Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on expediting and expanding the Online Safety Act 2023 to tackle violence against women and girls.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The misuse of technology to abuse or harm others (including online) has a disproportionate impact on women and children and we know this is a significant and growing issue in the UK and worldwide.
Tackling VAWG in all of its forms, including when it takes place online, is a top priority for this Government, and that's why we have set out an unprecedented mission to halve these crimes in a decade.
We will go further than before to deliver a cross-Government transformative approach, underpinned by a new VAWG strategy to be published this year. On 22 January 2025, the Government introduced new legislation which will make creating sexually explicit 'deepfake' images a criminal offence.
The Online Safety Act 2023 designates material relating to child sexual exploitation and abuse as a priority offence. Platforms must put in place systems and processes to minimise and remove this content. The Illegal Harms Codes, laid before Parliament in December and coming into force from 17 March this year, sets out the steps companies must take to meet their duties under the Act to tackle this content.
On 31 January 2024, the Act's new offences of cyberflashing and the sharing and threatening to share intimate images including 'deepfake' pornography without consent came into effect. These are also priority illegal offences.
In addition, the Act requires Ofcom to produce guidance which summarises in one clear place measures that can be taken to tackle the abuse that women and girls disproportionately face online. Ofcom has begun developing this guidance and will consult on it this month.
I regularly meet with the Minster for the Future Digital Economy and Online Safety to discuss these matters, and my officials also engage regularly with DSIT on technology-facilitated VAWG.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has has made of the potential impact of (a) Young Futures Hubs and (b) Young Futures Prevention Partnerships on tackling violence against women and girls.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government has set an ambitious target to halve VAWG in a decade. To achieve this, we must reduce the current levels of offending and reoffending but also prevent abuse from happening altogether.
This focus on prevention also sits at the heart of the Young Futures Programme, which will establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships.
Young Futures Prevention Partnerships will bring local partners together to intervene earlier to ensure that vulnerable children at-risk of being drawn into a variety of crime types (including anti-social behaviour, knife crime and violence against women and girls) are identified and offered support in a more systematic way.
Young Futures Hubs will bring together services to improve access to opportunities and support for young people at community level, promoting positive outcomes and enabling them to thrive.
Officials from across a range of departments are working together, using evidence of what works, to start to shape how the Young Futures Hubs will work in practice.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of youth services on (a) preventing and (b) tackling violence against women and girls.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government has set an ambitious target to halve VAWG in a decade. To achieve this, we must reduce the current levels of offending and reoffending but also prevent abuse from happening all together.
The Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy will set out our strategic direction and concrete actions to deliver this ambition. We are considering a range of policy options across government to prevent these crimes including education for young people around healthy relationships and consent, community interventions and tackling online VAWG.
That includes looking at how we can work most effectively with youth services and through the Young Futures programme to deliver this ambition.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that victims of rural crime in areas with poor (a) phone and (b) internet coverage are able to report those crimes promptly.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is committed to working with the police and other partners to address the blight of rural crime, with the introduction of stronger powers for the police to tackle antisocial behaviour, and action to tackle farm theft and fly-tipping.
We are recruiting 13,000 more neighbourhood police and police community support officers, including in rural areas, to ensure communities have somewhere to turn to report crimes and to report concerns.
Improving telecoms is a Department of Science Innovation and Technology lead.
Asked by: Rebecca Smith (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her timetable is for bringing forward the secondary legislation under the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 to define the minimum standards for (a) immobilisers and (b) forensic markings required at point of sale.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, which aims to prevent the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting.
The necessary secondary legislation to implement the Act will set out the detail, which will include minimum required standards.
I met with Ruth Bailey, CEO of Agriculture Association on the 5th November 2024 . I am currently considering the views of those who may be affected by the legislation and its regulations, to understand the potential implications and determine the scope of the legislation. I will be in contact with the industry during the process and hope to make a decision shortly.