Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the findings of the Children's Commissioner's report ‘A lot of it is actually just abuse' - Young people and pornography, published in January 2023, what progress they have made in reducing the harms to adolescents and children caused by violent photography, including non-fatal strangulation and incest in pornography.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Independent Pornography Review was a thorough assessment of a complicated and multi-faceted set of issues. Government departments are undertaking detailed work to consider how best to tackle the important set of issues raised.
The Government has recently announced that pornography depicting acts of strangulation will be made illegal through Crime and Policing Bill. The Online Safety Act will prevent children from accessing pornography, with duties requiring highly effective age assurance in force from 25 July.
Ofcom's draft guidance summarises measures for platforms to tackle the abuse that women and girls disproportionately face online. The finalised guidance will be published by the end of the year.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 15 May (HL7084), what is the timetable for implementing the recommendations of Creating a Safer World–the Challenge of Regulating Online Pornography (HC 592), published on 27 February.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Independent Pornography Review was a thorough assessment of a complicated and multi-faceted set of issues. Government departments are undertaking detailed work to consider how best to tackle the important set of issues raised.
The Government has recently announced that pornography depicting acts of strangulation will be made illegal through Crime and Policing Bill. The Online Safety Act will prevent children from accessing pornography, with duties requiring highly effective age assurance in force from 25 July.
Ofcom's draft guidance summarises measures for platforms to tackle the abuse that women and girls disproportionately face online. The finalised guidance will be published by the end of the year.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the draft guidance A safer life online for women and girls, published by Ofcom on 25 February under the Online Safety Act 2023; and what assessment they have made of whether there is a gap in the guidance on online pornography regulation.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Independent Pornography Review was a thorough assessment of a complicated and multi-faceted set of issues. Government departments are undertaking detailed work to consider how best to tackle the important set of issues raised.
The Government has recently announced that pornography depicting acts of strangulation will be made illegal through Crime and Policing Bill. The Online Safety Act will prevent children from accessing pornography, with duties requiring highly effective age assurance in force from 25 July.
Ofcom's draft guidance summarises measures for platforms to tackle the abuse that women and girls disproportionately face online. The finalised guidance will be published by the end of the year.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the national police database and its ability to analyse the link between (1) exposure to violent and misogynistic pornography, and (2) violent offences against women and girls.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Police National Database provides a joined-up view of vital intelligence gathered nationwide and made available to Policing and law enforcement agencies. Its data is uploaded regularly by police forces and law enforcement agencies.
PND searches can link people, addresses, phones and vehicles and can be used to investigate individual offenders or crimes, or to build intelligence about networks or gangs involved in criminal activity.
Where people are suspected of crimes involving obscene publications, indecency or violence against women and girls, the details would be shown on their record on PND. If their record includes intelligence indicating both exposure to violent and misogynistic pornography and violence against women and girls, further investigation could follow to establish whether there was a link.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to address the £434 million funding gap for disabled children's social care identified in the research published by the Disabled Children's Partnership; and what plans they have to establish a disabled children's fund to improve early intervention services such as short breaks for disabled children.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
All children should have access to the support they need to keep them safe, provide them with a stable and nurturing home, and overcome challenges to achieve their potential. We do not recognise the figures provided in the Disabled Children’s Partnership report, however, in the Spending Round 2019, the government confirmed an additional £1 billion grant for adult and children’s social care in 2020-21. This is in addition to the continuation of all existing social care grants.
Local authorities’ core spending power is expected to rise from £46.2 billion to £49.1 billion in 2020-21. This is an estimated 4.3% increase in real terms.
Local authorities have the flexibility to make decisions based around their local needs. The statutory guidance, 'Working Together to Safeguard Children', sets out how local authorities should provide effective, evidence-based services to protect and promote the welfare of children, including disabled children. The guidance was updated on 4 July 2018 and states that it is better to provide services addressing needs early, rather than reacting later. The statutory duty to provide short breaks, introduced in 2011, falls on local authorities. The guidance is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2, and is attached.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what mechanisms they have in place to ensure that local authorities meet their statutory duty to provide short breaks for the carers of disabled children.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
Since 2011, local authorities have been under a duty to provide a range of short breaks services. This requires them to consult upon and publish a short breaks duty statement. This should set out what is available locally, how to access these services, and any eligibility criteria.
