Extract from oral answer
(Lords) on the European Union Referendum
(LD):My Lords, how
timely it was for Vote Leave to choose this morning to leak the
Electoral Commission report that finds it guilty of four offences,
including serious overspending and illegal co-ordination. There are
other investigations under way into the various leave campaigns by
the National Crime Agency and the DCMS Select Committee, which has
mountains of evidence about foreign funding, fraud, destruction of
evidence and collusion with a hostile Government, namely Russia.
Can the Minister tell the House who in the Government is joining
the dots and looking at the wider picture to ensure that future
referendums and elections take place on a level playing field and
are free from foreign interference?
: The
noble Lord referred at the beginning of his question to the draft
report that was circulated to a number of individuals who I
understand are named in it in order to allow them time to
consider it and make representations. The Electoral Commission
will consider representations it has received and will publish a
thorough and detailed closing report in order to provide a
balanced account. The noble Lord also referred to various other
inquiries, including the DCMS inquiry into fake news. I think it
makes sense to await the outcome of those inquiries and of the
continuing investigations by the EC into the referendum that he
referred to. As for joining the dots, that is a good question
because a large number of government departments are involved in
this key issue. I think that the Cabinet Office has a role to
play in bringing all the relevant agencies together.
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Extracts from
Westminster Hall debate on Commercial Sexual
Exploitation
(Rotherham)
(Lab):...Commercial sexual exploitation is happening on
a staggering scale, and prostitution procurement websites, where
women are advertised to sex buyers, are key enablers of it. A
buyer can go to sites such as Vivastreet or Adultwork, casually
search for women in his area and contact the mobile number
provided to arrange an appointment. It is quick, easy and highly
profitable for the web companies. The Joint Slavery and
Trafficking Analysis Centre, which is hosted by the National
Crime Agency, says that those prostitution websites
“represent the most significant enabler of sexual exploitation in
the UK”...
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the
Home Department (Victoria Atkins):...The Government’s
strategy to tackle sex trafficking facilitated via online
classified advert sites, otherwise known as adult service sites,
comprises three main strands of activity. First,
the National Crime Agency is leading a
multi-agency operational plan to investigate, disrupt and prevent
sex trafficking facilitated via such websites. I have visited the
unit at which that work is done. Again, I thank the officers
involved in that work. They sit at computer screens, see the
websites, read words very similar to those that have already been
cited in the debate, and they then have to find a way of dealing
with that when they leave the office and go home to their loved
ones. My eternal thanks and gratitude go to them for doing
that...
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