The Ministry of Justice provides funding to specialist sexual violence services to support victims to cope and, where possible, recover from the impact of crime. On 18 September, we announced an additional £5m to support victims of sexual violence, which commits £32m over three years.

In addition, local Commissioners (be they Police and Crime Commissioners, Local Authorities or health commissioners) will also seek to provide specialist support to victims in their area. To support this, in December 2016 we published the National Statement of Expectations, which sets out a blueprint for local service provision, including how Commissioners can best respond to the needs of minority or marginalised groups.

In 2016/17 MHCLG also provided £300k to Imkaan to build capacity and strengthen specialist BAME organisations, including through training, quality standard accreditation and access to the tools they need to measure their impact.

On 18^th September we appointed Nicole Jacobs as the first Designate Domestic Abuse Commissioner, who will raise awareness of domestic abuse, stand up for victims, and drive up consistency in the response to domestic abuse. The Commissioner is required to appoint a specific thematic lead within her office to consider and address the needs of BAME victims.

We are also exploring ways to improve support for BAME victims as part of our work to tackle racial disparity in the Criminal Justice System.

The exploitation, grooming, and trafficking of children and young people is abhorrent. The CPS takes great care to ensure the right people are prosecuted for the right offences in county lines cases, by training prosecutors to have an increased awareness of gang-associated exploitation and to scrutinise the evidence. This builds on clear CPS guidance which recognises the principle of non-prosecution of victims of trafficking or slavery.

Early identification by investigators is essential, in order to avoid the criminalisation of victims. On 1 October 2019, the Home Secretary announced a surge of activity to crack down on county lines drugs gangs. The package of measures, underpinned by £20 million of Home Office investment, will intensify law enforcement efforts to disrupt the county lines model, including the provision of specialist support to victims and families in order to help children and young people exit their involvement in county lines.

The Law Officers superintend the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The CPS is the principal prosecuting authority in England and Wales with responsibility for charging decisions in criminal cases.

The CPS has published clear legal guidance which recognises the principle of non-prosecution of victims of trafficking or slavery. It has delivered training on the steps to be taken, where there is a reason to believe that a suspect or defendant in a criminal case might be a victim. In those circumstances, the prosecutor will consider what further evidence or information might be required and will review whether the prosecution should proceed or not. The guidance sets out that where there is sufficient evidence that the accused is a victim and the conditions provided for in section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 are met, the case should not be charged or proceeded with.

Criminal exploitation in the form of county lines has a devastating impact on those affected and we must work together to identify and safeguard the victims and potential victims of this form of exploitation as early as possible.

Our Serious Violence Strategy sets out our approach to tackling county lines and its related exploitation and through this we have delivered a range of action to enhance our approach to tackling this issue.

This includes providing £3.6m for a new National County Lines Co-ordination Centre. Launched in September 2018 the NCLCC has already led three separate weeks of law enforcement ‘intensification’ leading to 1600 arrests and safeguarding of over 2100 individuals. Through the Early Intervention Youth Fund we are also funding 10 projects with a specific county lines focus to support victims and potential victims of this exploitation. We have also worked to increase awareness of county lines exploitation amongst those best placed to spot it and have published guidance for frontline professionals on how to identify potential victims of county lines and appropriate referral routes.

We welcome the report published by the Children’s Society and will consider its findings carefully as we continue to develop and strengthen our response to county lines.

The Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme will include support for local safeguarding partners - the police, health and the local authority - to develop and deliver a strategic response to extra-familial harms and child exploitation. The police force(s) in any safeguarding partnership will be responsible for ensuring that any intelligence gathered during safeguarding activity in that area is used to disrupt organised crime gangs involved in grooming.

The Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme will not be focussing directly on individual children and young people - it has been contracted to provide support for partners in local areas with safeguarding responsibilities to develop their capability to provide a better safeguarding response for children in their area. There are many organisations already providing valuable support for direct practice with children and young people and the support programme will signpost local partners to them.

The Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme will include support for local safeguarding partners - the police, health and the local authority - to develop and deliver a strategic response to extra-familial harms and child exploitation. The police force(s) in any safeguarding partnership will be responsible for ensuring that any intelligence gathered during safeguarding activity in that area is used to disrupt organised crime gangs involved in grooming.

The Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme will not be focussing directly on individual children and young people - it has been contracted to provide support for partners in local areas with safeguarding responsibilities to develop their capability to provide a better safeguarding response for children in their area. There are many organisations already providing valuable support for direct practice with children and young people and the support programme will signpost local partners to them.

Further to the answer provided by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability on 15 July 2019, ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ was published in July 2018. The working together to safeguard children guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2.

In September 2018, the Home Office published updated guidance 'Criminal Exploitation of children and vulnerable adults: County Lines guidance'. This guidance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-exploitation-of-children-and-vulnerable-adults-county-lines.

Both pieces of guidance were published on the GOV.UK website and to support this, were promoted to local authorities through a variety of channels including:

• English local authority communications team;
• Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s (MHCLG) e-bulletin to local authority CEOs;
• The Society of Local Authorities’ Chief Executives bulletin;
• The Association of Directors of Children’s Services bulletin;
• The Association of Directors of Adults Social Services;
• The National Association of Head Teachers website;
• The Association of School and College Leaders website; and
• NHS England.

