The strongest protections in the draft Online Safety Bill are for children. The Bill will require social media companies to assess whether their service is likely to be accessed by or appeal to a significant number of children and, if so, deliver additional protections for them.

Ofcom will be required to produce and publish guidance for services on how to undertake this risk assessment. Companies which assess that they are not likely to be accessed by children will need to provide robust evidence to the regulator and keep this assessment under review. The requirement to undertake, and keep up to date, an accurate assessment with regard to child access is an enforceable requirement. Ofcom may take enforcement action where providers do not carry out an adequate assessment and keep it up to date.

As has been the practice of successive Administrations, it is not government policy to comment on security procedures in government buildings.

On Tuesday 17 March 2020, following Public Health and Government guidance relating to COVID19 and the developing situation, we paused immigration reporting and sent an SMS text message to reportees with a valid mobile telephone number on our systems informing them of this.

On Tuesday 24 March we maintained the decision to close reporting centres and police reporting temporarily following the Prime Minister’s address to the nation. This was because we were not confident that we could practice safe social distancing and operate within a COVID secure environment.

Immigration Enforcement recommenced face to face reporting in July and August for limited, priority cohorts of people. We have implemented Safe Systems of Working (SSOW) and Risk Assessments in all our Reporting Centres where we have put in place robust social distancing measures; health screening questions are asked as a person enters; face masks are offered to those who have travelled without them; and one-way systems and sanitiser stations are placed throughout our buildings. We continue to review our current reporting arrangements in line with any new local and national COVID restrictions that are put in place.

Following the announcement on Monday 4 January 2021 we decided to maintain face to face reporting for priority cohorts of people. Our robust Safe Systems of Working and Risk Assessments remain in place and still adhere to current Government guidance. Those that are required to report at this time are covered for movement under The Health Protection Regulations 2020 where movement is permitted for the purpose of fulfilling a legal obligation, including attending court or satisfying bail conditions, or to participate in legal proceedings.

We continue to keep in contact with the overall reporting population by telephone to update individuals on the current reporting position. An SMS text or email/letter is sent to those required to recommence reporting informing them of the date and time they should report, along with relevant advice on COVID. We have also updated the reporting pages on GOV.UK for those who report and their representatives. This information includes how to travel most safely by public transport, avoiding both busy transport hubs and traveling at peak times; advice on reporting alone where possible; and what to do if those reporting have symptoms or are shielding and how to contact their local reporting centre.

On Tuesday 17 March 2020, following Public Health and Government guidance relating to COVID19 and the developing situation, we paused immigration reporting and sent an SMS text message to reportees with a valid mobile telephone number on our systems informing them of this.

On Tuesday 24 March we maintained the decision to close reporting centres and police reporting temporarily following the Prime Minister’s address to the nation. This was because we were not confident that we could practice safe social distancing and operate within a COVID secure environment.

Immigration Enforcement recommenced face to face reporting in July and August for limited, priority cohorts of people. We have implemented Safe Systems of Working (SSOW) and Risk Assessments in all our Reporting Centres where we have put in place robust social distancing measures; health screening questions are asked as a person enters; face masks are offered to those who have travelled without them; and one-way systems and sanitiser stations are placed throughout our buildings. We continue to review our current reporting arrangements in line with any new local and national COVID restrictions that are put in place.

Following the announcement on Monday 4 January 2021 we decided to maintain face to face reporting for priority cohorts of people. Our robust Safe Systems of Working and Risk Assessments remain in place and still adhere to current Government guidance. Those that are required to report at this time are covered for movement under The Health Protection Regulations 2020 where movement is permitted for the purpose of fulfilling a legal obligation, including attending court or satisfying bail conditions, or to participate in legal proceedings;

We continue to keep in contact with the overall reporting population by telephone to update individuals on the current reporting position. An SMS text or email/letter is sent to those required to recommence reporting informing them of the date and time they should report, along with relevant advice on COVID. We have also updated the reporting pages on GOV.UK for those who report and their representatives. This information includes how to travel most safely by public transport, avoiding both busy transport hubs and traveling at peak times; advice on reporting alone where possible; and what to do if those reporting have symptoms or are shielding and how to contact their local reporting centre.

