I refer the Hon Member to the statements on Sudan made by the Foreign Secretary on 18 November, and by the Minister of State for International Development and Africa in the House of Lords debate on 27 November. We will provide further updates to the House in due course, including on our efforts to protect women and girls throughout Sudan.

There is no place for abuse or assault of any worker. Public transport workers and the wider public should be assured that where offenders commit acts of violence they will be arrested and brought before the courts. The British Transport Police have a specific remit to protect all rail staff and passengers.

Public transport workers do of course already have extensive protection in existing legislation such as the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 which also covers more serious violence such as actual bodily harm (ABH) and grievous bodily harm (GBH), and courts must already consider offences against public facing workers as an aggravating factor under the Police Crime and Sentencing Act 2022. We therefore do not believe that any further legal protections are necessary or would reduce assaults.

The Government supports the flying of flags across the country. Flags should be an embodiment of bringing our country and our communities together. Guidance exists, such as ‘Flying flags: a plain English guide” - as set out in the Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) Regulations 2007 (as amended in 2012 and 2021) – which outlines the regulations related to the flying of flags in England.

The Department for Transport’s statutory guidance, published in 2020, to licensing authorities on how they should use their powers to protect children and vulnerable adults recommends that they should require taxi and private hire vehicle drivers to undertake safeguarding training. Licensing authorities must have regard to the statutory guidance, and we expect the recommendations to be implemented unless there is a compelling local reason not to. As of 1 April 2024, 96% of licensing authorities in England required the taxi and private hire vehicle drivers they license to undergo awareness training on child sexual abuse and child sexual exploitation. We are currently reviewing licensing authorities’ compliance with existing DfT guidance and will hold those who do not follow it to account.

In response to the recommendation made in Baroness Casey’s National Audit on Group-Based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Report in respect of taxis and private hire vehicles, my department has committed to legislate to address the important issues raised in the report, tackling the inconsistent standards of taxi and private hire vehicle driver licensing. We are working quickly to consider all options, including national standards, seeking the best overall outcomes for passenger safety. It is highly likely that any national standards would be subject to consultation, with the existing statutory guidance recommendations, including safeguarding training for drivers, providing the starting point for any future national standards.

An unaccompanied child will become looked after by the local authority after having been accommodated under section 20(1) of the Children Act 1989 for 24 hours. This will mean that they will be entitled to the same local authority provision as any other looked after child and their care will be subject to statutory guidance, including care planning guidance. In addition, the 2017 statutory guidance on the 'Care of unaccompanied migrant children and child victims of modern slavery' sets out the steps local authorities should take to plan for the support of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC).

Upon the arrival of an unaccompanied child in the UK, the Home Office will refer them to a local authority children’s service at the earliest possible opportunity. All local authorities in the UK are expected to play their part in looking after UASC. These children are placed fairly across the UK’s local authorities through the National Transfer Scheme. This is considered to be in the best interest of these children and aims to ensure that UASC receive the support and accommodation they need.

Local authorities will assess the needs of unaccompanied children in the same way as any other looked-after child and ensure they are placed in the most suitable accommodation available to meet their needs. All unaccompanied children aged 16 or under are placed in foster care. We are aware that many local authorities struggle to find the right fostering placements for UASC.

To help support local authorities increase foster placement sufficiency, £36 million of investment (the largest ever investment in fostering) will deliver 10 local authority regional fostering recruitment and retention hubs covering 64% of local authorities in England.

As announced in the policy statement ‘Keeping children safe, helping families thrive’, we are investing an additional £15 million to expand this approach to make sure every local authority has access to this foster carer recruitment and support offer. This contains funding for a communication campaign, including targeted recruitment for carers for UASC.

Together with Fosterlink, we have worked with over 90% of all local authorities in England to improve their foster carer recruitment and we continue to build evidence for further investment in supported accommodation to meet the needs of UASC and care leavers.

It is imperative that those doing life-saving work are properly protected. The Foreign Secretary has called on Israel to reform its deconfliction mechanism to ensure the safety of aid workers, and to make progress on the UN's minimal operating requirements, including more visas and driver approvals granted, as well as more trucks permitted to cross into Gaza.