The updated county lines guidance was also shared with police forces and Police and Crime Commissioners to share with their local stakeholders. ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children' was also shared with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, and other key organisations including:

• The Local Government Association;
• The Association of Independent Local Safeguarding Children Board Chairs;
• The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health,
• The Royal College of Nursing;
• Barnardo’s;
• The National Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Children; and
• Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary of Fire and Rescue Services.

Funding for children’s services sits with local authorities as part of their main un-ringfenced budgets, so they have the flexibility to decide how to spend it to best meet local needs, including on any training arrangements for professionals working to safeguard children and young people. This funding is allocated through MHCLG's annual Local Government Funding Settlement.

Further to the answer provided by my hon. Friend, the Member for Louth and Horncastle on 15 July 2019, the statutory guidance on inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, titled ‘Working together to safeguard children 2018’, is very clear that anyone who has concerns about a child’s welfare should make a referral to local authority children’s social care. This should be done immediately, if there is a concern that the child is suffering significant harm, or is likely to do so. This guidance can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2.

That same guidance also sets out that assessments, including early help assessments, should look at the nature and level of risk faced by a child, and whether the risk is from within or external to the family. In response, local areas should have a comprehensive range of effective, evidence-based services in place to address assessed needs early.

A number of our best performing local authorities, known as Partners in Practice, are testing different approaches to how best to assess and support children who are at risk of abuse from extra familial threats. This includes funding up to £2 million for the London Borough of Hackney to test a contextual safeguarding approach through the Innovation Programme. The project is being externally evaluated and we expect the final report in September 2020.

The department is also funding the ‘Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme’ to provide evidence-based expertise, advice and practical support to safeguarding partners in local areas to develop an effective multi agency response to extra-familial harms, such as child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation, and gang and drug involvement that exploit vulnerable children.

Further to the answer provided by my hon. Friend, the Member for Louth and Horncastle on 15 July 2019, the statutory guidance on inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, titled ‘Working together to safeguard children 2018’, is very clear that anyone who has concerns about a child’s welfare should make a referral to local authority children’s social care. This should be done immediately, if there is a concern that the child is suffering significant harm, or is likely to do so. This guidance can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2.

That same guidance also sets out that assessments, including early help assessments, should look at the nature and level of risk faced by a child, and whether the risk is from within or external to the family. In response, local areas should have a comprehensive range of effective, evidence-based services in place to address assessed needs early.

A number of our best performing local authorities, known as Partners in Practice, are testing different approaches to how best to assess and support children who are at risk of abuse from extra familial threats. This includes funding up to £2 million for the London Borough of Hackney to test a contextual safeguarding approach through the Innovation Programme. The project is being externally evaluated and we expect the final report in September 2020.

The department is also funding the ‘Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme’ to provide evidence-based expertise, advice and practical support to safeguarding partners in local areas to develop an effective multi agency response to extra-familial harms, such as child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation, and gang and drug involvement that exploit vulnerable children.

Further to the answer provided by my hon. Friend, the Member for Louth and Horncastle on 15 July 2019, the statutory guidance on inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, titled ‘Working together to safeguard children 2018’, is very clear that anyone who has concerns about a child’s welfare should make a referral to local authority children’s social care. This should be done immediately, if there is a concern that the child is suffering significant harm, or is likely to do so. This guidance can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2.

That same guidance also sets out that assessments, including early help assessments, should look at the nature and level of risk faced by a child, and whether the risk is from within or external to the family. In response, local areas should have a comprehensive range of effective, evidence-based services in place to address assessed needs early.

A number of our best performing local authorities, known as Partners in Practice, are testing different approaches to how best to assess and support children who are at risk of abuse from extra familial threats. This includes funding up to £2 million for the London Borough of Hackney to test a contextual safeguarding approach through the Innovation Programme. The project is being externally evaluated and we expect the final report in September 2020.

The department is also funding the ‘Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme’ to provide evidence-based expertise, advice and practical support to safeguarding partners in local areas to develop an effective multi agency response to extra-familial harms, such as child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation, and gang and drug involvement that exploit vulnerable children.

Further to the answer provided by the former Home Secretary (Sajid Javid), my right hon. Friend, the Member for Bromsgrove, on 15 July, the statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children (2018)’ sets out how the 3 safeguarding partners – the police, Clinical Commissioning Groups and the local authority - should have a clear understanding of the collective needs of children locally when commissioning effective services. These collective needs include the risks of criminal exploitation that are faced by children. In addition, the local authority is under a duty to monitor and report on serious child safeguarding incidents to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.

The safeguarding partners must publish an annual report setting out what they have done as a result of the arrangements, including how effective these arrangements have been in practice. They must also include how they will use data and intelligence to assess the effectiveness of the help being provided to children and families as well as the procedures and processes for cases relating to the abuse, neglect and exploitation of children, including in relation to child criminal exploitation.