The terms of reference for the review of initial asylum seeker accommodation during the Covid-19 pandemic are to:

• Conduct a rapid review of initial accommodation for single adult asylum seekers, including hotels and former military barracks, and provide assurance of compliance with public health guidelines to prevent the transmission of Covid 19.  This will include interviews with a wide range of interested parties including Local Authorities, Strategic Migration Partnerships, commercial providers, non-governmental organisations, asylum seekers and Government officials.

• Provide advice and guidance to the Home Office, providers and individual accommodation units on best practice to prevent transmission of Covid 19

This is a rapid review to assure ourselves of the health and safety of asylum seekers during the Covid 19 pandemic. A report is due by the end of the month and we will seek to publish a summary of the recommendations.

We chose sites across the UK that would best inform our national approach going forward. This has augmented our business as usual activity on risk and assessment of accommodation during this time of crisis.

The terms of reference for the review of initial asylum seeker accommodation during the Covid-19 pandemic are to:

• Conduct a rapid review of initial accommodation for single adult asylum seekers, including hotels and former military barracks, and provide assurance of compliance with public health guidelines to prevent the transmission of Covid 19.  This will include interviews with a wide range of interested parties including Local Authorities, Strategic Migration Partnerships, commercial providers, non-governmental organisations, asylum seekers and Government officials.

• Provide advice and guidance to the Home Office, providers and individual accommodation units on best practice to prevent transmission of Covid 19

This is a rapid review to assure ourselves of the health and safety of asylum seekers during the Covid 19 pandemic. A report is due by the end of the month and we will seek to publish a summary of the recommendations.

We chose sites across the UK that would best inform our national approach going forward. This has augmented our business as usual activity on risk and assessment of accommodation during this time of crisis.

HMCTS is committed to ensuring the health, safety and welfare of all members of its staff, and takes its duty of care towards members of the judiciary, contractors and to court and tribunal users extremely seriously.

On 15 May 2020 the HMCTS Organisational Risk Assessment was published, setting out our approach to keeping the court and tribunal estate Covid-secure. It is available here. The assessment is currently in the process of being updated, and we anticipate the revised version will be published in November 2020.

The Home Office can receive medical evidence from a variety of sources including individual’s own accounts, reports from individual General Practitioners and medical advisors, other privately sourced medical advisors, as well as via medical practitioners based within Immigration Removal Centres under Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules. Regardless of the source, all evidence received is considered by immigration case workers.

The number of reports that are provided by medical practitioners based in Immigration Removal Centres under Rule 35 of the Detention Centre Rules are published quarterly as part of Immigration Enforcement transparency data. The latest publication can be found on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-enforcement-data-february-2020

Medical evidence received from other sources are not centrally recorded and the amount received cannot be obtained without reviewing individual case files, which could only be done at disproportionate cost.

Medical evidence received from external sources is not centrally recorded on Home Office systems and the number of pieces of evidence received cannot be obtained without reviewing individual case files, which could only be done at disproportionate cost.

All medical evidence received is considered in line with the Adults at Risk Policy and any decisions in relation to continued detention will be made having reviewed any evidence received. Release reasons are recorded but do not consider the assumed intention behind the submissions of such evidence.

The Home Office published its response to the ICIBI’s report in April of this year. The ICIBI made eight recommendations, of which the Home Office has accepted two, partially accepted five and rejected one. The full report can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/882002/Response_to_the_annual_inspection_of_adults_at_risk_in_immigration_detention.pdf

The safety and health of staff working in the detention estate and people who are detained are of the utmost importance.

