Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the ruling by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal IPT/13/194/CH, that Amnesty International has been subjected to unlawful surveillance by the Government; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by John Hayes
As the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) said in its judgment of 22 June 2015, any interception that occurred in this case was lawful, necessary and proportionate.
While the IPT has found in favour of two Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), it has made clear that neither of the NGOs suffered material detriment, damage or prejudice as a result of the breaches.
Caution should be exercised against drawing conclusions from the IPT’s ruling about the target of any such interception that may have taken place. However I can neither confirm nor deny specifics relating to this or any other case.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish the evaluation being conducted by the Royal College of Policing of body-worn video camera pilots.
Answered by Mike Penning
The MPS launched its first large scale pilot project of BWV in May 2014, with 500 cameras distributed to officers across 10 London boroughs. The College are responsible for publication of their work. The evaluation, due by the autumn, will look at criminal justice, stop and search and complaints outcomes, as well as officer and public perceptions of the technology.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on (a) the Telegraph Modern Slavery in Britain site, (b) the Modern Slavery advertising campaign and (c) the website www.modernslavery.co.uk; and what assessment she has made of the effects of that expenditure on awareness-raising and prevention of modern slavery.
Answered by Karen Bradley
a) The Telegraph Modern Slavery webpages are part of a wider media partnership with the newspaper, which also includes print and online advertorials and digital advertising. The total cost of the partnership with The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph is £125,000. We are unable to give costs of constituent parts of the partnership, including the website, because of commercial confidentiality.
b) The Home Office has allocated a communications campaign budget of £2.3 million to raise awareness of Modern Slavery in the UK.
c) The Home Office has spent £44,000 on the Modern Slavery website. The campaign is being evaluated to ascertain its success in raising awareness of modern slavery in a number of ways including: reports of potential incidences of slavery via the new helpline and website; a pre and post campaign survey of 2,000 adults to measure shifts in awareness, attitudes and claimed behaviour; visits and activity on the website; evaluation of advertising reach and engagement.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to prevent agency workers becoming victims of trafficking for labour exploitation.
Answered by Karen Bradley
We are committed to stamping out modern slavery in all its forms including labour exploitation involving agency workers. Law enforcement agencies
including the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, the police and the National Crime Agency have made commitments as part of the Modern Slavery Strategy to ensure that they will work with the private sector and upstream to prevent workers being exploited and trafficked. The Strategy is expected to be published shortly.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide details of the methodology used to develop the annual National Crime Agency Strategic Assessment of the Nature and Scale of Human Trafficking in the UK.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Details of the methodology used to develop the annual National Crime Agency Strategic Assessment of the Nature and Scale of Human Trafficking in the UK are set out in the report for 2013, published on 30 September 2014. The report can be found at: www.nca.police.uk/publications.
If a person receives a negative Reasonable Grounds or negative Conclusive Decision, this means that they have been found not to be a victim of human trafficking for the purpose of the Council of Europe Convention Against Trafficking in Human Beings.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has consulted non-governmental organisations in the preparation of the Modern Slavery Action Plan; and when she will publish the Plan.
Answered by Karen Bradley
A wide range of stakeholders, including non-governmental organisations have been consulted as part of the development of the Modern Slavery Strategy. The Strategy is expected to be published shortly.