The Government recognises how valuable it is that whistleblowers can shine a light on wrongdoing, and believes that they should be able to do so without fear of recriminations. There are legal provisions within the Public Interest and Disclosure Act 1998 that protect workers against detrimental treatment for speaking up in the public interest. In March 2023, the Department for Business and Trade announced a review of the whistleblowing framework, which aims to examine the effectiveness of the framework in meeting its original objectives, which are to facilitate whistleblowing, protect whistleblowers against detriment and dismissal, and to facilitate wider cultural change around whistleblowing. The review is still ongoing, and the Government will publish the evidence, and set out the next steps this year.

The UK recognises that protecting children from the effects of armed conflict is a moral, legal and strategic imperative, and essential in breaking the cycle of violence.

We use our permanent seat at the UN Security Council (UNSC) to ensure conflict-related child protection issues remain a key part of UNSC discussions.

The UK remains firmly committed to protecting all children affected by armed conflict and holding all parties accountable for violations against children through our membership of the UN Security Council CAAC Working Group.

A range of obligations exist in International Humanitarian Law, International Human Rights Law and International Refugee Law concerning the protection of civilians affected by conflict.

We consistently use our diplomatic influence to uphold protective laws and hold those who break them to account. We fund organisations like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): a crucial actor in the protection of people in conflict. We initiated and are continuing to engage with discussions at the UN on a proposed Crimes Against Humanity Convention.

The UK recognises that protecting children from the effects of armed conflict is a moral, legal, and strategic imperative and essential in breaking the cycle of violence.

The UK is an active member of the UNSC Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), which leads the international response to violations committed against children in conflict.

As announced in the 2023 International Development White Paper, the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office is committed to publishing a children in conflict strategy.

The UK recognises that protecting children from the effects of armed conflict is a moral, legal, and strategic imperative and essential in breaking the cycle of violence.

The UK is an active member of the UNSC Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC), which leads the international response to violations committed against children in conflict.

As announced in the 2023 International Development White Paper, the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office is committed to publishing a children in conflict strategy.

The department is clear that regular school attendance is important for children’s educational progress, for their wellbeing, their safeguarding and for their wider development.

Local authorities have duties to ensure all children in their area are receiving a suitable education and are safe. They have powers to make enquiries with parents as to whether a suitable education appears to be being provided.

​Local authorities should be ready to use safeguarding powers appropriately and when warranted. Local authorities also have a duty to make arrangements to identify children missing education (not in school or receiving suitable education).

​The government ran a call for evidence on improving support for children missing education from 18 May to 20 July 2023. Evidence will be used to inform future policy to ensure all children, especially the most vulnerable in our society, are safe and have access to an excellent education. The government will issue a response in due course. ​

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is improving how services are regulated to identify where the culture of a service is likely to lead to such abuse.

The CQC is reviewing its work on ‘Out of Sight, Who Cares?’ which looked at the use of restraint, seclusion and segregation in care services for people with a mental health condition and learning disabilities and implementing this learning across other service types.

There have been no recent discussions. The Department is working with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on a new performance assessment framework for local authorities on the delivery of adult social care duties under the Care Act 2014, which includes safety and quality of care.

The department is already taking action to ensure a safe environment is a priority in every school. In addition to the statutory safeguarding guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education, we have also invested in specific programmes, for example conducting a pilot of social workers in schools.

Through the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, the department is consulting on proposals to improve AP, including the way it supports early intervention for children in mainstream schools. This is so behavioural or other issues can addressed and prevented from escalating.

As part of the Beating Crime Plan, the department is investing over £45 million to fund AP specialist taskforces (APST) and SAFE Taskforces in the areas where serious violence is most damaging to the lives of young people. APST embeds multi-disciplinary teams, including mental health workers, Speech and Language Therapists, family workers and others, in AP schools in the 22 local authorities with the highest levels of serious youth violence. The SAFE Taskforces bring all schools together in 10 of those areas to provide support to those young people who are at risk of disengaging from mainstream education and becoming involved in serious violence.

