Tag: Karen Bradley

Below is the text of the statement made by Karen Bradley, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in the House of Commons on 12 September 2017.

I apologise for beginning my statement by correcting you, Mr Speaker, but I am now the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The Department has a new word in its name.

I am here to give an update on the proposed merger between 21st Century Fox and Sky plc and on my decision about whether to refer the transaction for a full six-month investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority. I should first remind the House that in my quasi-judicial role I must, first, come to a decision on the basis of relevant evidence; secondly, act independently in a process that is fair and impartial; and, thirdly, take my decision as promptly as is reasonably practicable. I am committed to transparency and openness in this process and have been clear that my decisions can be influenced only by facts, not by opinions, and that they can be influenced only by the evidence, not by who shouts the loudest.

I turn, first, to media plurality, and I can confirm that none of the representations received has persuaded me to change my position. Accordingly, I can confirm my intention to make a referral on the media plurality ground to the CMA. On the question of commitment to broadcasting standards, over the summer my officials reviewed the almost 43,000 representations received. A significant majority of them were campaign-inspired, arguing against the merger going ahead but generally without providing new or further evidence or commenting on Ofcom’s approach. Overall, only 30 of the 43,000 representations were substantive, raising potentially new evidence or commenting on Ofcom’s approach. Almost all were related to commitment to broadcasting standards.

In the light of those representations, I asked Ofcom to provide further advice. May I put on record my gratitude to Ofcom for its efforts to respond to the questions that were raised? I am, today, publishing the exchanges between my Department and Ofcom. In those exchanges, I sought clarification on, first, the threshold that Ofcom applied to its consideration of the commitment to broadcasting standards ground; secondly, the consideration made of broadcasting compliance; and, thirdly, the consideration made of corporate governance issues. I also asked Ofcom to consider whether any of the new, substantive representations that I received affected its assessment.

I have taken careful account of all relevant representations and Ofcom’s advice, and I have today, as required by the legislation, written to the parties to inform them that I am now minded to refer the merger to the CMA on the grounds of genuine commitment to broadcasting standards. I will now set out the technical reasons for that decision.

Questions were raised about the threshold for referral. The legal threshold for a reference to the CMA is low. I have the power to make a reference if I believe that there is a risk that is not purely fanciful that the merger might operate against the specified public interests. In its original report, Ofcom stated that​
“we consider that there are no broadcasting standards concerns that may justify a reference”.

At the time, Ofcom appeared to be unequivocal. Following the additional representations,

Ofcom has further clarified that

“while we consider there are non-fanciful concerns, we do not consider that these are such as may justify a reference in relation to the broadcast standards public interest consideration.”

The existence of non-fanciful concerns means that, as a matter of law, the threshold for a reference on the broadcasting standards ground is met. In the light of all the representations and Ofcom’s additional advice, I believe that those concerns are sufficient to warrant the exercise of my discretion to refer.

The first concern, which was raised in Ofcom’s public interest report, was that Fox did not have adequate compliance procedures in place for the broadcast of Fox News in the UK and that it took action to improve its approach to compliance only after Ofcom expressed concerns. Ofcom has confirmed it considers that to raise concerns that are non-fanciful but not sufficiently serious to warrant referral. I consider that those non-fanciful concerns warrant further consideration. The fact that Fox belatedly established such procedures does not ease my concerns, and nor does Fox’s compliance history.

Ofcom was reassured by the existence of the compliance regime, which provides licensees with an incentive to comply. However, it is clear to me that Parliament intended the scrutiny of whether an acquiring party has a “genuine commitment” to attaining broadcasting standards objectives to happen before a merger takes place. Third parties also raised concerns about what they termed the “Foxification” of Fox-owned news outlets internationally. On the evidence before me, I am not able to conclude that that raises non-fanciful concerns. However, I consider it important that entities that adopt controversial or partisan approaches to news and current affairs in other jurisdictions should, at the same time, have a genuine commitment to broadcasting standards here. Those are matters the CMA may wish to consider in the event of a referral.

I turn to the question of corporate governance failures. Ofcom states in its latest correspondence that such failures raise non-fanciful concerns in relation to the broadcasting standards ground. However, it again concludes that those concerns do not warrant a reference. I agree that corporate governance issues at Fox raise non-fanciful concerns, but in my view it would be appropriate for those concerns to be considered further by the CMA. I agree with the view that, in this context, my proper concern is whether Fox will have a genuine commitment to attaining broadcasting standards objectives. However, I am not confident that weaknesses in Fox’s corporate governance arrangements are incapable of affecting compliance in the broadcasting standards context. I have outstanding non-fanciful concerns about these matters, and I am of the view that they should be considered further by the CMA.

Before I come to a final decision, I am required, under the Enterprise Act 2002, to allow the parties to make representations on my proposed decision, and that is the reason why my decision remains, at this stage, a “minded to” one. I have given the parties 10 working days to respond. Following receipt of any representations from the parties, I will aim to come to my final decision in relation to both grounds as promptly as I can.​

I remind the House that should I decide to refer on one or both grounds, the merger will be subject to a full and detailed investigation by the CMA over a six-month period. Such a referral does not signal the outcome of that investigation. Given the quasi-judicial nature of this matter, my decision cannot be guided by the parliamentary timetable. If I come to my decision during recess, I will write, as I have done previously, and return to this House at the earliest possible opportunity to provide an update. I commend this statement to the House.

Below is the text of the speech made by Karen Bradley, her first keynote as the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, in Liverpool on 9 August 2016.

Thank you – it’s fantastic to be back in Liverpool, this wonderful world city.

World city? Liverpool is not even in the top 250 or even 500 by some measures of cities by population.

But two years ago the Rough Guide said it was one of the three cities you MUST visit. Along with Sarajevo and Rio.

That’s because Liverpool – like the UK – punches way above its weight for Culture, Media and Sport.

The waterfront is a World Heritage site. There is gorgeous architecture. World-class performing arts. Amazing museums, and galleries.

I am really looking forward to visiting Tate Liverpool and the Museum of Liverpool later today.

And what a privilege it is to be here at the Philharmonic.

As the new Culture Secretary, I am already getting around the country – and the world – to demonstrate how culture, media and sport are all key parts of the Government’s overall industrial strategy.

On my first day in my department, I received two things. One was the most amazing warm welcome from the team. The other was a briefing pack, stuffed full of facts and figures.

Particularly striking were the statistics on the economic heft of the DCMS sectors. They account for a big chunk of GDP and lots of jobs.

You will hear me make liberal use of these statistics. But today I want to focus on something else.

Because everything DCMS covers has a value that goes beyond the economic.

They matter in and of themselves.

Watercolour painting, playing a sport, visiting ancient and beautiful places, drawing, writing poetry, mastering a musical instrument – all of these lead to a life well lived. They raise the human condition and cheer our spirits.

Simply put, they make us happy.

This is just as important as the positive impact that DCMS sectors can have on educational attainment, physical and mental health, community cohesion, and crime reduction.

In fact, treating the personal, individual benefits to a 12 year-old girl from learning the piano as wholly distinct from the overall benefit to society of music is a false dichotomy.

For it is precisely the aggregate effect of these individual experiences that will bring about a healthier, smarter, more peaceable, more cohesive, and happier society.

And so they must be available to everyone, not the preserve of a privileged few.

And how we make sure we reach everyone is what I want to talk about today – the scale of the challenge and what we are doing about it.

The challenge

The challenge is how do we make sure culture, media and sport fit into everything we do? How do we give them their rightful place as part of our civil society?

In today’s speech I will be concentrating on the arts and culture.

A determination to widen access to the arts is not new. It animated John Maynard Keynes – the first Chairman of the Arts Council – and Jennie Lee – the first minister for the arts – whose 1965 white paper said, “the best must be made more widely available”.

In the intervening half century since Jennie Lee’s paper, access to the arts has remained unequal, and some specific pursuits still appear to be for a privileged minority.

That is not to say there has been no progress. Throughout the United Kingdom one can find examples of incredibly successful projects.

When In Harmony Liverpool began at Faith Primary School in 2009, 84 children took part. Now more than 700 hundred young people and their families take part in orchestral music every week, for free.

I know that In Harmony concerts are the talk of the town. That is only possible thanks to expert tuition – a violin sounds wonderful in skilled hands but sometimes challenging in unskilled ones!

You can’t get better than the Liverpool Philharmonic, and their teachers and musicians have made a huge difference. I am sure that they find it rewarding too. Nothing can beat the joy of watching a child accomplish something they didn’t think they could do.

I would love to play an instrument, but because I wasn’t very good at the recorder at school, I was told I wasn’t musical at all. I was good at maths though, and that influenced my early career.

As Professor Brian Cox has said, no-one thinks they can simply pick up a violin and play but they think maths is a natural talent. But in truth, both music and maths take time – and hard work makes all the difference.

