To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the security of the support and accommodation arrangements provided for child victims of human trafficking in the north-west, north- east and midlands will be reviewed; what representations she has received from campaign organisations on the safety and security of trafficked children within the care of local authorities; and if she will make a statement. (177079)

Under the Children Acts 1989 and 2004, it is the responsibility of local authorities rather than central Government to safeguard and promote the welfare of any child who is assessed to be at risk of harm and in need of accommodation. Any review of the security of the support and accommodation arrangements provided for child victims of human trafficking in particular areas would, therefore, be for the relevant local authorities.

On 7 December 2007 the Government published supplementary guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children—Safeguarding Children who may have been Trafficked, which actively guides practitioners towards making appropriate decisions for safeguarding children they suspect may have been trafficked. The Government will also shortly publish their reform programme for unaccompanied asylum seeking children which will include proposals on how safe arrangements for trafficked children may be further improved.

The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Gedling (Mr. Coaker), who is responsible for crime reduction, has met representatives from children's charities to discuss the safeguarding of trafficked children, and informed them of the Government's policy aims for safeguarding child victims of trafficking.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans the Government have for provision of support for people who have been trafficked beyond the current funding arrangement for the Poppy Project. (177080)

I have been asked to reply.

The Government have announced their intention to accelerate plans to ratify and implement the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings by the end of 2008, which sets a minimum framework of support for all identified victims of trafficking. This will enable us to enhance our existing arrangements and build on the support provided by the Poppy Project.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been for human trafficking offences in each year since 2001, broken down by type of offence. (177083)

The Sexual Offences Act 2003 came into force on 1 May 2004. Prosecution and conviction figures under dedicated trafficking legislation are as follows:

All the above figures relate to cases of human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. There have been no convictions to date for trafficking for exploitation under the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004 which came into force on 1 December 2004.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate she has made of the number of people trafficked into the UK in each year since 2001. (177084)

The nature of the crime makes it difficult to make an accurate assessment of the extent of the problem. In order to understand the situation better, the Serious Organised Crime Agency and with the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre continue to work on improving intelligence collection as a priority. The intelligence collected as part of the current Operation Pentameter 2 will help to improve our understanding of the nature and scale of trafficking throughout the UK.

However, findings from a Home Office research paper estimate that at any one time in 2003 there were in the region of 4,000 female victims of trafficking for prostitution in the UK.