We believe that people who want to leave prostitution should be given every opportunity to find routes out. The Government\u2019s priority is to protect those selling sex from harm and exploitation and target those who exploit vulnerable people involved in prostitution.<\/p>
To these ends, since 2016, we have provided over £2m to organisations supporting sex workers, this includes £650,000 through the Violence Against Women and Girls Service Transformation Fund to Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner to provide a victim-focused service for sex workers who are victims, or at risk, of sexual or domestic violence and abuse, exploitation or human trafficking.<\/p>
The Tampon Tax Fund has also been used to provide specialist support to sex workers. Since 2016 we have provided £389,000 of funding which has been awarded to four specialist organisations supporting women to exit prostitution: One25; Street Talk; Women at the Well; and the Magdalene Group.<\/p>
In March 2017, £595,917 was also awarded via the Tampon Tax Fund to three organisations working with women involved in prostitution: Brighton Oasis Project; the Joanna Project and WM Consortium Sexual Violence Providers.<\/p>
Additionally, in 2018, Camden Council was awarded £398,000 through the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government £20m fund to support women with chaotic lifestyles, including those involved in prostitution.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4399", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Victoria Atkins"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Louth and Horncastle"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Victoria Atkins"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-07-22", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-07-22T16:56:55.167Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Home Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-07-10", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Education and Employment: Females"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July to Question 269825, what steps she has taken to implement recommendation 36 (e) of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women to create educational and employment opportunities for women who wish to exit prostitution.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4267", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sarah Champion"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Rotherham"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Sarah Champion"} ], "uin" : "275758"} , {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1138217", "AnsweringBody" : [{"_value" : "Home Office"} ], "answer" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/resources/1138217/answer", "answerText" : {"_value" : "
Criminal exploitation in the form of county lines has a devastating impact on those affected and we must work together to identify and safeguard the vic-tims and potential victims of this form of exploitation as early as possible.<\/p>
We welcome the report published by the Children\u2019s Society and will consider its findings carefully as we continue to develop and strengthen our response to county lines.<\/p>
In 2018, the Department for Education revised the Working Together to Safeguard Children and Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance to reflect the risks to include specific mention of the risks to children from county lines, criminal exploitation and other harms from outside the home.<\/p>
New arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children, must be implemented by safeguarding partners by the end of September 2019. It will be for local determination what the arrangements cover, but they must set out how all children, including those at risk of child criminal exploitation, will be kept safe. In order to bring transparency about the activities undertaken, the safeguarding partners must publish a report at least once in every 12-month period, setting out what they have done as a result of the arrangements and how effective these arrangements have been in practice.<\/p>
The Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 considered the def-inition of exploitation under the Act and found it is sufficiently flexible to meet a range of new and emerging forms of modern slavery.<\/p>
In addition, there is an existing, published definition of child criminal exploi-tation in the Serious Violence Strategy. The strategy is available https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/698009/serious-violence-strategy.pdf<\/a><\/p> Section 48 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 which makes provisions for Inde-pendent Child Trafficking Advocates was also considered by the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. In-line with one of the Review\u2019s recommendations, Independent Child Trafficking Advocates have recently been renamed Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs).<\/p> ICTGs are an additional source of advice and support for all trafficked children and somebody who can advocate on their behalf. The current service model provides one-to-one support for children who lack a figure of parental responsibility for them in the UK and an expert ICTG regional practice co-ordinator whose role will be to focus on children who do have a figure of parental responsibility for them in the UK. The ICTG regional practice co-ordinator works with statutory bodies including the police, social workers and the Criminal Justice System to foster effective multi-agency working to safeguard these vulnerable children.<\/p>