The remit of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC) is set out in the 2015 Modern Slavery Act. In line with what is detailed in the Act, the role of the IASC will be to encourage good practice in:

• the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of slavery and human trafficking offences; and
• the identification of victims of those offences.

We look forward to working with IASC, who I am confident will set out their priorities in due course.

It is important that police officers recognise and understand domestic abuse in all its forms. Post-separation abuse is an established risk factor for homicide. The College of Policing authorised professional practice guidance is clear that officers should offer assistance to victims intending to recover property from a residence to ensure this process is carried out safely.

Domestic abuse training plays a crucial role in police officers’ understanding and response to domestic abuse. The specialist Domestic Abuse Matters programme developed by the College of Policing and domestic abuse charities, has been delivered to the majority of forces to date. The Government is also now funding the rollout of the training to those forces who have yet to undertake it. It is, however, crucial that police forces continue to remain updated with domestic abuse training, particularly for new officers.

The Government is fully committed to protecting victims from, and tackling, the devastating harm associated with adult sexual exploitation.

Adult sexual exploitation can occur across a spectrum of offending, from intimate partner violence, including domestic abuse and rape and sexual violence to serious and organised crime, including human trafficking. These offences are covered under a range of legislation.

Due to the complex nature of adult sexual exploitation, victims can access tailored support across different services depending on the harm they have experienced.

The Home Office is providing £1.36 million over three years to Changing Lives for their Net-Reach project, providing early intervention and targeted support for women and girls at high-risk of commercial online exploitation and the risk on online sexual harm. We are also providing over £180,000 in 2023/24 to Trevi Women to provide support to women with complex and multiple needs, including women seeking to exit on-street prostitution in Plymouth.

The Government funded Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract also provides victims of modern slavery access to safehouse accommodation and a dedicated support worker who provides information on their rights and facilitates access to wider statutory support services, specifically related to the victim’s experience – this can be gender specific, such as assistance with accessing sexual health services as a result of sexual exploitation.

Since April 2019, the Windrush Compensation Scheme has paid over £67 million in compensation.

The Scheme has reduced the time to allocate a claim for a substantive casework consideration, following completion of eligibility checks and a Preliminary Assessment, from 18 months to under 5 months.

The Home Office continues to listen to feedback from stakeholders and the communities and make improvements the scheme and the way it operates to ensure people receive the maximum compensation at the earliest point possible.

The Government remains firmly committed to tackling all forms of child sexual abuse online and in our communities across the UK and internationally. Our approach is underpinned by the Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy which sets out firm commitments to drive action across the whole system.

The law in the UK is very clear with regards to production of child sexual abuse material. It is an offence to produce, store, share or search for any material that contains or depicts child sexual abuse, regardless of whether the material depicts a ‘real’ child or not. This prohibition also includes pseudo-imagery that may have been computer-generated.

Home Office investment supports the National Crime Agency to use its unique capabilities to disrupt the highest harm offenders, safeguard children and remove the most horrific child sexual abuse material from the internet, including on the dark web.

The Home Office has recently rolled out new tools linked to our world leading Child Abuse Image Database to support law enforcement to identify offenders and safeguard victims more quickly.

All companies that utilise Artificial Intelligence must incorporate safety measures to ensure their technology cannot be manipulated by offenders of this abhorrent crime. We welcome further engagement with industries to work together to implement or create the best solution for their platforms.

As part of the Government’s work to tackle child sexual abuse offences in every form, the Government has driven forward the Online Safety Bill, which will soon gain royal assent and become law. The strongest protections in the Online Safety Bill are for children and all companies in scope of the legislation will need to tackle child sexual abuse material as a priority.

In September, the Home Secretary met US Secretary of State Alejandro N. Majorkas at NCMEC and reaffirmed their commitment to combined expertise of the UK and United States to ensure perpetrators of child sexual abuse and exploitation cannot operate across continents.

In partnership with the IWF, the Home Office will be hosting an AI Summit side event to discuss the growing threat of generative artificial intelligence creating child sexual abuse material. The summit will bring international stakeholders together to encourage co-operation to tackle this heinous crime.

The Government remains firmly committed to tackling all forms of child sexual abuse online and in our communities across the UK and internationally. Our approach is underpinned by the Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy which sets out firm commitments to drive action across the whole system.