Music will now be a part of the lives of hundreds – and soon thousands – of Liverpudlian children who might not otherwise have had that chance. This is a gift beyond measure.

So how big is the challenge we face in making arts and culture a central part of everyone’s life?

The Government runs a survey called Taking Part. Arts engagement is nearly 82 per cent among adults from the upper socio-economic group – compared to just over 65 per cent from the lower socio-economic group.

The gap in arts engagement between white adults and adults from a black or minority ethnic background has widened. And people with a long-standing illness or disability are significantly less engaged in the arts.

Small wonder that people from disadvantaged backgrounds are poorly represented in the artistic professions – or that young people from such backgrounds are less likely to play an instrument and are underrepresented at conservatoires compared to higher education in general.

So we know what the problem is – what are we going to do about it?

Well earlier this year my department brought out its own Culture White Paper, and I want to pay tribute to the energy and resolve of the brilliant Ed Vaizey, who led this work.

But the short answer to the question is that we are going to pilot different schemes and expand and replicate the ones that work and do more of what we know works already.

Here is the longer answer:

In January David Cameron announced the Cultural Citizens Programme. It is a fantastic initiative which could give thousands of children the chance to take part in a range of cultural activities, such as free visits to local plays, behind the scenes access to museums and galleries, and exclusive trips to world class venues, so they realise that culture is just as much for them as for anyone.

It will be led by Arts Council England, with support from Historic England and the Heritage Lottery Fund.

We are going to begin running pilots from next month, with 600 disadvantaged young people. The idea is to provide fun experiences that increase confidence and lead to permanent engagement.

I am delighted that one of these pilots will take place here in North West England, in Liverpool and Blackpool, partnering with Curious Minds.

To support that aim of getting culture into everyday life, we are looking at how to incorporate it into the National Citizen Service, in which more than 200,000 young people have taken part since 2011. I’ll be visiting an NCS centre in Liverpool later today.

I hope that many of the kind of the kind of organisations here today and across the DCMS portfolio will want to take part. The deadline is tight and bids must be in by this Thursday. But Liverpudilans have never been shy of creativity, so please do get involved!

My department received a massive injection of talented staff and brilliant ideas – as well as a great minister in Rob Wilson – when we assumed responsibility for the Office for Civil Society.

OCS has a plethora of projects designed to help everyone, no matter what their background, to thrive. Art and culture can play a central part in most of them.

An £80 million fund will help local commissioners create Social Impact Bonds to address deep-rooted social problems. The Bonds will focus on six key themes: drug and alcohol dependency, children’s services, early years, young people, older people, and healthy lives.

The Affordable Lending portal – a partnership between private and social sector bodies – will make it easier to access loans from responsible lenders.

Big Society Capital is a social investment fund that has already helped hundreds of organisations.

The Centre for Social Action has to date supported more than 80 organisations in expanding opportunity, specifically for young people.

And by the end of this Parliament the number of Community Organisers will be increased from 6,500 to 10,000.

So, these are some of the things DCMS is going but it really is a challenge for the whole of government.

That is why I will be working closely with the new Education Secretary Justine Greening to make sure that no child is left out of this country’s magnificent and extraordinary cultural inheritance. Education is, of course, vital to expanding people’s horizons and developing lifelong passions.

I will also work closely with Liz Truss at the Ministry of Justice to see how arts and culture can be part of prison reform.

This is really part of being a government that works for everyone.

And the arts can do wonders for mental and physical health as well as for people with long-term conditions like dementia and Parkinson’s.

Arts Council England is already helping make culture available to all by making a fundamental change in its approach to diversity.

Every organisation it funds is now expected to make their work better reflect the communities they serve. Under a banner called The Creative Case for Diversity, Arts Council England will monitor progress and this will influence their funding decisions.

The Government is also looking at how we can tear down the barriers to a career in the arts.

A new experience that reaches someone who would not otherwise enjoy a rich cultural life changes that person’s world. That sort of experience has immeasurable value, but can also have a cumulative impact that can effect change on a local and even national scale.

Culture can help regenerate villages, towns and cities.

Places are not simply somewhere to build a factory. To have heart and soul, they need galleries, music centres, cherished heritage sites, libraries, and museums and sports facilities. They need to be like Liverpool.

The Government is working hard at rebalancing funding between London and the regions. The Great Place Scheme will bring together national arts and heritage Lottery funders with councils, cultural organisations and universities to ensure that culture forms a core part of local authorities’ plans and policies.

Next year, Hull will be UK City of Culture.

That status helps bring communities together, attracts visitors, raises the profile of culture, and develops lasting partnerships.

And the Great Exhibition of the North in Summer 2018 will showcase the exceptional art, culture and design of the North of England.

So places can be regenerated by culture – but only because of the effect on individuals. Culture, media and sport have real, lasting impacts that benefit all of us.

Let me end by quoting a Liverpool parent who I hope would support that view. They said,

“… an event like going down to the birthday concerts and taking family, you know? This year’s one, oh I was in tears. You’d have to be pretty cold to say it didn’t make you well up, or make you proud, because it does, it really, really does.”

So said a parent whose child played at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall thanks to In Harmony.

I am incredibly privileged to have this role because it means that I can do my bit to ensure that many, many more people have cause to shed tears of pride.

I expect every organisation and individual that DCMS supports to put their shoulder to the wheel – and I invite anyone else who can help to join us on this journey. I will be making sure the whole of government is involved.

The prize is huge: massive benefits for society, which will stem from thousands upon thousands of individual experiences of the joy of arts, culture and sport – a joy that no-one should be denied.

Thank you.

Below is the text of the speech made by Karen Bradley, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office, in the House of Commons on 29 June 2016.

Hate crime of any kind, directed against any community, race or religion, has absolutely no place in our society. As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister told this House today, we are utterly committed to tackling hate crime, and we will provide extra funding in order to do so. We will also take steps to boost reporting of hate crime and to support victims, issue new Crown Prosecution Service guidance to prosecutors on racially aggravated crime, provide a new fund for protective security measures at potentially vulnerable institutions, and offer additional funding to community organisations so that they can tackle hate crime.

The scenes and behaviour we have seen in recent days, including offensive graffiti and abuse hurled at people because they are members of ethnic minorities or because of their nationality, are despicable and shameful. We must stand together against such hate crime and ensure that it is stamped out. Over the past week, there has been a 57% increase in reporting to the police online reporting portal, True Vision, compared with this time last month, with 85 reports made between Thursday 23 June to Sunday 26 June compared with 54 reports in the corresponding four days four weeks ago. However, I would urge caution in drawing conclusions from these figures as a guide to the trend, as they are a small snapshot of reports rather than definitive statistics.

Much of the reporting of these incidents has been through social media, including reports of xenophobic abuse of eastern Europeans in the UK, as well as attacks against members of the Muslim community. However, we have also seen messages of support and friendship on social media. I am sure the whole House will want to join me in commending those we have seen stand up for what is right and uphold the shared values that bring us together as a country, such as those who opposed the racist and hateful speech shown in the recent video taken on a tram in Manchester.

These recent events are shocking, but sadly this is not a new phenomenon. Statistics from the Tell MAMA report, published today, show that in 2015 there was a 326% increase on 2014 figures in street-based anti-Muslim incidents reported directly to Tell MAMA, such as verbal abuse in the street and women’s veils being pulled away, with 437 such incidents reported.

Worryingly, the report also finds that 45% of online hate crime perpetrators are supportive of the far right. In recent days, we have seen far-right groups engaged in organised marches and demonstrations, sowing divisions and fear in our communities. We have also seen far-right groups broadcasting extreme racist and anti-Semitic ideology online, along with despicable hate speech posted online following the shocking death of our colleague Jo Cox. Her appalling death just under two weeks ago shocked and sickened people not only in communities up and down this country, but in many other countries around the world. As we heard in the many moving tributes paid to her in this House, her loss is keenly felt, and we will always remember that a husband is now without his loving wife and two young children will grow up without a mother.

The investigation of hate crimes is of course an operational matter for the police. I would urge anyone who has experienced hate crime to report it, whether directly to the police at a police station, by phoning the 101 hotline, or online through the True Vision website. In this country, we have some of the strongest legislation in the world to protect communities from hostility, violence, and bigotry. This includes specific offences for racially and religiously aggravated activity and offences of stirring up hatred on the grounds of race, religion, and sexual orientation. It is imperative that these laws are rigorously enforced.

The national police lead for hate crime, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, has issued a statement confirming that police forces are working closely with their communities to maintain unity and prevent any hate crime or abuse. Police forces will respond robustly to any incidents, and victims can be reassured that their concerns about hate crime will be taken seriously by the police and courts. Any decisions regarding resourcing of front-line policing are a matter for chief constables in conjunction with their police and crime commissioner.

