Overseas Domestic Workers

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Thursday 17th December 2015 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

I am today publishing the independent review of the overseas domestic worker visa. The Government commissioned the report in March 2015 as part of their commitment to stop modern slavery in all its forms. James Ewins QC was asked to undertake an assessment of how far existing arrangements for the admission of overseas domestic workers are effective in protecting such workers from abuse and exploitation, and to make recommendations. The Government have now received the completed report, for which it thanks Mr Ewins, and is considering carefully the recommendations which it makes. The Government’s response to the report will be announced in due course.

The report can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office and a copy will be placed in the Library of the House.

[HCWS427]

Sexual Exploitation: Protection of 16 and 17-year-olds

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Thursday 17th December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Graham Allen (Nottingham North) (Lab)]

I declare an interest as the founder of the Early Intervention Foundation. It is a great privilege to follow the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood (Kelly Tolhurst), who made an eloquent speech. Those who see Members of Parliament from the end of 140 characters on Twitter would do well to follow colleagues such as my hon. Friends the Members for Stockport (Ann Coffey) and for Rotherham (Sarah Champion), and the hon. Members for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), for North West Hampshire (Kit Malthouse) and for Oxford West and Abingdon (Nicola Blackwood)—unfortunately she is not with us today. They are exemplars of what Members of Parliament can do when they get their teeth into an issue that they care about, and refuse to let go until something is done. I hope that this debate will be another demonstration of how Members of Parliament from across the House can be effective when we work together as parliamentarians, pushing Governments of all colours in the right direction.

I am not going to talk about 16 to 18-year-olds, because we will help those people by intervening much earlier. If we only help a 16 to 18-year-old, we are firefighting. That has to be done and fires have to be fought, but if we are to get a strategic grip on this issue we must eliminate the causes of child exploitation, as well as tackling the consequences. That, in essence, is the definition of early intervention, and it is important to consider this as an intergenerational problem.

This problem is so big and deep rooted that we must have not merely a set of tactics, but a set of strategies to take us forward. One of the best ways to do that is to consider the example of What Works centres in this country, where people collect together best practice and evidence to discover what kinds of programme work most effectively to help victims, and indeed to help perpetrators from re-offending. We have that all in one place, so that instead of reinventing the wheel, whether in the police, the health service or as a Member of Parliament, there is a place to go where we can rely on other people’s experience and practice that has accumulated over many years. Every instinct in a normal human being to the awful sexual abuse of children and 16 to 18-year-olds is an emotional response, but this is about evidence and science.

I first called for a national institute to consider how to reduce the perpetration of sexual abuse 26 years ago, together with the then right hon. Member for Finchley—the Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher. I say that only to bring us up to date and to urge us to ensure that our successors are not sitting here in 26 years’ time demanding exactly the same thing. It is now time for us to help the next generation.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

In the interests of time, let me put on the record that the Department for Education has recently announced a new What Works centre for child protection. That will build an evidence base to show us the best practice available to help social workers, health workers, the police and other practitioners, and give better support to children and families—something I know that the hon. Gentleman has been calling for.

[Mr Allen]

I was just about to make that point and the Minister has made it very eloquently for me. I have served in the House with Governments of all political complexions. Ministers are concerned and empathetic. We are fortunate to have her as a Home Office Minister as well as having her colleagues, the Minister for Children and Families; the Under-Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Battersea (Jane Ellison), who has responsibility for public health; and the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, the hon. Member for North West Cambridgeshire (Mr Vara). All of them have been involved in pulling together the idea that there should finally be a national institute or centre of excellence to look at the sexual abuse of children and how to help them and perpetrators.

I raised that with her colleague the Minister for Children and Families in an Adjournment debate in June—I did it as fast as I could after the general election. The Minister has already said as much, but in that debate, the Minister said that there would be a centre of expertise to identify and share high-quality evidence to tackle child sexual abuse. That must include 16 to 18-year-olds.

I am conscious of the announcement, but I will tee this up for the Minister as the willing smasher of volleys over the net that I know she can be: will she tell the House how that is going and when we can expect it to be established? I hope the centre can be productive before the next general election, producing reports on best practice in particular situations and in the field, and producing reports for the agencies—the police and the health service—Members of Parliament and everyone who has an interest. Above all, I hope it can give Justice Goddard a head start by doing an interim report that calls for and supports the institution, so that, before what could be a Chilcotian length of time before he reports, he can influence the necessary political developments and changes.

I hope the Minister will inform the House that, as well as doing valuable work pulling together departmental interests, such an institution will listen to the voluntary sector, which does so much work in the field, and those out in the individual local authorities. There is a great body of work, but it is all over the place and it is never quite there when we need it. I suspect that many colleagues who have been through the awful experience of raising constituency cases are powerless and frustrated for a fair period because they cannot quite lay their hands on what somebody did earlier that would save them a lot of time and victims a lot of grief.

I should highlight the work of the Early Intervention Foundation. It is working closely with the Home Office, as the Minister knows, and has commissioned a review of the evidence on the indicators that suggest that a child under the age of 18 is at heightened risk of becoming a victim, or even a perpetrator, of sexual abuse or exploitation and many other things. The foundation will undoubtedly do a first-class job on that commission but, in the long term, the answer for us all is to get behind what the Government are doing, which I applaud from the rooftops, in putting together a What Works institution. We should ensure that its work is spread far and wide and that there is a connection with local authorities. From the top of my head, I suggest to the Minister that perhaps there should be 30 champion local authorities—they could be health authorities or police services—that can take forward the best measures that are pulled together in that central place.

The House can have an impact, working closely with the Government. The Government have been very receptive to representations made to them and will do something that will resonate and help children—it will also help perpetrators not to offend—in a way that could last several generations. That is an incredibly worth while thing to do. I congratulate all Members of the House who have led us to the conclusions that the Children’s Society has put before us today, and who have led to the Government introducing a national institute for the study and prevention of the sexual abuse of children, including 16 to 18-year-olds.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

It seems incongruous to do this during this debate, but I would like to start by wishing you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and all hon. Members a very happy Christmas. May I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North West Hampshire (Kit Malthouse) and the hon. Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey) on securing this important debate and all hon. Members on their very thoughtful contributions? It is clear from the genuine concern expressed that this is an important and challenging issue which deserves our careful consideration.

May I start by reassuring all hon. Members that, as the Minister for preventing abuse and exploitation, I can say that I and this Government share their desire to protect everyone, particularly vulnerable young people, from violence and sexual exploitation? Like my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton), who did such an enormous amount in this field when he was a Minister in the Department for Education, I have met victims and survivors, as, I am sure, others have. As the hon. Member for Stockport said, it is vital that we listen to those children—that we listen to the victims and survivors—and that we hear what they say.

Social media was mentioned. Children feel that they cannot escape from social media. They do not feel they can turn off from it. If somebody is trolling them online, they do not feel they can escape from it. These are important points and we need to listen and to understand so that we can take the right action.

[Nusrat Ghani]

On the need to take young people seriously, has the Minister come across the Barnardo’s service report, which highlighted that when young vulnerable people go to authority figures, they must always be taken seriously, because they may also be engaged in antisocial behaviour? Can we do all we can to ensure that people in authority take our young people seriously?

[Karen Bradley]

My hon. Friend, who serves on the Select Committee, makes an incredibly important point. Barnardo’s has just completed a trial of child trafficking advocates for the Government—I have placed a written ministerial statement on that in the Library today—and it does incredible work to make sure children are listened to. My hon. Friend is absolutely right: we need to change the culture and change attitudes. A point was made earlier—by the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Ruth Cadbury), I think—about victims being perpetrators. It is too often the case that a victim becomes a perpetrator and is seen as a perpetrator, and is not seen for the child that they are. We need to change attitudes. This debate, and the contributions today, will go a long way to doing that, but there is still more to do.

Preventing abuse and exploitation and protecting the vulnerable present complex challenges, particularly when dealing with young people. We know that children are being deliberately targeted, manipulated and coerced, and consequently sexually exploited. In this context, the Government welcome the research and findings presented in the Children’s Society report “Old enough to know better?” The report rightly highlights a number of important areas, including prevention, identification, protection, support and prosecution—areas which absolutely require the co-ordinated focus of Departments across Government, and beyond.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby) (Lab)]

Survivors (Hull and East Riding), which serves victims of CSE with mental health support services in my constituency, has seen a 20% rise in clients over the last three years and its waiting list is now six months. Does the Minister agree that delays in providing mental health services for survivors are unacceptable and increase the risk of suicide and self-harm among CSE victims?

