Between April 2017 and March 2020, Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) recorded 67,372 children (26,681 in 2017/18, 21,665 in 2018/19 and 19,026 in 2019/20) receiving a caution or court sentence. This does not include children YOTs worked with who were on bail or remand and did not subsequently receive a caution or court sentence, or children who have not received a pre-court or court disposal, such as community resolutions.

It is not currently possible to specify the proportion of those children who have gang or child criminal exploitation. Data-recording requirements were amended in 2019 and 2020 to collect this data; changes are being made to IT systems to allow this to be analysed and published in due course.

The Government recognises the devastating impact of county lines activity on children and vulnerable people.

We are determined to disrupt these ruthless gangs and put an end to exploitation. On 20 January the Government announced £40m of dedicated investment for 2021/22 to tackle drugs supply and county lines, doubling our investment from last year. This includes funding for The Metropolitan Police’s Operation Orochi, which provides a dedicated taskforce to tackle county lines activity.

Since it was launched, in November 2019, our County Lines Programme has already seen more than 780 lines closed, over 5,100 arrests, £2.9 million in cash and significant quantities of drugs seized, and more than 1,200 vulnerable people safeguarded.

In addition, we continue to fund specialist support available for those affected by county lines exploitation including through Missing People’s SafeCall service. This national service provides confidential, specialist advice and support to young people and their families/carers who are affected by county lines exploitation anywhere in England and Wales.

From 2019-2022, £105.5 million has been invested in multi-agency Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in the 18 areas worst affected by serious violence, with £21,000,000 allocated to the MOPAC to develop the London Violence Reduction Unit.

We are also driving targeted action to respond to exploitation through the Home Office-funded Prevention Programme, delivered by The Children’s Society. The Prevention Programme has coordinators in each of the ten policing regions, including London.

This financial year, the Home Office is also continuing to fund Young People’s Advocates in London to support young women and girls at risk of or experiencing exploitation by gangs including county lines.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) will assess and forward information it receives through its complaints process to other organisations who may have an interest or a responsibility. This information is shared according to the specific nature of the issue raised with the ICO and may include the Police. We would expect all agencies to share information with the relevant bodies and take appropriate action to ensure the safeguarding of individuals where there is cause for concern. The ICO does not publish information on enforcement action which they have taken specifically against email spam, including those emails which are sexually explicit. Further information on their enforcement activity relating to broader marketing is available here: https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/enforcement/?facet_type=&facet_sector=Marketing&facet_date=&date_from=&date_to=

We know that women are disproportionately abused online, which impedes their rights to participate in society. We are introducing the Online Safety Bill which will give effect to the regulatory framework outlined in the Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper and will be ready this year. The Bill will set out a new duty of care on companies to keep their users safe online; including that all companies in scope must tackle illegal content on their platforms and be clear on what legal but harmful content accessed by adults is acceptable on their platform.

Whilst sexually explicit email is not in scope of this legislation, women will be better protected by a range of online abuse, and should expect to receive an appropriate response from a platform. This could include removal of harmful content, sanctions against offending users, or changing processes and policies to better protect users. The new regulatory framework will be overseen and enforced by an independent regulator.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.

This Government is determined to tackle Child Criminal Exploitation in all its forms. Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE) is already defined in statutory guidance for frontline practitioners working with children. Specifically, this includes the Keeping Children Safe in Education and Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance.

The definition used in these pieces of statutory guidance is consistent with the definition of CCE in the Serious Violence Strategy, the Home Office County Lines Guidance, the Ministry of Justice County Lines Exploitation Practice Guidance for YOTs and frontline practitioners and the Home Office Child Exploitation Disruption Toolkit.

More widely, the Home Office is working across Government to ensure police and partners make full use of the powers and tools available to tackle county lines and associated child criminal exploitation and to ensure these ruthless criminals face the full force of the law.

Police forces do not currently gather the number of digital exhibits submitted for forensic examination by age of device owner.

This Government is committed to tackling the heinous crime of modern slavery and ensuring that all victims, including children, are provided with the support they need.

Where children are found to be potential victims of human trafficking or modern slavery, including child criminal exploitation, their safety and welfare are addressed as a priority. Local authorities are responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children in their area, including child victims of modern slavery. Local children's services will work in close co-operation with the police and other statutory agencies to offer potentially trafficked children the protection and support they require.

