Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times the UK has requested information (a) under the Prüm convention DNA sharing, (b) relating to the European Arrest Warrant about criminal records, (c) from the EU Passenger Name Record sharing scheme, (d) from a Europol Joint Investigation Team, (e) under the Schengen Information System, (f) from Europol's HAVEN project to combat sexual abuse and trafficking and (g) from other EU member states about stadium bans and previous offenders at football matches.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The United Kingdom is not yet connected to any other country for the sharing of DNA under the Prüm Council Decisions.
The UK shares criminal record information with Member States via the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS). In 2015, the UK made 105,164 requests for overseas criminal record checks to other EU Member States, compared to 8,536 in 2010, an increase of over 1100%.
European legislation is currently under consideration that would require EU Member States to process Passenger Name Records (PNR) on scheduled aviation flights. The proposed legislation would require the data to be analysed by a central Passenger Information Unit and all relevant and necessary PNR to be shared with the Passenger Information Units of other Member States in compliance with data protection obligations. Receiving PNR before travel allows law enforcement authorities to plan and respond proactively to threats. PNR plays a vital role in intelligence-led operations, post-incident investigations and judicial proceedings.
Joint investigation teams are Member State led processes. Europol staff may participate in a supporting capacity.
According to the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs IT Agency (eu-LISA), the UK had the following numbers of alerts active (that is, broadcast to Member States and not subsequently revoked) on 17 February 2014:
People wanted by the UK on a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) 231
Missing adults 6,121
Missing children 2,589
Wanted for judicial purposes (e.g. Witnesses to be traced) 1,884
Discreet alerts 10,438 Discreet alerts (national security) 478
Europol’s Project HAVEN – Halting Europeans Abusing Victims in Every Nation- is part of Europol’s work under Focal Point Twins. The UK participates in and exchanges information under Europol’s Focal Point Twins and the aim is to support Member States and third countries to prevent or combat the activities of criminal networks involved in the sexual exploitation of children. Operations in the UK to counter organised crime relating to Child Sexual Exploitation have been supported by Europol, and the UK exchanges information on crimes of this nature with and through Europol via our Liaison Bureau, rather than through Project HAVEN.
Between April 2014 and the end of December 2015,UK Football Policing Unit within the Home Office, the national football information point, requested information from other EU member states about stadium bans on 101 occasions. No figures are held on individual offenders with football bans.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to (a) reduce the number and (b) support the families of people reported as missing for more than three months; and when he expects to bring forward legislative proposals on the proposed guardianship bill.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The government is currently reviewing the Missing Children and Adults strategy, originally published in 2011. We are engaging with a wide range of stakeholders, including the charity Missing People, to update the guidance given in relation to all cases of children and adults going missing. The refreshed strategy will be published later this year and will include measures relating to preventing people going missing and improving the responses by all agencies to the families of long-term missing persons. We will introduce legislation to create a new legal status of guardian of the property and affairs of a missing person as soon as parliamentary time permits.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to increase the number of missing people who are found.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The Government’s Missing Children and Adults Strategy for England and Wales provides a core framework for local areas to do more to prevent and protect children and vulnerable adults who go missing. We are currently undertaking a refresh of the strategy, to be published later this year. This will include an implementation plan to improve the overall response to missing people, including better use of the Child Rescue Alert (CRA) system, prevention (reducing the numbers who go missing) and improving the response to finding people who have gone missing or are at risk of doing so.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has produced to assist police forces in apprehending foreign-born minors and their transfer into the care of local authorities; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Guidance to the police on the identification and support of unaccompanied minors from overseas currently exists in two complementary guidance documents, both produced by the then Association of Chief Police Officers and currently supported by the National Policing Lead and the College of Policing: Guidance on the Management, Recording and Investigation of Missing Persons (2010) and Interim Guidance on the Management, Recording and Investigation of Missing Persons (2013). Advice to practitioners, including the police, is also contained within two pieces of statutory guidance from the Department for Education: Care of unaccompanied and trafficked children (2014) and Safeguarding Children who may have been trafficked (2011).
The College of Policing ran a public consultation in 2015 on revisions to the Authorised Professional Practice (APP) guidance to the police on the handling of missing persons investigations. This is currently being developed following consultation. The APP is expected to contain reference to unaccompanied foreign children, highlighting their vulnerabilities and the potential danger of exploitation, and re-affirm the need to investigate these cases effectively, considering the risks to the child, particularly from adults who may purport to be relatives.
Asked by: Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the Minister for Preventing Abuse and Exploitation and the Department for Education will work together to tackle child neglect.
Answered by Lord Bates
Tackling all forms of abuse and exploitation of children is a priority for this Government. We will continue the urgent work of overhauling how our police, social care and other agencies work together to protect vulnerable children, including from the kind of organised grooming and sexual exploitation that has come to light in Rotherham, Rochdale and other towns and cities across the UK.
On 3 March, the previous Government published a report into the response to the failures in Rotherham, which were identified by Professor Alexis Jay and Louise Casey in their reviews. The report includes tough new measures to tackle child sexual exploitation and sets out a comprehensive, targeted set of actions, bringing together healthcare, social care, education, law enforcement, criminal justice agencies, and local and national government.
