Tag: Sarah Champion

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to increase the number of convictions for carrying out female genital mutilation.

Karen Bradley

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse.

The Serious Crime Act 2015 introduced a number of measures to break down potential barriers to prosecution, including:

• a new mandatory reporting duty which requires specified professionals to report known cases of FGM in under 18s to the police; • extending extra-territorial jurisdiction over offences of FGM committed abroad; • providing lifelong anonymity for victims of FGM; • introducing FGM Protection Orders which can be used to protect girls at risk; and • creating a new offence of failing to protect a girl from the risk of FGM.

To help ensure the police have the guidance they need to tackle FGM effectively, in March 2015 the College of Policing published Authorised Professional Practice on FGM and this was updated in September 2015. In addition, lead FGM prosecutors have been appointed for each Crown Prosecution Service area and have agreed joint FGM investigation and prosecution protocols with their local police forces.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what definition her Department uses for BAME.

Mike Penning

The Government has traditionally used a mix of terms to describe the groups we are working with on race equality: Black and Minority Ethnic (BME); Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME), also ethnic minority and minority ethnic.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how the Government’s funding for community projects to tackle female genital mutilation has been spent.

Karen Bradley

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse. We will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls.

In 2014/15, the Government provided over £380,000 to community organisations through the Home Office’s FGM Community Engagement Initiative and the Department for Communities and Local Government’s FGM and forced marriage prevention projects.

The 29 projects all included prevention work with a focus on building the confidence of women and communities to speak out against these practices and raising awareness of the serious consequences they can have.

Evaluations show that over 25,000 people were reached and feedback from participants demonstrates increased awareness of the context, manifestation and harm caused by FGM and forced marriage.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will bring forward policies to tackle violence against women and girls in the BAME communities.

Karen Bradley

The Government published a new Violence Against Women and Girls strategy on 8 March committing £80 million between 2016 and 2020 to protect women and girls from violence and abuse. The increased funding will help to deliver our goal to work with local commissioners to ensure a secure future for rape support centres, refuges and the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Forced Marriage Units, whilst driving a major change across all services which promote early intervention and prevention.

The strategy sets out how we will support local areas in implementing tailored services for victims who experience different forms of discrimination or additional barriers to accessing support. This includes the launch of a Service Transformation Fund from 2017 which will help to meet the needs of women and girls experiencing multiple disadvantage including victims from black and minority ethnic communities.

We continue to challenge the cultural attitudes that may underpin practices of FGM and forced marriage. We have criminalised forced marriage, set up a specialist FGM Unit, created a mandatory duty for frontline professionals to report FGM to the police, and will publish multi-agency FGM guidance for front-line professionals which we will put on a statutory footing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much of the funding for tackling female genital mutilation has been allocated to prevention work.

Karen Bradley

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse. We will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls.

In 2014/15, the Government provided over £380,000 to community organisations through the Home Office’s FGM Community Engagement Initiative and the Department for Communities and Local Government’s FGM and forced marriage prevention projects.

The 29 projects all included prevention work with a focus on building the confidence of women and communities to speak out against these practices and raising awareness of the serious consequences they can have.

Evaluations show that over 25,000 people were reached and feedback from participants demonstrates increased awareness of the context, manifestation and harm caused by FGM and forced marriage.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-04-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps police and social services take when a girl is identified as being at risk of female genital mutilation.

Karen Bradley

On 1 April the Government published updated multi-agency guidance on female genital mutilation (FGM), which we have placed on a statutory footing for the first time. The guidance applies to all frontline professionals in England and Wales, and includes steps police and social services should take when a girl is identified as being at risk of FGM. The guidance will help increase awareness of FGM; improve compliance with good practice in order to afford victims of this terrible abuse the greatest possible protection. It will also help to support effective training of frontline professionals and a more effective multi-agency response. The guidance is available on GOV.uk

The Government has introduced FGM Protection Orders through the Serious Crime Act 2015 which can be used to protect a potential victim or other family member who may be at risk of FGM. Data released on 31 March 2016 shows that 32 FGMPOs were issued between their introduction in July 2015 and December 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) child and (b) adult EU nationals were (i) identified as potential victims of trafficking and (ii) returned to their country of origin in each of the last 5 years; and how many of those returned to their country of origin were so identified as potential victims of trafficking.

Karen Bradley

The total number of EU nationals identified as potential victims of trafficking through the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) in the last five years is 2,776. The figures for adult and children are shown in the table attached.

Given the freedom of movement for EU nationals the Home Office would have no way of knowing how many had returned to their home country as this would not be on the Home Office immigration database.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that police forces and local authorities are making use of female genital mutilation protection orders.

Karen Bradley

Female Genital Mutilation Protection Orders (FGMPOs) were fast-tracked for implementation in July 2015, ahead of the school holidays, and are already being used protect girls at risk of FGM.

The Ministry of Justice published guidance on FGM Protection Orders for local authorities in July 2015, and in September 2015, the College of Policing updated its Authorised Professional Practice on FGM to include guidance on FGMPOs.

In addition, the Government will shortly be publishing updated FGM multi-agency guidance, which we are placing on a statutory footing for the first time. This will help increase awareness of FGM and improve compliance with good practice and will include guidance for all professionals on FGMPOs.

We will also continue to work with the police and other agencies to take forward the recommendations in Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s report into ‘honour-based’ violence to ensure the police response to victims, including through use of FGMPOs, is as strong as possible.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that when a girl is identified as being at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM), frontline professionals are taking the steps outlined in the multi-agency statutory guidance on FGM.

Karen Bradley

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse. We will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls.

The Government is clear that tackling FGM needs a coordinated response from a range of professionals, including teachers, health professionals, social workers and police which is why on 1 April we published updated multi-agency guidance on FGM which we have put on a statutory footing to support compliance. To support professionals to take the steps outlined in the guidance, including receiving adequate training, we have made available free FGM e-learning for all professionals. To date, the course has been completed by over 30,000 people. Our FGM Unit is providing outreach support to local areas and working to raise awareness of resources available to professionals, including training, best practice examples and information on legislation and policy.

In addition, the Department of Health’s £3 million FGM Prevention Programme is focused on improving the response of NHS to FGM, and through its Innovation programme, the Department for Education is funding the Local Government Association and Barnardo’s to develop a centre of excellence and outreach to support local authorities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Champion on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied children seeking asylum have been referred by her Department to the Refugee Council Children’s Section for advice in the last two years.

James Brokenshire

All unaccompanied asylum seeking children are referred to the Refugee Council’s panel of advisers.

Age-assessments of unaccompanied asylum seeking children are conducted by local authorities. The guidance to local authority practitioners states that most assessments should be completed within 28 days, however the timescale for assessment should be responsive to the needs of the child or young person. The Home Office does not collect statistics on how many and what proportion are carried out within this timescale.

Statistics on the number of age disputes raised and resolved for asylum applicants for each quarter from January 2010 to September 2015 are available on GOV.UK at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/476915/asylum3-q3-2015-tabs.ods

The Home Office does not keep a record of the number of appeals against age assessments conducted by local authorities.

Home Office policy is not to return unaccompanied asylum seeking children whose claim has been refused unless there are safe and adequate reception arrangements in place. Statistics on the number of children removed from the UK in 2014 are available on Gov.UK at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/476919/removals1-q3-2015-tabs.ods

However, these statistics include all nationalities and non-asylum cases.