In addition to this statutory support, the Government has rolled out Independent Child Trafficking Guardians (ICTGs) who provide an additional source of advice and support for all potentially trafficked children, irrespective of nationality, and somebody who can advocate on their behalf. The ICTG service is currently available in one third of local authorities in England and Wales. To ensure the correct ICTG model is rolled out, a staggered approach has been adopted with built in evaluations along the way, the evaluation of the ICTG early adopter sites can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/an-evaluation-of-independent-child-trafficking-guardians-early-adopter-sites-final-report

The Government is continuing the roll out of ICTGs as part of the NRM Transformation Programme, focused on the areas of highest need.

As part of the Government’s efforts to strengthen the support provided to child victims, we will shortly begin piloting a devolved model of National Referral Mechanism (NRM) decision-making for children. These pilots will utilise established safeguarding procedures and the existing forums available to local authorities and their safeguarding partners to take decisions about whether children are victims of modern slavery. These pilots will test whether this model can bring decision making, the provision of support, and the law enforcement response into closer alignment. We are keen to understand whether this devolved approach to decision making will also improve local understanding of modern slavery and the needs of child victims to deliver a more holistic approach to identification and support. The pilots will be subject to a robust evaluation.

Finally, the Home Office continues to work with First Responders to ensure they understand the indicators of different exploitation types and can refer children into appropriate support. That is why, in July 2020, we released an E-Learning module available to all First Responders to improve their understanding of their responsibilities and the support available.

All forms of sexual violence are terrible crimes and the Government continues to fund support to victims.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we allocated £76m to support victims of modern slavery, domestic abuse and sexual violence. This included a £25m package to support victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence, £10m of which was ringfenced for organisations supporting victims of sexual violence. The Ministry of Justice have also recently announced that £10.1m will be provided to rape and domestic abuse support centres and Police and Crime Commissioners to fund services in local areas. The Home Office is also providing £200,000 in 2020/21 to specialist sexual violence support services through its National Sexual Violence Support Fund.

In addition, the Ministry of Justice has awarded £12 million to 91 rape support centres across England and Wales to provide independent, specialist support to female and male victims of sexual violence, including victims of child sexual abuse. This is an increase of £4 million from 2019/20, and a total investment of £32m over three years from April 2019 to March 2022.

An additional £4m per annum until 2022 is also being invested in recruiting more Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) to help victims feel informed and supported at every stage of their recovery journey.

We understand that individuals can be the victims of multiple and different abusive behaviours because of the way different characteristics, including immigration status, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic position and sexuality intersect and overlap, particularly in relation to accessing services and support. We will be publishing a new Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy in the spring which will ensure we can better support victims. To inform the new strategy, we launched a Call for Evidence on 10 December, inviting responses from the public, organisations that provide support to victims and survivors, frontline professionals, and academics. We are actively seeking input from minority groups and intend to hold focus groups to ensure we hear the perspectives of people with Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, refugee violence against women and girls experts, deaf and disabled violence against women and girls experts, and others.

The Government is committed to tackling modern slavery including sexual exploitation. The Modern Slavery Act 2015, gives law enforcement agencies the tools to tackle modern slavery, including maximum life sentences for perpetrators and enhanced protection for victims. Section 3 of the Act defines the meaning of exploitation in the context of modern slavery and sexual exploitation is included within this definition.

In July 2018, the Government commissioned an Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act 201 , https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-the-modern-slavery-act-final-report to identify what can be improved in the implementation of the Act and whether specific areas of the legislation need to be strengthened. The Review found that the meaning of exploitation should not be amended as it is sufficiently flexible to meet a range of circumstances, including new and emerging forms of modern slavery.

The Government also published statutory guidance under Section 49 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950690/January_2021_-_Modern_Slavery_Statutory_Guidance__E_W__Non-Statutory_Guidance__S_NI__v2.pdf of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in March 2020, providing a clear framework of support for some of the most vulnerable people in society. The guidance clarifies the roles and responsibilities of frontline staff and local stakeholders and sets out the support victims are entitled to and how this is accessed.