Since coming to office, the Government have worked with the police to improve our collective response to hate crime. The Home Secretary has asked the police to ensure that the recording of religious-based hate crime now includes the faith of the victim—a measure that came into effect this April. We have also established joint training between the police and the Crown Prosecution Service to improve the way the police identify and investigate hate crime. Alongside this training, the College of Policing, as the professional body for policing, has published national strategy and operational guidance in this area to ensure that policing deals with hate crime effectively.

But we need to do more to understand the hate crime we are seeing and to tackle it. That is why we will be publishing a new hate crime action plan covering all forms of hate crime, including xenophobic attacks. We have developed the plan in partnership with communities and with Departments across Government. It will include measures to increase the reporting of hate incidents and crimes, including working with communities and police to develop third-party reporting centres. It will work to prevent hate crimes on transport, and to tackle attacks against Muslim women, which we recognise is an area of great concern to the community. The action plan will also provide stronger support for victims, helping to put a stop to this pernicious behaviour.

We appreciate that places of worship are feeling particularly vulnerable at this time. That is why we have established funding for the security of places of worship, as announced by the Prime Minister last October. This will enable places of worship to bid for money to fund additional security measures such as CCTV cameras or fencing. We have also been working with communities to encourage them to come forward to report such crimes, and to give them the confidence that those crimes will be taken seriously by the police and courts. My noble Friends Lord Ahmad and Baroness Williams have today visited the Polish cultural centre in Hammersmith, which was a victim of disgusting graffiti, to express their support.

We are working closely with organisations such as Tell MAMA and the Community Security Trust to monitor hate crime incidents and with the police national community tensions team to keep community tensions under review.

The Government are clear that hate crime of any kind must be taken very seriously indeed. Our country is thriving, liberal and modern precisely because of the rich co-existence of people of different backgrounds, faiths and ethnicities, and we must treasure and strive to protect that rich co-existence. We must work together to protect that diversity, defeat hate crime and uphold the values that underpin the British way of life, and we must ensure that all those who seek to spread hatred and division in our communities are dealt with robustly by the police and the courts. I commend this statement to the House.

Below is the text of the speech made by Karen Bradley, a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in the Home Office, at the International Crime and Policing Conference on 23 March 2016.

We have heard many powerful speeches over the last 2 days about how crime is changing, and how crime prevention needs to change as a result.

Throughout the conference, but especially today, speakers have considered ways to prevent crimes against the most vulnerable and voiceless people in our society. Many of these crimes have too often been hidden, with victims scared to come forward for fear they won’t be believed or will suffer repercussions.

This afternoon I want to outline some of our work to tackle these crimes – in particular, violence against women and girls, child sexual abuse and slavery.

I also want to talk about some of the factors that contribute to vulnerability. As Minister for Preventing Abuse, Exploitation and Crime, I am acutely aware that addressing those factors is crucial to preventing crime.

In England and Wales 77,000 children and young people were recorded as missing or absent in 2014/15.

The reasons why people go missing are as varied but we know that in many cases, children and young people who repeatedly go missing are at serious risk of becoming victims of crime and in many cases, horrific forms of abuse like sexual exploitation and trafficking.

It is therefore essential that government, statutory agencies and the voluntary sector collectively do all we can to tackle the factors which lead to people going missing.

The government’s missing children and adults strategy published in 2011 is updated with proposals to better protect and support missing people and their families. One key element of our strategy is prevention – ensuring all agencies have a targeted, proactive plan in place to respond to instances where a vulnerable child or adult goes missing. The links between missing people and other forms of vulnerability are quite apparent but it is clear we need to do more to ensure everyone takes this symptom of a problem more seriously.

Similarly, since 2010 we have delivered a series of measures to tackle violence against women and girls, and Ministers across government are determined to ensure everyone is providing greater protection to victims, and in turn bringing more perpetrators to justice.

We have criminalised forced marriage and revenge pornography; introduced 2 new stalking offences; rolled out domestic violence protection orders and the domestic violence disclosure scheme across the country; and recently commenced the new offence of domestic abuse to recognise coercive and controlling behaviour.

We have also seen an increase in reporting and recording of what are often hidden crimes; and prosecutions and convictions for violence against women and girls are at their highest ever levels.

But as more of these crimes are identified and reported, and their true scale is revealed, we need to strengthen our work to change attitudes, to improve prevention, and ensure victims and survivors get the support they need, and where possible rehabilitate offenders to stop reoffending.

Earlier this month we published the refreshed violence against women and girls strategy, setting out a package of measures to support our ambitious vision of eliminating these crimes.

We have pledged £80 million to help deliver our goal and will work with local commissioners to ensure a secure future for rape support centres, refuges and female genital mutilation and forced marriage units. At the same time, we will look to our partners to drive major change across all services so that early intervention and prevention, not crisis response, is the norm.

Working with the voluntary sector, we will help local areas go further and faster to develop new and more integrated approaches that facilitate earlier intervention, and swifter, pre-emptive action through multi-agency specialist teams that help all members of a family at the same time.

We will ensure that women can seek help in a range of everyday settings as they go about their daily lives – for example through interactions with Citizens Advice, housing providers, and employers – and secure appropriate support from specialist victim services. Every point of interaction with a victim is an opportunity for intervention and should not be missed.

We are now also shining a light on child sexual exploitation. It remains difficult to ascertain its true extent, but here too we are seeing more victims and survivors feeling confident in reporting abuse; more offenders being charged and more successful prosecutions.

Last year the Home Secretary set out a national response to the failures we have seen in Rotherham, Manchester, Oxford and elsewhere, where children were let down by the very people who were responsible for protecting them.

We have made significant progress in delivering a range of measures including prioritising child sexual abuse as a national threat in the Strategic Policing Requirement, which sets a clear expectation on police forces to collaborate across force boundaries to safeguard children, to share intelligence and to share best practice; and as Baroness Shields said yesterday, we have rolled out to all UK police forces a single, secure database of indecent images of children. We are piloting joint official health, police and education inspections as well as launching a new national whistleblowing helpline for any employee to report bad practise within their organisation in relation to child safeguarding.

But again, more can be done and that is why we are legislating, in the Police and Crime Bill, to amend the definition of sexual exploitation to include streamed or otherwise transmitted images, ensuring our laws keep pace with technological changes.

We have also made significant progress to tackle modern slavery, culminating in passing the Modern Slavery Act last year. As Professor Bales said earlier this afternoon, slavery is a terrible, hidden crime that affects some of the most vulnerable people in society. The fact that individuals around the world, including here in the UK, are still being forced into lives of slavery and servitude in the 21 century is appalling.

The Modern Slavery Act is a landmark piece of legislation which gives law enforcement the tools to tackle modern slavery, ensures that perpetrators can receive suitably severe sentences and enhances support and protection for victims. Crucially, the act emphasises prevention and I’m delighted that a year after the act received Royal Assent it is beginning to have a real impact: we have already seen 12 Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Orders issued, restricting the activity of those individuals who have been convicted of modern slavery offences.

We are the first country in the world to bring in legislation requiring businesses to be open about what they have done to prevent modern slavery themselves and in their supply chains. I want this to create a level playing field, in which responsible businesses who are acting to eradicate slavery are recognised for doing so. I commend the businesses that have already published their statements, especially those who are being open about the slavery-related challenges they are facing. Just this week I hosted representatives from around 80 businesses, in the Home Office, to share good practice. I also want customers, investors and shareholders to have the information that they need to pressurise businesses that are not acknowledging the issue or taking action to address it.

Whilst government and law enforcement can tackle criminality against vulnerable people, we also must focus on some of the causes of vulnerability.

Mental ill health is a huge issue. One in 4 British adults experiences at least one diagnosable mental health problem.

But in too many cases, people suffering mental health crises have ended up in police cells instead of getting the support and health care they need.

A significant proportion will have committed no crime and simply need urgent help because they are vulnerable or may pose a risk to themselves or to others. We are committed to ensure proper provision of health and community based places of safety; police cells are not the place for people in need of medical interventions.

We have an overarching Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat with 27 national signatories involved in health, policing, social care, housing, local government and the third sector. It includes a focus on prevention and intervention, stopping future crises by making sure people are referred to appropriate services.

We have increasingly seen ambulances replace police vehicles to transport the mentally ill with dignity. And we have seen engagement with community and voluntary groups to establish places of refuge or calm where those on the brink of a crisis can go to receive support, and referral to appropriate services.

We are reinforcing recent advances by legislating to further limit the use of police cells for those in mental health crisis, banning their use altogether for those under 18, reducing detention time limits, and increasing the ability to use locations outside of traditional health settings as places of safety to help increase local capacity.

Legislation alone, however, cannot provide the best outcomes for those in need of care. We will continue to rely on our local partnerships to work collectively to achieve the most beneficial outcomes for the individual in need.

Another important factor in vulnerability is drug misuse, which cuts across our society at every level. It can cause unimaginable pain and suffering for individuals and their families, and sits behind the violence, exploitation and serious organised crime that drives drug markets. And it is both a cause and consequence of a number of other problems including poor physical and mental health, employment, housing and crime issues.