The law in the UK is very clear with regards to production of child sexual abuse material. It is an offence to produce, store, share or search for any material that contains or depicts child sexual abuse, regardless of whether the material depicts a ‘real’ child or not. This prohibition also includes pseudo-imagery that may have been computer-generated.

Home Office investment supports the National Crime Agency to use its unique capabilities to disrupt the highest harm offenders, safeguard children and remove the most horrific child sexual abuse material from the internet, including on the dark web.

The Home Office has recently rolled out new tools linked to our world leading Child Abuse Image Database to support law enforcement to identify offenders and safeguard victims more quickly.

All companies that utilise Artificial Intelligence must incorporate safety measures to ensure their technology cannot be manipulated by offenders of this abhorrent crime. We welcome further engagement with industries to work together to implement or create the best solution for their platforms.

As part of the Government’s work to tackle child sexual abuse offences in every form, the Government has driven forward the Online Safety Bill, which will soon gain royal assent and become law. The strongest protections in the Online Safety Bill are for children and all companies in scope of the legislation will need to tackle child sexual abuse material as a priority.

In September, the Home Secretary met US Secretary of State Alejandro N. Majorkas at NCMEC and reaffirmed their commitment to combined expertise of the UK and United States to ensure perpetrators of child sexual abuse and exploitation cannot operate across continents.

In partnership with the IWF, the Home Office will be hosting an AI Summit side event to discuss the growing threat of generative artificial intelligence creating child sexual abuse material. The summit will bring international stakeholders together to encourage co-operation to tackle this heinous crime.

The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage in all its forms.

The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) is jointly managed by the Home Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The FMU has assisted thousands of forced marriage victims and delivered training to over 5,000 professionals in the last three years. There are currently no plans for an audit of FMU, but its performance and value for money is kept under regular review.

The FMU has robust processes and procedures in place to ensure information given to victims and the professionals who support them is accurate. No complaints from victims have been received in the past four years for which records are available. All cases reported to the FMU are recorded on a dedicated casework database.

FMU caseworkers check the full circumstances of each case before giving advice. The FMU has no record of providing inaccurate information or advice to a victim or suspected victim of forced marriage.

The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage in all its forms.

The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) is jointly managed by the Home Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The FMU has assisted thousands of forced marriage victims and delivered training to over 5,000 professionals in the last three years. There are currently no plans for an audit of FMU, but its performance and value for money is kept under regular review.

The FMU has robust processes and procedures in place to ensure information given to victims and the professionals who support them is accurate. No complaints from victims have been received in the past four years for which records are available. All cases reported to the FMU are recorded on a dedicated casework database.

FMU caseworkers check the full circumstances of each case before giving advice. The FMU has no record of providing inaccurate information or advice to a victim or suspected victim of forced marriage.

The Home Office provides funding to police forces through the Police Settlement, and the allocation of funding within forces is an operational matter for Chief Constables. For this reason, it is not possible to disaggregate funding which is spent specifically on missing people.

The Home Office also provides funding to Missing People, a charity which plays a unique safeguarding role with respect to vulnerable missing children and adults, including support for, and promotion of, live police missing persons investigations.

Annual missing persons statistics, going back to 2010 and including how many people were classified as long-term missing, are published by the National Crime Agency’s Missing Person’s Unit: http://missingpersons.police.uk

In the year to March 2022 there were a total of 4,521 long-term missing individuals outstanding in police forces in England and Wales. Long-term missing individuals are people reported missing prior to the current reporting year and who are still missing on the last day of the reporting year, e.g. reporting year 2021/22 includes all individuals reported missing prior to 1st April 2021 and who are still missing on 31st March 2022.

The Home Office provides funding to police forces through the Police Settlement, and the allocation of funding within forces is an operational matter for Chief Constables. For this reason, it is not possible to disaggregate funding which is spent specifically on missing people.

The Home Office also provides funding to Missing People, a charity which plays a unique safeguarding role with respect to vulnerable missing children and adults, including support for, and promotion of, live police missing persons investigations.

Annual missing persons statistics, going back to 2010 and including how many people were classified as long-term missing, are published by the National Crime Agency’s Missing Person’s Unit: http://missingpersons.police.uk

In the year to March 2022 there were a total of 4,521 long-term missing individuals outstanding in police forces in England and Wales. Long-term missing individuals are people reported missing prior to the current reporting year and who are still missing on the last day of the reporting year, e.g. reporting year 2021/22 includes all individuals reported missing prior to 1st April 2021 and who are still missing on 31st March 2022.

