Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of potential child victims of trafficking currently not supported by an Independent Child Trafficking Guardian.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs) have been rolled out in one third of local authorities in England and Wales. If a child presents indicators of trafficking in these areas, first responder organisations have a responsibility to make a referral to the ICTG service.
The Home Office will publish its next evaluation of the ICTG service later this year, which will provide further updates on outcomes of the service including the number of children it supports.
The Government is currently considering improvements to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 made by the Independent Review in 2019, which considered Section 48, which makes provision for ICTGs. The Government remains committed to the national roll out of ICTGs.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department holds figures on the number of looked-after children who are (a) eligible for settled status and (b) have applied successfully for settled status.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The available published information on EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) applications and concluded applications by the applicant’s age and nationality to 31 December 2019, can be found in the Home Office’s ‘EU Settlement Scheme quarterly statistics’, statistics tables, tables EUSS_01, EUSS_02 and EUSS_04, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-quarterly-statistics-december-2019.
The Home Office has been engaging with relevant stakeholders such as the Department for Education, Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Children’s Services to assess the needs of looked-after children and care leavers and ensure they are supported.
To support this, guidance about the EUSS to help local authorities and Health and Social Care Trusts understand their responsibilities for supporting looked-after children and care leavers and how to apply has been created and issued.
A New Burdens Assessment has been produced in collaboration with key stakeholders representing local authorities and children’s social services to ensure they are adequately funded to support looked after children and care leavers who are eligible to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.
The Home Office has been holding monthly teleconferences for local authority staff who are undertaking this work. The teleconferences provide a forum to obtain information, ask questions and raise issues. A designated help line number has also been made available for local authority staff to contact trained caseworkers in the Home Office should they need to discuss any aspect of the EU Settlement Scheme, be it a specific case issue, or a matter of general information.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department holds figures on the number of vulnerable adults who are (a) eligible for settled status and (b) have applied successfully for settled status.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The available published information on EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) applications and concluded applications by the applicant’s age and nationality to 31 December 2019, can be found in the Home Office’s ‘EU Settlement Scheme quarterly statistics’, statistics tables, tables EUSS_01, EUSS_02 and EUSS_04, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-quarterly-statistics-december-2019.
The Home Office has been engaging with relevant stakeholders such as the Department for Education, Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Children’s Services to assess the needs of looked-after children and care leavers and ensure they are supported.
To support this, guidance about the EUSS to help local authorities and Health and Social Care Trusts understand their responsibilities for supporting looked-after children and care leavers and how to apply has been created and issued.
A New Burdens Assessment has been produced in collaboration with key stakeholders representing local authorities and children’s social services to ensure they are adequately funded to support looked after children and care leavers who are eligible to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.
The Home Office has been holding monthly teleconferences for local authority staff who are undertaking this work. The teleconferences provide a forum to obtain information, ask questions and raise issues. A designated help line number has also been made available for local authority staff to contact trained caseworkers in the Home Office should they need to discuss any aspect of the EU Settlement Scheme, be it a specific case issue, or a matter of general information.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to support local authorities make applications to the EU Settlement Scheme on behalf of looked-after children.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The available published information on EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) applications and concluded applications by the applicant’s age and nationality to 31 December 2019, can be found in the Home Office’s ‘EU Settlement Scheme quarterly statistics’, statistics tables, tables EUSS_01, EUSS_02 and EUSS_04, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-quarterly-statistics-december-2019.
The Home Office has been engaging with relevant stakeholders such as the Department for Education, Local Government Association and Association of Directors of Children’s Services to assess the needs of looked-after children and care leavers and ensure they are supported.
To support this, guidance about the EUSS to help local authorities and Health and Social Care Trusts understand their responsibilities for supporting looked-after children and care leavers and how to apply has been created and issued.
A New Burdens Assessment has been produced in collaboration with key stakeholders representing local authorities and children’s social services to ensure they are adequately funded to support looked after children and care leavers who are eligible to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.
The Home Office has been holding monthly teleconferences for local authority staff who are undertaking this work. The teleconferences provide a forum to obtain information, ask questions and raise issues. A designated help line number has also been made available for local authority staff to contact trained caseworkers in the Home Office should they need to discuss any aspect of the EU Settlement Scheme, be it a specific case issue, or a matter of general information.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to publish its response to the Violence and abuse toward shop staff: call for evidence, which was published on 5 April 2019.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government recognises the damaging impact that violence and abuse can have on victims, businesses, and the wider community; and we are committed to tackling this issue.
To ensure that our response to retail crime is as robust as possible we work with a wide range of partners through the National Retail Crime Steering Group, including the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and British Retail Consortium.
In addition, we launched a call for evidence on violence and abuse toward shop staff to help strengthen our understanding of the scale and extent of the issue. The call for evidence has now closed and we are carefully analysing the responses before deciding what further action may be required. We intend to publish the government’s response in due course.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the (a) July 2018 Howard League for Penal Reform publication, Know your numbers: using data to monitor and address criminalisation and (b) work of Durham police who are using data as part of a programme of work with children's homes, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using data to help reduce criminalisation and safeguard children living in children's homes.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
In November 2018 the Government published a national protocol to reduce the unnecessary criminalisation of children in care and care leavers. It advocates a multi-agency, whole system approach recognising that the care system is not just about keeping children safe, but also promoting recovery, resilience and wellbeing. The protocol stresses the importance of the development of strong understanding of local data and circumstances in reducing criminalisation, offending and reoffending.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of times police forces in England have been called to children's homes.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The information requested is not held centrally by the Home Office.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the (a) Howard League for Penal Reform's publication of 8 July 2018, Know your numbers: using data to monitor and address criminalisation and (b) work of Durham Police who are using data as part of a programme of work with children's homes, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using data to help reduce criminalisation and safeguard children living in children's homes.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has received the final report of the Windrush lessons learned review.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The Home Secretary has not yet received the final report from Wendy Williams. On receipt, it will be published as soon as practicable.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to respond to Question 290346 on Immigration: Windrush Generation, tabled by the hon. Member for Croydon North on 24 September 2019.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
The response to UIN 290346 was answered on the 7th October 2019.