The Home Office, its suppliers and NHS England healthcare providers in immigration removal centres are following all Public Health England guidance on COVID-19 for the management of COVID-19. Universal testing is not currently recommended under these guidelines, this includes staff, people who are detained and those being released into the community. Any testing conducted will be dependent on individual circumstances.

The Home Office is taking proactive steps to monitor, manage and mitigate the threat of COVID-19 to staff and people who are detained and to reduce the likelihood of the infection spreading. Guidance on managing these risks was implemented on 5 May 2020 and subsequently published on gov.uk on 5 June https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-immigration-removal-centres.

As of 23 June 2020, there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in immigration removal centres.

Our organisational risk assessment, which has been published on gov.uk, gives an overview of our assessment of risks across the organisation and details the safety measures in place. We constantly monitor the arrangements in all our buildings to ensure that they continue to meet the standards required - in doing this, we adopt a structured approach, using a local assessment tool.

Across HMCTS we have a range of workplaces with differing requirements and this provides a flexible framework for managers to effectively assess the risks and manage the safety measures for individual buildings. The tool helps to ensure that potential risks are constantly monitored, that swift action can be taken where necessary, and that anything significant that can’t be resolved quickly at local level is promptly escalated.

The local assessments are dynamic documents that are updated regularly. It is important that we are always able to provide the most up to date information about the safety measures in place for any specific building. To this end, and to ensure that people have the most up to date information, we are not publishing local assessments online as they are rapidly changing. We are, however, providing electronic copies of them to court and tribunal users on request. We ask that requests are made locally, to individual sites across our estate.

As a Government, we have outlined the risks posed by the COVID-19 virus, and the control measures required to avoid exposure and transmission. In parallel, we have been clear that the work of the justice system must continue throughout the prevailing public health emergency. Accordingly, it has been necessary to keep some courts and tribunal buildings open, and we are working hard to open more so long as that can be achieved safely.

HMCTS is committed to ensuring the health, safety and welfare of all staff, members of the judiciary and visitors to its sites, as far as it is reasonably practical whilst they are on the premises.

In order to aid implementation of the required control measures, and to monitor and assure ourselves of compliance, we developed and implemented an assessment tool to be carried out in each of our open sites.

The tool was developed in consultation with trade union health and safety representatives. The finalised tool was issued to each site, with instruction that it should wherever possible be completed in conjunction and consultation with a Trade Union representative. I understand that wherever possible our officials did conduct those assessments with trade union colleagues, and continue to do so as the results are regularly reviewed.

We are confident that our open sites are safe, and can confirm risk assessments will be available to be shared on request very soon.

A judicial led Jury Trials Working Group (JTWG) was set up to establish ways in which jury trials can be commenced safely. The JTWG developed a Crown Court Jury Trial checklist which was discussed with the Departmental Trade Union Side (DTUS) on 30 April and a copy shared with them on 4 May. Completed risk assessments were shared with the DTUS before the first jury trials resumed on 18 May.

The moves that took place in Glasgow were moves from contingency accommodation (serviced apartments) to contingency accommodation (hotels). Contingency use is permitted under the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts.

Where a provider needs to move an Initial Accommodation (IA) or Dispersed Accommodation (DA) service user they may have to do so as a matter of urgency and in such circumstances there is no contractual requirement to notify the Home Office in advance, but rather within one day of such a move taking place. A provider may only move an IA Service User once.

All accommodation providers are required to undertake risk assessments for the activities and services they perform and risk is formally managed on a monthly basis at formal contract government meetings, the most recent of which updated the risk register in relation to the use of hotel contingency across the AASC contracts held by Mears.

Risk assessment of the suitability of a property for use for supported asylum seekers would normally form part of the engagement with a Local Authority on the use of a particular hotel contingency.

The AASC Contract does not require service users in receipt of S98 support to be given 7 days-notice of moves and there may be times when service users need to be moved quickly, as a matter of urgency. In all cases relating to the moves in Glasgow, Mears have confirmed that the moves were discussed with service users in advance which included discussing requirements, assistance with packing belongings and arranging transport.