[Karen Bradley]

I join the hon. Lady in paying tribute to the work of that organisation. I will talk about mental health services later, if she will bear with me. I am absolutely sure that the organisation does incredibly important work. The length of its waiting list clearly demonstrates the demand for its services and the fact that it is tackling the issue in an effective way.

We need to work across Government, which is why we have established a cross-Government response to child sexual exploitation. I want to assure all hon. Members that this is a top priority for this Government. The Home Secretary launched the report “Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation” in March this year. It sets out a national response to the failures that we saw in Rotherham, which the hon. Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion) described, as well as in Manchester, Oxford and elsewhere, where children were let down by the very people who were responsible for protecting them. It sets out how we will continue the urgent work of overhauling the work of our police, social services and other agencies together to protect vulnerable children.

I want to assure all hon. Members that significant work has been and is taking place across Government, but given the time available today, I will not go through all the points that have been raised. My door is always open, however, and all hon. Members are very welcome to come and see me to discuss their concerns and the work that is being done. I will be happy to share in detail the work we are doing across Government.

I want to touch on the issue of terminology in relation to child sexual exploitation. We know that there is an issue with the terminology, so we are reviewing and reissuing the current definition and the statutory guidance on safeguarding children and young people from sexual exploitation. We will make it clear what constitutes sexual exploitation as a form of sexual abuse, and we are working with a number of stakeholders, including the Children’s Society, to sharpen the definition and strengthen the guidance. We will publish a progress report on all actions taken following the “Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation” report early next year.

We recognise that 16 and 17-year-olds are a diverse group and can be particularly vulnerable. They are children, but they are old enough legally to consent to sexual activity where appropriate. We know that that combination can be exploited and lead to abuse. There is a contradiction between the ever-decreasing age of sexual maturity and the age of emotional maturity, which is not going down. The wider that gap becomes, the harder it is for us to deal with these complex issues.

The court process can clearly present a particular challenge to vulnerable victims and witnesses, and everyone involved has a responsibility to manage that impact. In January 2015, toolkits were launched for the police, prosecutors and advocates, addressing the fact that consent is an issue for vulnerable young victims as well as dealing with the context of drugs, alcohol, mental health and learning disabilities. We have also completed the training of all specialist prosecutors, which will include Crown Court cases of child sexual abuse, and in 2016 we are training in-house advocates as well.

The hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson) talked about the law that applies to the sexual exploitation of children aged 16 and 17. I want to assure her that the law in England and Wales already specifically protects that age group from abuse. For example, sections 47 to 50 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 criminalise payment for the sexual services of a child aged under 18 and provide for the offences of causing, inciting, controlling, arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child under 18.

The hon. Member for Stockport has campaigned vigorously on this issue. During the passage of the Serious Crime Act 2015, she was a leader in ensuring that the Government removed the terms “child prostitution” and “child pornography” from the law. I know that the guidance has not yet been updated in some areas but we are working incredibly hard to ensure that that happens and to ensure that all agencies with responsibility for that guidance update it as soon as possible. This is the clear message: a child cannot consent to sex. They are forced into sex, they do not consent to it, and there can therefore be no such thing as a child prostitute.

My hon. Friend the Member for North West Hampshire talked about children in care, as did my hon. Friend the Member for Rochester and Strood (Kelly Tolhurst). Children in care are particularly vulnerable, which is why the Children Act 1989 makes it an offence to take any child in care, including a 16 or 17-year-old, away from the person responsible for them without lawful authority or reasonable excuse. We also know that 16 and 17-year-olds can be vulnerable in a variety of ways, some of which may be directly or indirectly linked to their age. That is also reflected in the sentencing guidelines, in which additional aggravating factors include the use of alcohol or drugs on the victim and the targeting of a particularly vulnerable child.

[Sarah Champion]

I apologise for interrupting the Minister, but I want to go back to her last point. I do not believe that either the police or people working in care homes are aware of that piece of legislation. If there is anything she can do to make them aware, that would be great. When I speak to these workers, they say, “The child is 16, so I can’t intervene if they want to go off with this person.”

[Karen Bradley]

I hope they have been listening to the debate, but we will make sure that even those few people who are not watching the House of Commons on a Thursday afternoon are made aware of that piece of legislation. The hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran talked about a young person’s consent after taking drugs or alcohol. Let us be clear: the law is clear that a young person’s consent to take drugs or alcohol can never be viewed as consent to sexual acts.

I am making sure that I deal with the important points, so let me move on to the issue of mental health. Some children who experience the kind of trauma associated with child sexual exploitation will need support from mental health services. The Minister for Community and Social Care has just joined us on the Front Bench. He is a Health Minister, and I am working closely with him on the crisis care concordat to make sure that mental health services are appropriately delivered. It is crucial that we get this right for children, including 16 to 17-year-olds. That is why we have commenced a major transformation programme, backed by additional investment, which will improve the support provided to vulnerable 16 and 17-year-olds who have experienced sexual abuse and are in need of mental health and wellbeing services. The programme will place the emphasis on prevention and early intervention, which I know to be an issue close to the heart of the hon. Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen), building care around the needs of children, young people and their families, including the most vulnerable.

May I thank the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) for bringing the details of the WISH Centre to the Chamber today? I welcome the invitation she made and I hope that we can arrange time in my diary for me to visit.

[Mr Graham Allen]

We are all grateful for the Minister’s mention of a centre of excellence to look at dealing with sexual exploitation. Will she make it clear that this will deal not only with what people traditionally look at as the sexual abuse of children, but with programmes to help prevent perpetrators from reoffending? Can she confirm that all that best practice will be in one place?

[Karen Bradley]

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the work will be done not just in the What Works centre, but in the Home Office and elsewhere, particularly on the perpetrator programme. He is absolutely right in that the academic evidence is patchy in this field and we need to get the right evidence, because we will not be able to deal with this otherwise. We talk about conviction rates, but actually a conviction is a failure, as it means that a crime has occurred. We want to stop those crimes happening. That means dealing with perpetrators, stopping the perpetrators and protecting young people so that they understand and know what abuse looks like and how to avoid being abused. The work he has done in this area for many years is incredibly valuable and has helped us in Government to form our views on this issue.

The Government recognise the terrible scale and impact of these crimes, particularly on vulnerable victims. I am proud of the progress we are making in tackling all aspects of child sexual abuse and exploitation, but there is still much to do. That is why I commend the Children’s Society for its invaluable work in drawing attention to particular vulnerabilities and recommending actions. I acknowledge the helpful contributions that have been made in this debate; hon. Members from all parts of the House have advocated wonderfully on behalf of the vulnerable in society, and I commend them all for doing so.

Independent Child Trafficking Advocates Trial: Government Report

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Thursday 17th December 2015 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

Section 48(7) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires the Government to lay before Parliament a report setting out the steps they propose to take in relation to independent child trafficking advocates, within nine months of Royal Assent of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has today laid before Parliament our report outlining the Government’s next steps. We have also published the independent evaluation of the child trafficking advocate trial conducted by the University of Bedfordshire. Our report, along with the independent evaluation, will be published on www.gov.uk. Copies of the Government report will be available in the Vote Office. A copy of the independent evaluation will be available in the Library of the House

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Barnardo’s, which provided the child trafficking advocates service during the trial, the University of Bedfordshire for undertaking the evaluation of the trial and the 23 local authorities and all the other parties involved who played such a significant role in supporting the trial. Child victims of trafficking are among the most vulnerable in our society. This report sets out our response to the evaluation of the independent child trafficking advocates trial and what steps we intend to take to ensure trafficked children get the protection they need.

I would also like to thank my parliamentarian colleagues for their ongoing advice and support in this area and I look forward to your continued support as we take this important work forward.

[HCWS435]

Draft Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Consequential Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2015

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Wednesday 16th December 2015 General Committees

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Consequential Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2015.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. The draft regulations, which were laid before the House on 18 November, make a series of consequential amendments to other primary legislation to ensure that the Modern Slavery Act 2015 will work as Parliament intended and that no protections for victims present in other legislation are inadvertently lost as we start to use the new Act. Where appropriate, because the legislative context is not limited to sexual offences, we are using the regulations to extend protections that were previously available only to some modern slavery victims to all victims of slavery and trafficking under the Act. The regulations make a number of amendments that are quite technical in nature. I therefore propose not to detain the Committee on the technical details; rather, I simply commend them to the Committee.

