Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to end labour exploitation in the car washing industry.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Government takes reports of labour exploitation and illegal working practices very seriously, including in the car wash sector. We remain committed to tackling modern slavery and will take full and robust enforcement action in such cases across all sectors.
The Home Office and enforcement bodies (such as the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority) have supported industry initiatives in this sector, including Home Office funding for pilots of the Responsible Car Wash Scheme. The RCWS assessed industry compliance across a wide range of criteria, which included labour laws but also areas such as planning permission and correct disposal of trade effluent. The Government is in the process of assessing how we can use the evaluations of the RCWS to support industry compliance across these varied areas.
The Director of Labour Market Enforcement (DLME) sets out a report of the scale and nature of labour exploitation in their annual strategy to ensure the three labour market enforcement bodies are targeting the highest-risk industries. The Home Office will continue to be guided by the annual strategy and target work on areas assessed most at-risk by the DLME, including the hand car wash sector.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the Responsible Car Wash Scheme on compliance and standards in the car washing industry.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Government takes reports of labour exploitation and illegal working practices very seriously, including in the car wash sector. We remain committed to tackling modern slavery and will take full and robust enforcement action in such cases across all sectors.
The Home Office and enforcement bodies (such as the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority) have supported industry initiatives in this sector, including Home Office funding for pilots of the Responsible Car Wash Scheme. The RCWS assessed industry compliance across a wide range of criteria, which included labour laws but also areas such as planning permission and correct disposal of trade effluent. The Government is in the process of assessing how we can use the evaluations of the RCWS to support industry compliance across these varied areas.
The Director of Labour Market Enforcement (DLME) sets out a report of the scale and nature of labour exploitation in their annual strategy to ensure the three labour market enforcement bodies are targeting the highest-risk industries. The Home Office will continue to be guided by the annual strategy and target work on areas assessed most at-risk by the DLME, including the hand car wash sector.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were housed in hotels in the UK in each of the last 12 months; what the average length of stay was for those children; and how many and what proportion of those children went missing in the same period.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The rise in the number of small boat crossings has placed significant pressures on local authority care placements for young people. Out of necessity, and with the best interests of the child in mind, we have had no alternative but to temporarily use hotels to give unaccompanied children a roof over their heads whilst local authority accommodation is found.
The Home Office takes the wellbeing, welfare and security of children and minors in our care extremely seriously. Robust safeguarding procedures are in place to ensure all children and minors are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with local authorities.
The National Transfer scheme (NTS) transferred 3,148 children to local authorities with children's services between 1 July 2021 and 30 September 2022, which is over four times the number of transfers on the year before. To further expand the scheme, we are providing local authorities with children's services with an additional £15,000 for every eligible young person they take into their care from a dedicated UASC hotel, or the Reception and Safe Care Service in Kent, by the end of February 2023.
When any young person goes missing the 'missing persons protocol' is followed and led by our directly engaged social workers. A multi-agency, missing persons protocol is mobilised involving the police and the local authority, who have a shared statutory responsibility to safeguard all children including missing migrant children in order to establish their whereabouts and to ensure that they are safe.
The MARS (Missing After Reasonable Steps) protocol is followed for any looked after child who goes missing from a care setting, including the UASC hotels.
The average length of stay for those who arrived during this period was 19.85 days.
Of these 3,832 young people as of 28.02.23 there have been 410 missing episodes from the UASC Hotels, the number subsequently located on 224 occasions. Therefore 186 of these young people are still missing.
The safety and wellbeing of those in our care is our primary concern. Robust safeguarding and welfare procedures are in place to ensure all children and minors are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority. This includes support workers being onsite in the hotels 24 hours a day, supported by nurses and social workers. UASC are not detained and are free to leave the accommodation. All contingency sites have security staff and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Immigration of 24 January 2023, Official Report, column 859, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of her Department's safeguarding of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children housed in hotels.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The rise in the number of small boat crossings has placed significant pressures on local authority care placements for young people. Out of necessity, and with the best interests of the child in mind, we have had no alternative but to temporarily use hotels to give unaccompanied children a roof over their heads whilst local authority accommodation is found.
The safety and wellbeing of those in our care is our primary concern. Robust safeguarding and welfare procedures are in place to ensure all children and minors are safe and supported as we seek urgent placements with a local authority. This includes support workers being onsite in the hotels 24 hours a day, including nurses and social workers. All contingency sites have security staff on site and providers liaise closely with local police to ensure the welfare and safety of vulnerable residents.