Our approach to tackling drugs in 2010 fundamentally changed the delivery landscape and put our focus on recovery. We have seen a reduction in drug misuse among adults and young people over the last ten years and more people are recovering from their dependence now than in 2010. It is with a renewed commitment to tackling these issues that we will be launching a revised drug strategy later this year.

Finally I would like to touch on alcohol. Alcohol is strongly associated with crime and is a factor in almost half of all violent crimes, particularly at night-time.

As the Home Secretary outlined this morning, the Modern Crime Prevention Strategy sets out the approach that we believe that local authorities, together with the police, health partners and the alcohol industry, should take in order to prevent alcohol-related crime: improving local intelligence to enhance the level of data that is available to local decision makers; fostering strong and sustained local partnerships with the ability to devise local solutions; and equipping the police and local authorities with the powers they need.

We have already come a long way in protecting vulnerable people, shining a light on abuses that have for too long been suffered in silence, and preventing further crimes. But as more victims come forward, we owe it to them to do more to protect the vulnerable, bring perpetrators to justice and prevent these crimes from happening in the first place.

We can all learn from each other to understand how crime, and crime prevention, is changing.

So, as we come to the end of this year’s conference, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for attending, especially those who have travelled from overseas. I hope that what you have heard here provokes further thought, helps to influence your future work, and fosters a collaborative approach to modern crime prevention going forward.

Below is the text of the speech made by Karen Bradley, the Minister for Modern Slavery and Organised Crime, at the BBA Conference on 10th June 2014.

Verizon reported last year that most cyber attacks on a system take a matter of hours. Many take minutes or even seconds. Taken alone, that is concerning. But consider then that the same report found that 2 out of 3 attackers stayed in the system for months before discovery, and it took weeks, even months for the victim to be able to get rid of the hacker.

That is absolutely staggering. Think of the damage that can be done by that attack, in that time. Think of the loss caused by that attack, and the potential impact on reputation and prosperity.

This is why cyber security, including cyber crime, is a top threat to UK national security. It is up there with international terrorism. Today, I will tell you about what this government is doing to counter these threats.

For those who don’t know me, I am Karen Bradley, the Minister responsible for Serious and Organised Crime, and my job is to oversee our national approach to the threat of the cyber crime.

Threat

Cyber crime is a global threat. Cyber criminals operate across international borders. The UK is threatened from many locations in many countries, which makes it extremely complicated to tackle.

And that is why you are all here today, to discuss the threat, to think about how best to protect yourselves against it, and take action against those who commit it. Throughout today you will hear many facts and figures on the cost of cyber crime to your industry. I’m not going to repeat them here. Not because I do not think they are important.

Of course you need to know what cyber crime costs you, and I hope you already do. And the figures are astonishingly large. But what I want to focus on is what cyber crime means for economic and social prosperity.

We know that cyber crime undermines confidence in our communications technology and online economy.

One report estimated that internet based companies are worth 7-8% of UK GDP. That means that cyber crime is affecting our economic prosperity. Cyber criminals are not only taking money from business through their attacks, but attacks have a terrible impact on consumer confidence in using internet businesses.

Think about the recent attack on Ebay. We should applaud Ebay for putting information into the public domain, and managing the situation as they did. But I wonder how many users will have been concerned about using the site and other sites in the days after the attack?

We all rely on the internet. We are conducting an increasing amount of our professional and personal lives online whether its our supermarket shop, or ordering a last minute father’s day gift. We’re sending our personal data out into cyberspace all day every day, through emails, passwords and via our bank accounts. More and more people are using the internet.

In 2012, 33 million people in the UK accessed the internet every day. That is more than double the level six years before.

And the methods for access are also rapidly changing, with those using a mobile device to go online more than doubling over the two years from 2010 to 2012 [24% to 51%].

So we’re accessing the internet more and more, using a variety of different methods to do so. This provides new opportunities for cyber criminals, and a challenge as to how we protect ourselves from attack, and pursue those who commit the crime.

The internet is now an integral part of our lives, and I think most would feel lost without the benefits it affords. But we need to make every internet user aware of the need to be careful and intelligent about they way they act online.

What we need to do is to work together to make sure business online is safe and secure, and that people doing business online are protected.

National Cyber Security Programme

We know that government has a key role to play in tackling cyber crime, and improving cyber security.

The National Cyber Security Strategy was launched in 2011. And one of its four objectives is to make the UK one of the most secure places in the world to do business in cyberspace.

The National Cyber Security Programme underpins the strategy and delivers its objectives. We have dedicated £860 million over five years to deliver a real change in the UK’s cyber capabilities.

The Programme is in its fourth year and has made significant steps.

Notably, the creation of the National Cyber Crime Unit, (the NCCU) within the National Crime Agency; the launch of CERT-UK, the UK’s first single computer emergency response team for national cyber incident management; and, the launch of the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership, the first secure government-industry forum for information sharing on key cyber threats.

Serious and Organised Crime Strategy

On 7 October last year we launched the new Serious and Organised Crime Strategy.

We have taken the framework of our Counter-Terrorism Strategy, CONTEST, and refined our approach to tackling serious and organised crime into four areas of focus: Pursue, Prevent, Protect and Prepare.

PURSUE – prosecuting and disrupting organised crime gangs. In others words, catching the bad guys.

PREVENT – stopping people from becoming involved in and remaining involved in, serious and organised crime. In other words, stopping the bad guys from being bad guys.

PROTECT – reducing our vulnerability to harm from these groups by strengthening our systems and processes and providing advice to the private sector and the public. In other words , helping you not to become a victim of the bad guys.

And PREPARE – reducing the impact of serious and organised crime when it happens. So, helping victims and wider communities to recover when the criminals strike.

I will focus today on the PURSUE and PROTECT areas of our work.

Pursue

We are changing the way we pursue cyber criminals. We know that law enforcement needs to have the right skills to respond to the changing ways in which crime is being committed.

To successfully tackle cybercrime, law enforcement needs to have the knowledge and skills that cyber criminals are equipped with.

The National Crime Agency leads the crime fighting response to the most serious incidents of cyber-dependant and cyber-enabled crime through its National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) and Commands including the Economic Crime Command.

The NCA is working with regional and local policing, in particular through the network of Regional Organised Crime Units , or ROCUs, which have been set up to work across local police force boundaries to provide new ways of working.

Through increased investment, dedicated cyber and fraud units are being developed within these regional teams. And through the College of Policing, we are also working to improve cyber knowledge in local police forces with a dedicated training programme.

There are real opportunities for industry and law enforcement to work together to build skills to tackle cyber crime, and to understand the changing threats. The ROCUs are establishing relationships with businesses in their regions, and the NCA’s NCCU is sharing information on cyber attacks with the private sector. But this is just a start.

In addition to increasing law enforcement capabilities, we want to make the legislative response stronger. We published the Serious Crime Bill last week. This contains amendments to existing legislation, which will mean that those who are found guilty of committing cyber attacks which cause serious damage, including to the economy, face lengthy prison sentences.

Pursue International

However, the UK cannot tackle cyber crime alone. We need to work with our international partners in order to find a global solution. That is why at the heart of NCA’s approach to cutting cyber crime is international collaboration, through its relationship with the European Cyber Crime Centre in Europol, and working closely with other international law enforcement agencies.

I hope you saw the NCA’s alert last week on the two week window to protect yourself and your business against two variants of malware, known as GameOverZeus and Cryptolocker. And I hope you protective yourself as a result of this alert, and encouraged your customers to do the same.

This NCA alert is part of one of the largest industry and law enforcement collaborations attempted to date. This is a fantastic example of how we work with our international partners to pursue cyber criminals across borders, and to protect the public and private sector from attacks.

You will hear much more about the NCA’s international work on cyber crime from Andy Archibald, head of the NCA’s NCCU, this afternoon.

Protect

I am sure you would agree that it is better to protect ourselves and our systems from an attack than wait until our data, finances and confidence is stolen and compromised. That is why Protect is a fundamental part of the government response to the threat of cyber crime.

GCHQ estimates that 80% or more of successful attacks could be defeated by implementing simple best practice cyber security standards. We all have a responsibility to ensure we understand what can be done to protect ourselves at an individual and company level.

And there is some good work taking place. This year PWCs Global State of Information Security Survey shows that the number of companies which have adopted an overall information security strategy has increased by 17.5%.

Almost 64% of security professionals in the UK report directly to the board or CEO, only 54% of European organisations do the same. This is great news, but there is clearly more to be done.

Last week we launched the Cyber Essentials Scheme, an industry-led organisational standard for cyber security, which gives a clear baseline to aim for in addressing cyber security risks to your companies. It is available on the Gov.UK website.

Cyber Essentials is relevant to all your organisations. It applies to all businesses of any size, and any sector. We want to see all organisations adopt the requirements to some degree. And this is not just for the private sector. It applies to academia, charities and the public sector.