Female Genital Mutilation

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Tuesday 15th December 2015 General Committees

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

It is pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Evans. I am also grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Elmet and Rothwell for his introduction to the debate on behalf of the European Scrutiny Committee, of which he is a member.

Let me be absolutely clear, FGM is a serious crime. It is child abuse and the Government are determined to stop it, as are my counterparts in the European Union. The Commission’s communication of 2 December 2013 set out a range of actions to be undertaken at EU level towards ending FGM. As stated in the explanatory memorandum from the then Minister for Crime Prevention, the previous Government broadly supported the recommendations in the communication. The Government agreed that action needed to be taken to eradicate FGM in member states to which practising communities have migrated.

Without complacency, the Government felt that, while there were some areas where the EU can add value—for example, facilitating the sharing of information and best practice on tackling FGM—the UK was already undertaking a significant amount of work domestically to achieve the same outcomes. This remains our view. The actions undertaken by the Commission under the communication have been appropriate and proportionate in that regard and have respected member state competences.

I will now provide the Committee with an overview of the implementation of those actions in both the EU and the UK. First, to develop a better understanding of FGM in the EU, the Commission has funded the development of methodologies to estimate the prevalence of FGM and the number of girls at risk. Secondly, to promote multi-agency working, the Commission is funding a number of awareness-raising activities, including national campaigns in the UK, France and Malta, and an online training tool for professionals. Thirdly, to support member states in prosecuting FGM more effectively, the Commission will publish an analysis of relevant criminal laws and court cases early next year. Fourthly, the Commission has recast the asylum procedures directive and the reception conditions directive. That places an obligation on those member states that have opted in to set standards for the qualification and reception of applicants for international protection.

Finally, the Commission has actively participated in international co-operation to promote the elimination of FGM, including making pledges at the girl summit, hosted by the Prime Minister and UNICEF last year and providing €7 million for projects working to end FGM in countries such as Egypt and Senegal.

As the Committee will be aware, the UK has undertaken a significant amount of work towards ending FGM. On 22 July this year, we marked the first anniversary of the girl summit, and all the commitments made at the 2014 summit have now been delivered. In July, Ministers signed a cross-Government declaration reaffirming our commitment to tackling FGM and child, early, and forced marriage.

During the previous Parliament we introduced a number of measures via the Serious Crime Act 2015 to strengthen the law on FGM, and those new measures include: FGM protection orders, which came into force in July this year and are already being used to protect girls at risk of FGM; a new offence of failing to protect girls at risk of FGM; life-long anonymity for victims of FGM; and the introduction of a new mandatory reporting duty that requires specified professionals to report known cases of FGM in under-18s to the police. That duty commenced on 31 October and we believe it will help to give professionals the confidence to confront FGM.

As the Committee will be aware, to date there has not been a successful prosecution for FGM, and one of the challenges cited by police is the lack of referrals. This new duty can support prosecutions where FGM has taken place and, in turn, deter perpetrators, which will ultimately, prevent this appalling crime from happening in the first place.

Clearly, legislation alone is not going to end FGM. It is a complex issue which demands a co-ordinated response from a range of professionals. We have worked to ensure that they are equipped with the resources they need to tackle FGM effectively. That work includes part-funding an independent study into the prevalence of FGM in England and Wales and publishing the first ever NHS statistics about patients with FGM; publishing multi-agency practice guidelines, which we are updating and making statutory; and establishing a dedicated FGM unit, based at the Home Office, which is providing outreach support to professionals and local communities. In addition, to improve the healthcare response, the Department of Health has funded a £3 million FGM prevention programme.

To support the social care response, the Department for Education has provided £2 million in funding for an FGM project that is creating a specialised team of skilled social workers. In March, the College of Policing published new authorised professional practices on FGM to raise awareness among investigators and better equip them to tackle the practice.

Ultimately, however, we will not stop FGM unless we change attitudes. That is why the Government ran a national communications campaign, with funding from the EU, to raise awareness last year. We also funded 29 community engagement projects, including a network of community champions who are reaching thousands of women and girls affected by FGM and, importantly, their families.

The UK has not opted into the recast asylum procedures and reception condition directives. Nevertheless, we do provide protection where it is needed. Importantly, our asylum system is gender sensitive and fully considers any risks relating to gender-based persecution, including the risk of FGM.

We recognise the importance of sharing information and best practice across countries and are fully committed to playing our part in that. That is why the Department for International Development is continuing with the implementation of its £35 million programme to support the Africa-led movement to end FGM. Recognising that this is an area where the EU can add value, we have actively participated in a number of international exchanges, including holding the girl summit that I mentioned earlier and hosting a European learning forum on FGM earlier this year.

In conclusion, I welcome the opportunity to debate the Commission’s communication and look forward to questions on it from hon. Members.

[The Chair]

We will now move to the questions session. The Minister started speaking at 2.35 pm; we have one hour from then, so I will bring proceedings to a close at 3.35 pm if they have not concluded earlier.

[The Chair]

I will allow supplementary questions at my discretion. I know that this is the first Committee for a number of Members, so I will be hugely tolerant.

[Karen Bradley]

The hon. Lady is also champion of the FGM issue. I thank her for her support and for her work as a member of the Serious Crime Bill Committee, in which we debated so many of these issues. She is right to highlight the point about figures, because one of the problems we have is identifying the prevalence of FGM. It is very much a hidden crime. We are only just touching on accurate evidence and information about the prevalence of FGM. Estimates are made but we need to know exactly what the position is.

The work that we have been doing with the NHS and the work that the Department of Health has been doing to ensure that we understand the prevalence of FGM across the NHS is incredibly important, as is the mandatory reporting. At the moment, I do not have the updated figures but, with mandatory reporting coming in, we are very confident that that will give us a much better estimate of the number of women and girls who have been affected by FGM in the UK. It is only by understanding the prevalence and the size of the problem that we can begin to tackle it and get into the communities to make sure that they understand what it is that we are trying to do, which is to show that this practice is totally and utterly unacceptable.

The hon. Lady asked about specialist training on FGM and I talked in my statement about the work that the Department for Education is doing to make sure that there is outreach to people, to the communities that may be affected. That includes training, of course, for those professionals who will come into contact with individuals, but there is always more that can be done and I am in no way complacent about this. We need to make sure that there is thorough awareness of this problem, that people do not feel frightened of confronting it and that they know they have the support of the Government and the public in confronting this issue.

The hon. Lady also asked about a review of FGM protection orders. We do not yet have the figures for the number of FGM protection orders—that information will be coming out shortly. Clearly, the Government look at these things constantly to make sure that they are working, they are appropriate and they are delivering what we want, which is to stop this crime happening in the first place.

[Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab)]

I do not mince words on this. It is absolutely barbaric and incredibly cruel—we ought to say that loudly and many times so that people who indulge in this practice get the message. The figures may well be out of date but there was a table on page 10 of the document that shows—an estimate obviously—that for the number of women with FGM, of the 11 EU countries listed, Britain is the highest. For the number of girls at risk of FGM, Britain is again the highest but so far, according to this table, there have been no prosecutions at all. We are talking about tens of thousands, and possibly many more than that. Can the Minister explain why we have not had any prosecutions, or none up to that date anyway?

[Karen Bradley]

I know that the hon. Gentleman takes a particular interest in this issue. He is quite right, it is barbaric and cruel. It is child abuse. There is no way in which it can be excused or tolerated. He asked about prosecutions and pointed out the figures showing the UK to have the estimated highest prevalence of FGM in the EU. The problem with prosecutions is that this is such a hidden crime that victims have not wanted to come forward and that, often, a prosecution would involve a victim giving evidence, perhaps against their closest family members. Although the practice of FGM was originally made a criminal offence in 1985, there was not a single referral to the CPS until 2010. Referrals are now coming through. There was a prosecution that unfortunately did not result in a conviction earlier this year, but it did at least establish many of the issues that had been of concern; for example, whether infibulation or reinfibulation was part of the offence. It was quite clear from that case that they are part of the criminal offence.

I know that the CPS is looking to make sure that we can have a prosecution with a successful conviction. I think that is what we all want to see—that successful conviction. By introducing life-long anonymity for victims so that they can come forward to give evidence and know that this will not be exposed in public, by introducing mandatory reporting and by introducing, for example, the failure to protect a girl at risk of FGM as a criminal offence, I am confident that we are doing the right things to give law enforcement and the prosecution services the tools they need to get that prosecution that we all so desperately want to see.

[Kelvin Hopkins]

Although the prosecution rate is still low, France has had 29 prosecutions. We have had none. Obviously France is doing something that we are not doing—is there anything we can learn from France?

