Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of existing modern slavery legislation in tackling child criminal exploitation.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to tackling the heinous crime of modern slavery in all its forms and strengthening the Modern Slavery Act 2015 to ensure it continues to be world leading as the forms of modern slavery and the nature of exploitation continue to evolve. It is for this reason, in 2018, the Government commissioned Frank Field, Maria Miller MP and Baroness Butler-Sloss to lead an independent review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The Review’s purpose was to report on the operation and effectiveness of the Act, which provides the legal framework for tackling modern slavery in the UK. The final Review made 80 recommendations across four themes:
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Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the efficacy of the National Referral Mechanism process in supporting victims of child criminal exploitation.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This Government is committed to tackling the heinous crime of modern slavery and ensuring that all victims, including children, are provided with the support they need.
Where children are found to be potential victims of human trafficking or modern slavery, including child criminal exploitation, their safety and welfare are addressed as a priority. Local authorities are responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children in their area, including child victims of modern slavery. Local children's services will work in close co-operation with the police and other statutory agencies to offer potentially trafficked children the protection and support they require.
In addition to this statutory support, the Government has rolled out Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs) who provide an additional source of advice and support for all potentially trafficked children, irrespective of nationality, and somebody who can advocate on their behalf. The ICTG service is currently available in one third of local authorities in England and Wales. To ensure the correct ICTG model is rolled out, a staggered approach has been adopted with built in evaluations along the way, the evaluation of the ICTG early adopter sites can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/an-evaluation-of-independent-child-trafficking-guardians-early-adopter-sites-final-report
The Government is continuing the roll out of ICTGs as part of the NRM Transformation Programme, focused on the areas of highest need.
As part of the Government’s efforts to strengthen the support provided to child victims, we will shortly begin piloting a devolved model of National Referral Mechanism (NRM) decision-making for children. These pilots will utilise established safeguarding procedures and the existing forums available to local authorities and their safeguarding partners to take decisions about whether children are victims of modern slavery. These pilots will test whether this model can bring decision making, the provision of support, and the law enforcement response into closer alignment. We are keen to understand whether this devolved approach to decision making will also improve local understanding of modern slavery and the needs of child victims to deliver a more holistic approach to identification and support. The pilots will be subject to a robust evaluation.
Finally, the Home Office continues to work with First Responders to ensure they understand the indicators of different exploitation types and can refer children into appropriate support. That is why, in July 2020, we released an E-Learning module available to all First Responders to improve their understanding of their responsibilities and the support available.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of statutory responsibilities to support adults who are selling sex and/or experiencing sexual exploitation.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We are committed to tackling the harm and exploitation that can be associated with selling sex and continue to work closely with the police and other partners to ensure the legislation achieves these aims.
We continue to provide support to those who are most vulnerable in society, including those involved in selling sex or victims of sexual exploitation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we allocated £76m to support victims of modern slavery, domestic abuse and sexual violence. This included a £25m package to support victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence, £10m of which was ringfenced for organisations supporting victims of rape and sexual violence. MoJ have also recently announced that £10.1m will be provided to rape and domestic abuse support centres and Police and Crime Commissioners to fund services in local areas.
Potential victims of sexual exploitation have access to specialist support and advocacy services regardless of their immigration status to assist them in rebuilding their lives and reintegrating into local communities.
The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the process by which the UK identifies and supports potential victims of modern slavery including sexual exploitation by connecting them with appropriate support, which may be delivered through the specialist Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC), local authorities and asylum services. The introduction of the new MSVCC, which went live on the 4 January 2021, has brought about a number of new services and greater prescription to existing services to better meet the needs of each victim, including those with specialist or complex needs. The MSVCC will continue to provide accommodation, financial support payments, translation and interpretation, transport and access to an outreach support worker for those who are identified as a potential victim and receive a positive Reasonable Grounds decision from the Single Competent Authority.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding from the Violence Reduction Unit programme has been allocated to organisations supporting victims.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Under the Violence Reduction Programme, the Government has allocated £35m to support Violence Reduction Units in 20/21. Violence Reduction Units then work on a multi-agency basis to determine how best to apply this funding in implementing a ‘whole system’ or ‘public health’ approach to tackling serious violence, which may include funding various organisations.
The Home Office does not hold victim/offender classification information relating to organisations funded by Violence Reduction Units.
As noted in the Government’s April 2018 Serious Violence Strategy, there is evidence of considerable overlap between victims and offenders and serious violence. As part of their implementation of a ‘whole system’ approach, Violence Reduction Units seek to implement those interventions that are most effective in preventing violence from happening in the first place.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of victims of modern slavery who were not identified as such by first responders since the beginning of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to the safety and security of victims of modern slavery and ensuring they receive the support they need, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hidden nature of modern slavery makes providing an accurate measure of its scale difficult. From 1 April to 30 September 2020, 4,715 potential victims of modern slavery were referred into the National Referral Mechanism.
Given that victims of modern slavery may be especially isolated as a result of the lockdown measures required to combat the pandemic, the Government published additional guidance on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-support-for-victims-of-modern-slavery/coronavirus-covid-19-support-for-victims-of-modern-slavery) for First Responder Organisations and frontline staff with information about how to spot the potential signs of modern slavery and refer suspected cases to appropriate services.
We also recognise victims are coming into contact with different services during the pandemic and we have worked to raise awareness of the indicators of modern slavery in these areas to ensure victims continue to be identified and supported.