The Working Together to Safeguard Children statutory guidance is clear that all children must be appropriately safeguarded and supported, recognising threats may arise from within or outside the home.

The department is working across government to tackle all forms of exploitation and harm. In the 2021/22 financial year, we provided £1.5 million to 20 local authorities across seven regions to strengthen multi-agency approaches to safeguarding adolescents at risk of extra-familial harm. Between 2019 and 2022, we funded the Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme to support strategic leaders in 84 local areas.  This year, the department is working with the sector, and other government departments, to bring together the best available evidence into a set of practice principles to support multi-agency approaches to tackling extra-familial harm. Protecting children is at the heart of the government’s online harms agenda, and we continue to work with the Department for Culture Media and Sport and the Home Office on the Online Safety Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament.

The department is now reviewing the recommendations made in the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care and will publish an implementation strategy by the end of this year.

A safeguarding approach is paramount for children at risk of committing violence. It is important that services provide wrap-around support, both to reduce harm and prevent children entering the criminal justice system.

Local authorities are responsible for ensuring there are enough places for their young people in care, including in foster care and children’s homes. They might provide places themselves or commission them from other providers. Children’s homes provide care for some of the most vulnerable and traumatised children who may be at risk of causing harm to themselves and others.

The 2021 Spending Review announced £259 million capital funding for both secure and open children’s homes up until 2025. This will enable local authorities to expand their provision to reduce out of area placements, provide for children with complex needs, and promote innovative practice to maintain placement stability or prevent children from entering the care system. The second wave of bidding is open to all local authorities in England.

The department is currently working with a local authority in South Yorkshire awarded funding in the first wave to create additional provision for children in their area, increasing available services for therapy and support.

The department takes safeguarding extremely seriously.

Schools are under a legal duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of their pupils. As part of this duty, they must have regard to statutory guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’ (KCSIE).

The statutory guidance sets out what school governing bodies and proprietors should do to keep their pupils safe. This includes all staff receiving safeguarding training, having an effective child protection policy, and having in place a designated safeguarding lead who provides support to staff members in carrying out their safeguarding duties. KCSIE is very clear on the important role schools play in identifying and responding to safeguarding concerns outside of the school. Schools are an important part of the wider child protection system, details of which are set out in the department’s statutory guidance. Further information on this guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-safeguard-children--2.

KCSIE was strengthened and updated in September 2021 following a public consultation and reflects findings from the Ofsted Review into sexual abuse in schools.

Child exploitation has a devastating impact on victims, families and the wider community, and this government is committed to tackling it. My officials engage regularly with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and we work together to ensure young people – including those at risk of exploitation - can access youth services.

In addition, the Home Office funds a range of targeted activity which seeks to support young people at risk of, or involved in, exploitation. This includes:

• £35.5m for Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) which bring together local partners to tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area. Where exploitation is identified as a local concern, VRUs deliver a range of interventions, including detached youth work and targeted mentoring schemes, to those most at risk.

• £200m over 10 years through the Youth Endowment Fund to test what works in preventing young people becoming involved in violence. The Fund evaluates a range of activity, including some youth work programmes, to identify the best-evidenced interventions.

• £20m for new early intervention programmes that will help stop young people from being drawn into violence, including cognitive behavioural therapy, family therapy, as well as specialist support in crisis moments such as when a person is admitted to A&E with a knife injury.

• £13.2m over four years for the Trusted Relationships Fund, which is testing innovative approaches to tackling vulnerability among young people at risk of exploitation. The Fund aims to build resilience to harm through fostering healthy, trusting relationships with responsible adults, using a variety of methods, including one to one support, community group work and detached youth work.

• £1m of specialist support to under 25s from London, the West Midlands and Merseyside who are criminally exploited through county lines, to help them safely reduce and exit their involvement.

We are also working specifically with young women and girls through our £435k Young People’s Advocate fund, which provides one-to-one support to young women and girls at risk of or experiencing all forms of exploitation by gangs. More widely, the Home Office are providing £43m this financial year to tackle violence against women and girls, including through frontline support with young victims.