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1667527

registered interest
date	07/11/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Independent Anti-slavery Commissioner
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will review the remit of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner.
tabling member constituency	East Londonderry
tabling member printed	Mr Gregory Campbell
uin	88
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/11/2023 answer text <p>The remit of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC) is set out in the 2015 Modern Slavery Act. In line with what is detailed in the Act, the role of the IASC will be to encourage good practice in:</p><ul><li>the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of slavery and human trafficking offences; and</li><li>the identification of victims of those offences.</li></ul><p>We look forward to working with IASC, who I am confident will set out their priorities in due course.</p> answering member constituency Derbyshire Dales answering member printed Miss Sarah Dines question first answered 13/11/2023 14:17:45 answering member 4816 label Biography information for Miss Sarah Dines
tabling member	1409 label Biography information for Mr Gregory Campbell

1667710

registered interest
date	07/11/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Sexual Offences: Exploitation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help women who have experienced adult sexual exploitation.
tabling member constituency	Stockton South
tabling member printed	Matt Vickers
uin	607
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/11/2023 answer text <p>The Government is fully committed to protecting victims from, and tackling, the devastating harm associated with adult sexual exploitation.</p><p>Adult sexual exploitation can occur across a spectrum of offending, from intimate partner violence, including domestic abuse and rape and sexual violence to serious and organised crime, including human trafficking. These offences are covered under a range of legislation.</p><p>Due to the complex nature of adult sexual exploitation, victims can access tailored support across different services depending on the harm they have experienced.</p><p>The Home Office is providing £1.36 million over three years to Changing Lives for their Net-Reach project, providing early intervention and targeted support for women and girls at high-risk of commercial online exploitation and the risk on online sexual harm. We are also providing over £180,000 in 2023/24 to Trevi Women to provide support to women with complex and multiple needs, including women seeking to exit on-street prostitution in Plymouth.</p><p>The Government funded Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract also provides victims of modern slavery access to safehouse accommodation and a dedicated support worker who provides information on their rights and facilitates access to wider statutory support services, specifically related to the victim’s experience – this can be gender specific, such as assistance with accessing sexual health services as a result of sexual exploitation.</p> answering member constituency Derbyshire Dales answering member printed Miss Sarah Dines question first answered 13/11/2023 14:48:04 answering member 4816 label Biography information for Miss Sarah Dines
tabling member	4844 label Biography information for Matt Vickers

1667895

registered interest
date	07/11/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Domestic Abuse
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will introduce measures to help victims of domestic violence retrieve their possessions safely from their ex-partner's properties in circumstances when the police will not intervene.
tabling member constituency	The Wrekin
tabling member printed	Mark Pritchard
uin	121
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/11/2023 answer text <p>It is important that police officers recognise and understand domestic abuse in all its forms. Post-separation abuse is an established risk factor for homicide. The College of Policing authorised professional practice guidance is clear that officers should offer assistance to victims intending to recover property from a residence to ensure this process is carried out safely.</p><p>Domestic abuse training plays a crucial role in police officers’ understanding and response to domestic abuse. The specialist Domestic Abuse Matters programme developed by the College of Policing and domestic abuse charities, has been delivered to the majority of forces to date. The Government is also now funding the rollout of the training to those forces who have yet to undertake it. It is, however, crucial that police forces continue to remain updated with domestic abuse training, particularly for new officers.</p> answering member constituency Derbyshire Dales answering member printed Miss Sarah Dines question first answered 13/11/2023 14:49:52 answering member 4816 label Biography information for Miss Sarah Dines
tabling member	1576 label Biography information for Mark Pritchard