Public sexual harassment is an appalling crime, and the Government has already taken significant action to tackle it. We have ensured that new guidance was published for police and prosecutors on existing offences, have provided £120 million through the Safer Streets and Safety of Women at Night Funds to make our streets safer, have created the new SafeStreet tool which allows people to pinpoint where they have felt unsafe and the police to take action.

The Government also supported the Protection from Sex-Based Harassment in Public Act 2023, which makes public sexual harassment a specific offence. The Act received Royal Assent on 18^th September 2023.

Tackling violence against women and girls is a government priority. It is unacceptable and preventable, and an issue which blights the lives of millions. In July 2021, we published our cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy to help ensure that women and girls are safe everywhere -- at home, online, at work and on the streets.

Older people and women from the Eritrean community who are victims and survivors of VAWG have access to a range of support provided through the Government’s Domestic Abuse Plan and VAWG Strategy. This support includes:

• Over £2 million to provide specialist support to victims of VAWG from ethnic minority communities, undertaking a range of activities, including delivering training sessions and frontline professional services.
• In the 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years, up to £361,000 and £432,000 respectively to Hourglass who support older victims of domestic abuse. This will provide enhanced helpline support with a focus on reaching marginalised communities across England and Wales.
• Up to £1.4 million annually until March 2025 to the Support for Migrant Victims Scheme, which provides wraparound support services for migrant victims of domestic abuse, including accommodation, subsistence, counselling and legal advice.

The Government is clear that all forms of hate crime - including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime - are completely unacceptable.

We have a robust legislative framework in place and expect the police fully to investigate these abhorrent offences and make sure those who commit them feel the full force of the law.

Whilst part of the increase in transgender hate crime may be due to a genuine rise, the biggest driver is likely to be general improvement in police recording and identification of a hate crime, along with increased victim willingness to come forward. This is positive and reflects the hard work that has gone in to ensuring that police can target their resources, understand the scale of the challenge and ensure that victims get the support they need.

Our absolute priority is to get more police into our streets, cut crime, protect the public and bring more criminals to justice. We are supporting police by providing them with the resources they need, including having recruited 20,000 additional police officers by March 2023. We also engage with relevant stakeholders when appropriate to do so.

The Government is clear that all forms of hate crime - including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime - are completely unacceptable.

We have a robust legislative framework in place and expect the police fully to investigate these abhorrent offences and make sure those who commit them feel the full force of the law.

Whilst part of the increase in transgender hate crime may be due to a genuine rise, the biggest driver is likely to be general improvement in police recording and identification of a hate crime, along with increased victim willingness to come forward. This is positive and reflects the hard work that has gone in to ensuring that police can target their resources, understand the scale of the challenge and ensure that victims get the support they need.

Our absolute priority is to get more police into our streets, cut crime, protect the public and bring more criminals to justice. We are supporting police by providing them with the resources they need, including having recruited 20,000 additional police officers by March 2023. We also engage with relevant stakeholders when appropriate to do so.

The Government is clear that all forms of hate crime, including antisemitic hate crime, are completely unacceptable. We expect the police fully to investigate these abhorrent offences and make sure those who commit them feel the full force of the law.

In March 2023, the Home Secretary, announced the continuation of the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant and increased funding for 2023/24 by £1 million, to a total of £15 million. This grant provides protective security measures at Jewish schools, colleges, nurseries, and some other Jewish community sites, as well as a number of synagogues.

In light of the horrific Hamas terrorist acts in Israel and related reports of increased incidents of antisemitism in the UK, the Prime Minister has announced additional funding of £3 million for the Community Security Trust to provide additional security at Jewish schools, synagogues and other sites.

The Home Secretary chairs the Jewish Community Crime, Policing and Security Taskforce. This meeting brings together Government, law enforcement and the Community Security Trust in order to address Jewish community security concerns.

The Home Secretary also meets the Metropolitan Police Commissioner regularly, along with senior officers across the country, to ensure the police are doing everything they can to protect Jewish people from these crimes.

The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage. On 27 February 2023, we brought into force legislation which raised the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership in England and Wales to 18, and expanded the offence of forced marriage so it is illegal to do anything to cause a child to marry before they turn 18, even if coercion is not used.

The joint Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) has been actively raising awareness of the new forced marriage legislation in all its presentations and across its social media platforms since January 2023.