[Karen Bradley]

The hon. Gentleman will know that France has a different legal system and a different evidence threshold but, absolutely, we can always learn more. We need to learn what it is in France that has given those victims the confidence to come forward and has enabled the prosecuting authorities to get the evidence they need. We believe that the measures that we have taken following the girl summit go a long way to doing that—we now need to see that prosecution. If we do nothing else today, I want to make it clear, on the record, that this Committee and this House urge law enforcement and prosecuting authorities to take this seriously and to get that prosecution.

[Kelvin Hopkins]

Obviously I support and applaud what the Minister has said. Is there a confidential helpline where a family member could say, “My sister is at risk”, or something of that kind? Many young women have adjusted to a more western way of life and would want to prevent terrible things from happening, especially if it has happened to them. Is there a confidential helpline?

[Karen Bradley]

There are a number of confidential helplines and apps. I was at the launch of one app earlier this year. It provides a confidential way for people to submit their concerns to an independent, non-Government body that can help and support them. However, we need to do more, and mandatory reporting is incredibly important. I know that some professionals have had concerns about taking on that burden, but if a healthcare professional saw a patient who had been the victim of another crime, we would expect them to report it. In the same way, they should report FGM, which is clearly a horrendous crime.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children also runs a confidential helpline for victims and professionals, so there are places that people can go. I would be very happy to write to members of the Committee with details of those helplines if they want to share them with their constituents.

[Kelvin Hopkins]

I have one more question, about girls being taken out of school for significant periods. Is there some reporting method for that? It is partly to do with forced marriage, but in certain communities, mainly from Africa and the middle east, girls are taken out of school for significant periods of time, either being taken abroad to have the FGM done there or even having it done within Britain and not being well enough to go back to school.

[Karen Bradley]

Again, the hon. Gentleman makes a very important point. The reason why we introduced protection orders at the beginning of the school holidays was that we know that is a time when girls can be taken out of the UK to be cut. The families know that the girls will come back to a new class, and possibly even a new school if they are moving from primary to secondary school.

The hon. Gentleman is right that girls leaving school for a significant period of time can be an indicator of FGM, and I know that there is multi-agency working across the country to look carefully at that. Reports can be made to multi-agency safeguarding hubs and, of course, to the NHS helpline. We have also published multi-agency guidance, which, as I have said, we are putting on a statutory footing. That includes information for schools and teachers on what to look out for.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

Do we know how many protection orders have been used for FGM so far, or even in the last year?

[Karen Bradley]

We do not yet have the final figures. Protection orders were only introduced on 17 July, so the first set of statistics has not yet come through. We hope to have them shortly, and I am sure the hon. Lady will be made aware of them when they are released.

[Sarah Champion]

Taking the Minister back to her answer about telephone helplines and reporting, I know that the advice on hate crimes is to call 111, but 111 does not have a translation service. Will the Minister tell Committee members, when she reports back to us, whether people are able to report in languages other than English?

[Karen Bradley]

I would be happy to report back to the Committee on that when I write with all the information on the helplines and the other help that is available, including from the FGM unit at the Home Office. We also have a forced marriage unit, which is a joint Home Office and Foreign Office unit working across communities to provide outreach education about forced marriage. It also works across borders with countries where we believe people may be being taken to be put into a forced marriage. I will be very happy to share all that information when I write to the Committee.

Motion made, and Question proposed,

That the Committee takes note of European Union Document No. 17228/13, a Commission Communication: Towards the elimination of female genital mutilation.—(Karen Bradley.)

--- Later in debate ---

[Karen Bradley]

I thank all Members of the Committee for their contributions. I will make a few points in response to the debate before concluding.

I am not sure whether the Committee is aware that my noble Friend Baroness Verma has been appointed Government champion on international violence against women and girls, a role she fulfils in her capacity as an International Development Minister. I met her earlier today to discuss how we can work together to try to get the cultural changes that so many Members have talked about and to get that working internationally.

The hon. Member for Rotherham and others talked about cultural change, and they are absolutely right. This is not a problem we can tackle only through legislation, as the hon. Member for Lanark and Hamilton East said. There has to be cultural change.

The hon. Member for Luton North suggested that we were somehow going soft on the issue. I assure him that is simply not the case. There is no doubt in my mind or that of the law enforcement and prosecution services that nobody should think they can get away with this—absolutely not. That is why we made changes through the Serious Crime Act, beefing up the legislation and making it easier for victims to feel they can come forward, with lifelong anonymity and with the additional protection orders and other measures we have put in place.

The hon. Gentleman is right to say that we want to see a prosecution, but we have to remember that in a court of law in England and Wales, we are talking about a situation where a jury has to be convinced beyond reasonable doubt, and that can mean witnesses giving evidence against their own family members—an incredibly difficult situation. That is why we need to do everything we can to protect those witnesses and victims so that we can get the prosecutions.

[Kelvin Hopkins]

I do not doubt the Minister’s sincerity or the concern of the Government and Members of all persuasions, but the reality is that there has not been a prosecution in all this time. People in the communities involved come from countries that are much rougher and tougher than ours, and they think, “They’re not going to pursue us, because there have been no prosecutions.” The reality is that, however we try to approach it in a sensible, law-abiding, modern way, people in those communities really think that they can get away with it.

[Karen Bradley]

I must correct the hon. Gentleman: there has been a prosecution; it just did not lead to a successful conviction. If we look back at that situation, the reason the prosecution was brought in the first place was that this was not a family member, but a doctor who reinfibulated a woman who had just given birth; and one of the problems with that prosecution was that the victim was called as a witness for the defence. That shows the difficulty we have with this situation. We are talking about very complicated, personal situations that involve family members. I commend the Crown Prosecution Service for bringing the prosecution, but it was always going to be very difficult to get a conviction.

[Mr David Burrowes (Enfield, Southgate) (Con)]

How do our current legislation and protection orders compare to provisions in other countries in terms of the level of attention given to ensuring that we get the prosecutions that victims deserve?

[Karen Bradley]

I will be happy to write to my hon. Friend with an analysis of the comparisons because we probably do not have time to go through it now. Let me be clear: the protection orders are for girls that we consider to be at risk of FGM, to protect them and stop them from being taken out of the country—for example, their passports are removed. That is girls who are at risk of FGM. We have also taken measures for girls where FGM has been committed. To return to mandatory reporting, that has been in force only since 31 October, but it means that any professional in a public body who comes into contact with FGM—to be clear: a health professional who sees that FGM has been committed and who knows it has been committed—has a mandatory duty to report it so that we get the information.

[Naz Shah]

I am going to speak about my experience of honour-based forced marriages and the case of Shafilea Ahmed. In that case we did not have a body, but we prosecuted. What I am struggling to understand is why, when we have got the evidence base—when we have clear medical evidence of mutilation—we need witness testimony. Why are we not prosecuting?

[Karen Bradley]

I cannot answer for why the CPS would choose to take a prosecution or not. I repeat that no cases were referred to the CPS before 2010, so it was impossible for it to take a prosecution. Cases are now being referred and the CPS will make its best judgment on whether a prosecution can be achieved.

The hon. Lady is right about the evidence. That is where mandatory reporting is so important, because it means that those professionals who feared coming forward and saying they had seen this, because they feared it was somehow going to create a cultural difficulty, now know that they have to come forward and we will get that evidence.

[Naz Shah]

We have had 386 reports connected to FGM since 2009. I accept that the law is complicated, but we have the evidence. Do we need to do more in terms of changing the law? The prosecution that was pursued had nothing to do with a parent or a non-family member; it involved a medical practitioner who was not trained and who was found not guilty. It was not set within the context of the law—when we introduced the law, it was not for that kind of case. It is exactly the same for forced marriage: when we prosecuted in Cardiff, the first prosecution was not to do with parents or people who take very young girls out of the country to get them married. In both instances, we are failing. Please can we acknowledge that and do something more than just what we are doing here, because clearly we are not doing it right?

[Karen Bradley]

I dispute that we are not doing enough. I absolutely share the hon. Lady’s frustration about the lack of prosecutions and successful convictions. However, the measures in the Serious Crime Act 2015 were included in response to failings or gaps in the law that this Government perceived. We have taken those steps, but she has to recognise that that does not simply change things overnight. The changes to the law apply to offences committed after the Serious Crime Act commences, and there will be a time lag, which we all have to acknowledge, while evidence is gathered and before a prosecution takes place. I want to see a prosecution and a successful conviction as much as she does but, also, I do not want to see FGM happening in the first place. The hon. Lady is right that a successful conviction would send a clear message, as it has with forced marriage, that the practice is not acceptable. We must have the deterrent of a successful conviction, but we also have to prevent this practice from happening. A conviction is, in many ways, a failure, because a crime has happened. That is not a success; a success is preventing it from happening.