Cyber Essentials sits alongside other existing products to help business build their protection against cyber crime. We have guidance for industry Chief Executives and board members, and last year we published tailored guidance for SMEs.

I encourage you all to use the guidance available. They are simple steps that can make a considerable reduction to your cyber vulnerability.

We are listening to what industry needs. We are helping industry to ensure that they have competent cyber security professionals, and that internal cyber security courses are consistent with government standards. GCHQ’s Communications-Electronics Security Group (or CESG) Certified Professional scheme is building a community of recognised cyber security professionals from both public and private sectors. Over 900 professionals have been certified so far, and we intend to develop the scheme further in line with industry requirements.

And the CESG certified training programme enables training providers to have their cyber security courses assessed against approved standards. This provides assurance to organisations and individuals that they have a quality course.

We are also supporting the growth of the UK cyber security industry, with an emphasis on increasing exports. We have set a target to increase cyber security exports to £2bn by 2016. We have a programme of initiatives to support this including help to overcome barriers for entry into key markets.

And work is also underway with industry to jointly develop a cyber security showcase, offering industry a Central London venue to demonstrate their products.

Awareness Raising

The public are the users of your products and services and their cyber security vulnerabilities can increase the threat to your business. And we all should take responsibility for reducing our personal cyber vulnerabilities.

We are helping to do this, by raising awareness of how to stay safe online.

Be Cyber Streetwise is the government’s first national cyber security awareness campaign, helping individuals and small business to understand what they should do to enhance their security online. We are continuing to promote this with a further phase of the campaign later this year to reach as many people and as many small businesses as possible. We want people to know the key things to do in order to act safely online, and to make it second nature to do these things.

Information Sharing

Protection is vital in the fight against cyber crime, but attacks will unfortunately still happen. So what can you do if you are attacked? We need you to share what you know.

The information about that attack is important. It could help to protect another company from suffering the same. Sharing that information will help law enforcement to understand the evolving threat picture, and take the appropriate action against the criminals.

The NCA has a dedicated intelligence capability, which produces threat assessment and targeted alerts and disseminates these to industry.

But the private sector holds a huge amount of information that will help to build a better threat picture. We need you to help.

We want companies to share information with each other. And we have developed a platform to do this.

The Cyber Security Information Sharing Platform (or CISP) provides a secure space for companies to share information on cyber threats, and to work together to protect their systems, which means business can take action to mitigate their vulnerability to attack.

CERT-UK, the UK’s national Computer Emergency Response Team, launched this year, and now houses CISP. This will further build on the success of CISP, and add in an international element for its information and analysis function.

And CERT-UK will be working collaboratively with industry, government and academia to enhance UK cyber resilience. It will be working closely with critical national infrastructure companies, providing guidance and advice as well as helping those companies to respond to cyber incidents.

Cyber criminals are organised, highly skilled and numerous. But look at the wealth of resources we have in front of us, in business, law enforcement and across government.

As a group we have incredible expertise, thousands of highly skilled individuals and a vast amount of information. We can get ahead of cyber criminals. We can stop them. We just need to work together to share what we have and what we know.

Conclusion

What I want you to take away from this is to know that we, the government, see tackling cyber crime as a top priority. We are committed to working closely with you to reduce the threats from cyber crime.

We will continue to build our law enforcement capabilities to pursue cyber criminals, and disrupt their activities. We will work with our international partners to tackle the global threat.

We will provide you with alerts and threat assessments. But we need your help. We need you to share what you can with each other so you can protect yourselves. And we need you to share it with us so we can understand the evolving problems and work with you on how to protect your business.

We need you to protect yourselves and your customers. Promote the guidance that is out there.

This event is a great opportunity to strengthen partnerships, and take stock of what more needs to be done. I hope you have a very productive day.

Thank you.

Below is the text of the speech made by Karen Bradley, the Minister for Organised Crime and Modern Slavery, at the IA14 Conference on 16th June 2014.

Last year Verizon reported that most successful cyber attacks take a matter of hours to breach a system. Many take minutes or even just seconds.

The frightening fact for me, was that in some cases it is over a year until the compromise is discovered and in a large proportion of specific cases the victim discovers the compromise only through a third party for instance, the police, a security firm or even a competitor tells them.

We rely on the internet. We all conduct an increasing amount of our professional and personal lives online. A survey last year found that the average family owns six devices that provide access to the internet. Smart phones, tablets, laptops and TVs.

We’re sending out personal data into cyberspace all day every day, through emails, passwords and via our bank accounts to name a few.

Combined with the fact that 72% of all adults in Great Britain bought goods or services online in 2013 , up from 53% in 2008, that presents the breadth of opportunity for cyber criminals.

This is why cyber crime, is a top threat to UK national security. It is up there with international terrorism.

This evening, I am delighted to be here today to talk to you about how the Serious and Organised Crime Strategy is prioritising work with our key partners to ensure that the UK is a safe place to do business online, and what more we can do together. For those who don’t know me, I am Karen Bradley, the Minister responsible for Serious and Organised Crime and I head the team that is responsible for our work on cyber security in the Home Office.

Threat

As you heard from the Ciaran Martin earlier, Cyber crime is a global threat, operating across international borders.

Cyber crime is beginning to transform criminality in almost every country. And worse, it enables organised criminals to operate on a scale and at a pace which has previously been unthinkable.

Elaborate online markets are used to exchange information and skills that were once niche are now being exploited in the real world.

For example, last year a drugs trafficking network hired cyber criminals to alter cargo manifests at Antwerp, in an attempt to smuggle their goods in containers to the UK. It was particularly brazen since when the initial breach was discovered and a firewall installed to prevent further attacks, hackers broke into the premises and fitted key-logging devices onto computers.

Ultimately cyber crime is crime like any other. It occurs in the virtual world rather than the physical world but still impacts us directly. So how do we stay one step ahead of the cyber criminals and protect ourselves from attack, and pursue those who commit the crime?

I want to set out for you the priorities in the new Serious and Organised Crime Strategy and how it underpins activity to protect ourselves from attack, and pursue those who commit cyber crime.

Serious and Organised Crime Strategy

In October last year we launched the National Crime Agency and published the new Serious and Organised Crime Strategy.

We have refined our approach to tackling serious and organised crime into four areas of focus: Pursue, Prevent, Protect and Prepare. This follows and reinforces the previous framework of our Counter-Terrorism Strategy, CONTEST.

PURSUE – prosecuting and disrupting organised crime groups. In other words, catching the bad guys.

PREVENT – stopping people from becoming involved in, and remaining involved in, serious and organised crime. In other words, stopping the bad guys from being bad guys.

PROTECT – reducing our vulnerability to harm from these groups by strengthening our systems and processes and providing advice to the private sector and the public. In other words, helping you and others to not become a victim of the bad guys.

And PREPARE – reducing the impact of serious and organised crime when it happens. So, helping victims and wider communities to recover when the criminals strike.

I will focus today on the PURSUE and PROTECT areas of our work.

Pursue

We are changing the way we pursue cyber criminals. Law enforcement needs to have the right skills to respond to the ever evolving ways in which crime is being committed.

But crime is still crime.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) leads the crime fighting response to the most serious incidents of cyber-dependant and cyber-enabled crime through its National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) and Commands including the Economic Crime Command. The NCA now works with regional and local policing.

Through increased investment, new dedicated cyber and fraud units are being developed in our network of Regional Organised Crime Units, or ROCUs. And the College of Policing, now has a dedicated training programme to drive up cyber skills in local police forces. We will see a significant increase in the numbers of police officers and staff who have been trained by 2015.

There are real opportunities for industry and law enforcement to work together to build skills to tackle cyber crime, and to understand the changing threats.

The ROCUs are establishing relationships with businesses in their region, and the NCA’s NCCU is sharing information on cyber attacks with the private sector. CERT UK is playing a vital role in sharing information through its CISP [Cyber-security Information Sharing Partnership] platform. But this is just a start.

In addition to increasing law enforcement capabilities, we want to make the legislative response stronger. We published the Serious Crime Bill this month. This amends existing legislation, which will mean that those who are found guilty of committing cyber attacks which cause serious damage, including to the economy, face lengthy prison sentences. The Serious Crime Bill currently before Parliament, amends the Computer Misuse Act 1990, including to create a new offence of unauthorised acts in relation to a computer that result, either directly or indirectly, in serious damage to the economy, the environment, national security or human welfare, or creates a significant risk of such damage.

The offence will carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for cyber attacks which result in loss of life, serious illness or injury or serious damage to national security and 14 years’ imprisonment for cyber attacks causing, or creating a significant risk of, severe economic or environmental damage or social disruption.

Although pursuing cyber criminals is important, we need to remember that behind statistics reporting billions of pounds lost from cyber attacks, are individual tragedies and victims. Whether it’s a single individual or a large corporation. A large company may be able to absorb a loss of a few thousand pounds from a cyber attack. But for an SME, that could be the difference between folding or surviving. And these businesses will form part of your supply chains, and are an integral part of the industries we all depend on.