The FMU runs regular workshops and presentations for police officers, social workers, local authorities, registrars and others. In 2022, the FMU delivered training to 1,537 professionals and the unit has reached over 3,000 professionals by the end of September 2023. This includes bespoke training sessions on request to police forces. Over 650 police officers have been given this training since the legislation changed in February 2023. The Home Office also worked with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on HBA to ensure that forces were prepared for the commencement of the legislation. This included a joint national meeting with relevant force leads and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before the legislation came into force.

While the Home Office does not directly hold data on safeguarding measures introduced by police forces to help ensure that suspected child marriage cases are managed adequately, we do work closely with the dedicated NPCC lead for Honour Based Abuse to ensure forces have the support they need. In addition, the College of Policing published authorised professional practice guidance for officers on ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA) which has been updated together with domestic abuse training and the Police Education Qualifications Framework to incorporate material about the new legislation.

Whilst there have not been dedicated meetings on this subject with Home Office Ministers and the DHSC and DfE Secretaries of State, Ministers do meet regularly to discuss matters of crime and safeguarding, with a dedicated VAWG Ministerial Steering Group taking place later this month.

The FMU is jointly funded by the Home Office and FCDO. It currently has six full time staff, two joint heads (one from each department) and four case workers. The Unit’s operating costs including staff time, outreach activity and casework are funded through the departmental budgets of its parent organisations.

Statistics on prosecutions and convictions for the new offence of arranging for a child to marry as part of the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age) Act 2022 are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and are not currently available as the offence only came into force in February 2023. Statistics on the offence will be available in future publications of MoJ’s Criminal Justice System Statistics. The Government does not hold data on arrests or investigations for the offence. The FMU publishes annual statistics, including on the total number of cases per year, online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forced-marriage-unit-statistics.

The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage. On 27 February 2023, we brought into force legislation which raised the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership in England and Wales to 18, and expanded the offence of forced marriage so it is illegal to do anything to cause a child to marry before they turn 18, even if coercion is not used.

The joint Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) has been actively raising awareness of the new forced marriage legislation in all its presentations and across its social media platforms since January 2023.

The FMU runs regular workshops and presentations for police officers, social workers, local authorities, registrars and others. In 2022, the FMU delivered training to 1,537 professionals and the unit has reached over 3,000 professionals by the end of September 2023. This includes bespoke training sessions on request to police forces. Over 650 police officers have been given this training since the legislation changed in February 2023. The Home Office also worked with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on HBA to ensure that forces were prepared for the commencement of the legislation. This included a joint national meeting with relevant force leads and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before the legislation came into force.

While the Home Office does not directly hold data on safeguarding measures introduced by police forces to help ensure that suspected child marriage cases are managed adequately, we do work closely with the dedicated NPCC lead for Honour Based Abuse to ensure forces have the support they need. In addition, the College of Policing published authorised professional practice guidance for officers on ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA) which has been updated together with domestic abuse training and the Police Education Qualifications Framework to incorporate material about the new legislation.

Whilst there have not been dedicated meetings on this subject with Home Office Ministers and the DHSC and DfE Secretaries of State, Ministers do meet regularly to discuss matters of crime and safeguarding, with a dedicated VAWG Ministerial Steering Group taking place later this month.

The FMU is jointly funded by the Home Office and FCDO. It currently has six full time staff, two joint heads (one from each department) and four case workers. The Unit’s operating costs including staff time, outreach activity and casework are funded through the departmental budgets of its parent organisations.

Statistics on prosecutions and convictions for the new offence of arranging for a child to marry as part of the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age) Act 2022 are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and are not currently available as the offence only came into force in February 2023. Statistics on the offence will be available in future publications of MoJ’s Criminal Justice System Statistics. The Government does not hold data on arrests or investigations for the offence. The FMU publishes annual statistics, including on the total number of cases per year, online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forced-marriage-unit-statistics.

The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage. On 27 February 2023, we brought into force legislation which raised the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership in England and Wales to 18, and expanded the offence of forced marriage so it is illegal to do anything to cause a child to marry before they turn 18, even if coercion is not used.

The joint Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) has been actively raising awareness of the new forced marriage legislation in all its presentations and across its social media platforms since January 2023.

The FMU runs regular workshops and presentations for police officers, social workers, local authorities, registrars and others. In 2022, the FMU delivered training to 1,537 professionals and the unit has reached over 3,000 professionals by the end of September 2023. This includes bespoke training sessions on request to police forces. Over 650 police officers have been given this training since the legislation changed in February 2023. The Home Office also worked with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on HBA to ensure that forces were prepared for the commencement of the legislation. This included a joint national meeting with relevant force leads and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before the legislation came into force.