The Home Office’s Minister for Preventing Abuse and Exploitation leads and coordinates work to tackle child sexual exploitation, as well as missing children and adults, child sexual abuse online, violence against women and girls, and modern slavery including child trafficking. The Department for Education is responsible for Child Protection issues including child neglect.
The Home Office and the Department for Education work closely on these issues with other Government departments, to ensure cross-Government policy coherence for children in England. Ministers and officials meet regularly to oversee the important work on child sexual abuse and have established a cross- Government programme board to oversee the development and implementation of this work. Government Departments represented at this board include the Home Office, Department for Education, Department for Communities and Local Government, Department of Health, Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office.
Asked by: Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what the Minister for Preventing Abuse and Exploitation’s responsibilities include in relation to preventing child neglect.
Answered by Lord Bates
Tackling all forms of abuse and exploitation of children is a priority for this Government. We will continue the urgent work of overhauling how our police, social care and other agencies work together to protect vulnerable children, including from the kind of organised grooming and sexual exploitation that has come to light in Rotherham, Rochdale and other towns and cities across the UK.
On 3 March, the previous Government published a report into the response to the failures in Rotherham, which were identified by Professor Alexis Jay and Louise Casey in their reviews. The report includes tough new measures to tackle child sexual exploitation and sets out a comprehensive, targeted set of actions, bringing together healthcare, social care, education, law enforcement, criminal justice agencies, and local and national government.
The Home Office’s Minister for Preventing Abuse and Exploitation leads and coordinates work to tackle child sexual exploitation, as well as missing children and adults, child sexual abuse online, violence against women and girls, and modern slavery including child trafficking. The Department for Education is responsible for Child Protection issues including child neglect.
The Home Office and the Department for Education work closely on these issues with other Government departments, to ensure cross-Government policy coherence for children in England. Ministers and officials meet regularly to oversee the important work on child sexual abuse and have established a cross- Government programme board to oversee the development and implementation of this work. Government Departments represented at this board include the Home Office, Department for Education, Department for Communities and Local Government, Department of Health, Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office.
Asked by: Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure cross-government policy coherence regarding child exploitation and neglect.
Answered by Lord Bates
Tackling all forms of abuse and exploitation of children is a priority for this Government. We will continue the urgent work of overhauling how our police, social care and other agencies work together to protect vulnerable children, including from the kind of organised grooming and sexual exploitation that has come to light in Rotherham, Rochdale and other towns and cities across the UK.
On 3 March, the previous Government published a report into the response to the failures in Rotherham, which were identified by Professor Alexis Jay and Louise Casey in their reviews. The report includes tough new measures to tackle child sexual exploitation and sets out a comprehensive, targeted set of actions, bringing together healthcare, social care, education, law enforcement, criminal justice agencies, and local and national government.
The Home Office’s Minister for Preventing Abuse and Exploitation leads and coordinates work to tackle child sexual exploitation, as well as missing children and adults, child sexual abuse online, violence against women and girls, and modern slavery including child trafficking. The Department for Education is responsible for Child Protection issues including child neglect.
The Home Office and the Department for Education work closely on these issues with other Government departments, to ensure cross-Government policy coherence for children in England. Ministers and officials meet regularly to oversee the important work on child sexual abuse and have established a cross- Government programme board to oversee the development and implementation of this work. Government Departments represented at this board include the Home Office, Department for Education, Department for Communities and Local Government, Department of Health, Ministry of Justice and the Attorney General’s Office.
Asked by: Julian Huppert (Liberal Democrat - Cambridge)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support her Department provides for adults who have gone missing and returned to prevent them going missing again.
Answered by Norman Baker
The Home Office has provided the charity Missing People £220,000 per annum since 2010/11. This funding supports the delivery of the charity’s 24hour helpline for missing people and their families, and publicity services that the charity provides. This improves the outcomes for missing people and their families and helps reduce the risk and duration of disappearances, mitigating the risks of harm that missing children and vulnerable adults are exposed to during a missing episode.
No assessment has been made of return interviews for vulnerable people who go missing.
A new framework is being launched in early November by the National Crime Agency’s UK Missing Persons Bureau. This framework, entitled "Missing from Care - A multi-agency approach to protecting vulnerable adults", is designed to provide increased safeguards for vulnerable adults who go missing. The framework recommends a de-brief ‘return interview’ be conducted within 72 hours for all missing or absent incidents; to be conducted by the vulnerable person’s designated carer or an independent professional.
Asked by: Julian Huppert (Liberal Democrat - Cambridge)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the use of return interviews for vulnerable people who were missing and have returned.
Answered by Norman Baker
The Home Office has provided the charity Missing People £220,000 per annum since 2010/11. This funding supports the delivery of the charity’s 24hour helpline for missing people and their families, and publicity services that the charity provides. This improves the outcomes for missing people and their families and helps reduce the risk and duration of disappearances, mitigating the risks of harm that missing children and vulnerable adults are exposed to during a missing episode.
No assessment has been made of return interviews for vulnerable people who go missing.
A new framework is being launched in early November by the National Crime Agency’s UK Missing Persons Bureau. This framework, entitled "Missing from Care - A multi-agency approach to protecting vulnerable adults", is designed to provide increased safeguards for vulnerable adults who go missing. The framework recommends a de-brief ‘return interview’ be conducted within 72 hours for all missing or absent incidents; to be conducted by the vulnerable person’s designated carer or an independent professional.