The hon. Member for Luton North and my hon. Friend the Member for Kensington made a point about men. They are both absolutely right; we need to change the culture, and not just among women. We need women who have been victims or who are worried about their siblings and members of their family to come forward, but we also need men to speak out.

One of the most heartening things I heard over the summer was when I visited the Border Force safeguarding team at Heathrow terminal 5. The law had only changed a week before, and the team told me about their experiences of families traveling out of the country, often via the middle east, to countries where FGM may take place. It was the men—the brothers, the uncles and the fathers—who said to the Border Force guards, “Thank you for having told us that this is a criminal offence and that if this happens to my daughter, sister or niece while she is out of the country, you will be watching for that on her return and we will face jail for having allowed it to happen. That means I have the power and the authority to tell members of my family who want to do this to my relative that they cannot, because it is a criminal act here in the UK.” That is such an important point.

[Kelvin Hopkins]

The Minister makes a good point. Getting across to men the idea that they do not want their daughters to be mutilated because it is wrong, as well as being fearful of prosecution, is fundamental. The idea of this happening to my granddaughter is unthinkable, and we want it to be unthinkable for all men. In societies that are strongly patriarchal, the man’s view counts.

[Karen Bradley]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right; we have to change attitudes among men and women, so that they understand. I cannot imagine how any father could think of this happening to his daughter, but the excuse given is, “You will need to do this to your daughter, otherwise she will not be attractive to men.” Fathers need to speak out and say that that is simply not the case. We need to ensure that as many people as possible speak out and say that. I commend all the campaigners on this issue, some of whom are victims themselves and many of whom make that argument.

I want to make a point about training. I mentioned in my opening statement that the Department of Health is funding a £3 million national FGM prevention programme, which is under way in partnership with NHS England and has reached thousands of professionals. More than 2,000 professionals have attended women’s sessions, and nearly 8,000 GPs have received resource packs. The next stage of the programme includes work to address the mental health needs of those who have had FGM and to improve the NHS safeguarding system.

We have had a good and open debate. I appreciate the support from both sides of the Committee, and I share the frustration about the lack of a successful conviction. We are all sending a message that that is what we want to see. I accept the points made and will write to members of the Committee about the helpline and how this offence can be reported. I assure the Committee that the Government will continue with the range of work under way on FGM, ensuring that best practice and information is shared at both the European and international level.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That the Committee takes note of European Union Document No. 17228/13, a Commission Communication: Towards the elimination of female genital mutilation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Monday 16th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con)]

3. What assessment she has made of the performance of the police in tackling hate crime.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

The police continue to make significant progress on tackling hate crime. The recording of hate crime has improved and the True Vision website was launched in 2011. Guidance for officers was published in 2014 and there is improved training on the handling of hate crime cases and support for victims.

[Stuart Andrew]

I am grateful for that answer and associate myself with the comments made by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary. Given the horrific attacks in Paris at the weekend, many Muslim communities are concerned about the potential increase in anti-Muslim hate crime in this country. Can my hon. Friend reassure those communities in my constituency and across the country that the Government are committed to tackling such hatred in all its forms?

[Karen Bradley]

My hon. Friend makes a very important point. It is absolutely clear that there is no excuse for hatred—no religious excuse and no other excuse. Hatred will not be accepted by this Government. We work closely with community organisations such as Tell MAMA to ensure that we are aware of community work to stop hate crime and to ensure that we increase reporting of it. We have also announced that Muslim hate crime will be recorded separately by the police to ensure that we have a full assessment of its levels.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

Further to the comments of the hon. Member for Pudsey (Stuart Andrew), these terrible events in Paris mean that it is very important that police officers engage fully with local communities. The Government were right to suspend the operation of the police funding formula, which deals with frontline policing. Although the counter-terrorism budget has been protected, dealing with such offences means that we need bobbies on the beat. Will the Minister speak to the Home Secretary and see whether we can present an argument to the Chancellor to protect front-line policing so that the police can deal with such issues, which impact on local communities?

[Karen Bradley]

I am not sure that I need to speak directly to my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, as she heard what the right hon. Gentleman said. It is important to point out that the proportion of police on the frontline has gone up and it is incredibly important that we work with communities to ensure that we root out these crimes.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

Is my hon. Friend aware that ISIL has sought to justify its attack on the Bataclan theatre by saying that it was an attack on promiscuous youth and the perversion of French homosexuals? Does she agree that that is the worst of all hate crimes and would be condemned by all decent people?

[Karen Bradley]

My hon. Friend sums it up perfectly and I do not think that there is anything I can add.

[Stephen Twigg (Liverpool, West Derby) (Lab/Co-op)]

Merseyside police have done fantastic work over the past decade or so in tackling hate crime. Does the Minister understand that there is real concern that the likely impact of spending cuts in the spending review could make it a lot harder for Merseyside police to maintain that brilliant work?

[Karen Bradley]

I commend the work of Merseyside police, and police across the country. Hate crime has been coming down, and there has been increased reporting of it, which means that more victims are prepared to come forward. That is due to the excellent work of the police and the criminal justice system, and we should all congratulate them on that.

[Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)]

Building on earlier comments, and noting that prevention is better than cure, may I ask the Government what extra measures they are taking to prevent hate crime, rather than tackle it once it has occurred? Also, I offer a reminder: Ministers should always be temperate in their language.

[Karen Bradley]

The hon. Gentleman will, I am sure, be aware of the launch of the counter-extremism strategy. We have also committed to a new, cross-Government hate crime action plan to make sure that we tackle this crime at source, and prevent it.

[Lyn Brown (West Ham) (Lab)]

But it is about resources. The Merseyside police and crime commissioner has said that proposed cuts

“will affect the teams which fight serious and organised crime, investigate rape and sexual violence and tackle hate crime.”

The chief constable of that service asks if he should take resources out of teams dealing with child abuse, gun crime, hate crime, or online fraud. What is the Minister’s answer?

[Karen Bradley]

The hon. Lady, who was a member of a Government who saw increases in crime, should congratulate this Government on reductions in crime, and on the fact that hate crime is going down. That is down to the excellent work of our police, and we should commend them for that.

[Jeff Smith (Manchester, Withington) (Lab)]

4. What progress her Department has made on the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

--- Later in debate ---

[Angela Crawley (Lanark and Hamilton East) (SNP)]

7. What steps she plans to take to reduce the level of violent crime.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

According to the crime survey for England and Wales, violent crime is 27% lower than in June 2010. We are taking effective action, including our ongoing action to tackle gang and youth violence, and our work to end violence against women and girls.

[Angela Crawley]

The Minister will be aware that the violence reduction unit in Scotland has taken an innovative approach to tackling violence by working with dentists, hairdressers, vets and others to identify domestic abuse. It has also successfully carried out work among gangs on promoting positive alternatives. What lessons can her Department learn from the success of Scotland’s violence reduction unit in its first 10 years of existence to reduce the level of crime?

[Karen Bradley]

We of course look at what is happening across the whole United Kingdom and work with the devolved authorities and others to ensure that we are using the very best practice.

[Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab)]

The weekend before last, three young men were murdered in three separate incidents in north-west London alone, demonstrating that gang and serious youth violence remains a genuinely serious problem on the streets of London, as it is elsewhere. Next spring, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime funding for the gangs project is due to end. Will the Minister speak with the Mayor of London to ensure that that necessary funding to tackle the threat of gangs continues after next May?

[Karen Bradley]

It is clearly important that we tackle gang violence and look at the exploitation within gang culture, which sees very vulnerable young people exploited and forced into gangs. I will of course be working with all to ensure that there is appropriate support for combating that.

[Sarah Champion (Rotherham) (Lab)]

The British crime survey shows an 87% rise in the reporting of rapes between October 2012 and March 2015. Sexual violence investigations need specialist expertise and supervision to ensure that cases are handled correctly and prosecutions are brought. What assurances can the Minister give that the proposed police cuts will not impact on the training and supervision of officers working on sexual violence cases?

[Karen Bradley]

The hon. Lady, who has significant experience and expertise in this area, will know that the increased recording of violence against women and girls is good news, because it means that more victims are prepared to come forward. I am very impressed by the work that I have seen police forces doing across the country to ensure that victims come forward and receive the right specialist and multi-agency support that they need.