While the Home Office does not directly hold data on safeguarding measures introduced by police forces to help ensure that suspected child marriage cases are managed adequately, we do work closely with the dedicated NPCC lead for Honour Based Abuse to ensure forces have the support they need. In addition, the College of Policing published authorised professional practice guidance for officers on ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA) which has been updated together with domestic abuse training and the Police Education Qualifications Framework to incorporate material about the new legislation.

Whilst there have not been dedicated meetings on this subject with Home Office Ministers and the DHSC and DfE Secretaries of State, Ministers do meet regularly to discuss matters of crime and safeguarding, with a dedicated VAWG Ministerial Steering Group taking place later this month.

The FMU is jointly funded by the Home Office and FCDO. It currently has six full time staff, two joint heads (one from each department) and four case workers. The Unit’s operating costs including staff time, outreach activity and casework are funded through the departmental budgets of its parent organisations.

Statistics on prosecutions and convictions for the new offence of arranging for a child to marry as part of the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age) Act 2022 are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and are not currently available as the offence only came into force in February 2023. Statistics on the offence will be available in future publications of MoJ’s Criminal Justice System Statistics. The Government does not hold data on arrests or investigations for the offence. The FMU publishes annual statistics, including on the total number of cases per year, online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forced-marriage-unit-statistics.

The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage. On 27 February 2023, we brought into force legislation which raised the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership in England and Wales to 18, and expanded the offence of forced marriage so it is illegal to do anything to cause a child to marry before they turn 18, even if coercion is not used.

The joint Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) has been actively raising awareness of the new forced marriage legislation in all its presentations and across its social media platforms since January 2023.

The FMU runs regular workshops and presentations for police officers, social workers, local authorities, registrars and others. In 2022, the FMU delivered training to 1,537 professionals and the unit has reached over 3,000 professionals by the end of September 2023. This includes bespoke training sessions on request to police forces. Over 650 police officers have been given this training since the legislation changed in February 2023. The Home Office also worked with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on HBA to ensure that forces were prepared for the commencement of the legislation. This included a joint national meeting with relevant force leads and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before the legislation came into force.

While the Home Office does not directly hold data on safeguarding measures introduced by police forces to help ensure that suspected child marriage cases are managed adequately, we do work closely with the dedicated NPCC lead for Honour Based Abuse to ensure forces have the support they need. In addition, the College of Policing published authorised professional practice guidance for officers on ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA) which has been updated together with domestic abuse training and the Police Education Qualifications Framework to incorporate material about the new legislation.

Whilst there have not been dedicated meetings on this subject with Home Office Ministers and the DHSC and DfE Secretaries of State, Ministers do meet regularly to discuss matters of crime and safeguarding, with a dedicated VAWG Ministerial Steering Group taking place later this month.

The FMU is jointly funded by the Home Office and FCDO. It currently has six full time staff, two joint heads (one from each department) and four case workers. The Unit’s operating costs including staff time, outreach activity and casework are funded through the departmental budgets of its parent organisations.

Statistics on prosecutions and convictions for the new offence of arranging for a child to marry as part of the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age) Act 2022 are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and are not currently available as the offence only came into force in February 2023. Statistics on the offence will be available in future publications of MoJ’s Criminal Justice System Statistics. The Government does not hold data on arrests or investigations for the offence. The FMU publishes annual statistics, including on the total number of cases per year, online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forced-marriage-unit-statistics.

Policing, including the response to physical abuse, is a delegated matter for consideration by the Northern Ireland Executive.

We are open to discussions with the Police Service of Northern Ireland to share knowledge on tackling physical abuse amongst young people.

As the Minister for Safeguarding, I meet with the Chairman of the Disclosure and Barring Service to discuss performance.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has a service standard to issue 80% of Enhanced checks within 14 days. Its performance remains consistently strong against this service standard as can be seen for the 2022-23 reporting year and first quarter of 2023-24 DBS dataset 1: DBS checks, the DBS Update Service, and disputes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

To summarise performance, the attainment over the 2022/23 reporting year was 78.4%, with over 3.5 million customers receiving their Enhanced DBS check results within 14 days. The average turnaround time over the past year was 10.7 days, and 80% of all enhanced Disclosures were issued by day 16 against the 14-day target.