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1020714

registered interest
date	06/12/2018
answering body	Department for Transport
answering dept id	27
answering dept short name	Transport
answering dept sort name	Transport
hansard heading	Blue Badge Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the planned timetable is for bringing forward legislation to extend eligibility for a Blue Badge to people who have hidden or non-physical disabilities.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	199855
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2018 answer text <p>The Department for Transport plans to lay regulations in April 2019. In the meantime work is under way to develop the guidance necessary for local authorities to administer the expanded Blue Badge scheme appropriately. This will draw on expertise of medical and healthcare professionals and will inform the regulatory changes.</p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 12/12/2018 14:44:55 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1019938

registered interest
date	04/12/2018
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Offences against Children: Social Media
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) outcomes and (b) agreements were that he reached on online child grooming with representatives of (i) Microsoft, (ii) Facebook, (iii) Google, (iv) Snap and (v) Twitter on his recent visit to the US.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	198815
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2018 answer text <p>Between 6-8 November, the Home Secretary held a series of meetings with Microsoft, Twitter, and Snap, Google and Facebook. In those meetings, the Home Secretary reiterated his personal commitment to tackle child sexual abuse and exploitation and reinforced his key demands of tech companies, which he set out in his speech on combating child sexual exploitation and abuse at the NSPCC on 3 September.</p><p>The Home Secretary also pushed for increased transparency across all their efforts to tackle abuses of their platforms and stressed the need for companies to demonstrate they were enforcing their terms and conditions.</p><p>The companies affirmed their commitment to tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse on their platforms; set out steps they are taking to develop new technologies and policies to make their platforms safer; and agreed to continue to engage closely with the government on taking further actions to detect grooming (including sharing appropriate information with partners and deploying new tools) that were appropriate for their platforms.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins question first answered 12/12/2018 17:33:21 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1019942

registered interest
date	04/12/2018
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Offences against Children: Social Media
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to encourage social media companies to tackle the grooming of young children on the platforms of those companies.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	198816
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2018 answer text <p>Tackling online grooming is one of our highest priorities, and we are in-creasing our investment in law enforcement and legislating on online harms to bear down on the threat. In November the Home Secretary also co-hosted a ‘Hackathon’ in the US, where tech companies developed an artificial intelligence product to detect online grooming that will be licensed free of charge to technology companies worldwide.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins question first answered 12/12/2018 17:34:11 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1019951

registered interest
date	04/12/2018
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Offences against Children: Internet
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance his Department has issued to police forces on tackling online child abuse.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	198817
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2018 answer text <p>The College of Policing, as the professional body for the Police Service is responsible for providing guidance to the police. The College of Policing’s “Vulnerability” training package, aimed at ensuring a consistent approach across all police forces, includes a programme on Child Sexual Exploitation. Further details are provided on their website:<a href="https://www.college.police.uk/What-we-do/Development/Vulnerability/Pages/Vulnerability.aspxing" target="_blank">https://www.college.police.uk/What-we-do/Development/Vulnerability/Pages/Vulnerability.aspxing</a></p><p>We have begun to drive a step change in our approach to dealing with crimes against vulnerable children and people across the country and have invested significantly in a programme of reform to help the police to respond to changing crimes. This includes significant extra investment through the Police Transformation Fund (PTF) to transform policing in response to crimes against vulnerable individuals such as child sexual abuse.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins grouped question UIN 198818 question first answered 12/12/2018 17:37:49 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1019954

registered interest
date	04/12/2018
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Offences against Children: Internet
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has issued guidance to police services on using an intelligence-led approach to identify children who are at risk of online exploitation.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	198818
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2018 answer text <p>The College of Policing, as the professional body for the Police Service is responsible for providing guidance to the police. The College of Policing’s “Vulnerability” training package, aimed at ensuring a consistent approach across all police forces, includes a programme on Child Sexual Exploitation. Further details are provided on their website:<a href="https://www.college.police.uk/What-we-do/Development/Vulnerability/Pages/Vulnerability.aspxing" target="_blank">https://www.college.police.uk/What-we-do/Development/Vulnerability/Pages/Vulnerability.aspxing</a></p><p>We have begun to drive a step change in our approach to dealing with crimes against vulnerable children and people across the country and have invested significantly in a programme of reform to help the police to respond to changing crimes. This includes significant extra investment through the Police Transformation Fund (PTF) to transform policing in response to crimes against vulnerable individuals such as child sexual abuse.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins grouped question UIN 198817 question first answered 12/12/2018 17:37:49 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1019957

