Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support the Government provides to women wanting to exit prostitution.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is committed to tackling the harm and exploitation that can be associated with prostitution, and believes that people who want to leave prostitution should be given every opportunity to find routes out.
Protecting those involved in prostitution is a strand of our wider work to eradicate violence against women and girls, and we regularly meet with charities, welfare organisations and academics to discuss current issues related to prostitution and sex work.
The Government has provided over £2m to organisations supporting sex workers, including £650,000 from the Violence Against Women and Girls Service Transformation Fund to Merseyside PCC, 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.
As set out in the response to the Home Affairs Select Committee, the Government recognises the need for research into the nature and prevalence of prostitution in England and Wales. The Home Office has provided £150,000 to fund this research, which will be carried out by the University of Bristol, and will help inform future policy.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Government plans to update its 2014 Modern Slavery Strategy.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The UK Government has had an ambitious Modern Slavery Strategy in place since 2014 and continues to focus on implementing this Strategy. Significant progress has been made in delivering the actions in the Modern Slavery Strategy and this work is detailed in the 2017 UK Annual Report on Modern Slavery. The report is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2017-uk-annual-report-on-modern-slavery
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department collects on the number of confirmed victims of trafficking who are subsequently re-trafficked once they have left the National Referral Mechanism.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The ability to monitor long term outcomes for confirmed victims that leave the National Referral Mechanism and do not wish to maintain contact is extremely difficult.
As part of the National Referral Mechanism reform programme, we are introducing access to a 6 month ‘drop-in’ service for confirmed victims following leaving Government funded support, in addition to implementing a digital system that will improve our ability to identify individuals who have previously been through the National Referral Mechanism.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons the police are sharing biometric data of migrant children with Immigration Enforcement; and whether such sharing is for purposes other than safeguarding.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Police, as first responders and on behalf of the Home Office, use powers afforded them by Sections 20 and 141 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, to capture photographs and fingerprints of migrant children which are then forwarded for storage on Home Office IT systems.
These systems then act as a central database to which other agencies may seek access. This process further protects migrant children, deters traffickers and assists with future identification should the migrant children go missing or be found in other distressing circumstances. These biometric details are not retained on police systems.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the (a) volume and (b) proportion of illegal drugs that are seized before they reach consumers.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
A total volume seized across all drugs is not available as they are measured in different units, such as kilograms, doses and plants. However data relating to seizures of cocaine, heroin and ecstasy for 2016/17 can be found at:
Data is not collected on the proportion of drugs that are seized.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her polices of the report by the Prison Reform Trust, Domestic abuse as a driver to women’s offending, published on 4 December 2017, that 57 per cent of women sent to prison are victims of domestic abuse.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government's Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, backed by £100 million of dedicated funding, sets out the importance of meeting the needs of those with complex needs, which can include female offenders who are also survivors of VAWG, and who may experience additional barriers to accessing support.
As part of the Government’s major programme of work to transform our approach to domestic abuse we will work with partners to improve our response to female offenders who have been victims of abuse. This will include consideration of the recommendations in the Prison Reform Trust report.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Home Affairs, how biometric data relating to migrant children collected by the police is shared with Immigration Enforcement; whether there is a memorandum of understanding between Hertfordshire Police and Immigration Enforcement on that matter; and for what purposes other than safeguarding children may such data be used.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Safeguarding Strategy on Unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children, published in November 2017. This information is available on www.gov.uk at the following link:
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an estimate of the annual profit made organised crime from the illegal drugs market in the UK.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The 2013 Home Office report, the Cost of Drugs, estimates that Organised Crime Groups generated £3.7bn in revenue from the illegal drugs market in the UK.
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/246390/horr73.pdf
However, it is not possible to provide accurate figures on the profit made from the UK illegal drugs market. This is due to an absence of official statistics held in relation to its actual value and the differing "operating costs" of criminal networks. In addition, variable factors such as exchange rates and drug purities, influenced by a range of supply and demand factors, regularly affect retail and wholesale costs.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on ensuring that safe accommodation is available for women and children escaping domestic violence.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Home Office Ministers are working very closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to find a sustainable future for refuges and other forms of safe accommodation, in order that we meet the specialist needs of all those fleeing domestic abuse.
In addition, the Home Secretary regularly discusses issues relating to all Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) at the VAWG Inter-Ministerial Group.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Swansea East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of Sate for the Home Department, what account her Department is taking of provisions relating to the alignment of basic living costs for victims of modern slavery and asylum seekers under the EU Directive and Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings in developing its reforms of the National Referral Mechanism.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The subsistence rates for victims of modern slavery are provided to cover the essential living needs of potential victims of modern slavery. When considering the level of these rates, the essential needs of potential victims were assessed to be comparable to the needs of asylum seekers. This is why the tested and established methodology that has been developed to measure the level of subsistence for asylum seekers will be adopted to measure the level of subsistence for potential victims of modern slavery. Where it has been identified that victims of slavery have needs above those of asylum seekers or have additional entitlements under the Council of Europe Convention Against Trafficking in Human Beings, these needs are met within the existing Adult Victims of Modern Slavery Care Contract.
Victims will continue to receive dedicated and expert support, which is tailored to their unique needs as victims of modern slavery. This includes access to legal aid, counselling, NHS medical and dental services. This will ensure there is a fair and consistent approach for all individuals receiving similar government support. Furthermore, more money is being made available to treble the period of “move on” support, which will help people leaving victim support with their transition to other arrangements. It is essential that we target support to confirmed victims, at the point they need it most.
We are working closely with the Salvation Army and the Independent Anti Slavery Commissioner to ensure that the implementation of this change is as smooth as possible.