the guise of prostitution.
The Government will set out policies in this area in due course.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce demand for trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation is a truly horrific crime. This Government has set out a mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, and we will use all of our levers available to deliver.
The Government is working closely with law enforcement to tackle the drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation, including through operational intensifications to target prolific perpetrators.
We have several ways to estimate the scale of sexual exploitation. Victims of sexual exploitation make up a significant proportion of referrals to the National Referral Mechanism (the framework for identifying and referring potential victims of modern slavery to appropriate support). The most recent statistics show that in 2023, sexual exploitation accounted for 10% (1,679) of all referrals, a 2% increase from the previous year, with 9% (1,470) of referrals relating to women.
Online platforms are a significant enabler of sexual exploitation. The Online Safety Act 2023 sets out priority offences, including sexual exploitation and human trafficking offences, and companies will need to adopt measures and put in place systems and processes to identify, assess and address these offences based on a risk assessment.
To help support victims, we are providing £1.36m over three years to Changing Lives for their Net-Reach project, which provides early intervention and targeted support for women and girls at high-risk of commercial exploitation. We are also providing £378,811 to Trevi Women who provide trauma-informed support to women wishing to exit on-street prostitution.
In addition, the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract provides support to adult potential and confirmed victims of modern slavery in England and Wales. This support includes financial support and a support worker to help them access wider services, including medical treatment, legal aid, legal representatives, and legal advice.
Home Office Ministers regularly meet with stakeholders, including NGOs and law enforcement partners, to promote the better identification and prosecution of perpetrators, and to enhance support for victims who are trapped within commercial sexual exploitation under the guise of prostitution.
The Government will set out policies in this area in due course.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent organised crime groups from advertising victims of (a) trafficking and (b) other sexual exploitation offences on websites advertising prostitution.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation is a truly horrific crime. This Government has set out a mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, and we will use all of our levers available to deliver.
The Government is working closely with law enforcement to tackle the drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation, including through operational intensifications to target prolific perpetrators.
We have several ways to estimate the scale of sexual exploitation. Victims of sexual exploitation make up a significant proportion of referrals to the National Referral Mechanism (the framework for identifying and referring potential victims of modern slavery to appropriate support). The most recent statistics show that in 2023, sexual exploitation accounted for 10% (1,679) of all referrals, a 2% increase from the previous year, with 9% (1,470) of referrals relating to women.
Online platforms are a significant enabler of sexual exploitation. The Online Safety Act 2023 sets out priority offences, including sexual exploitation and human trafficking offences, and companies will need to adopt measures and put in place systems and processes to identify, assess and address these offences based on a risk assessment.
To help support victims, we are providing £1.36m over three years to Changing Lives for their Net-Reach project, which provides early intervention and targeted support for women and girls at high-risk of commercial exploitation. We are also providing £378,811 to Trevi Women who provide trauma-informed support to women wishing to exit on-street prostitution.
In addition, the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract provides support to adult potential and confirmed victims of modern slavery in England and Wales. This support includes financial support and a support worker to help them access wider services, including medical treatment, legal aid, legal representatives, and legal advice.
Home Office Ministers regularly meet with stakeholders, including NGOs and law enforcement partners, to promote the better identification and prosecution of perpetrators, and to enhance support for victims who are trapped within commercial sexual exploitation under the guise of prostitution.
The Government will set out policies in this area in due course.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the harms of pornography experienced by victims.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Under the Online Safety Act platforms must proactively tackle the most harmful illegal content including extreme pornography, much of which disproportionately affects women and girls. The Act requires services in scope to understand risks from illegal content online and take mitigating action.
Separate to provisions in the Online Safety Act, the Independent Pornography Review, led by Independent Lead Reviewer Baroness Gabby Bertin will explore the effectiveness of regulation, legislation and the law enforcement response to pornography. The government expects the Review to present its final report by the end of the year.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to prevent children being exposed to pornography.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to keeping children safe online. Our priority is the effective implementation of the Online Safety Act so that children benefit from its wide-reaching protections.
The Act requires that all in scope services that allow pornography use highly effective age assurance to prevent children from accessing it, including services that host user-generated content, and services which publish pornography. Ofcom has robust enforcement powers available against companies who fail to fulfil their duties.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of the women over the age of 50 that were referred to the Fracture Liaison Service with fragility fractures were (a) taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) prior to their first fragility fracture and (b) prescribed HRT as part of their treatment after their first fragility fracture in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
While NHS England does not hold this information centrally, data in relation to the Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) can be found in the FLS-Database Annual reports. The 2024 report, which includes data in relation to gender, is available at the following link:
https://www.hqip.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Ref-419-FLS-DB-2024-annual-report-1.pdf
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many patients were referred to the Fracture Liaison Service with fragility fractures in each of the last five years; and what proportion of those patients were women over the age of 50.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
While NHS England does not hold this information centrally, data in relation to the Fracture Liaison Services (FLS) can be found in the FLS-Database Annual reports. The 2024 report, which includes data in relation to gender, is available at the following link:
https://www.hqip.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Ref-419-FLS-DB-2024-annual-report-1.pdf
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to her Department’s consultation on the statutory levy on gambling operators, which closed on 14 December 2023, how many responses to the consultation were received in total; and what proportion of those responses were from the gambling industry.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The introduction of a statutory levy on gambling operators will represent a generational change to funding arrangements and a renewed commitment to improving efforts to further understand, tackle and treat harmful gambling. We want to see levy funding directed where it is needed most across research, prevention and treatment of gambling-related harms. As set out in our public consultation, the prevention stream could see investment directed for projects to build capacity and expertise in frontline settings to increase responsiveness to gambling harm, including criminal justice settings.
We are now closely considering all evidence received to best guide the implementation of the statutory levy in an effective, fair and proportionate way. We will publish a response to the consultation setting out our final decisions soon. This will also include a full list of organisations who agreed to attribute their response to their organisation.