Records are kept and monitored of children leaving and returning to the hotel. Support workers will accompany children off site on activities and social excursions, or where specific vulnerabilities are identified. All sites have security staff to ensure the safety and welfare of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Local authorities have a statutory duty to protect all children, regardless of where they go missing from. In the concerning occasion when any child goes missing, regardless of their status, they work closely with other local agencies, including the police, to urgently establish their whereabouts and ensure they are safe.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Immigration of 24 January 2023, Official Report, column 861, whether the additional funding for local authorities to support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children may be used to fund (a) host family, (b) social work and (c) other forms of support.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The additional funding for local authorities to support Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) is part of a pilot scheme that was announced on 16 December 22. The pilot ran from 16 December 22 to 28 February 23.
The additional funding intends to repurpose the money currently used to pay for hotels housing UASC and empower local authorities to invest in infrastructure helping to build placement capacity. The funding is not prescriptive – it can be used by local authorities to invest where it provides the greatest benefit to the unaccompanied children in their care, therefore, it is for the local authority to determine where this funding is best spent.
The funding consists of a lump sum payment of £15,000 that accompanies the transfer of each unaccompanied asylum-seeking child to a Local Authority placement. To qualify for this funding the children must be transferred from a dedicated UASC hotel run by the Home Office or from the Kent Reception and Safe Care Service (RSCS). The pilot ran until the 28 February, and we are currently evaluating the impact, including developing case studies of best practice in how the funds have been used.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Immigration of 24 January 2023, Official Report, column 859, what recent progress she has made on ending the use of hotels for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The rise in the number of small boat crossings has placed significant pressures on local authority care placements for young people. Out of necessity, and with the best interests of the child in mind, we have had no alternative but to temporarily use hotels to give some unaccompanied children a roof over their heads whilst local authority accommodation is found.
We take the safety and welfare of those in our care seriously and the Home Office has robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure those in our accommodation are as safe and supported as possible as we seek urgent placements with a local authority.
The National Transfer scheme (NTS) transferred 3,148 children to local authorities with children’s services between 1 July 2021 and 30 September 2022. We are providing local authorities with children’s services with an additional £15,000 for every eligible young person they take into their care from a dedicated UASC hotel, or the Reception and Safe Care Service in Kent, by the end of February 2023.
We are providing local authorities with children’s services with £15,000 for every eligible young person they take into their care from a dedicated UASC hotel, or the Reception and Safe Care Service in Kent, by the end of February 2023.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 21 September to Question 45641, tabled on 2 September 2022, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a procedure for a member of the public to scrutinise a police internal legal team decision on a complaint which impacts them.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
There is already a procedure for a complainant under the police complaints process to seek an independent review of the way in which their complaint was handled by the police force’s professional standards department or if they are unhappy about the outcome. The review must be requested within 28 days from the time that the complainant received the letter from the police force about the outcome of the complaint. The independent review body is either the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) or the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the cost implications of using the armed forces during recent strike action taken at airports; and if she will provide details of the costs to her Department.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office’s priority is to deliver a safe and secure border and we will never compromise on this including during any period of Industrial Action.
The Home Office carefully considered many elements, including cost implications of using the armed forces, as we prepared our response to the industrial action being taken by PCS members. Together with the other contingencies we deployed, the deployment of armed forces personnel enabled all UK ports to remain open with minimal disruption, during the action taken in December. As the action by PCS is ongoing, it would not be appropriate for us to provide details on the costs to the Department.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many military personnel were deployed at airports to cover those Border Force staff participating in the PCS trade union strike action on (a) 23-26 December and (b) 28-31 December; and if she will breakdown those figures by airport.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office’s priority is to deliver a safe and secure border and we will never compromise on this including during any period of Industrial Action. Border Force maintain 100% checks for all scheduled arriving passengers into the UK and this will be continued during any periods of strike action. Military personnel deployed to cover Border Force staff underwent thorough training before being deployed during strike action; however maintain border security we do not comment on the details of operational deployments.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what training was provided to military personnel deployed to cover Border Force staff participating in the PCS trade union strike action on 23-26 December and 28-31 December.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office’s priority is to deliver a safe and secure border and we will never compromise on this including during any period of Industrial Action. Border Force maintain 100% checks for all scheduled arriving passengers into the UK and this will be continued during any periods of strike action. Military personnel deployed to cover Border Force staff underwent thorough training before being deployed during strike action; however maintain border security we do not comment on the details of operational deployments.