Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the number of countries which are exempt from needing to obtain a Direct Airside Transit Visa.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The UK's visa system is a border and national security tool. The UK keeps its visa regimes, including those countries whose citizens are required to obtain a direct airside transit visa, under regular review.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made, if any, of the potential impact of reducing long-term visitor visa costs for those coming from emerging tourism markets.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Home Office is currently offering, as a pilot, a two year validity multi entry visa for Chinese citizens applying for a UK visa in mainland China for a lower price. This pilot is ongoing and the Home Office is looking at whether and how the pilot can be incorporated into part of the UK’s future visa offer and links to the development of mobility partnerships and trade deals.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures are in place to ensure that children are treated first as victims rather than defendants where cases involve one of the offences exempt from statutory defence listed in Schedule 4 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Government regards slavery, including trafficking, of children as a very serious offence. The Section 45 statutory defence was designed to strengthen the existing prosecutorial discretion, and public interest test against prosecuting suspects acting under duress. The purpose behind this was to also ensure that a child’s additional vulnerabilities are taken into account on a case by case basis. This legal principle is supported by extensive training the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the police are provided with to recognise indicators of duress. CPS guidance can be found via the link below:
https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/human-trafficking-smuggling-and-slavery
Where children are found to be victims of modern slavery, their safety and welfare needs must be addressed as the priority. All local agencies (including local authorities, police and border force) also have statutory duties to safeguard children as part of their local responsibilities.
Furthermore, the Government is keen for Independent Child Trafficking Advocates to continue to support law enforcement agencies to identify trafficked children as victims rather than perpetrators and to ensure, where appropriate, that the Section 45 statutory defence is applied.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the findings in the report by Every Child Protected Against Trafficking and Missing People Still in Harm's Way: An update report on trafficked and unaccompanied children going missing from care in the UK, published in December 2018, what plans they have to investigate the causes behind the rising number of child victims of trafficking going missing from care after referral to the National Referral Mechanism.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The updated report by Every Child Protected Against Trafficking and Missing People, Still in Harm's Way, does not show a rising proportion of child victims of trafficking going missing from care. The report recognises the improvements in the identification of child trafficking victims over the last two years.
The Government is committed to protecting all children who go missing and recognises the specific needs of trafficked children, which is why we have announced a range of actions to better protect child victims and keep them safe. The Government has committed to expanding Independent Child Trafficking Advocates to one third of all local authorities by April 2019. The Child Trafficking Protection Fund which, as well as providing victim support and recovery, aims to reduce vulnerability to exploitation by preventing trafficked children from going missing and potentially being retrafficked. In November 2017, the Department for Education published a Safeguarding Strategy for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children. The Strategy commissioned a further 1,000 training places for carers and sup-port workers to equip them with the skills they need to identify when a child is at risk of going missing and of potentially being trafficked onwards. The Refugee Council are delivering this training and will have delivered 1,000 places by the end of March 2019.
The Home Office is also working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) through the Home Office National Law Enforcement Data Programme (NLEDP) to deliver a National Register of Missing Persons (NRMP). This will enable real time information about police reported miss-ing persons incidents to be accessed by police forces across England and Wales. Over time the NRMP will build a national picture of historic missing persons incidents. This will assist officers when they are looking for, or encounter a missing person, particularly if that missing person is outside their home force area. We are currently working towards the NRMP to be in use operationally in 2020/2021.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 13 December 2018 (HL12284), why data are not published on the time taken for victims of child trafficking to receive positive conclusive grounds decisions from the National Referral Mechanism.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The responsibility for the collection and publication of National Referral Mechanism (NRM) data currently sits with the National Crime Agency (NCA). The NCA does not publish data about the time taken for victims of trafficking to receive positive conclusive grounds decisions, be they adults or children.
However, responsibility for NRM data will pass to the Home Office when the new Single Competent Authority for NRM decision making goes live in April 2019. We will then review what data we publish going forward.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 21 December 2018 (HL12231), whether the updated Government's Missing Children and Adults Strategy will include specific measures to prevent child victims of trafficking going missing shortly after referral to the National Referral Mechanism.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Government is committed to protecting all people who go missing, but recognises that the needs of children, particularly vulnerable children such as trafficked children, are different to those of adults and we have an even greater responsibility to protect them.
