Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the Grenfell Tower fire on the adequacy of the provisions on residential buildings in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Dame Judith Hackitt’s report on Building Regulations and Fire Safety calls for major reform of the regulatory system and for culture change across the construction industry and fire safety sector.
The government agreed with the broad principles of the report and committed to bring forward legislation. The Home Office and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are working with partners to consider the detail of Dame Judith’s recommendations and the government will make a statement on implementation of the reforms later in the autumn.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions his Department has had with representatives of Universities UK on the UK’s post-study work system for international students have completed their study at a UK university.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
We have regular discussions with Universities UK, as a key stakeholder representing a number of Tier 4 sponsors, on a range of issues including the UK’s post-study work offer for international students.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the time and resources required to apply her Department's new annual data requirement on recording each incident and each use of force; if she will publish the impact assessment made on that requirement; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The police-led Use of Force Data Review recommended that police forces record and publish a range of data each time force is used, including the reason force was used, injury data, the gender, ethnicity and age of the subject involved, and the location and outcome of the incident.
These recommendations were welcomed by the former Home Secretary, and the former Minister for Policing and the Fire Service made a Written Ministerial Statement on 2 March 2017 announcing the implementation of the recommendations, with police forces expected to commence recording by 1 April this year.
Police forces are committed to publishing their recorded data locally, and it is a subset of this data that will be provided to the Home Office under the annual data requirement, causing no additional burden to compliant forces. This system also consolidates bureaucratic, previous forms of data collection, such as the monitoring of conducted energy device use.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will (a) make an assessment of the prevalence of child criminal exploitation and (b) bring forward legislative proposals to establish a definition for such exploitation under the Modern Slavery Act 2015; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The criminal exploitation of children is one of a number of exploitative practices that forms part of modern slavery. Where children are found to be victims of modern slavery their safety and welfare needs must be addressed as the priority, this includes providing the required tailored support which addresses their specific needs and vulnerabilities.
Child criminal exploitation can consist of a range of criminal activities including cannabis cultivation, sham marriage, county lines, forced begging, benefit fraud and theft. The National Crime Agency includes criminal exploitation within the labour exploitation statistics. In the year to June 2017, there were 506 children either confirmed as victims of slavery or pending a decision all citing labour exploitation within the NRM.
The latest published threat assessment of county lines gang violence, exploitation and drug supply prepared by the National Crime Agency in November 2016 identified in excess of 200 young and vulnerable persons as being exploited by gangs for criminal purposes within a six month period. This figure is considered to be a significant under-estimate as exploited individuals are often unwilling to talk to the police.
The Modern Slavery Act 2015 is a world leading and ground breaking piece of legislation. The Act already makes a number of specific provisions to recognise the unique vulnerabilities of children and we have no current plans to amend it.