The Person Centric Data Platform (PCDP) holds millions of identities that have been submitted or otherwise provided in support of immigration applications. Individuals have not been ‘misidentified’ by the PCDP. Rather, the Home Office has for some time been aware of issues around ‘merged identity’ - where a single ‘identity island’ has been formed with data belonging to two or more individuals.

The ‘merged identities’ issue affects around 0.02% of PCDP customer records - over 99.98% of records are not impacted by this issue. We have identified around 46,000 records with an identity issue, of which over 13,000 have already been resolved and we have a dedicated team working on the remainder.

The Home Office takes data security and accuracy very seriously. We continue detailed analysis to identify erroneous PCDP records so that appropriate remedial work can be undertaken as quickly, and as carefully, as possible.

Where customers identify an issue with their data, we encourage them to contact the UK Visas and Immigration Contact Centre to enable this to be investigated and resolved.

The Person Centric Data Platform (PCDP) holds millions of identities that have been submitted or otherwise provided in support of immigration applications. Individuals have not been ‘misidentified’ by the PCDP. Rather, the Home Office has for some time been aware of issues around ‘merged identity’ - where a single ‘identity island’ has been formed with data belonging to two or more individuals.

The ‘merged identities’ issue affects around 0.02% of PCDP customer records - over 99.98% of records are not impacted by this issue. We have identified around 46,000 records with an identity issue, of which over 13,000 have already been resolved and we have a dedicated team working on the remainder.

The Home Office takes data security and accuracy very seriously. We continue detailed analysis to identify erroneous PCDP records so that appropriate remedial work can be undertaken as quickly, and as carefully, as possible.

Where customers identify an issue with their data, we encourage them to contact the UK Visas and Immigration Contact Centre to enable this to be investigated and resolved.

There are two main services for victims, the Domestic Abuse Safety Officer Service and the Victim Contact Scheme.

The Probation Service runs the Victim Contact Scheme (VCS) for victims of offenders convicted of serious violent or sexual offences, who are sentenced to twelve months or more imprisonment. It has carried out changes in 2021 to ensure efficacy of its systems in relation to data collection to support the Victims’ Code of Practice.

There is also ongoing work to develop a set of national performance measures which can be used to measure the impact of the scheme and inform future development and decision making.

A change to the referral process in 2021, outlined in the Victims’ Code of Practice, now directs that victim’s contact details are automatically sent to Probation Service Victim Contact Units. These details are then recorded on the Probation Service Victim Contact Management System. This ensures timely offers of the VCS to victims, allowing them the choice of whether or not to engage in the scheme. To ensure the receipt of referrals, Probation staff also run reports from court and probation systems to ensure the receipt of qualifying cases. Figures from the Victim Satisfaction Survey linked to the scheme continues to show positive satisfaction of above 80% from victims who engage in the scheme.

To date, there has been no evaluation of the effectiveness of the Domestic Abuse Safety Officer service. This is a service that is offered to all victims and new partners of people attending Probation Service-run domestic abuse rehabilitation programmes. In July 2023, a national case management database was launched. This is a robust system, which enabled efficient collation, monitoring, and analysis of victim data. There is ongoing work to develop a set of national performance measures which can be used to measure the impact of the scheme and inform future development and decision making.

Furthermore, in September 2023, the new digital service to apply for criminal injuries compensation was made available to 100% of applicants. The number of questions asked as part of applying for compensation was reduced where possible - by 20-30% on some application journeys - compared to the older service we replaced.

This approach was supported by user research and trauma-informed practice, to ensure the data we are collecting is proportionate and required to enable the decision-making process - for example, we removed the mandatory need for victims to describe the nature of the incident as part of the application process, to reduce the risk of re-traumatisation.

We recognise the importance of linking end-to-end data across criminal justice agencies and are committed to continuing to improve the quality of and access to data to enable us to develop deeper insights and improve the response to crimes such as rape.

We publish regular statistics on adult rape through the CJS Delivery Data Dashboard. These statistics demonstrate progress on our ambition to more than double the number of adult rape cases reaching court by the end of this Parliament, and to return volumes of cases being referred to the police, charged by the CPS and going to court, to at least 2016 levels. In the year to June 2023 adult rape prosecutions were up 54% on the year to June 2022, this is the fifth consecutive year we’ve seen an increase in suspects being brought to trial.