Pursue International

The UK cannot tackle cyber crime alone.

We need to work with our international partners in order to pursue the criminals and prevent this crime. That is why at the heart of NCA’s approach to cutting cyber crime is international collaboration.

Through its relationship with the European Cyber Crime Centre in Europol, and working closely with other international law enforcement agencies.

You will have seen the NCA’s alert recently on the two week window to protect yourself and your business against two variants of malware, GameOverZeus and Cryptolocker.

This NCA alert is part of one of the largest industry and law enforcement collaborations attempted to date. This is a fantastic example of international collaboration to pursue cyber criminals across borders, and to protect the public and private sector from attacks.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of how we are strengthening our response to pursuing criminals who commit cyber crime. Working together with law enforcement is an important part of our work.

Protect

Although it is important to ensure we pursue criminals and their crimes, I am sure you would agree that it is better to protect ourselves and our systems from an attack than wait until our data, finances and confidence are stolen and compromised.

That is why Protect is a fundamental part of the Government response to the threat of cyber crime.

To quote from Sir Iain Lobban [Director of GCHQ] “about 80% of known attacks would be defeated by embedding basic information security practices for your people, processes and technology.”

Building on that message, this month, on 5th June we launched the Cyber Essentials Scheme, an industry-led organisational standard for cyber security, which gives a clear baseline to aim for in addressing cyber security risks to you and is designed to help combat cyber threats to SMEs in particular.

As Francis Maude has said, the Cyber Essentials scheme introduces good basic cyber security practices for businesses of any size, and in any sector. It applies to academia, charities, private and the public sector.

We want to see all organisations adopt the requirements. They are simple steps that can make a considerable and important reduction to cyber vulnerability.

Awareness Raising

Of course, no matter what you do, users of online products and services are exposed to risk and their cyber security vulnerabilities can increase the threat to your business. We are helping to reduce the vulnerabilities presented by individuals by raising awareness of how to stay safe online.

Cyber Streetwise, funded through the National Cyber Security Programme was launched earlier this year and is the government’s national cyber security awareness campaign. It is helping individuals and small business to understand what they should do to enhance their security online. We will continue to promote this with a further phase of the campaign later this year to reach as many people and as many small businesses as possible. We want people to know the key things to do in order to act safely online, and to make it second nature to do these things.

Strength in numbers

Cyber criminals are increasingly organised, highly skilled and numerous. But as I look around the room tonight I see the expertise, the commitment and the access to thousands of highly skilled individuals we need to outwit the criminal gangs and shut them down.

What I want you to take away from this is to know that we, the government, see tackling cyber crime as a top priority. We are committed in our Serious and Organised Crime Strategy to ensure that the UK is one of the most secure places in the world to do business in cyberspace. But we need your help.

We need you to share your knowledge and experience and encourage others to do the same. And we need you to share it with us so we can understand the evolving threats problems and work with you on how to protect your businesses.

We need you to protect yourselves and your customers. We need you to promote the guidance that is out there. This event is a great opportunity to build on existing partnerships, and take stock of what more needs to be done. I hope your time at this event today and tomorrow is worthwhile and productive.

Thank you.

Below is the text of the speech made by Karen Bradley, the Minister for Modern Slavery and Organised Crime, at Regent’s Park College in Oxford on 1st May 2014.

I am delighted to be here to talk about an issue connected to this college and its historic links to abolitionist Baptists – fighting slavery.

That fight, is powerfully captured in your Slavery exhibition. It documents the horrors suffered by so many men and women, but also serves as an inspiration – telling the story of the individuals who fought so passionately against this evil.

Emma Walsh – the Chief Librarian of your Angus Library and Archive – and her team have done a remarkable job in putting together such an important collection of texts, manuscripts and artifacts. It is a fascinating reminder of the historical fight against slavery – a fight which we must continue today.

Because, as incredible as it seems in the 21st century – slavery does not just exist in the past.

Modern slavery and human trafficking are appalling crimes taking place today, around the world, and here in this country.

The victims are often not visible to others. The men, women and children, British and foreign nationals, who are trafficked, exploited and forced into servitude and abuse, often go unseen.

Many are trafficked from other countries to the UK, sometimes tricked into believing they are heading towards a better life. Others are vulnerable people who originate from this country who are exploited, abused, and find themselves trapped with no way out.

Some are forced into the sex industry or into a life of crime. Others endure backbreaking labour on farms, on fishing vessels, in nail bars and restaurants or any other number of areas where forced labour is present – even working as slaves in people’s homes.

Victims may endure inhumane treatment and appalling physical and sexual abuse.

It is a crime taking place in British towns and cities – exploitation like this can happen on our doorstep, as residents in Oxford are too aware.

In 2013, over 1700 individuals were referred to the UK’s National Referral Mechanism, which assesses trafficking cases and gives potential victims access to support services.

This represents a 47% increase on referrals since 2012, and numbers keep rising.

Greater awareness may account for some of this increase – but the true extent of this appalling crime is still emerging, and we also know that many more individuals remain hidden and enslaved.

Stamping out this abhorrent crime is a difficult and complex challenge.

But although the complexity and hidden nature of this crime means it is not an issue that can be solved overnight, it must never be an excuse to think nothing can be done.

Both the Home Secretary and I – as the Minister for Modern Slavery and Organised Crime – are personally committed to tackling this appalling crime.

Modern slavery vs historic slavery

Today, thanks to the dedication and self-sacrifice of the abolitionists, slavery is illegal across the world.

But while today the chains of modern slavery may not be visible, the suffering is very real.

So our focus must be on the relentless pursuit of the individuals and criminal gangs behind the majority of the modern slave trade.

We must target those criminals and their networks, prosecute and convict offenders, and ensure victims are released and receive the help they need so they can recover from their traumatic ordeal.

The Bill

This government is taking action on a number of fronts.

Last December, the Home Secretary published a draft Modern Slavery Bill.

The Bill – the first of its kind in Europe – would strengthen the punishment of offenders and the protection of victims. It would consolidate into a single act the offences used to prosecute slave drivers and traffickers, and would increase the maximum sentence available to life imprisonment for the worst offenders. It would also introduce Slavery and Trafficking Prevention Orders and Trafficking Risk Orders to restrict the activity of those who pose a risk and those convicted of slavery and trafficking offences so they cannot cause further harm.

It would also create an important new role – an Anti-Slavery Commissioner – who would hold law enforcement and other organisations to account.

The new strengthened law will not only act as a significant deterrent, but will help ensure more arrests, more prosecutions, and most importantly, more victims are released from slavery and more prevented from ever entering it in the first place.

Police / law enforcement

But legislation is only part of the picture.

Stepping up our law enforcement response must be fundamental to our efforts. That is why we have made tackling modern slavery and human trafficking a priority for the National Crime Agency.

The National Crime Agency – which was launched last October – has a strong mandate for combating serious and organised crime at all levels – nationally and internationally. It will use its enhanced intelligence capabilities to deter, disrupt and bring to justice those responsible for these despicable crimes.

Police, border officials and others on the frontline also have a critical role to play. Training is already mandatory for British Border Force officials and the UK’s College of Policing is developing training and guidance for police officers.

And at a number of ports on our borders, we have deployed specialist anti-slavery teams to help identify potential victims so that they can be helped and safeguarded.

Throughout our work, our main focus must be on protecting and supporting victims.

As part of this work, the UK spends around £4 million annually on specialist support for victims.

We are rightly proud of the work we have done so far protecting victims, but we are not complacent.

That is why we have launched a review of how victims are identified and supported through the UK’s National Referral Mechanism.

We also need to make sure that, when these individuals are ready to leave this specialist support, they can access the right help to recover and move on with their lives, whether they remain in the UK or return home.

Child Advocates

We also recognise that child victims need a tailored approach.

In January, the Home Secretary announced our intention to conduct trials of specialist independent advocates for victims of child trafficking. These advocates will support and guide the child through the immigration, criminal justice and care systems. They will ensure the child’s voice is heard and that they receive the support and protection they need and deserve.

What the public and business can do

But tackling modern slavery and human trafficking is not something the Government can address alone – society has a role to play on wider activity.

We need to work with communities, businesses, professionals and the voluntary sector to have a meaningful impact.

We need to ensure that professionals and the public are aware of the signs of trafficking and what to do if they suspect it.

The number of cases referred to the National Referral Mechanism is increasing, which is a promising sign in terms of people spotting the signs of trafficking, but there is still more to do.

That is why I am committed to improving training and raising awareness across the different sectors, of modern slavery and human trafficking.

We will also be asking the private sector to play its part. Companies must be confident that they do not conduct business with suppliers involved in trafficking.

The Home Office will work with businesses and the Gangmasters Licensing Authority to prevent the exploitation of workers.

And we will continue work with airline staff to raise awareness of the signs of a possible victim entering or leaving the UK.