As part of the department’s annual ‘Children in Need’ census, local authorities are also required to report to the department on the factors identified at the end of the assessment of children, including trafficking, missing children, gangs and child sexual exploitation, all of which may be related to the risk of child criminal exploitation.

The Home Office have provided £3.6 million for the establishment of the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre (NCLCC) to enhance the intelligence picture and support cross-border efforts to tackle county lines. The NCLCC supports operational policing as well as providing a central point at which intelligence and information is shared and the links with criminal exploitation and illegal drugs markets are identified.

In November 2018, the Director General of the National Crime Agency formally tasked all Chief Constables to direct all forces to implement a more consistent and prioritised intelligence and operational response, in respect of county lines drugs supply, to include the submission of intelligence to the NCLCC and a prioritised response to high-risk lines and gangs.

Further to the answer provided by the former Home Secretary (Sajid Javid), my right hon. Friend, the Member for Bromsgrove, on 15 July, the statutory guidance ‘Working together to safeguard children (2018)’ sets out how the 3 safeguarding partners – the police, Clinical Commissioning Groups and the local authority - should have a clear understanding of the collective needs of children locally when commissioning effective services. These collective needs include the risks of criminal exploitation that are faced by children. In addition, the local authority is under a duty to monitor and report on serious child safeguarding incidents to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel.

The safeguarding partners must publish an annual report setting out what they have done as a result of the arrangements, including how effective these arrangements have been in practice. They must also include how they will use data and intelligence to assess the effectiveness of the help being provided to children and families as well as the procedures and processes for cases relating to the abuse, neglect and exploitation of children, including in relation to child criminal exploitation.

As part of the department’s annual ‘Children in Need’ census, local authorities are also required to report to the department on the factors identified at the end of the assessment of children, including trafficking, missing children, gangs and child sexual exploitation, all of which may be related to the risk of child criminal exploitation.

The Home Office have provided £3.6 million for the establishment of the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre (NCLCC) to enhance the intelligence picture and support cross-border efforts to tackle county lines. The NCLCC supports operational policing as well as providing a central point at which intelligence and information is shared and the links with criminal exploitation and illegal drugs markets are identified.

In November 2018, the Director General of the National Crime Agency formally tasked all Chief Constables to direct all forces to implement a more consistent and prioritised intelligence and operational response, in respect of county lines drugs supply, to include the submission of intelligence to the NCLCC and a prioritised response to high-risk lines and gangs.

Regarding the number of children in need assessments undertaken in which criminal exploitation through county lines was identified as a potential risk to the child’s life, the information requested is not held centrally.

As part of the Children in Need census, we collect factors identified at the end of the assessment. These factors include trafficking, gangs and child sexual exploitation. However, this information gives no specific indication of county lines involvement or a risk to the child’s life. The information in fact indicates that the child has been referred and assessed by the local authority and that these issues were a factor at the end of assessment.

Information on the number of factors identified at the end of assessment, including trafficking, gangs and child sexual exploitation, is published in table C3 of the ‘Characteristics of children in need’ statistical release, which can be viewed at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-children-in-need.

Criminal exploitation in the form of county lines has a devastating impact on those affected and we must work together to identify and safeguard the vic-tims and potential victims of this form of exploitation as early as possible.

We welcome the report published by the Children’s Society and will consider its findings carefully as we continue to develop and strengthen our response to county lines.

In 2018, the Department for Education revised the Working Together to Safeguard Children and Keeping Children Safe in Education guidance to reflect the risks to include specific mention of the risks to children from county lines, criminal exploitation and other harms from outside the home.

New arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children, must be implemented by safeguarding partners by the end of September 2019. It will be for local determination what the arrangements cover, but they must set out how all children, including those at risk of child criminal exploitation, will be kept safe. In order to bring transparency about the activities undertaken, the safeguarding partners must publish a report at least once in every 12-month period, setting out what they have done as a result of the arrangements and how effective these arrangements have been in practice.

The Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 considered the def-inition of exploitation under the Act and found it is sufficiently flexible to meet a range of new and emerging forms of modern slavery.

In addition, there is an existing, published definition of child criminal exploi-tation in the Serious Violence Strategy. The strategy is available https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/698009/serious-violence-strategy.pdf

Section 48 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 which makes provisions for Inde-pendent Child Trafficking Advocates was also considered by the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. In-line with one of the Review’s recommendations, Independent Child Trafficking Advocates have recently been renamed Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs).

ICTGs are an additional source of advice and support for all trafficked children and somebody who can advocate on their behalf. The current service model provides one-to-one support for children who lack a figure of parental responsibility for them in the UK and an expert ICTG regional practice co-ordinator whose role will be to focus on children who do have a figure of parental responsibility for them in the UK. The ICTG regional practice co-ordinator works with statutory bodies including the police, social workers and the Criminal Justice System to foster effective multi-agency working to safeguard these vulnerable children.

The Government remains committed to rolling out ICTGs nationally with the service currently being available in one third of local authorities in England and Wales.The Government Response to the Independent Review was published on 9 July and is available:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-independent-review-of-the-modern-slavery-act