1666959

registered interest
date	19/10/2023
answering body	Women and Equalities
answering dept id	31
answering dept short name	Women and Equalities
answering dept sort name	Women and Equalities
hansard heading	Windrush Compensation Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with the Home Secretary on the effectiveness of the Windrush Compensation Scheme for affected groups.
tabling member constituency	Bedford
tabling member printed	Mohammad Yasin
uin	906699
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/10/2023 answer text <p>Since April 2019, the Windrush Compensation Scheme has paid over £67 million in compensation.</p><p>The Scheme has reduced the time to allocate a claim for a substantive casework consideration, following completion of eligibility checks and a Preliminary Assessment, from 18 months to under 5 months.</p><p>The Home Office continues to listen to feedback from stakeholders and the communities and make improvements the scheme and the way it operates to ensure people receive the maximum compensation at the earliest point possible.</p> answering member constituency Derbyshire Dales answering member printed Miss Sarah Dines question first answered 25/10/2023 15:40:52 answering member 4816 label Biography information for Miss Sarah Dines
tabling member	4598 label Biography information for Mohammad Yasin

1665698

registered interest
date	18/10/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Artificial Intelligence: Offences against Children
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to prevent the proliferation of AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery.
tabling member constituency	Ashford
tabling member printed	Damian Green
uin	203187
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/10/2023 answer text <p>The Government remains firmly committed to tackling all forms of child sexual abuse online and in our communities across the UK and internationally. Our approach is underpinned by the Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy which sets out firm commitments to drive action across the whole system.</p><p>The law in the UK is very clear with regards to production of child sexual abuse material. It is an offence to produce, store, share or search for any material that contains or depicts child sexual abuse, regardless of whether the material depicts a ‘real’ child or not. This prohibition also includes pseudo-imagery that may have been computer-generated.</p><p>Home Office investment supports the National Crime Agency to use its unique capabilities to disrupt the highest harm offenders, safeguard children and remove the most horrific child sexual abuse material from the internet, including on the dark web.</p><p>The Home Office has recently rolled out new tools linked to our world leading Child Abuse Image Database to support law enforcement to identify offenders and safeguard victims more quickly.</p><p>All companies that utilise Artificial Intelligence must incorporate safety measures to ensure their technology cannot be manipulated by offenders of this abhorrent crime. We welcome further engagement with industries to work together to implement or create the best solution for their platforms.</p><p>As part of the Government’s work to tackle child sexual abuse offences in every form, the Government has driven forward the Online Safety Bill, which will soon gain royal assent and become law. The strongest protections in the Online Safety Bill are for children and all companies in scope of the legislation will need to tackle child sexual abuse material as a priority.</p><p>In September, the Home Secretary met US Secretary of State Alejandro N. Majorkas at NCMEC and reaffirmed their commitment to combined expertise of the UK and United States to ensure perpetrators of child sexual abuse and exploitation cannot operate across continents.</p><p>In partnership with the IWF, the Home Office will be hosting an AI Summit side event to discuss the growing threat of generative artificial intelligence creating child sexual abuse material. The summit will bring international stakeholders together to encourage co-operation to tackle this heinous crime.</p> answering member constituency Derbyshire Dales answering member printed Miss Sarah Dines grouped question UIN 203188 question first answered 25/10/2023 14:11:13 answering member 4816 label Biography information for Miss Sarah Dines
tabling member	76 label Biography information for Damian Green