registered interest
date	04/12/2018
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Crime Prevention: Internet
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretaries of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and for Justice on tech companies preventing their platforms being used for criminal activity.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	198819
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2018 answer text <p>Home Office Ministers have regular meetings as part of the process of policy development and delivery, including on illegal activities taking place on social media.</p><p>As was the case with previous administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such meetings.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins question first answered 12/12/2018 17:35:23 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1019958

registered interest
date	04/12/2018
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Internet: Safety
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to publish the joint White Paper with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on online harms.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	198820
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/12/2018 answer text <p>The Government intends to publish a White Paper in Winter 2018/19, which will set out our plans to tackle online harms and set clear responsibilities for tech companies to keep UK citizens safe.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins question first answered 11/12/2018 17:31:25 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1015484

registered interest
date	27/11/2018
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Food: Waste Disposal
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will include the policy of separate food waste collections within the planned Resources and Waste Strategy.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	196170
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/12/2018 answer text <p>In its 2017 Clean Growth Strategy the UK Government committed to work towards no food waste being sent to landfill by 2030. In our 25 Year Environment Plan we stated that recycling food waste is a key priority. Many local authorities have introduced separate collections of food waste and we support an increase in numbers so that the amount of food waste sent to landfill continues to decline. We will outline further plans in our upcoming Resources and Waste Strategy.</p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 03/12/2018 16:49:13 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1015485

registered interest
date	27/11/2018
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Overseas Aid
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what mechanisms her Department has in place to monitor the spending of overseas aid to prevent abuse and corruption.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	196171
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/12/2018 answer text <p>DFID operates in challenging contexts providing a wide spectrum of aid and assistance.</p><p>DFID has rigorous controls to ensure that aid reaches those for whom it is intended and delivers results.</p><p>DFID does not give money to organisations or governments if we are not confident that they will manage it well.</p><p> </p><p>DFID has a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and has in place a wide range of standard controls and measures to protect UK aid. These include:</p><ul><li><p>Rigorous risk assessments and monitoring requirements for all programmes. All DFID programmes are assessed at inception to identify and address the risk of aid diversion, such as weaknesses in a recipient’s financial systems. Where necessary, programmes will insist on extra measures of safeguard, and we will put in place arrangements such as continuous audits.</p></li><li><p>Proactive fraud risk management – better fraud prevention through good programme design and strong monitoring. We use monitoring visits, financial spot checks and audits to ensure all funding is used for the purpose it was intended.</p></li><li><p>Programme agreements and contracts which are designed to ensure partners are accountable for all funding we provide. We expect all international agencies to have the same zero tolerance approach to fraud that we have if they are to receive taxpayers’ money.</p></li><li><p>A rigorous process of due diligence, where partners must demonstrate accountable and transparent governance structures and financial procedures before we fund them. This provides assurance on their capacity and capability to deliver DFID programmes, allows DFID to identify and understand potential risks, and ascertain if these can be mitigated and managed. Due Diligence on programme partners includes an in-depth assessment of fraud risk.</p></li><li><p>Fraud awareness sessions risk management training for staff.</p></li><li><p>Regular internal and external audits.</p></li></ul><p>Where there is suspicion of corruption and fraud DFID will always take action; and if fraud or corruption is uncovered DFID will always work to recover UK taxpayers’ money.</p> answering member constituency North East Bedfordshire answering member printed Alistair Burt question first answered 04/12/2018 17:34:59 answering member 1201 label Biography information for Alistair Burt
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord

1015486

registered interest
date	27/11/2018
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Overseas Aid
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the criteria is for her Department to allocate financial resources to an overseas country.
tabling member constituency	Hendon
tabling member printed	Dr Matthew Offord
uin	196172
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/12/2018 answer text <p>DFID supports delivery of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the Government’s objectives as set out in the 2015 UK Aid Strategy. Bilateral Official Development Assistance is allocated based on considerations of need, i.e. levels of poverty, ability of countries to fund themselves and whether DFID can add value. The 2016 bilateral and multilateral development reviews set out our approach to allocations in more detail. Our project design approach makes sure every project focuses on eradicating poverty, and projects are rigorously appraised to ensure value for money.</p> answering member constituency West Worcestershire answering member printed Harriett Baldwin question first answered 04/12/2018 17:38:20 answering member 4107 label Biography information for Dame Harriett Baldwin
tabling member	4006 label Biography information for Dr Matthew Offord