--- Later in debate ---

[Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire) (Con)]

T5. One of the more irritating crimes is antisocial behaviour. Will the Government send a very positive message to the police community support officers who do so much to deal with this problem?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

It is incredibly important that the police tackle antisocial behaviour. It makes a difference to so many of our constituents and is an issue that comes up in our postbags.

[Mr George Howarth (Knowsley) (Lab)]

Does the Home Secretary accept the word of the police and crime commissioner for Merseyside, Jane Kennedy, when she says that proposed budget cuts will affect the ability of the police to deal with serious and organised crime, sexual crimes and hate crimes? Does she not think that the police and crime commissioner is in a better position to know this than she is? If not, why did she create the position in the first place?

Wanless Review and the Dickens File

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Wednesday 4th November 2015 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time, Ms Vaz. I congratulate the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann) on securing the debate and on the points he raised. He has been a tenacious and very determined campaigner on this matter.

Before dealing with the specifics of the Wanless review and the Dickens file, it is important to highlight that tackling child sexual abuse is a top priority for this Government. Victims should, and increasingly do, feel able to come forward to report abuse to the police and get the support they need. We have been consistently clear that when an allegation of child sexual abuse is made, whether it occurred now or in the past, it must be thoroughly investigated by the police, so that the facts can be established. Let me be clear: the Government are determined that forces should do everything they can to bring perpetrators of child sexual abuse to justice. Child sexual abuse now has the status of a national threat in the strategic policing requirement, meaning that forces are able to maximise specialist skills and expertise in both preventing and investigating allegations of offending. Police forces and police and crime commissioners must have the capabilities they need to protect children from sexual abuse.

It is sadly only too true that in the past, these horrific crimes were not always given the priority they should have had. We are appalled that abuse was allowed to proliferate in the very institutions where children should have been most protected: schools, hospitals and care homes. Child sexual abuse is now rightly centre stage as an issue that we must confront. I want to be clear—the hon. Gentleman alluded to this—that it is incredibly important that victims feel they can come forward, and will be listened to and believed.

Tackling this issue is a shared effort. The “Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation” report, published in March, sets out the national policy response to the failures seen in towns such as Rotherham, Manchester and Oxford. Collectively, the actions in that report will: strengthen accountability and leadership in professions and local government; address the culture of inaction and denial that led to victims being dismissed and ignored; improve joint working and information sharing, so that agencies intervene early; strengthen the protection of children who are at risk; reinforce law enforcement efforts to stop offenders; and provide greater support for victims and survivors. It is a wide-reaching and ambitious programme of work, driven forward at pace by an inter-ministerial group chaired by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary, who shares my deep personal commitment to this important work. I am sure that that broad range of activity will confirm to the hon. Member for Bassetlaw that this Government are absolutely committed to learning from the failures of the past and ensuring they do not recur.

In that context, I turn to the so-called Dickens dossier and the Wanless and Whittam review, which the hon. Gentleman spoke about. It may be helpful if I set out the circumstances and findings of that review. In July 2014, my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary and the Home Office permanent secretary approached Peter Wanless, chief executive officer of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and Richard Whittam, QC, to ask them to conduct a review of two independent investigations in respect of information the Home Office received about child sexual abuse between 1979 and 1999. Peter Wanless and Richard Whittam, QC, were chosen as esteemed, highly experienced and knowledgeable individuals in the field. Their review and findings were published last November.

The Wanless and Whittam review focused in part on how the Home Office responded to information relating to the Dickens file, as well as how the police acted on any information passed to them at the time. As referenced in their report, Peter Wanless and Richard Whittam, QC, were given free access to the Home Office’s filing system. They also undertook wider searches in other Departments and agencies, and their requests were complied with. Among their conclusions was the following statement:

“It is very difficult to prove anything definitive based on imperfectly operated paper records system at 30 years remove.

Whilst a sophisticated cover up would be unlikely to leave papers in the general registry system of a major Government Department, extensive searches of paper records for the period, well beyond the Home Office itself, have not uncovered any evidence of organised attempts by the Home Office to conceal child abuse, either in specific documents retained by them or others, or through an obvious pattern of destroyed files.”

Their work shows that the original reviews did not cover anything up, and it neither proves nor disproves that the Home Office acted inappropriately. Likewise, they do not prove or disprove that public money ever found its way to the Paedophile Information Exchange, but they make clear that they saw

“no evidence to suggest PIE was ever funded by the Home Office because of sympathy for its aims.”

Wanless and Whittam made three sets of recommendations for the Home Office, all of which related to how the Department dealt with sensitive allegations, how officials passed such information on to the police, and how the details of those allegations were properly recorded. The permanent secretary accepted all three sets of recommendations, and the Home Office has undertaken considerable work to implement them in the year since the report was published.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Bassetlaw on locating material that he believes constitutes the so-called Dickens dossier. I am unable to offer an explanation as to why he has apparently been able to locate those documents when the Home Office has not. I can only refer to the outcome of the diligent work by Mr Wanless and Mr Whittam, who met with the hon. Gentleman during their review. I reiterate that neither they nor the previous independent reviewer were able to identify a Dickens dossier within the Department’s holdings.

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for passing whatever information he has to the Metropolitan Police Service. It is not for the Home Office, or for me in my role as Minister with responsibility for preventing abuse and exploitation, to comment on or intervene in individual ongoing investigations. As such, I will not comment or speculate on what might be in those papers. It is right and proper that any material relevant to the matter or any allegation of child sexual abuse be passed to the police so that it can be properly investigated. I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on doing just that. I understand the police are reviewing the documents passed to them, and I look forward to hearing the outcome.

As I said, it is vital that victims and survivors report the abuse they have suffered so that it can be investigated and the truth can be established. The Government are determined that no stone shall be left unturned in pursuit of that aim. That is why my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has established an independent statutory inquiry on child sexual abuse. The inquiry will challenge institutions and individuals without fear or favour, and will get to the truth. Justice Goddard is leading the inquiry’s important work, and is grasping this once-in-a-generation opportunity to expose what has gone wrong in the past and learn lessons for the future. The right place for further consideration of the Home Office’s or other institutions’ handling of the so-called Dickens dossier and other non-recent abuse allegations is the inquiry, which is free to consider evidence from any point in the past without restrictions and has the power to compel witnesses and call for evidence.

We are committed to the inquiry having the full co-operation of Government and access to all relevant information, including secret information where appropriate. Although it would not be appropriate to give a blanket undertaking that people who have signed the Official Secrets Act will not be prosecuted for reporting information relating to possible child sex abuse offences, the Attorney General gave an undertaking on 15 June that no document or evidence provided to the inquiry would result in, or be used in, any prosecution under the Official Secrets Act, or any prosecution for unlawful possession of the evidence in question.

Finally—I cannot emphasise this point enough—the Home Secretary has been clear that it is vital that the whole Government fully co-operate with the inquiry on its important work. All Departments must and will ensure that they have the systems and processes in place to do so. I assure the hon. Member for Bassetlaw that the Government are determined to uncover the truth. We must all work together to ensure that the inquiry is able to do so.

Question put and agreed to.

Post-Study Work Visa (Scotland)

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Tuesday 20th October 2015 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone. I apologise for my slightly late arrival. Something is going on outside, and it seems that the roads are a bit busy for some visitor or other. Anyway, I got here and I was delighted to hear the vast majority of the speech made by the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Gavin Newlands), whom I congratulate on securing a debate on the operation of post-study work visas in Scotland.

The Government recognise that there should be opportunities for the brightest and best graduates from UK universities to remain in the UK to work, and we have an excellent post-study work offer for graduates seeking to undertake skilled work in Scotland after their studies. The hon. Gentleman and his hon. Friends the Members for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald) and for Glasgow North West (Carol Monaghan) are right to say that overseas students enrich the universities at which they study. I am lucky enough to be a graduate of Imperial College London. When I studied there, over 20 years ago, more than a third of students were from overseas, and I know that my university experience was enriched as a result. I will therefore set out the opportunities available to overseas students who graduate from UK universities and make it clear that the UK is not closed for business.

The number of students who can stay in the UK after completing their studies is not limited, but they need to meet certain conditions. Those with an offer of a graduate-level job, paying an appropriate salary, may take up sponsored employment through tier 2, the skilled worker route, which is one of the ways that they can apply to stay. Over 25,000 UK employers are licensed by the Home Office to sponsor non-EEA nationals to work in the UK under tier 2. If graduates apply from within the UK, the resident labour market test is waived and they are not subject to the annual limit on tier 2 numbers. In 2013, more than 4,000 visas were issued to tier 4 students to switch into tier 2 in the UK; last year, that number increased to more than 5,500.