I want the voluntary sector to play a full part too.

It is absolutely vital that we are all joined-up, that we make better use of expertise of NGOs, and that we empower them to better share intelligence with the police, for the sake of current victims, for the sake of future victims and for the sake of justice.

International

Ultimately it is by people and organisations coming together, not just in this country, but across the world, to tackle modern slavery that we will really make a difference.

So I am delighted religious leaders are also joining the call to action. His Holiness Pope Francis is demonstrating the real role churches and other faith groups have to play by highlighting the ever increasing global scale of the issue.

Earlier this month, the Home Secretary attended an international conference on slavery hosted by the Vatican. The two-day event focused on law enforcement and brought together police forces from over 20 countries.

The ‘Santa Marta Group’, an international group of senior law enforcement chiefs led by Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, was formally established at the conference. The group will meet again in London in November, and has pledged to work together to “eradicate the scourge of this serious criminal activity, which abuses vulnerable people.”

We will also work with foreign governments to strengthen their knowledge and understanding of modern slavery – and to try and stop potential victims in high risk countries from falling prey to traffickers in the first place.

And, we will be lobbying for changes in laws and practices of these countries and learn from them.

There is also much we can learn internationally, both on how to support our source countries better, and how to learn from destination countries’ responses.

That is why the Home Secretary appointed a Special Envoy on Modern Slavery, who has been exploring how other countries respond to this issue, in order to support the development of our work.

Conclusion

Two centuries ago, the abolitionists faced an immense challenge.

Their achievement in opening the eyes of many to the horrors of slavery and ensuring it was outlawed, is truly inspirational.

Today our task is very different.

But we are united by a common desire to stop the suffering of those who endure the misery of slavery.

It is a fight in which many have a role to play. And it is a fight which everyone in this room can help with – we can all take responsibility by raising awareness and demanding transparency about where our goods and services come from.

The more we can raise awareness of the fact this evil crime still exists in the 21st century, the more chance we have of consigning it to the history books where it belongs.

We are at the start of a journey. The road is long, but each step we take can make a difference. The challenge before us is not easy, but I am determined to work together to stamp out this evil and disgusting crime.

Below is the text of the speech made by Karen Bradley, the Minister for Modern Slavery and Organised Crime, on e-Crime on 12th March 2014.

In 2011, CISCO estimated that the Internet connected over 10.3 billion processes, sources of data and ‘things’.

By 2020, CISCO stated that this has the potential to reach 50 billion.

As a maths graduate, I find that a staggering fact.

But today I’m banking on the fact that personal connections continue to make the biggest difference in our world.

My name is Karen Bradley, and I am the new minister with responsibility for Modern Slavery and Organised Crime in the Home Office.

I’m delighted to meet you all today.

I have only been in office for a few weeks, however in that short time I have been taken by the wide range of activity that is taking place with Industry partners to tackle the threat of cyber and cyber-dependant crime, such as fraud.

You heard yesterday from the head of the National Cyber Crime Unit, Andy Archibald, on how the National Crime Agency aims to develop this cooperation.

Today, I want to give you an overview of what we, in government, are doing to ensure that the UK derives as much value as possible from cyberspace, whilst tackling the threats within that environment.

I would like to set out the changes that are taking place to help us tackle these threats.

I would also like to talk to you about the partnership that I want to see develop between government, industry and our other partners, to bear down on cyber criminals and increase the cyber security of the UK.

The Cyber Threat

Cyber security, including cyber crime, remains a ‘tier one’ threat to national security.

It is costing the UK economy billions of pounds a year.

In 2013, Financial Fraud Action UK noted that cyber-enabled card-not-present fraud cost banks an estimated £140 million in 2012.

In the same year, cyber-enabled banking fraud was estimated at just under £40million .

We also know that our reliance on the internet is expanding at pace.

The Office of National Statistics reported that in 2012, approximately 85% of the UK population used the internet.

Of these, 33 million people accessed the internet every day, more than double the level six years before.

And the methods for access are also rapidly changing, with those using a mobile device to go online increasing by over 50% in two years from 2010 to 2012 [24% to 51%].

These evolutions create new challenges for investigation, as well opportunities for criminality.

The sheer scale and reach of the internet allows criminals to stretch their influence further than ever before – and to cover their tracks.

Today, one of the key threats we are facing is the ability of traditional crime groups to use the ‘as a service’ nature of the criminal marketplace to buy the skills needed to commit crimes that they had not been able to achieve.

We are concerned about the large scale harvesting of data to commit fraud against individuals and organisations.

And, we are concerned about the targeted compromise of UK networked systems to modify or steal data: to gain competitive advantage; gain control of infrastructure or, inflict reputational damage.

Law enforcement must develop and embed a new set of research, investigation and evidential skills, in order to respond.

National Cyber Security Programme

So, what is the government doing on cyber security, and where does industry fit in?

The National Cyber Security Strategy was launched in 2011.

Through the Programme, which underpins this strategy, we have dedicated £860 million over five years to deliver a step-change in the UK’s cyber capabilities.

The National Cyber Security Programme, about to move into its fourth year, has already delivered significant changes to the landscape on cyber.

Notably, the creation of the National Cyber Crime Unit within the National Crime Agency; the development of CERT UK to be launched in the coming weeks, the UK’s first single computer emergency response team for national cyber incident management; and, the launch of the Cyber Information Sharing Partnership, the first secure government-industry forum for information sharing on key cyber threats.

The national roll-out last year of Action Fraud also provided for the first time, a single reporting mechanism for cyber and fraud.

This has allowed us to improve significantly the number of reports of this type of crime, which we always believed were under-reported.

Between September 2012 and September 2013, the number of reports rose by over 30% from 150,000 to over 200,000.

It also makes links between different frauds, where people and businesses across the country are targeted by the same scams.

These changes, alongside the analytical capability of the NCA’s Intelligence Hub, greatly increase our understanding of the threats that we face.

Serious and Organised Crime Strategy

On 7 October last year we also launched the new Serious and Organised Crime Strategy.

Taking the framework of our Counter-Terrorism Strategy, Contest, our approach has 4 areas of focus: pursue, prevent, protect and prepare.

Pursue – prosecuting and disrupting serious and organised crime.

Prevent – stopping people from becoming involved in, and remaining involved in, serious and organised crime.

Protect – reducing our vulnerability by strengthening our systems and processes and providing advice to the private sector and the public.

Prepare – reducing the impact of serious and organised crime, ensuring major incidents are brought to effective resolution and supporting victims and witnesses.

I will focus today on the pursue and protect areas of our work.

Pursue

With the launch of the National Crime Agency, and by increasing law enforcement capability at regional and local force level, we are changing the way that we pursue cyber criminals.

Through its new National Cyber Crime Unit and the Economic Crime Command, the National Crime Agency unifies the national crime-fighting response to the most serious, organised and complex cyber and cyber-enabled crime.

The NCA is also forging strong, direct relationships with industry. It will support both proactive investigations and a fast-time response to the most serious incidents.

The NCA will reach through to regional and local policing, in particular through the network of Regional Organised Crime Units – set up to work across local police force boundaries.

Following increased investment this year, dedicated cyber and fraud units are now being developed in each of these regional teams.

Through the College of Policing, we are also working to drive up cyber skills at the local level with a dedicated training programme. We expect 5,000 officers and staff to be trained by 2015.

This is part of a wider programme of work to support the increased capability and capacity of forces to investigate the online elements of crime.

As Andy mentioned yesterday, there are real opportunities for cooperation between law enforcement and Industry on skills.

We all need to keep pace with the technical changes that evolve and ensure all our organisations have the right skills to respond.

I think there is much that we can do together in this respect.

International

But the UK clearly can’t tackle this global threat alone.

Cyber criminals pay scant attention to international borders and can threaten the UK from locations across the globe.

As Andy noted yesterday, international collaboration is therefore at the centre of the NCA’s approach to cutting cyber crime, such as through its relationship with the European Cyber Crime Centre in Europol. We are also working closely with partner Governments worldwide.

The UK government also continues to play a leading role in shaping emerging EU thinking on cyber, including on the proposed EU Directive on Network Information Security.

I know you discussed this yesterday.

We in government, strongly support the commission’s aim to raise the level of network and information security across the EU.

But, we need to make sure that this complements the good progress we have made on this issue in the UK, and that it does not discourage business from seeking help or introduce unnecessary burdens.

Protect

As you have already been considering at this congress, protection is another fundamental part of our response.

Corporate governance is key to this.

It is endlessly frustrating to hear IT security professionals complain that they are treated as being outside the core business of their organisation.

They should be at the heart of it, with the risk of cyber threat being properly managed at board-level.

I know that this will continue to form part of the discussions that you will have at the congress today.

To encourage this, the government has now launched guidance to organisations to adopt simple measures to enhance cyber security, including for SMEs and large businesses.

