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

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

In April we published the Online Harms White Paper, which set out our plans for world-leading legislation to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. We intend to establish in law a new duty of care on companies towards their users, overseen by an independent regulator.

Alongside the White Paper, Government published the Social Media Code of Practice. This voluntary guidance sets out actions that the Government believes social media platforms should take to prevent bullying, insulting, intimidating and humiliating behaviours on their sites. The Code is also relevant to other sites hosting user-generated content and comments. We are aware that many social media companies meet the standards set out in the Code of Practice, although Government does not actively monitor this.

The Government recognises the damaging impact that violence and abuse toward shop staff can have.

That is why the National Retail Crime Steering Group brings together Government, the police, retailers and others to help ensure the response to these crimes, and wider related issues, is as robust as it can be. This includes guidance on reporting incidents to the police and the use of Impact Statements for Business which provide victims with a voice in the criminal justice process. The Home Office also provided £60,000 for a targeted communications campaign led by the Association of Convenience Stores to raise awareness.

In addition, we launched a call for evidence on violence and abuse toward shop staff to help strengthen our understanding of the scale and extent of the issue. The call for evidence has now closed and we are currently analysing responses. We intend to publish the Government’s response in due course.

All schools and colleges, including independent schools, are subject to the Prevent Duty, which requires them to protect people from the harm of radicalisation and from being drawn into terrorism.

They are also required to actively promote the values that underpin and unite our society – democracy, rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. The department has worked closely with Ofsted to strengthen Ofsted’s inspection frameworks, so that inspectors are required to assess how well schools and colleges are meeting these requirements.

We work closely with the sector to support it in implementing these requirements and to ensure our children and young people are resilient to extremist ideology and prepared for life in modern Britain. We fund, with the Home Office, networks of experts who provide frontline support to educational institutions, and we provide a range of free resources for practitioners on our Educate Against Hate and Education and Training Foundation websites for schools and colleges.

The department is also taking forward a package of activity aimed at enhancing the safeguarding of children in out-of-school settings, where we know some children have their mainstream education supplemented through the provision of after school clubs or activities, which can include religious settings offering tuition in their own faith.

This includes the provision of £3 million to boost local capacity to identify and intervene in out-of-school settings of concern, and inform best practice on how existing legal powers – held across local authorities and relevant agencies – can best be used to address safeguarding and welfare concerns in these settings. This work started last summer and is due to conclude in March 2020.

Alongside this, we have been developing a voluntary code of practice for out-of-school setting providers and guidance for parents. These will support providers to understand what is needed to run a safe setting. This will help parents and carers make informed choices when considering out-of-school settings for their children, as well as understand the steps they can take where they have concerns. The department consulted on these documents in late February 2019 and will respond to the consultation in due course. The consultation can be found here: https://consult.education.gov.uk/regulatory-framework-unit/out-of-school-settings-voluntary-safeguarding-code/.

Fisheries control and enforcement is a devolved matter. As such, it will continue to be for each Devolved Administration to decide how best to control its waters, and what new arrangements may be needed. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) continues to work closely with the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure a coordinated approach to fisheries control and enforcement across UK waters.

In England, the Marine Management Organisation on behalf of DEFRA has assessed the risk of increased illegal fishing when the UK leaves the EU, including under the scenario of doing so without a deal. As such DEFRA have decided to strengthen the allocated resources. This includes an increase to the number of Royal Navy vessels allocated to the task and increased sea time to enhance patrolling capacity at sea.

We are working across government to reduce the risk of children being criminally exploited and groomed by gangs, including involvement in ‘County Lines’. Last year we strengthened the statutory guidance for safeguarding children, ‘Working Together’, to support practitioners in preventing child criminal exploitation. We are also investing £2 million in the Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme, to provide dedicated advice and practical support to local area partnerships, focused on developing effective multi-agency responses to identifying the risks and warning signs of exploitation so that action can be taken early.