1665699

registered interest
date	18/10/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Artificial Intelligence: Offences against Children
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on reducing AI-generated child sex abuse imagery.
tabling member constituency	Ashford
tabling member printed	Damian Green
uin	203188
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/10/2023 answer text <p>The Government remains firmly committed to tackling all forms of child sexual abuse online and in our communities across the UK and internationally. Our approach is underpinned by the Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy which sets out firm commitments to drive action across the whole system.</p><p>The law in the UK is very clear with regards to production of child sexual abuse material. It is an offence to produce, store, share or search for any material that contains or depicts child sexual abuse, regardless of whether the material depicts a ‘real’ child or not. This prohibition also includes pseudo-imagery that may have been computer-generated.</p><p>Home Office investment supports the National Crime Agency to use its unique capabilities to disrupt the highest harm offenders, safeguard children and remove the most horrific child sexual abuse material from the internet, including on the dark web.</p><p>The Home Office has recently rolled out new tools linked to our world leading Child Abuse Image Database to support law enforcement to identify offenders and safeguard victims more quickly.</p><p>All companies that utilise Artificial Intelligence must incorporate safety measures to ensure their technology cannot be manipulated by offenders of this abhorrent crime. We welcome further engagement with industries to work together to implement or create the best solution for their platforms.</p><p>As part of the Government’s work to tackle child sexual abuse offences in every form, the Government has driven forward the Online Safety Bill, which will soon gain royal assent and become law. The strongest protections in the Online Safety Bill are for children and all companies in scope of the legislation will need to tackle child sexual abuse material as a priority.</p><p>In September, the Home Secretary met US Secretary of State Alejandro N. Majorkas at NCMEC and reaffirmed their commitment to combined expertise of the UK and United States to ensure perpetrators of child sexual abuse and exploitation cannot operate across continents.</p><p>In partnership with the IWF, the Home Office will be hosting an AI Summit side event to discuss the growing threat of generative artificial intelligence creating child sexual abuse material. The summit will bring international stakeholders together to encourage co-operation to tackle this heinous crime.</p> answering member constituency Derbyshire Dales answering member printed Miss Sarah Dines grouped question UIN 203187 question first answered 25/10/2023 14:11:13 answering member 4816 label Biography information for Miss Sarah Dines
tabling member	76 label Biography information for Damian Green

1664922

registered interest
date	16/10/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Forced Marriage Unit
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will hold discussions with the Comptroller and Auditor General on a possible value for money audit of the Forced Marriage Unit.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	202616
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/10/2023 answer text <p>The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage in all its forms.</p><p>The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) is jointly managed by the Home Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The FMU has assisted thousands of forced marriage victims and delivered training to over 5,000 professionals in the last three years. There are currently no plans for an audit of FMU, but its performance and value for money is kept under regular review.</p><p>The FMU has robust processes and procedures in place to ensure information given to victims and the professionals who support them is accurate. No complaints from victims have been received in the past four years for which records are available. All cases reported to the FMU are recorded on a dedicated casework database.</p><p>FMU caseworkers check the full circumstances of each case before giving advice. The FMU has no record of providing inaccurate information or advice to a victim or suspected victim of forced marriage.</p> answering member constituency Derbyshire Dales answering member printed Miss Sarah Dines grouped question UIN 202617 question first answered 24/10/2023 13:46:47 answering member 4816 label Biography information for Miss Sarah Dines
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel

1664923

registered interest
date	16/10/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Forced Marriage Unit
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions the Forced Marriage Unit had provided incorrect advice to victims in the latest period for which data is available.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	202617
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/10/2023 answer text <p>The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage in all its forms.</p><p>The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) is jointly managed by the Home Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The FMU has assisted thousands of forced marriage victims and delivered training to over 5,000 professionals in the last three years. There are currently no plans for an audit of FMU, but its performance and value for money is kept under regular review.</p><p>The FMU has robust processes and procedures in place to ensure information given to victims and the professionals who support them is accurate. No complaints from victims have been received in the past four years for which records are available. All cases reported to the FMU are recorded on a dedicated casework database.</p><p>FMU caseworkers check the full circumstances of each case before giving advice. The FMU has no record of providing inaccurate information or advice to a victim or suspected victim of forced marriage.</p> answering member constituency Derbyshire Dales answering member printed Miss Sarah Dines grouped question UIN 202616 question first answered 24/10/2023 13:46:47 answering member 4816 label Biography information for Miss Sarah Dines
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel

1665016

registered interest
date	16/10/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Vetting
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Disclosure and Barring Service over the time taken to process an enhanced check; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of resources available to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
tabling member constituency	Carmarthen East and Dinefwr
tabling member printed	Jonathan Edwards
uin	202710
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/10/2023 answer text <p>As the Minister for Safeguarding, I meet with the Chairman of the Disclosure and Barring Service to discuss performance.</p><p> </p><p>The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has a service standard to issue 80% of Enhanced checks within 14 days. Its performance remains consistently strong against this service standard as can be seen for the 2022-23 reporting year and first quarter of 2023-24 <a href="https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fstatistics%2Fdbs-dataset-1-disclosure-progress-information-disclosed-and-update-service-subscriptions&amp;data=05%7C01%7CNicholasDerek.Brown8%40homeoffice.gov.uk%7Ce2373ce25df5415f429308dbcef420df%7Cf24d93ecb2914192a08af182245945c2%7C0%7C0%7C638331320133784258%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=2%2BuWMDI8e%2Fyl%2FCgCvrgXkakf8OhEHS%2FfL9LC3PVEF9o%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">DBS dataset 1: DBS checks, the DBS Update Service, and disputes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a>.</p><p> </p><p>To summarise performance, the attainment over the 2022/23 reporting year was 78.4%, with over 3.5 million customers receiving their Enhanced DBS check results within 14 days. The average turnaround time over the past year was 10.7 days, and 80% of all enhanced Disclosures were issued by day 16 against the 14-day target.</p> answering member constituency Derbyshire Dales answering member printed Miss Sarah Dines question first answered 19/10/2023 10:13:04 answering member 4816 label Biography information for Miss Sarah Dines
tabling member	3943 label Biography information for Jonathan Edwards

1665023

registered interest
date	16/10/2023
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Forced Marriage Unit
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how (a) much funding and (b) many full-time equivalent staff have been allocated to the Forced Marriage Unit in each financial year since its was founded; and how many cases have been reported to that unit in each of those years.
tabling member constituency	Mid Derbyshire
tabling member printed	Mrs Pauline Latham
uin	202717
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/10/2023 answer text <p>The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage. On 27 February 2023, we brought into force legislation which raised the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership in England and Wales to 18, and expanded the offence of forced marriage so it is illegal to do anything to cause a child to marry before they turn 18, even if coercion is not used.</p><p> </p><p>The joint Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) has been actively raising awareness of the new forced marriage legislation in all its presentations and across its social media platforms since January 2023.</p><p> </p><p>The FMU runs regular workshops and presentations for police officers, social workers, local authorities, registrars and others. In 2022, the FMU delivered training to 1,537 professionals and the unit has reached over 3,000 professionals by the end of September 2023. This includes bespoke training sessions on request to police forces. Over 650 police officers have been given this training since the legislation changed in February 2023. The Home Office also worked with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on HBA to ensure that forces were prepared for the commencement of the legislation. This included a joint national meeting with relevant force leads and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before the legislation came into force.</p><p> </p><p>While the Home Office does not directly hold data on safeguarding measures introduced by police forces to help ensure that suspected child marriage cases are managed adequately, we do work closely with the dedicated NPCC lead for Honour Based Abuse to ensure forces have the support they need. In addition, the College of Policing published authorised professional practice guidance for officers on ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA) which has been updated together with domestic abuse training and the Police Education Qualifications Framework to incorporate material about the new legislation.</p><p> </p><p>Whilst there have not been dedicated meetings on this subject with Home Office Ministers and the DHSC and DfE Secretaries of State, Ministers do meet regularly to discuss matters of crime and safeguarding, with a dedicated VAWG Ministerial Steering Group taking place later this month.</p><p> </p><p>The FMU is jointly funded by the Home Office and FCDO. It currently has six full time staff, two joint heads (one from each department) and four case workers. The Unit’s operating costs including staff time, outreach activity and casework are funded through the departmental budgets of its parent organisations.</p><p> </p><p>Statistics on prosecutions and convictions for the new offence of arranging for a child to marry as part of the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age) Act 2022 are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and are not currently available as the offence only came into force in February 2023. Statistics on the offence will be available in future publications of MoJ’s Criminal Justice System Statistics. The Government does not hold data on arrests or investigations for the offence. The FMU publishes annual statistics, including on the total number of cases per year, online at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forced-marriage-unit-statistics" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forced-marriage-unit-statistics</a>.</p> answering member constituency Derbyshire Dales answering member printed Miss Sarah Dines grouped question UIN 200830 200831 201852 question first answered 23/10/2023 16:22:41 answering member 4816 label Biography information for Miss Sarah Dines
tabling member	4025 label Biography information for Mrs Pauline Latham