The 10 Steps to Cyber Security is available on the GOV.UK website.

We have also recently launched specific cyber security guidance which companies can use during financial transactions such as mergers and acquisitions.

I strongly encourage you all to read this guidance, use it and implement it in your businesses.

Following these simple steps will protect firms against the majority of cyber threats.

To complement this, we have been working with industry to develop a basic cyber hygiene standard, due for release shortly.

This will enable businesses to demonstrate that they have put a basic level of cyber security in place.

This supports work being undertaken to certify commercially-available cyber security products for use in public and private sectors.

We also want to support the growth of the UK cyber security industry, with an emphasis on increasing exports.

Government has now set a target for future export growth of £2 billion worth of annual sales by 2016.

With these initiatives, we want to make it easier for companies to negotiate the crowded market and to promote our quality exports, which I know there is a great appetite for.

Awareness raising and protecting customers

But Protect is not just about hardening our physical protective security.

We also need to increase the public’s awareness of how to stay safe online.

As the end user of many of your products and services, their cyber security vulnerabilities can all too easily become your cyber security vulnerabilities.

You’ll hopefully now all be aware of the government’s first national cyber security awareness campaign, Be Cyber Streetwise.

The campaign was launched in January to help individuals and small businesses to understand the steps that they should take to enhance their security online.

I see this as a key aspect of our work into the next year and encourage you to consider how you can also support it, if you are not already involved.

Intelligence Sharing

The final aspect of Protect that I would like to mention is intelligence-sharing.

We must do this more effectively, in order to be able to keep pace with the swiftly evolving threat, to protect ourselves and target our disruptive activity.

The National Crime Agency has new dedicated capability to increase intelligence sharing to and from the private sector.

It produces threat assessments and targeted alerts on emerging threats so risks and vulnerabilities can be reduced.

But, we know that the vast majority of intelligence on the threats that we face lies within the private sector.

I hope that companies will agree to share the information that they hold on threats, and support each other to protect their systems.

The Cyber Information Sharing Partnership (or CISP), provides an important platform for this activity, providing a secure space to share threat information and mitigation advice in real-time.

Following an initial focus on companies that support our Critical National Infrastructure, membership of CISP has now been extended, including to legal firms, academia and SMEs, with over 300 companies having joined.

I strongly encourage you to consider how it might support your organisations also.

CERT-UK, which will house CISP, will also have a crucial role to play following its launch later this year.

Once in place, CERT-UK will work closely with the companies that own and manage the Critical National Infrastructure to help them respond to cyber incidents.

It will also help to promote a greater understanding of the threats faced by wider industry, academia and the public sector.

Summary

So what is the message that I want you to go away with today?

I want you to know that we are committed to working closely with you to reduce the threats from cyber crime.

We will bring all our law enforcement capabilities to bear to pursue cyber criminals relentlessly.

And we will provide as much information and support as we can in helping you to protect your systems and customers.

In return, we need you to share information, within the proper legal boundaries, on what you are seeing – both with each other and with us.

You’re on the frontline. You see it every day and we need you to provide your skills and support in the fight to pursue cyber criminals.

And we need you to prioritise the protection of your systems and customers.

I was at the Security and Policing Exhibition in Farnborough yesterday and I saw many good examples of what we have to offer on cyber crime.

I know what we have in this country and that we are flourishing in cyber security. We want to help you get that to customers.

This event is an excellent opportunity to take stock of how this partnership can work.

Thank you.

Below is the text of the speech made by Karen Bradley on 25th February 2014.

I am delighted to open this Asset Recovery Forum here today.

It is a fantastic opportunity for Spain and the UK to work together to get better at confiscating ill-gotten gains from criminals.

I am very pleased to see so many representatives from law enforcement agencies, prosecution agencies and the judiciary. I know you are keen to find new ways and more effective ways of working together.

Serious and Organised Crime – The Threat

Whilst recorded crime in the UK is down by more than 10%, the threat from serious and organised crime remains very real. It costs the UK more than £24 billion every year and is now recognised as a national security risk.

It creates misery for victims and has a corrosive impact on our communities. The sight of criminals enjoying lavish lifestyles funded by the proceeds of crime encourages others to get involved in criminality.

Financial gain is often the motive for serious and organised crime. In many cases we have found criminals fight harder to protect their assets from confiscation than they do to avoid the prison sentence imposed for the crime. And the proceeds of crime are used to fund further criminality.

For too long many serious and organised criminals have been able to stay one step ahead, out of the reach of law enforcement agencies and enjoying the proceeds of their criminality, whether at home or abroad.

Our Response – the Serious and Organised Crime Strategy

The UK Government launched the Serious and Organised Crime Strategy in October 2013, detailing how the Government will reduce substantially the level of serious and organised crime. We will do so by tackling both the threats and the vulnerabilities that enable serious and organised crime.

There are four aspects to the Strategy: Pursue, Prevent, Protect and Prepare.

The first part – Pursue- is about relentlessly disrupting serious and organised criminals. Central to that is our ambition to attack criminal finances by making it harder to move, hide and use the proceeds of crime, which impacts serious and organised crime. We are also building new capabilities and introducing new legislation.

The second element of our strategy is about Prevention, stopping people from getting drawn into serious and organised crime to begin with. Tackling criminal finances makes crime less lucrative and less attractive to those at risk of offending.

Thirdly, we will find new ways to make it harder for criminals to launder the proceeds of their crimes as part of our approach to Protecting government and the private sector from serious and organised criminals.

Finally, using the recovered proceeds of crime to help local communities contributes to our Prepare focus on contingency planning and supporting victims, witnesses and communities.

The National Crime Agency

The National Crime Agency, a new law enforcement organisation to coordinate work against serious and organised crime in the UK and overseas, was launched at the same time as the Strategy. The NCA also brings together intelligence on all types of serious and organised crime, and prioritises crime groups for law enforcement action according to the threat they present.

Partnerships and International Asset Recovery

Criminals are known to move their assets overseas, out of the reach of law enforcement agencies, and our strategy commits us to doing more on international asset recovery.

Partnerships are at the heart of our new strategy and we want to establish strong, effective relationships with our international partners to drive up the amount of assets we confiscate. Our relationship with Spain on this agenda is an immediate priority.

Working together to enforce overseas confiscation orders is good for everyone:

For victims and communities, because justice is done when the criminal is deprived of their proceeds;

For the requesting country, because it prevents criminals escaping the reach of its courts; and

For the enforcing country, which keeps all or some of the assets confiscated, and because no country wants to be a safe haven for criminals and the proceeds of their crimes.

Working Together

I would like to thank the Spanish authorities for their willingness to assist us in the complex task of enforcing UK confiscation orders.

I want to make very clear that, in return, we will make every effort to assist them in returning to Spain criminal assets found in the UK. Let us know which cases you want us to pursue, and we will work with you to ensure that Spanish criminals cannot hide their ill-gotten gains in the UK.

A powerful indication of our commitment to this agenda is the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to post an asset recovery specialist here to Madrid to facilitate this enforcement work. I greatly welcome that decision and I hope this can serve as a model that can be replicated elsewhere.

Spain and the UK have already achieved fantastic results working together. A great example of this is the excellent Operation Captura campaign run by Crimestoppers. Since its launch in 2006, information provided to Crimestoppers by the public has helped capture 58 UK criminals hiding in Spain out of the 78 subjects circulated.

The most recent was David Mather, a convicted heroin smuggler arrested in La Linea by the Spanish authorities, following information given to Crimestoppers by the public, with support and cooperation from the National Crime Agency. A fantastic example of the close cooperation between UK and Spanish Authorities for which I am very grateful.

It goes to show that strong bilateral relationships achieve results.

I want us to build on the success of Operation Captura by ensuring that we confiscate the assets of those that we bring to justice.

What should our enhanced cooperation look like?

I would like us to agree some practical steps to help each other.

Firstly, starting today, to get to know each other better, and to understand each other’s legal systems. That is the way for us to understand what the procedural blockages are that prevent us from working together more effectively.

Secondly, to agree with each other a list of priority confiscation cases that we will both pursue. We want to ensure that both of our countries are a hostile environment for serious and organised criminals. We do that through joined-up law enforcement action.

Asset Sharing

Thirdly, to ensure we have a shared commitment to seeing the United Kingdom implement European Union measures on the mutual recognition of freezing and confiscation orders. We intend to implement those measures in the UK on 1 December 2014.

In the meantime, I hope we can explore opportunities to agree an interim Memorandum of Understanding to allow us to share confiscated assets, using the formula established in the EU measures, to ensure that crime does not pay.

Conclusion

So, I call on everybody here today to make the most of this unique opportunity to work together to share innovative ideas and success stories; gain a better understanding of each other’s constraints; and, most importantly, to reach solutions together. It is through the combined efforts of you, the practitioners, that we will tackle serious and organised criminals and ensure that neither Spain nor the UK is a haven for ill-gotten gains.

Thank you.