Ensuring children and young people have safe and secure living arrangements is absolutely vital in reducing the risks of criminal exploitation. This is particularly important for children in care, who are some of society’s most vulnerable children. We have made over £200 billion available until 2020 for councils to deliver local services, including children’s services, and provided a further £410 million in 2019-20 for local authorities to invest in adult and children’s social care services. Thinking ahead to next year, we are now able to confirm that all social care grants available this year will continue at least flat in cash terms.

Taken together with a new £1 billion cash grant for social care, this means that councils will benefit from having £2.9 billion of extra funding available to them for the core services that are so important to residents. Beyond social care, we are protecting vital front-line services by increasing elements of core settlement funding in line with inflation, and we will consult on a 2 per cent core council tax principle for all councils next year.

Outside of the main Local Government Finance Settlement, local government will also see increases from wider resources made available this Spending Round, including a £700 million increase in grant funding for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

Local authorities have a statutory duty to make sure that there is sufficient provision to meet the needs of children in their care. We are supporting local authorities to increase the sufficiency of care placements and ensure that placements meet children’s needs, including investing part of our £200 million children’s social care Innovation Programme into three residential care projects to increase councils’ capacity and improve commissioning practice.

Government provides largely un-ringfenced funding to councils, giving them freedom over the money they receive. This allows them to work with their residents to decide how best to make their spending decisions.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is leading a review of the Government’s approach to Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict. The review involves contributions from both the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence. It is an opportunity for the Government to take into account recent developments in the field of Protection of Civilians policy, including work by states, international organisations, civil society and academia, and to consider a wide range of issues, including children in conflict zones. The review will be completed by the end of 2019.

​The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is leading a review of the Government's approach to Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict. This is an opportunity to take into account recent developments in the field of Protection of Civilians policy, including research and analysis by governments, international organisations, NGOs and academia. In this context, the recent report by the Royal United Services Institute and Save the Children will inform the review, which we expect to conclude by the end of 2019.

The British Board of Film Classification Guidance on Age Verification Arrangements is still in the standard three month standstill period under the EU Technical Standards and Regulatory Directive and the earliest it will complete is 2nd October 2019. We will provide further details once the standstill period has finished.

We will continue to monitor, control and enforce fishing regulations in our own waters as an independent costal state after we leave the EU on 31 October. We currently take robust intelligence-led enforcement action against illegal fishing and this will continue when we leave the EU.

We have assessed the risk of increased illegal fishing when the UK leaves the EU and have strengthened our resources accordingly. This includes an increase to the number of frontline warranted officers, increased aerial surveillance and further vessels to enhance patrolling capacity at sea.

​The Government is reviewing its strategy on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict. It is committed to ensuring that the outcome of the review is fully consistent with International Humanitarian Law, which does not draw distinctions between categories of civilians. The Government's approach will benefit all civilians, with a clear understanding of their diverse needs, and will reflect both the changing international landscape and complexity of many modern conflicts. The review also provides an opportunity for the Government to consider recent research by academics and Non-Governmental Organisations in this important field.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is leading a review of the Government's approach to Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict – an initiative that coincides with the 20th anniversary of the first Protection of Civilians Resolution to be agreed by the UN Security Council in 1999 (UNSCR 1265). The review involves contributions from both the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence and is an opportunity for the Government to take into account recent developments in the field of Protection of Civilians policy, including work by states, international organisations, civil society and academia, and to consider a wide range of issues, including inter alia casualty recording and civilian harm-tracking mechanisms. The review will be completed by the end of 2019.

Control and enforcement is a devolved matter. As such, it will continue to be for each Devolved Administration to decide how best to control its waters, and what new arrangements may be needed. We continue to work closely with the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure a coordinated approach to fisheries control and enforcement across UK waters.

In England, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has assessed the levels of enforcement capacity required and the options for best delivering this. A significant uplift in control and enforcement capability is being put in place to ensure that we will be able to protect our waters after leaving the EU.

This includes an increased number of warranted officers available for fisheries enforcement purposes by 50% – taking the total to more than 80, with additional officers undergoing enforcement training. It also includes increased aerial surveillance capabilities and measures put in place to deliver a sevenfold increase patrolling capacity at sea from 18/19 to 19/20.