To support this, the department made £800 million available in grants between April 2011 and March 2015, plus £80 million of capital funding to support new projects. The department offers support and challenge to help ensure local authorities meet their statutory requirements on special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The department has funded innovative grants that promote best practice for delivering services; and continues to consider how we can best support local authorities who are working to deliver sustainable short breaks provision.
The government is able to oversee how much local authorities have planned to spend on short breaks provision through authorities’ annual section 251 returns. This information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/section-251-2016-to-2017 (see attached).
Departmental surveys such as the Children’s Services Omnibus gather information on SEND services provided by local authorities, including short breaks.
There are also opportunities through the new Ofsted and Care Quality Commission SEND inspection frameworks for local areas to consider how well they are providing for the education, health and care needs of those with SEND. This includes their need for short breaks services. A thematic ‘one year on’ report published by the two inspectorates in October 2017 found that ‘children and young people who have SEND and their families typically had good access to high-quality short breaks’ (attached).
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take to introduce mandatory reporting on the number of disabled people employed by (1) public bodies, and (2) private companies.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
As announced in Improving Lives: the Future of Work, Health and Disability, we want to see increased reporting on mental health, wellbeing and disability employment by large employers in both the public and private sector, agreeing in principle with the recommendation in the independent review “Thriving at Work”.
Government is working with partners to establish a framework approach for voluntary reporting on mental health and disability for large employers. This is focussed on what type of reporting will support improved employment outcomes amongst disabled people, and businesses’ engagement in health and wellbeing.
The Office for National statistics publishes data on Civil Service employment by disability status and employment grade.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the terms of reference for their review of the commissioning and funding of domestic abuse services.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
My Department has made a public commitment to undertake a thorough review of funding for domestic abuse services, including refuge, so that we have the best possible evidence on which to make decisions about future, sustainable funding for these vital services.
To inform our review we have commissioned an independent, external audit of local authority commissioned domestic abuse services, which will shape the final terms of reference for the review.
The review will explore all options for future delivery of domestic abuse services in England, and we are committed to working closely with sector partners, drawing on their data, expertise and knowledge, as we undertake our review.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by the first Secretary of State on 16 November 2017 (HCWS25), what progress they have made on the parallel programme of work for the care of younger adults, in particular those with learning disabilities.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The programme of work on adults of working age with care needs, which is led jointly by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, has begun initial engagement with stakeholders. Later this month, the Minister of State for Care (Caroline Dinenage) and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Local Government (Rishi Sunak) will jointly host a roundtable discussion to bring together views from across the sector on the issues facing adults of working age with care needs.
It is important that this work is informed by a range of perspectives and there will be further opportunities for interested stakeholders to feed in their views in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Bertin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the 2011 report by Together for Disabled Children on the impact of short break programmes for disabled children.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The 2011 report by ‘Together for Disabled Children’ was published under the previous coalition government. The findings from the report, and response at the time, are publicly available and attached.
In 2011, the findings of the report supported the introduction of a local authority duty to provide a range of short break services. Between April 2011 and March 2015, £800 million was made available via grants to support local authorities in meeting these new duties. In addition, £80 million of capital funding to support new projects.
The government maintains that short breaks provide opportunities for disabled children and young people to have an enjoyable experience, which help them become more independent and form friendships outside their family. They give parents and carers time to do normal activities that other families take for granted, like doing the shopping or going for a run.
Since 2011, under the statutory duty, local authorities are required to provide a range of short breaks services. This shows the available services and how they can be accessed, including any eligibility criteria. Local authorities must also demonstrate how they are responding to the needs of local carers.
Local authorities must consider the needs of local parents and carers when preparing their statements, reviewing them on a regular basis, as well as monitoring the impact of funding decisions from year to year.
While responsibility for funding short breaks rests with local authorities, the department has offered support to help ensure statutory requirements are met. We have funded innovative grants that promote best practice for delivering services and continue to consider how we can best support local authorities who are working to deliver sustainable short breaks provision.