Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children below the minimum age of criminal responsibility involved in county lines activity who were referred to a pupil referral unit in (a) 2015, (b) 2016 and (c) 2017.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We do not have specific information about children under 10 years of age involved in county lines. However, the Home Office has commissioned regular threat assessments of county lines by the National Crime Agency, which provide the most detailed and reliable intelligence on the scale and nature of county lines.
The threat assessments do not contain estimates of the number of children involved due to data limitations but they report that the threat has grown. The NCA is currently preparing a new threat assessment for publication shortly.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children below the minimum age of criminal responsibility involved in county lines activity who were referred to a pupil referral unit in (a) 2015, (b) 2016 and (c) 2017.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We do not have specific information about children under 10 years of age involved in county lines. However, the Home Office has commissioned regular threat assessments of county lines by the National Crime Agency, which provide the most detailed and reliable intelligence on the scale and nature of county lines.
The threat assessments do not contain estimates of the number of children involved due to data limitations but they report that the threat has grown. The NCA is currently preparing a new threat assessment for publication shortly.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate his Department has made of the number of children below the minimum age of criminal responsibility who were involved in county lines activity in (a) 2015, (b) 2016 and (c) 2017.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We do not have specific information about children under 10 years of age involved in county lines. However, the Home Office has commissioned regular threat assessments of county lines by the National Crime Agency, which provide the most detailed and reliable intelligence on the scale and nature of county lines.
The threat assessments do not contain estimates of the number of children involved due to data limitations but they report that the threat has grown. The NCA is currently preparing a new threat assessment for publication shortly.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department holds information on trends in the number of children below the minimum age of criminal responsibility involved in county lines activity.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We do not have specific information about children under 10 years of age involved in county lines. However, the Home Office has commissioned regular threat assessments of county lines by the National Crime Agency, which provide the most detailed and reliable intelligence on the scale and nature of county lines.
The threat assessments do not contain estimates of the number of children involved due to data limitations but they report that the threat has grown. The NCA is currently preparing a new threat assessment for publication shortly.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2018 to Question 184345 on Serious Violence Taskforce: Social Media, how he plans to develop engagement with (a) Kik Messenger, (b) Snapchat, (c) Telegram, (d) Viber, (e) Wickr and (f) WhatsApp in relation to the use of encrypted messaging apps for county lines activity.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We recognise the role online messaging platforms can play in facilitating gang violence and county lines activity and in June this year the Home Secretary announced a new £1.4m police capability to take action against violent content hosted on social media and disrupt gang activity online.
Our Serious Violence Strategy also sets out the role of social media in driving serious violence and we are working with a range of social media companies, the police and partners to consider what actions to take in tackling online violent content and will broaden our engagement with online platforms and companies if needed as our understanding of the issue grows.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2018 to Question 184345 on Serious Violence Taskforce: Social Media, what assessment he has made of the suitability of the content hosted by (a) Kik Messenger, (b) Snapchat, (c) Telegram, (d) Viber, (e) Wickr and (f) Whatsapp on their encrypted messaging apps in relation to county lines activity.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
We recognise the role online messaging platforms can play in facilitating gang violence and county lines activity and in June this year the Home Secretary announced a new £1.4m police capability to take action against violent content hosted on social media and disrupt gang activity online.
Our Serious Violence Strategy also sets out the role of social media in driving serious violence and we are working with a range of social media companies, the police and partners to consider what actions to take in tackling online violent content and will broaden our engagement with online platforms and companies if needed as our understanding of the issue grows.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 October 2018 to Question 182079, what representations his Department has made to (a) the named Secretaries of State and (b) officials of those Departments on the county lines drug trade and the Modern Slavery Act 2015; and whether he plans to have any meetings with those people.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Home Secretary and Home Office Ministers regularly meet their counterparts across Whitehall to ensure a co-ordinated response to cross-cutting issues, which include county lines and the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Officials meet regularly to discuss county lines and the Modern Slavery Act 2015 including through the National County Lines Working Group, which was established to oversee delivery of the County Lines Action Plan and includes representatives from the Department for Education; Ministry of Justice; Ministry of Communities, Housing and Local Government; Department for Work and Pensions; and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 October 2018 to Question 182079, what representations his Department has made to (a) the named Secretaries of State and (b) officials of those Departments on the county lines drug trade and the Modern Slavery Act 2015; and whether he plans to have any meetings with those people.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Home Secretary and Home Office Ministers regularly meet their counterparts across Whitehall to ensure a co-ordinated response to cross-cutting issues, which include county lines and the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Officials meet regularly to discuss county lines and the Modern Slavery Act 2015 including through the National County Lines Working Group, which was established to oversee delivery of the County Lines Action Plan and includes representatives from the Department for Education; Ministry of Justice; Ministry of Communities, Housing and Local Government; Department for Work and Pensions; and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 October 2018 to Question 182082 on drugs: crime, whether invitations extended to representatives from (a) Kik Messenger, (b) Snapchat, (c) Telegram, (d) Viber, (e) Wickr and (f) other social media and messenger sites to attend the meeting of the Serious Violence Taskforce chaired by the Home Secretary on 11 June 2018.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Representatives from Google and Facebook were invited to attend the Se-rious Violence Taskforce on 11 June to present the action being taken to tackle violent content online.
This reflects levels of concern about the content hosted by these platforms, as well as their more developed engagement with the issue of online serious violence including through their membership of our social media action group.
Asked by: Joan Ryan (The Independent Group for Change - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 October 2018 to Question 182082 on drugs: crime, which body will be responsible for the operation of the new national police capability to tackle gang related activity on social media; and what the planned timescale is for the establishment of that body.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The new social media hub is hosted within the Metropolitan Police Service and is a new hub under the National Police Chiefs Council banner that builds on the lessons learnt from MPS’ Operation Domain.
The hub will initially look to target the highest harm gangs in London. The hub will be formally established early next year, when it will engage with other forces in England and Wales as the concepts and tools are developed, in order to build capabilities nationally and share best practice approaches to tackling online violent content.