We have introduced a visa category for graduate entrepreneurs, the first of its kind in the world. Those who have been identified by a higher education institution or UK Trade & Investment can stay on for up to two years to develop their business in the UK before switching into tier 2 or the main tier 1 entrepreneur route. Just over 560 graduate entrepreneur visas were granted in 2014, up from 206 the year before.

We have also made provisions to switch into tier 5 those graduates wishing to undertake a period of professional training or a corporate internship related to their qualifications before pursuing a career overseas. In addition, PhD students can stay in the UK for an extra year under the tier 4 doctorate extension scheme to look for work or start their own business. All those post-study work provisions are available to non-EEA graduates of UK universities, including those in Scotland.

It is worth putting the statistics on the record. In the year ending March 2015, 137,000 non-EU students entered the UK and only 41,000 left. That shows that many people are taking advantage of the opportunities to stay in the UK and work that the legal migration route offers, but it also indicates that there are many overstayers—people who are here beyond their visa. It is therefore important that the Government, who are listening to people’s migration concerns, do not allow or accept abuses.

I also want to address the question of whether Scottish universities are at a competitive disadvantage. Let me be clear: I would never talk down Scottish higher education establishments. Scottish universities are absolutely fantastic. I have relatives who have studied at Glasgow and other institutions and I know about the fantastic qualifications, training and learning that they received. Since 2010, university-sponsored applications have increased by 7%, with a 4% increase to 14,627 last year. The figures indicate that Scotland is not closed for business and that overseas students do want to study in Scotland.

The hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North mentioned a decline in further education college numbers. We are reforming the student visa system to tackle abuse. There has been a fall in the number of international students applying to study in further education, the area where immigration abuse had been most prevalent. However, I repeat: university-sponsored applications to Scottish universities are increasing—up 7% since 2010 and up 4% last year alone.

The current set of provisions replaced the tier 1 post-study work category, which was closed in April 2012. The previous category permitted students graduating from a UK university to stay in the UK for up to two years after they finished their course, with unrestricted access to the labour market. The number of applications was significant, climbing from 20,015 grants of extension of stay in 2008 to 43,719 in 2011, when the route accounted for 45% of all grants of extension of stay for the purpose of work. Analysis of the route shows that the availability of the post-study work category gave rise to a cohort of migrants with a significant possibility of engagement on unskilled work. An operational assessment of the employment status of tier 1 migrants undertaken in October 2010 found that three in five users of the tier 1 post-study work category were in unskilled work, not graduate-level work. That does not suggest that the UK is not open for business. Our great university education should mean that we encourage people who want to stay to do graduate work, not to carry out unskilled labour.

In addition, UK Visas and Immigration intelligence assessments made in 2009 found that applications to switch into the tier 1 post-study work category were associated with high levels of abuse, including the submission of suspected bogus educational qualifications. A 2014 analysis of the tax status of migrants who had switched from the tier 1 post-study work category to the tier 1 entrepreneur category found that the majority had no declared economic activity or were working in breach of their conditions of stay. At the same time, we transformed the immigration routes for migrant workers and introduced a cap of 20,700 for non-EEA migrant workers, and there has been an increase in sponsored visa applications for highly skilled workers.

We have also tackled abuse of the student route. We have struck off nearly 900 bogus colleges since 2010. At the same time there has been a 17% rise in the number of sponsored student visa applications for universities, and a 33% rise for Russell Group universities.

[Kirsten Oswald]

It is a great shame that the Government have not found a way to deal with bogus colleges without the great disadvantage that is being inflicted on colleges and universities. I urge the Minister to be cognisant of the differences between universities and colleges when she gives her explanations. That would be very welcome.

[Karen Bradley]

I do understand the point that the hon. Lady makes about the difference between FE and higher education colleges. I am privileged to have a higher education college in my constituency now, as the FE college has become part of the University of Derby and is therefore now a higher education establishment. I am aware of different types of students and courses.

I want to touch on the matter of devolution. The Smith commission commits the Scottish and UK Governments to working together to explore the possibility of introducing formal schemes to allow international higher education students to remain in Scotland and contribute to economic activity for a defined period of time. The current provisions available to graduates of Scottish universities are precisely the type referred to in the report of the Smith commission.

On the question of net migration overall, as the Home Secretary has set out, high levels of immigration can put pressure on schools, hospitals, accommodation, transport and social services and drive down wages for people on low incomes. We now have a more selective approach to immigration, which is designed to operate in a fair and practical way, giving students, graduates, workers and employers the confidence they need in our system.

I recognise that the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North and his hon. Friends value the post-study work provisions in Scotland and across the UK. I confirm my commitment to our continuing to provide an excellent offer to people who graduate from UK universities.

Question put and agreed to.

draft Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Transparency in supply chains) Regulations 2015

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Monday 19th October 2015 General Committees

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Modern Slavery Act 2015 (Transparency in Supply Chains) Regulations 2015.

It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship today, Mr Hanson. I believe that it is the first time that you have chaired a parliamentary Committee. I congratulate you on this elevation to being a more senior Member of the House of Commons, but I will miss the sparring that we enjoyed when you were on the Front Bench. I welcome the hon. Member for Rotherham, who is a worthy addition to the Front Bench. I look forward to working with her on our shared policy area.

The draft regulations were laid before the House on 7 September. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 includes a landmark transparency in supply chains provision. The provision will require all commercial organisations above a certain turnover threshold that carry on a business in the United Kingdom to disclose what steps they have taken to ensure that their business and supply chains are slavery free. Requiring commercial organisations to be transparent about such activity will give the public, consumers and investors the necessary information to make informed choices about where they shop and with whom they do business. Many businesses are already taking action to prevent modern slavery, but the legislation will create a race to the top and encourage those who have done little to do more.

The 2015 Act does not specify the turnover threshold at which the provision will apply because the Government wanted to consult on such an important issue first. The Government have always wanted to create a level playing field between businesses with the resourcing and purchasing power to take action, while avoiding placing any undue burden on smaller businesses. To get that right, we decided to consult first and then set the threshold in regulations after the Act was passed.

The Government held a public consultation on the turnover threshold and the content of statutory guidance for businesses between February and May this year. Responses were received from a range of businesses, business groups, non-governmental organisations and others, with respondents overwhelmingly supporting a £36 million threshold. Many respondents noted that such a threshold would align with the definition of a large company in the Companies Act 2006, providing clarity and consistency for businesses.

The Government agreed with the responses, so the draft regulations specify that the provision in the Act will apply to all commercial organisations with a total turnover of £36 million or more a year. The turnover threshold reflects the Government’s ambition in this area, because it was the lowest threshold suggested in the consultation, thus capturing the most businesses and creating the broadest level playing field of the options considered.

The regulations specify how total turnover should be defined for the purposes of the provision. The total turnover of a commercial organisation is calculated as its turnover and that of any subsidiary undertakings. Therefore, in calculating total turnover, parent companies will have to include the turnover of all their subsidiaries when considering whether the provision applies.

The Government are determined to ensure that this important provision works effectively on the ground in the long term, which is why the regulations require the Secretary of State to publish a report at least once every five years, setting out the regulations’ objectives and assessing the extent to which they are being achieved and whether they remain appropriate. That will ensure that the provision remains relevant and effective for businesses tackling modern slavery risks in future.

The UK is the first country to introduce this kind of transparency in supply chains legislation in relation to modern slavery. This ambitious legislation will help to ensure that UK consumers do not unwittingly drive demand for modern slavery anywhere in the world and that the UK is recognised as a world leader. For this groundbreaking legislation to work effectively, it is vital that it applies to the right businesses with the resources and purchasing power to effect real change and that the provision is kept under close review. The regulations will ensure that that is the case, and I commend them to the House.

--- Later in debate ---

[Karen Bradley]

I thank the hon. Lady for her comments, particularly those on the Modern Slavery Act 2015. She was an active member of the Bill Committee, and I agree that the Act is better legislation as a result of the extensive consultation and collaborative work from across the House.