The Government is very aware that victims of modern slavery including sexual exploitation often have needs arising from their exploitation. That is why, the UK Government provides specialist support and advocacy services for victims of modern slavery regardless of their immigration status to assist them in rebuilding their lives and reintegrating into local communities.

The NRM is the process by which the UK identifies and supports potential victims of modern slavery including sexual exploitation by connecting them with appropriate support, which may be delivered through the specialist Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC), local authorities and asylum services. The introduction of the new MSVCC, which went live on the 4 January 2021, has brought about a number of new services and greater prescription to existing services to better meet the needs of each victim, including those with specialist or complex needs. The MSVCC will continue to provide accommodation, financial support payments, translation and interpretation, transport and access to an outreach support worker for those who are identified as a potential victim and receive a positive Reasonable Grounds decision from the Single Competent Authority.

The Government is committed to tackling all forms of sexual violence and exploitation, ensuring that victims are provided with the support they need to begin rebuilding their lives and that those responsible are prosecuted.

We are committed to ensuring that victims of these crimes have access to high-quality support services to help them cope with and, as far as possible, recover from the effects of crime. The right to access these services is set out in the recently revised Code of Practice for Victims of Crime.

The recently revised Victims’ Code, which comes into force on 1 April 2021, will ensure that victims benefit from a clearer set of rights and that these rights are recognised at every stage of the justice system. The revised Victims’ Code provides a solid foundation on which we can progress the Victims’ Law. The Ministry of Justice aims to consult on the full details of the Victims’ Law later this year.

Potential victims of sexual exploitation have access to specialist support and advocacy services to assist them in rebuilding their lives and reintegrating into local communities. The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the process by which the UK identifies and supports potential victims of modern slavery including sexual exploitation by connecting them with appropriate support, which may be delivered through the specialist Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC), local authorities and asylum services.

The introduction of the new MSVCC, which went live on the 4 January 2021, has brought about a number of new services and greater prescription to existing services to better meet the needs of each victim, including those with specialist or complex needs. The MSVCC will continue to provide accommodation, financial support payments, translation and interpretation, transport and access to an outreach support worker for those who are identified as a potential victim and receive a positive Reasonable Grounds decision from the Single Competent Authority.

We are determined to tackle the harm caused by county lines exploitation. In addition to the establishment of violence reduction units, the extensive operations conducted by British Transport Police on transport networks and other targeted policing across the country, this year we have significantly increased our investment in one-to-one specialist support for county lines victims and their families to help them to leave the clutches of these criminal gangs. We are also funding the helpline Safecall run by the Missing People charity, which provides specialist advice and support to young people, parents and professionals who are worried about a young person who may be in trouble and being exploited.

We are determined to tackle the harm caused by county lines exploitation. In addition to the establishment of violence reduction units, the extensive operations conducted by British Transport Police on transport networks and other targeted policing across the country, this year we have significantly increased our investment in one-to-one specialist support for county lines victims and their families to help them to leave the clutches of these criminal gangs. We are also funding the helpline Safecall run by the Missing People charity, which provides specialist advice and support to young people, parents and professionals who are worried about a young person who may be in trouble and being exploited.

What steps she is taking to tackle county lines drug trafficking and safeguard vulnerable children from exploitation.

In my constituency there is one estate where it is believed that at least 20 county lines are being run. We have had a spate of killings this year, including two teenagers, one of whom died only a few weeks ago. Does the Minister think that the loss of over a third of our police services and 80% of our youth services, and the halving of our early intervention services, have helped or hindered in dealing with county lines?

Children in my constituency are also getting unwittingly or unwillingly ensnared by gangs and exploited by them, not only into county lines but other criminal activity. That has a huge impact on them and on their families. In response to this trend, groups such as Action Isleworth Mothers in my constituency have been set up by parents to support other parents and their children who are at risk. What additional support and funding will the Government provide to grassroots groups such as AIM?

In a recent report, the Children’s Commissioner highlighted the risk that young people in care were put in when they go into unregulated and mostly unsupported accommodation, and called for a ban on that. One of the things that they are at risk of is being preyed upon and drawn into county lines activity. Will the Minister speak to her colleagues in the Department for Education, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to see whether they can support my Bill which aims to outlaw this?