Home Office is working with partners to address the issues faced by all children who go missing through its refreshed Missing Children and Adults Strategy which will be published in the coming months. The refreshed Strategy will include cross-Government commitments aimed to prevent victims of child trafficking from going missing by ensuring they are given appropriate information and support. This includes work to encourage police forces to adopt the Operation Innerste process which aims to build trust between a child and the UK authorities, reducing the likelihood of them running away or going missing after a referral to the National Referral Mechanism.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 21 December 2018 (HL12231), when they plan to publish the updated version of the Government's Missing Children and Adults Strategy.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Government is committed to protecting all people who go missing, but recognises that the needs of children, particularly vulnerable children such as trafficked children, are different to those of adults and we have an even greater responsibility to protect them.
Home Office is working with partners to address the issues faced by all children who go missing through its refreshed Missing Children and Adults Strategy which will be published in the coming months. The refreshed Strategy will include cross-Government commitments aimed to prevent victims of child trafficking from going missing by ensuring they are given appropriate information and support. This includes work to encourage police forces to adopt the Operation Innerste process which aims to build trust between a child and the UK authorities, reducing the likelihood of them running away or going missing after a referral to the National Referral Mechanism.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the publication of Precarious journeys: Mapping vulnerabilities of victims of trafficking from Vietnam to Europe by Anti-Slavery International, Every Child Protected Against Trafficking UK and Pacific Links Foundation on 7 March, whether they will recruit more Vietnamese translators to assist with the issues of child trafficking victims.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Home Office recognises the ongoing high demand for Vietnamese interpreters across the department and has an ongoing recruitment campaign for all high demand languages, of which Vietnamese is a priority.
We will continue to explore and act upon potential recruitment avenues both regionally and nationally. Alongside the ongoing recruitment campaign, we will continue to work with stakeholders in assessing demand and have in place contingencies to ensure the available national resource is utilised as effectively as possible.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 21 December 2018 (HL12283), what proportion of Independent Child Trafficking Advocates (1) have had training on Vietnamese culture, and (2) can speak Vietnamese.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Home Office is leading a multi-agency review of First Responders to identify who should perform this role and how they should be trained. As part of this review, the Government will consider what mandatory training First Responders should undertake, including mandatory training on child-specific material. The results of this review will be published in Spring.
In November 2017, the Department for Education published a Safeguarding Strategy (for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children). The Strategy commissioned a further 1000 training places for carers and support workers to equip them with the skills they need to identify when a child is at risk of going missing and of potentially being trafficked onwards. The Refugee Council has been commissioned to deliver this training and will have delivered 1000 places by the end of March 2019.
Independent Child Trafficking Advocates (ICTAs) receive training which includes awareness of the child’s culture, customs, language, etiquette and history as this enables the ICTA to engage more effectively with the child. The ICTA Service also employs two Vietnamese nationals who speak Vietnamese, to help with appropriate and accurate translation as well as supporting the ICTA with being culturally relevant when supporting children and young people.
Asked by: Baroness Doocey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the publication of Precarious journeys: Mapping vulnerabilities of victims of trafficking from Vietnam to Europe by Anti-Slavery International, Every Child Protected Against Trafficking UK and Pacific Links Foundation on 7 March, what plans they have to introduce mandatory training for frontline professionals working with victims of child trafficking that include training on Vietnamese culture and specific control mechanisms such as debt bondage.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Home Office is leading a multi-agency review of First Responders to identify who should perform this role and how they should be trained. As part of this review, the Government will consider what mandatory training First Responders should undertake, including mandatory training on child-specific material. The results of this review will be published in Spring.
In November 2017, the Department for Education published a Safeguarding Strategy (for unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children). The Strategy commissioned a further 1000 training places for carers and support workers to equip them with the skills they need to identify when a child is at risk of going missing and of potentially being trafficked onwards. The Refugee Council has been commissioned to deliver this training and will have delivered 1000 places by the end of March 2019.
Independent Child Trafficking Advocates (ICTAs) receive training which includes awareness of the child’s culture, customs, language, etiquette and history as this enables the ICTA to engage more effectively with the child. The ICTA Service also employs two Vietnamese nationals who speak Vietnamese, to help with appropriate and accurate translation as well as supporting the ICTA with being culturally relevant when supporting children and young people.