In October 2023, the Home Office and Ministry of Justice published guidance and a template Memorandum of Understanding to support local criminal justice partners to share data for the purposes of monitoring and improving performance. The Home Office do not hold data on the cost of the development of this tool but through the Rape Review, the government provided £300,000 to the Police Digital Service to evaluate and develop guidance on a range of technical solutions which could be utilised by local agencies to link their data on rape, including the tool developed by Avon and Somerset Police.

Avon and Somerset were also the pioneering police force for Operation Soteria, which has developed new national operating models for the investigation and prosecution of rape to support police and prosecutors to ensuring cases are investigated fully and pursued rigorously through the courts.

We recognise the importance of linking end-to-end data across criminal justice agencies and are committed to continuing to improve the quality of and access to data to enable us to develop deeper insights and improve the response to crimes such as rape.

We publish regular statistics on adult rape through the CJS Delivery Data Dashboard. These statistics demonstrate progress on our ambition to more than double the number of adult rape cases reaching court by the end of this Parliament, and to return volumes of cases being referred to the police, charged by the CPS and going to court, to at least 2016 levels. In the year to June 2023 adult rape prosecutions were up 54% on the year to June 2022, this is the fifth consecutive year we’ve seen an increase in suspects being brought to trial.

In October 2023, the Home Office and Ministry of Justice published guidance and a template Memorandum of Understanding to support local criminal justice partners to share data for the purposes of monitoring and improving performance. The Home Office do not hold data on the cost of the development of this tool but through the Rape Review, the government provided £300,000 to the Police Digital Service to evaluate and develop guidance on a range of technical solutions which could be utilised by local agencies to link their data on rape, including the tool developed by Avon and Somerset Police.

Avon and Somerset were also the pioneering police force for Operation Soteria, which has developed new national operating models for the investigation and prosecution of rape to support police and prosecutors to ensuring cases are investigated fully and pursued rigorously through the courts.

The copyright framework is relevant whenever copyright works are copied. Permission or a licence should be obtained unless an exception applies.

The UK will host the first major global Summit on AI safety this autumn.

The Summit will bring together key countries, as well as leading technology companies and researchers, to drive targeted, rapid international action to guarantee safety and security at the frontier of this technology.

The Summit will seek to agree on the safety measures needed to evaluate and monitor the most significant risks emerging from the newest developments in AI technologies.

Decisions are ongoing regarding the agenda for the Summit and we look forward to updating the House further as our preparations continue.

With regards specifically to data and AI, as a government, we want to make the UK a world leader in research and AI innovation, whilst ensuring that the UK copyright framework continues to promote and reward investment in creativity. To enable that, the government is supporting the growth of the creative industries through a number of IP-related initiatives, including the IPO’s Counter Infringement Strategy, to ensure IP rights are protected online.

No such assessment has been made.

As per the response to Question 118632, we confirmed that it is the intention of the Department to publish the dataset before the end of January 2018.

It is our intention to publish the dataset before the end of January 2018 and I have written separately to the Honourable member to advise him of our aim to publish before Christmas.

I have discussed with the Chief Executive of the Libraries Taskforce and the Chief Executive of The Library and Information Association (CILIP) release of the Libraries Taskforce dataset. I have also discussed with the President of the Society of Chief Librarians the need for better data and evidence to help local authorities to improve their library service delivery.

No assessment of the cost to the public purse has been made by the Department.

Basic data about the number and locations of each public library in England as at 1 July 2016 was published on gov.uk on 30 March 2017.The Libraries Taskforce is currently conducting a survey until Friday 28 April seeking views from the sector on what a core dataset for public libraries in England should contain, such as information in relation to each library on the number of hours open and the number of staffed hours each week.

After analysing responses to the survey, the Taskforce will set out what the sector should be gathering as part of a core dataset. Further consideration will then be given about how the libraries sector should collect and make available the core data.

Basic data about the number and locations of each public library in England as at 1 July 2016 was published on gov.uk on 30 March 2017.The Libraries Taskforce is currently conducting a survey until Friday 28 April seeking views from the sector on what a core dataset for public libraries in England should contain, such as information in relation to each library on the number of hours open and the number of staffed hours each week.

Basic data about the number and locations of each public library in England as at 1 July 2016 was published on gov.uk on 30 March 2017.The Libraries Taskforce is currently conducting a survey until Friday 28 April seeking views from the sector on what a core dataset for public libraries in England should contain, such as information in relation to each library on the number of hours open and the number of staffed hours each week.