Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many cases supported by the Forced Marriage Unit in each of the last five years resulted in a referral to the National Referral Mechanism; and what specialist support for girls affected by forced marriage is funded through the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls programme.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The UK is a world leader in the fight to stamp out the harmful practice of forced marriage. The joint Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) has been working to combat forced marriage since 2005. The Forced Marriage Unit provides support to victims, those at risk of forced marriage, and advice to professionals through its public helpline and inbox. The support offered ranges from providing information and guidance, to consular assistance for victims who are British national and habitual residents overseas.

The FMU works in an advisory capacity and therefore does not hold information on referrals of victims to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). First Responders, such as Local Authorities, the police, Border Force, UKVI, and Immigration Enforcement, and specific NGOs, are responsible for identifying indicators of modern slavery and referring potential victims into the NRM for their cases to be considered by the appropriate Competent Authority.

The Home Office also funds Karma Nirvana to operate the national ‘Honour’-Based Abuse (HBA) Helpline. This service aims, through the provision of a telephone line and e-mail service to support victims and survivors of HBA including forced marriage.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the forthcoming Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and its delivery plan will include (a) funding and (b) measures to improve support for (i) child victims of criminal exploitation (ii) child victims of sexual exploitation, (iii) other victims of modern slavery, (iv) child victims of 'honour-based' abuse, and (v) child victims of forced marriage.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The new Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy will set the direction for the next decade, driving forward the Government’s bold ambition to halve VAWG within ten years. We’re working towards publication as soon as possible and I will continue to keep the House updated on its development and forthcoming publication.

The Strategy will cover all forms of VAWG, including but not limited to sexual violence, domestic abuse, stalking, ‘honour’-based abuse, forced marriage, and sexual exploitation, and will address VAWG that can occur online as well as offline. All victims of VAWG are in scope of the Strategy and tackling child sexual abuse and exploitation will be covered.

Extensive work is already underway across government to address all of these crimes.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the revocation of the Online Safety Act 2023 (Commencement No 5) Regulations 2025 on the spread of child sexual abuse material online.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The National Crime Agency (NCA) is responsible for the development and implementation of the Designated Reporting Body (DRB), which will receive reports of CSEA from in-scope user-to-user service providers. The NCA has confirmed that the DRB has been delayed due to technical issues. By revoking the original SIs, the Government is granting the NCA time to resolve technical issues with the reporting portal and allow for the reporting portal to be thoroughly tested ahead of the portal becoming fully operational. This will significantly increase the prospect of an efficient, fully accessible and robust reporting mechanism when legislation comes into force.

We expect the impact of this revocation to be minimal, given service providers can and already do report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the US, as US-based services, under US law. NCMEC forwards any reports with a UK nexus to UK law enforcement.

More broadly, until the CSEA reporting provisions within the Online Safety Act (OSA) comes into force, services can continue to act as they do now, including reporting under international law, to existing reporting bodies and law enforcement. Again, suspected CSEA cases with a UK nexus made via alternative channels, including reports made internationally, will continue to be passed to UK law enforcement.

The NCA expects the DRB to go live in Spring 2026. The OSA’s provisions to report CSEA content to the NCA, including the Reporting Regulations, will be laid and will come into force in parallel with the operationalisation of the DRB in Spring 2026.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when regulations requiring providers of regulated user-to-user services to report child sexual abuse and exploitation content to the National Crime Agency will (a) be laid and (b) come into force.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The National Crime Agency (NCA) is responsible for the development and implementation of the Designated Reporting Body (DRB), which will receive reports of CSEA from in-scope user-to-user service providers. The NCA has confirmed that the DRB has been delayed due to technical issues. By revoking the original SIs, the Government is granting the NCA time to resolve technical issues with the reporting portal and allow for the reporting portal to be thoroughly tested ahead of the portal becoming fully operational. This will significantly increase the prospect of an efficient, fully accessible and robust reporting mechanism when legislation comes into force.

We expect the impact of this revocation to be minimal, given service providers can and already do report to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the US, as US-based services, under US law. NCMEC forwards any reports with a UK nexus to UK law enforcement.

More broadly, until the CSEA reporting provisions within the Online Safety Act (OSA) comes into force, services can continue to act as they do now, including reporting under international law, to existing reporting bodies and law enforcement. Again, suspected CSEA cases with a UK nexus made via alternative channels, including reports made internationally, will continue to be passed to UK law enforcement.

The NCA expects the DRB to go live in Spring 2026. The OSA’s provisions to report CSEA content to the NCA, including the Reporting Regulations, will be laid and will come into force in parallel with the operationalisation of the DRB in Spring 2026.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Education on improving consistency in identification of child victims of modern slavery by introducing a statutory definition of child criminal exploitation; and whether she will include a definition in an updated edition of the Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office is working closely with the Department for Education to improve the identification and response to victims of child criminal exploitation (CCE).

As committed to in the Government’s manifesto, we are introducing a new offence of child criminal exploitation in the Crime and Policing Bill. The offence itself already defines CCE.

In addition, we will include a definition of child criminal exploitation in the statutory guidance that the Government will issue to the police in relation to the new offence. The CCE definition in this statutory guidance will set out in layman’s terms the conduct captured by the offence as well as additional information for police and practitioners on how the offence should be applied and victims identified by the police. This will promote awareness and ensure there is a shared understanding of child criminal exploitation so that victims are better identified and receive the protection they need.

We will also review existing guidance, including Working Together to Safeguard Children and consider what amendments to such guidance may be needed as a result of introducing this new offence.

A public Call for Evidence on how the Government can improve the process of identifying victims of modern slavery, human trafficking and exploitation closed on 8th October, and the Home Office is analysing the responses received.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of Work Coaches have been trained to understand domestic abuse; and who that training is provided by.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

All staff new to DWP complete learning on Domestic Abuse as part of their induction.

Work Coaches then complete role specific learning which includes further learning on domestic abuse which will build their knowledge to develop the relevant skills to help all customers, by tailoring their support to their individual needs. All learning is delivered by DWP staff.

In total 27,714 work coach staff have completed domestic abuse learning over the last five years. Please note that the number of trained staff may include individuals who have since moved roles or left the organisation.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the Online Safety Act 2023 (Commencement No 5) Regulations 2025, due to come into force on 3 November, were revoked on 9 October.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The National Crime Agency (NCA) is responsible for the development andimplementation of the Designated Reporting Body (DRB), which will receivereports of CSEA from in-scope user-to-user service providers.

The NCA hasconfirmed that the DRB has been delayed due to technical issues.

Until theDRB is ready to receive reports, the CSEA reporting provisions in the OSAcannot come into force.By revoking the original SIs, the Government is granting the NCA time toresolve technical issues with the reporting portal and allow for the reportingportal to be thoroughly tested ahead of the portal becoming fully operational.

This will significantly increase the prospect of an efficient, fully accessible androbust reporting mechanism when legislation comes into force.The NCA expects the DRB to go live in Spring 2026. The OSA’s provisions toreport CSEA content to the NCA, including the Reporting Regulations, will belaid and will come into force in parallel with the operationalisation of the DRBin Spring 2026.

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Helen Hayes (Chair); Jess Asato; Mrs Sureena Brackenridge; Darren

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Helen Hayes (Chair); Jess Asato; Mrs Sureena Brackenridge; Darren

Found: Government undertook to bring forward this measure in the Lords in response to new clause 102 tabled by Jess Asato

Submit Evidence (by 9 Jan 2026)

Reading brings a range of benefits to children, young people and their families, but the number of children reading for pleasure is declining rapidly.