Asked by: Gareth Davies (Conservative - Grantham and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many civil proceedings for non-compliance by financial institutions under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 have been (a) applied for and (b) granted since the introduction of that legislation.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Under the landmark transparency provisions contained in section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the UK became the first country in the world to require certain commercial organisations to report annually on the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery, including institutional investors who fall within scope of the requirement.
The Government regularly engages with businesses, investors, civil society and industry experts to collaborate on best practice and promote key measures to tackle modern slavery. The Home Office’s statutory guidance, ‘Transparency in Supply Chains: a Practical Guide’, emphasises that it is crucial that large organisations are transparent and accountable, not just to investors but to other groups including employees, consumers and the public, whose lives are affected by their business activity. The Government also supports ShareAction’s Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI) and provided £200,000 of funding in 2020/21. The initiative has mobilised investors with $6.5 trillion of assets under management to call for transparency from multinational companies on how they manage their workforce.
In the meantime, to further enhance transparency, in March 2021 the Government launched an online GOV.UK registry for modern slavery statements. This new service enables investors, consumers, NGOs and others to scrutinise the effectiveness of the actions being taken and monitor progress across sectors over time. Within the first month of launching, statements covering c. 8,000 organisations have already been submitted to the registry.
If an organisation fails to publish a statement, the Secretary of State can seek an injunction to require compliance. This power has not been used to date. However, following the transparency in supply chains consultation, the Government has committed to an ambitious package of changes to section 54, including introducing financial penalties for organisations who fail to meet their statutory obligations to publish annual modern slavery statements. These measures require primary legislation and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Gareth Davies (Conservative - Grantham and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to encourage institutional investors to consider modern slavery risks inherent in wider investment portfolios under the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Under the landmark transparency provisions contained in section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the UK became the first country in the world to require certain commercial organisations to report annually on the steps they have taken to prevent modern slavery, including institutional investors who fall within scope of the requirement.
The Government regularly engages with businesses, investors, civil society and industry experts to collaborate on best practice and promote key measures to tackle modern slavery. The Home Office’s statutory guidance, ‘Transparency in Supply Chains: a Practical Guide’, emphasises that it is crucial that large organisations are transparent and accountable, not just to investors but to other groups including employees, consumers and the public, whose lives are affected by their business activity. The Government also supports ShareAction’s Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI) and provided £200,000 of funding in 2020/21. The initiative has mobilised investors with $6.5 trillion of assets under management to call for transparency from multinational companies on how they manage their workforce.
In the meantime, to further enhance transparency, in March 2021 the Government launched an online GOV.UK registry for modern slavery statements. This new service enables investors, consumers, NGOs and others to scrutinise the effectiveness of the actions being taken and monitor progress across sectors over time. Within the first month of launching, statements covering c. 8,000 organisations have already been submitted to the registry.
If an organisation fails to publish a statement, the Secretary of State can seek an injunction to require compliance. This power has not been used to date. However, following the transparency in supply chains consultation, the Government has committed to an ambitious package of changes to section 54, including introducing financial penalties for organisations who fail to meet their statutory obligations to publish annual modern slavery statements. These measures require primary legislation and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Gareth Davies (Conservative - Grantham and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect of the use of drone devices on the rate of home burglaries in England; and how many crimes were recorded involving drones in (a) 2017, (b) 2018 and (c) 2019.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The long-term trend in burglaries recorded by the police in England has been downward and the number recorded in 2019 was 7% lower than in 2018.
The Home Office does not hold information on the number of recorded crimes, including burglaries, which involved drones.
The Government recognises the particularly invasive nature of burglary and the impact it can have on victims. Whilst police recorded crime statistics for England and Wales showed that burglary had fallen, too many people experience this traumatic crime each year. We are taking a proactive approach to driving down these crimes and have announced a £25m Safer Streets Fund to help prevent these crimes as well as supporting the recruitment of 20,000 new police officers to ensure they have the resources to deal with these crimes when they do occur. We are working to combat burglary in a number of areas, including: making homes more secure, working with the police to examine what more can be done to prevent offenders disposing of stolen goods, and improving the police and wider criminal justice system response.