Tag: Baroness Doocey

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-07-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many independent child trafficking advocates will be needed to fulfil the requirements under section 48 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

As the Minister for Preventing Abuse, Exploitation and Crime set out on 28 June::

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-06-28/debates/16062854000001/IndependentAdvocatesForTraffickedChildren

The Government is committed to commencing section 48 of the Modern Slavery Act and developing the accompanying secondary legislation and statutory guidance. As part of the commencement process, we will work with interested parties, including Non-Governmental Organisations to determine the scale of the service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many cases of re-trafficking were recorded in the pilot child trafficking advocacy scheme.

Lord Bates

The National Crime Agency is responsible for the assessment of threats, including methods of trafficking by criminals. Information on this is not centrally recorded on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). Data included in NRM referral forms concentrates on detail specifically required to prove the three constituent elements of human trafficking. This would not necessarily include the detail required to assess methodology used to re-traffick victims and as such does not form part of assessment reporting. The independent evaluation of the trial by the University of Bedfordshire collected data on the number of all potentially trafficked children referred to the trial, along with their characteristics including age, gender and geographical location, as well as the number of children that were recorded as missing. However the evaluation did not collect data on the number of children in the trial that were re-trafficked and it is not possible to determine how many of those children who went missing were subsequently re-trafficked.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-07-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when and how local authority chief executives have been informed about their statutory duty to notify information about suspected victims of slavery or human trafficking under section 52 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

On 7 November, the day that s52 of the Act came into Force, the Government issued full guidance on GOV.UK. A circular providing information to all bodies subject to the duty, including local authority Chief Executives, was sent the next day. Further communications to raise awareness of the Duty to Notify are planned this summer.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-02-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment the National Crime Agency has made of the methods used by criminals in the UK to re-traffic Vietnamese child victims out of foster care.

Lord Bates

The National Crime Agency is responsible for the assessment of threats, including methods of trafficking by criminals. Information on this is not centrally recorded on the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). Data included in NRM referral forms concentrates on detail specifically required to prove the three constituent elements of human trafficking. This would not necessarily include the detail required to assess methodology used to re-traffick victims and as such does not form part of assessment reporting. The independent evaluation of the trial by the University of Bedfordshire collected data on the number of all potentially trafficked children referred to the trial, along with their characteristics including age, gender and geographical location, as well as the number of children that were recorded as missing. However the evaluation did not collect data on the number of children in the trial that were re-trafficked and it is not possible to determine how many of those children who went missing were subsequently re-trafficked.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-07-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what guidance has been provided to the Legal Aid Agency about section 47 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

Lord Keen of Elie

The Lord Chancellor has the power to issue guidance or directions to the Director of Legal Aid casework under section 4 of LASPO. No such guidance or directions have been issued in respect of legal aid available as a result of section 47 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prosecutions have been double flagged by the Crown Prosecution Service over the past three years using the flag for monitoring human trafficking, and the flag for monitoring child abuse.

Lord Keen of Elie

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) identify both human trafficking and child abuse cases by way of a database monitoring flag applied to the electronic case record.

The number of defendants prosecuted for flagged human trafficking offences where the child abuse flag was also applied are as follows:

2012-2013	2013-2014	2014-2015
19	59	24

The figures provided represent the number of defendants prosecuted. Cases of trafficking for child exploitation (particularly child sexual exploitation) can involve networks of multi-defendants who have sexually exploited young female victims. Therefore, in the relatively low numbers of cases cross flagged, a small number of additional cases in one year involving upwards of 9 to 12 defendants each will have a significant effect on the annual figures. This, in part, explains the reduction in the number of defendants prosecuted for both human trafficking and child abuse; down from 59 in 2013/14 to 24 in 2014/15.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people have been charged under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 in each of the past three years.

Lord Keen of Elie

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of people who have been charged under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur a disproportionate cost.

Although it is not possible to identify the number of people charged with a particular offence, records are held showing the overall number of offences in which a prosecution commenced at magistrates’ courts. The table below shows the number of offences, rather than defendants, charged under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 for the last three financial years:

	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15
Coroners and Justice Act 2009 {71(1)(b) & (3)}	Knowingly hold another person in slavery/solitude	20	3	28
Coroners and Justice Act 2009 {71(1)(b) & (3)}	Knowingly require another person to perform forced/compulsory labour	0	15	3

Note: A single defendant may be prosecuted for multiple offences.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2014-06-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many times the Crown Prosecution Service has made a charging decision not to proceed on the use of sections 4(1), 4(2), and 4(3) of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004 in each of the past five years where the victim was under 18 at the time of commission of the offence.

Lord Wallace of Tankerness

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold figures centrally for the number of cases where a decision was made not to proceed under sections 4(1), 4(2), and 4(3) of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.), including cases where the victim was under 18 at the time of commission of the offence. To obtain such information would require a manual examination of records which would incur a disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2014-06-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prosecutions have been double flagged by the Crown Prosecution Service over the past three years using the flag for monitoring human trafficking and the flag for monitoring child abuse.

Lord Wallace of Tankerness

The Crown Prosecution Service identifies both human trafficking and child abuse cases by way of a database monitoring flag applied to the electronic case record.

The number of defendants prosecuted who were flagged for human trafficking offences and where the child abuse flag was applied are outlined in the table below. During the past year there has been an increase in the numbers of such cases investigated by law enforcement agencies and referred to the CPS for prosecution.

2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014
9	19	59

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Doocey on 2014-06-25.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prosecutions have taken place under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 in each of the past five years.

Lord Wallace of Tankerness

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds figures of the number of offences charged under section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 that reached a first hearing in a magistrates’ court and data for the past three financial years is contained in the following table. No charges are recorded before financial year 2011/2012.

		2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014
Coroners and Justice Act 2009 { 71(1)(a) & (3) }	Knowingly hold another person in slavery / servitude	10	20	3
Coroners and Justice Act 2009 { 71(1)(b) & (3) }	Knowingly require another person to perform forced / compulsory labour	5	0	15

CPS offence based data is not held by defendant or outcome so it is not possible to ascertain the number of individual prosecutions that concluded.