Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he has taken in response to the April 2019 High Court judgment on the 45 day limit for support for victims of modern slavery; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to stamping out modern slavery and providing victims with the support they need to rebuild their lives.
We are always working to improve our understanding of the complex needs of victims of modern slavery and to improve the support available.
In October 2017, Government announced an ambitious package of reforms to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) – our system for identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery. We have already made significant pro-gress in delivering this complex reform programme. We will now make further improvements to this offer – including embedding a needs-based approach to support – to better tailor support services to the needs of victims. The spe-cific details and timeline associated with this work is being developed.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he has taken to ensure that overseas domestic workers are informed of their rights as workers in the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Immigration Rules governing the Overseas Domestic Worker (ODW) visa are designed to ensure that the worker will not be subject to exploitative working conditions in the UK. ODWs are provided with a bespoke leaflet informing them of their employment rights when they lodge their visa application, before they enter the UK.
The Government is currently running a procurement exercise to identify a provider of the information sessions for Overseas Domestic Workers. The results of this tendering exercise will be released in due course.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the timeframe is for the planned information sessions on the employment rights of overseas domestic workers; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Immigration Rules governing the Overseas Domestic Worker (ODW) visa are designed to ensure that the worker will not be subject to exploitative working conditions in the UK. ODWs are provided with a bespoke leaflet informing them of their employment rights when they lodge their visa application, before they enter the UK.
The Government is currently running a procurement exercise to identify a provider of the information sessions for Overseas Domestic Workers. The results of this tendering exercise will be released in due course.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made on filling the 480 child refugee places in the Immigration Act 2016; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Government is absolutely committed to transferring the specified number of 480 unaccompanied children under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 (Dubs Amendment) as soon as possible. Over 220 children were transferred to the UK under section 67 when the Calais camp was cleared in late 2016. Since then we have been making further progress with the three participating States – France, Greece, and Italy – to refer and transfer more eligible children to move closer to the commitment to transfer 480 children.
The UK is at the forefront in protecting children affected by the migration crisis. Section 67 is one of a number of schemes that offer a safe and legal route to the UK for the most vulnerable refugees. In total, the UK provided protection to over 6,600 children in 2018, and 34,600 since the start of 2010, and in every year since 2016, the UK resettled more refugees from outside Europe than any other EU member state.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the national referral mechanism.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to providing victims of modern slavery with the support they need by ensuring the effectiveness of the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The NRM - our system for identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery - operates as a bridge; it lifts someone out of a situation of exploitation, provides them with a period of intensive support, and then puts them on the road to recovery.
In October 2017, the Government announced an ambitious package of reforms to the NRM, which were developed following extensive stakeholder consultation. These reforms focus on ensuring the NRM is effective in delivering what victims want: quicker and more certain decision-making that stakeholders and victims have confidence in; improved support for adult victims before, during and after the NRM; improved identification of victims; and improved support to child victims of modern slavery. More information on the NRM reform is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-referral-mechanism-reform/national-referral-mechanism-reform
The Government continues to cooperate with stakeholders as the reforms are being implemented to ensure that the NRM is effective in identifying and supporting victims of modern slavery.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the work of the Independent Police Conduct Authority; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Government commissioned an independent review of the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s governance and structure in 2015 and legislated via the Policing and Crime Act 2017 to fundamentally reform the or-ganisation, renaming it as the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). These changes came into force in January 2018.
The IOPC is funded by the Home Office but carries out its functions inde-pendently, free from political interference. However, it is required by law to report on the carrying out of its functions annually to Parliament. Those annual reports include data on its performance / effectiveness and can be found https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/who-we-are/accountability-and-performance/annual-report-and-plans
They also publish a monthly round up of performance statistics https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/who-we-are/accountability-and-performance/annual-report-and-plans
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the safeguarding of individuals people on to the national referral mechanism.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
In October 2017, the Government announced an ambitious package of re-forms to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which were developed following extensive stakeholder consultation
Adults who enter the NRM can receive specialist and tailored support through the Victim Care Contract, which can include accommodation, finan-cial support, assistance in accessing mental and physical health care including counselling, and access to legal support.
Through robust contract management we ensure the safeguarding of victims of modern slavery. The prime contractor for the Victim Care Contract, The Salvation Army, is responsible for ensuring that all subcontracted provision meets the needs of victims. The Salvation Army conducts regular safeguarding reviews and it has a duty to escalate to the Home Office any safeguarding concerns that it finds.
Furthermore, as part of the NRM reform package, we are introducing an inspection regime for accommodation provided under the Victim Care Contract. This will ensure that victims of modern slavery receive appropriate support and are effectively safeguarded while in the NRM. We are working with the Care and Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care in England, to develop a rigorous inspection regime for safehouses and outreach support, which will be embedded in the new Victim Care Contract.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to publish the Government`s response to the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is carefully considering the recommendations made by the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and will publish a formal response in summer 2019.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many suspected victims of (a) modern slavery and (b) human trafficking who were referred into the National Referral Mechanism (i) were considered for and (ii) received safe house accommodation in each calendar year since 2008.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The National Crime Agency publishes statistics on referrals into the National Referral Mechanism on a quarterly basis. These reports start from 2016 and are available via the following link:
https://nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/who-we-are/publications?search=&category%5B%5D=3&=%2Fwho-we-are%2Fpublications%3Flimit%3D15%26sort%3Dtitle%26direction%3Dasc&limit=100&tag=
The Victim Care Contract is outsourced to the The Salvation Army. The contract commenced operations in 2015 and any individual referred into the NRM who requires support is referred into this contract. All individuals who would otherwise be destitute or have no safe accommodation are provided with safe house accommodation.
Asked by: Lord Coaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will set out the individual needs that are considered during an assessment of a victim of (a) modern slavery and (b) human trafficking's eligibility for allocation to outreach services; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Salvation Army conducts a needs assessment for victims of modern slavery who are referred for support under the Victim Care Contract. These assessments are used to evaluate what kind of support services an individual requires during their outreach support.
There is no assessment of eligibility as both accommodation and outreach are available to any individual referred into the NRM. The needs assessment only evaluates which type of accommodation or outreach services are most appropriate to their situation.
The service requirements of the Victim Care Contract can be found publicly via the following link:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/e03ceb15-27ad-4bad-b8ae-43dbc1e9481e