The hon. Lady discussed what must be included in the scope of the declaration. We will, of course, issue guidance to accompany the regulations. We have again consulted widely with business and business organisations to ensure that the guidance is relevant and appropriate. One of the biggest issues we found was that, although businesses were crying out for legislation on slavery and people trafficking, they were also concerned about how they could implement the requirements of such legislation. We therefore worked with businesses to ensure that the guidance reflects that and to give them the support that they need. Ultimately, it is for businesses to ensure that consumers know what they are doing and what they are buying, so we feel it is right to leave a degree of flexibility. Consumers, NGOs and others will push to ensure that the race to the top that we hope to see does actually happen.

The hon. Lady asked about small companies. She is right that we did not want to impose an unnecessary burden on them, but let us be clear that there is no place for slavery in any supply chain. Although the legislative obligation is on large companies—those with a turnover of more than £36 million—we do expect small companies to look for slavery and ensure that there is none in their supply chains.

[Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend the Minister agree that a lot of small companies will be part of the supply chain for large companies, so they will be covered under the legislation?

[Karen Bradley]

I thank my hon. Friend, who makes the exact point I was coming to. There are many small companies in the supply chain. On the whole, the small companies that are the lifeblood of industry in my constituency are suppliers to the larger business that will be reporting and will expect those smaller companies to provide the information required to make appropriate and user-friendly reports.

This legislation is about putting power in the hands of the consumer and saying to the British public that they will have a groundbreaking provision that will help them to make informed decisions about whether they want to buy goods from businesses that do not take the issue seriously. Businesses themselves can come out and be proud of the work that they are doing to ensure that there is no slavery in the supply chain. I am confident that the regulations will help to ensure that the UK is, and is seen to be, the world leader that we are on modern slavery.

Question put and agreed to.

Prostitution (Prosecution Trends)

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Tuesday 13th October 2015 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

It is an honour and a privilege to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Evans.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Luton South (Mr Shuker) on securing the debate, and on his article on the New Statesman website, which I recommend to anyone listening. I know that he takes a great interest in this area, and I appreciate the points he raised. It is clear from what he said, as well as from the previous debates during the passage of the Modern Slavery Bill, that he and other hon. Members have strong views on this issue.

I start by reassuring the hon. Gentleman that the Government and I share his clearly stated desire to protect all women—particularly vulnerable women—from violence. As the Minister for Preventing Abuse and Exploitation, I am determined to do everything I can to protect victims and to bring perpetrators to justice. I recognise the harm and exploitation that can be associated with prostitution, and the Government are committed to tackling that. In that context, we cannot look at prostitution in isolation from the broader work taking place across Government and beyond to eradicate violence against women and girls, to protect vulnerable people and to tackle exploitation in all its forms. Protecting victims from crime remains at the heart of our approach. We can do that by preventing crime from occurring in the first place, supporting victims through the criminal justice system and helping them to recover, regain their confidence, and reclaim their lives. In short, we need to believe them, take them seriously and listen to them.

In March, the Government published a report detailing progress in tackling violence against women and girls—if you will forgive me, Mr Evans, I will refer to it as VAWG from now on, which is the acronym that we all recognise— over the last Parliament. Our commitment to that important work continues: the previous Government ring-fenced £40 million for VAWG services—that is £10 million a year—and the Government are continuing that funding to April 2016. We are consulting on refreshing our VAWG strategy, which will be published later this year. I will say a little more on that in a moment.

It is important to recognise that local areas are in the best position to identify and respond to issues in their areas, and that includes the complex problems that can be associated with prostitution. Working alongside front-line organisations, other agencies and the Crown Prosecution Service as appropriate, local police are in the best position to respond. They know what to prosecute, when and why. The police are assisted in that by guidance from the national policing lead for prostitution, which makes clear that the police’s first priority is the protection of often vulnerable individuals from violent and sexual crimes. The national policing lead’s strategy for policing prostitution is clear on that, and the message will be emphasised in the refreshed and updated strategy due to be published later this year.

To be clear, the protection of victims is the Government’s priority, and our work on refreshing our VAWG strategy is based on that. As the hon. Gentleman said, we continue to work on that. I am leaving straight after this debate to have another round-table discussion on refreshing the strategy. I look forward to presenting that refreshed strategy, which will put victims at the heart of everything we do.

The hon. Gentleman also made a point about multi-agency working. He is absolutely right: the issue cannot be tackled solely through arrests and the criminal justice system; it has to be tackled by all agencies working together and by ensuring that women feel they have the support they need to not be forced into prostitution in the first place and that if they are, they will be helped out of it.

Legislation and prosecutions are only one aspect of the response. The police and the CPS are empowered by a degree of discretion in arresting, charging and prosecuting. We want them to use that discretion sensibly and appropriately, based on the circumstances of each case. That will allow them to focus on what causes the most harm.

Members will know that legislation on prostitution has grown somewhat organically over time. The most recent changes to offences in this area were made by the Policing and Crime Act 2009. Prosecution data from the Crown Prosecution Service show that there were 83 prosecutions for controlling prostitution in 2014-15, compared with 58 in the previous year. That represents a continuation of the increase in prosecutions since 2011 and reflects a focus on tackling exploitation. As the hon. Gentleman said, there was also an increase in prosecutions for brothel offences: 96 in 2014-15, compared with 55 in the previous year.

However, prosecutions are not everything. Many factors can contribute to women’s presence in a brothel. They may be victims or perpetrators of exploitation, running or profiting from activities. Importantly, where the police refer cases to the CPS, there is discretion and guidance on whether to charge and prosecute. Generally, the degree of coercion and control of a prostitute’s activities, as well as penalising those who profit from their earnings, will determine the public interest in prosecuting. The CPS’s approach emphasises that anyone abused and exploited through prostitution needs help and support on health and welfare to exit prostitution. The CPS is encouraged to adopt a partnership approach with local authorities and other statutory and non-statutory organisations to find routes out of prostitution other than charging.

It is worth noting that the longer-term trend for the number of offences of soliciting for prostitution recorded by the police in England and Wales is downward. Since 2010-11, fewer than a thousand such offences have been recorded annually—it was 868 in 2014-15, compared with more than 2,000 in 2002-03. Of those, only approximately half were prosecuted, and prosecutions are also showing a downward trend. Those figures will reflect a number of factors, including incidence, community concerns and police enforcement approaches.

Strong moral and ethical questions are raised by prostitution, but the Government’s overriding priority remains the safety of people involved in prostitution. Existing legislation regarding buying and selling sex is focused on minimising the harm and exploitation that can be associated with prostitution. Most recently, for example, the Government removed all references to the misleading and unhelpful terms “child prostitution” and “child pornography” from statute during the passage of the Serious Crime Act 2015. That was in recognition of the exploitation that can be associated with prostitution and clearly shows our shared duty to protect the most vulnerable, particularly children.

Different legislative approaches have been adopted in different jurisdictions. I know that the hon. Gentleman is aware of the approach in Sweden and some neighbouring countries, which is often referred to as the Nordic model. I am also aware of recent legislative developments in Northern Ireland, and we will follow their implementation and impact with interest. It is important to reflect that an alternative view challenges the position that all paying for sex is by definition violence. That has been expressed by a variety of organisations, including those that represent people involved in prostitution. It was expressed most recently by Amnesty International, which changed its position.

It is difficult to argue that any single legislative approach to prostitution is ideal. A perfect solution probably does not exist. To be clear, I am not suggesting that those involved in prostitution have made an independent and free choice to do so. In fact, during my work on the Modern Slavery Act 2015, I met many victims of trafficking who were forced into prostitution entirely against their will. We all recognise the need for the law to protect the vulnerable and punish the perpetrator, but when considering alternative legislative approaches we must consider carefully whether we are confident that they support the safety of those involved in prostitution. I continue to and have always been willing to listen to the evidence about what works to keep the public safe. At this stage, I do not believe there is sufficient evidence of the value of such significant changes to the legal and moral position of buying sexual services in reducing harm to those involved, but I will continue to watch with interest.

We hear differing views on this issue whenever it is debated, and I respect Members’ genuinely held positions on how to achieve the best outcomes for often vulnerable individuals. The issues around prostitution are complex and contentious, but regardless of the legal position of prostitution, the law on rape and sexual assault is crystal clear and unequivocal. We expect every report of violence to be treated seriously from the time it is reported, every victim to be treated with dignity and every investigation and prosecution to be conducted thoroughly and professionally. In that context, it is important to reflect on the increased reporting rates for these terrible crimes, which show that victims increasingly have the confidence to report and can access the support they deserve. I am proud of the progress we are making in tackling all aspects of violence against women and girls and in protecting all victims. As the Minister for Preventing Abuse and Exploitation, I am determined to do everything I can to protect victims and bring perpetrators to justice.

Question put and agreed to.