• UK aid will help tackle the root causes of dangerous migration and modern slavery in Edo state, the epicentre of Nigeria’s human trafficking business.
• World-class British expertise will reduce vulnerabilities to trafficking through targeted public information campaigns and engagement with young people at schools and universities
• UK support to back use of former slavery victims as myth-busters, to help counter false promises that tempt people to place their lives in the hands of traffickers.

UK aid will protect thousands of vulnerable men, women and children in Nigeria from modern slavery and unsafe migration through innovative prevention work such as public information campaigns, awareness raising at schools and universities, and new research.

Nigeria’s Edo State is a focal point of the human trafficking business, and is also a key source location for trafficking into the UK.

This UK aid package will help stamp out the root causes of dangerous migration through enhanced prevention work.

British expertise will:

• help reduce vulnerabilities to trafficking and unsafe migration through targeted public information campaigns in Edo State. UK government communication specialists will design and lead this in partnership with the Nigerian anti-trafficking police.
• boost engagement with young people at schools and universities to change the aspirations of potential victims
• commission innovative research on what works to prevent dangerous migration attempts
• support NGOs who use former slavery victims to counter false myths that tempt people towards the traffickers.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:

It is a necessity that we step up and stamp out modern slavery for good. I am appalled that this shameful stain on our global conscience still exists in the 21st century.

I am proud UK support is driving the charge in tackling the root causes of dangerous migration to prevent vulnerable men, women and children from becoming targeted by traffickers or attempting treacherous journeys again. The benefits of this will be far reaching- preventing regional instability and helping us tackle slavery here in the UK.

Working in partnership with Edo State, a critical trafficking hotspot, this UK aid will shape scalable, cost-effective interventions that tackle the key drivers of modern slavery and unsafe migration attempts. Changing the aspirations of potential victims and migrants in a targeted and tailored way will be essential to achieving this. This is why UK government communication specialists will design and lead a new public information campaign to do just that, in partnership with the Nigerian anti-trafficking police.

By making it worthwhile for people to stay in their home states and supporting NGOs who use former slavery victims to counter false myths that tempt people towards the traffickers, this work will help eradicate these crimes for good.

The UK is at the forefront of the global fight against modern slavery, leading the global Call to Action to end this crime at the UN General Assembly last year, which over 60 countries have now signed.

In 2016 there were over 40 million estimated slavery victims and the UK is committed to eradicating this global scourge, which adds significant costs to the UK economy. Behind these numbers are real people subjected to brutal exploitation every single day.

• The UK is investing a further £6 million in the ‘Stamping Out Slavery’ in Nigeria (SOSIN) programme, taking its total value to £10 million.
• The programme will support NGOs and Nigerian government agencies to strengthen their slavery prevention work. Working in partnership with Edo State, UK aid will enhance slavery prevention schemes through targeted public information campaigns, education programmes and innovative research. This will shape scalable, cost-effective interventions by NGOs and the government to tackle the root cause of modern slavery.
• This announcement forms part of the doubling of UK development spending (Official Development Assistance) on anti-slavery activities to £150m, announced by the Prime Minister at the UN General Assembly last year.
• The UK is increasing total migration and modern slavery funding in Nigeria to £40.5 million. This prevention programme will complement other Home Office and Foreign Office programmes focused on law enforcement cooperation and tackling the serious organised crime behind people trafficking.
• Modern day slavery costs the UK £4.3billion a year, in terms of policing at home and abroad, and victim care and rehabilitation. Nigeria is estimated to have over 1.3 million slaves and in 2017 Nigerian nationals were the fifth largest group of victims referred to the UK’s national referral mechanism.

The SOSIN project will work by:

• supporting government prevention schemes such as targeted public information, social development and education programmes, and developing new research and data to inform better responses.
• looking at existing anti-slavery outreach in schools and universities and recommend changes in curriculum, messaging or approach, and fund pilots to test and find what works.
• a new public information campaign, designed and led by UK government communication specialists to test new approaches to changing the aspirations of potential victims and migrants, in partnership with the Nigerian anti-trafficking police.
• piloting new prevention interventions, such as using networks of returned victims to counteract false information from traffickers among vulnerable groups, through NGOs that are working in this area.
• doing high-quality research and evidence gathering to share lessons globally on what works.

Dennis Thompson has announced his intention to step down from the role of Managing Director of LLW Repository Ltd at the end of September to pursue new opportunities within his parent organisation AECOM.

Over the next few weeks, Paul Pointon will be appointed as Acting Managing Director, with Martin Walkingshaw taking on the role of Acting Deputy Managing Director.

Both of these appointments are for a period of not less than six months to ensure stability and continuity. Paul will retain oversight of the Repository Development Programme, at the same time fulfilling leadership and governance roles.

Martin will retain his current role as Head of Commercial and Strategic Development and support Paul in the execution of oversight and governance activities.

Both of these appointments have been agreed in principle by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA), Parent Body Organisation (PBO) and Site Licence Company (SLC) Boards and will be formally enacted on 28th September 2018, subject to completion of the Management of Change process.

Dennis will remain as Chairman of the SLC Board, to support the organisation as it goes through this transition. We are sure that all at LLWR will support Paul and Martin in their new roles, and we wish Dennis every success in his future endeavours and a fond but short lived farewell as he takes up the mantle of Non Executive Chair of LLWR and pursues new opportunities.

Today (Monday 3 September), the Home Secretary set out the scale of online child sexual exploitation (CSE), with a 700% increase in child abuse images being referred to the National Crime Agency (NCA) in the last five years, up to 80,000 people in the UK presenting some kind of sexual threat to children online and material increasingly featuring younger and younger children.

In a speech at the headquarters of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) the Home Secretary vowed to lead the cross-Government effort in the response to the evolving threat of online CSE, including funding for law enforcement, intelligence agencies and a new prevention drive.

He called on the technology industry to work in partnership with each other and with government to stop online child sexual abuse, sharing solutions and best practice to improve the response.

In his speech, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said:

I’ve been impressed by the progress the likes of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Apple have made on counter-terrorism.

Now I want to see the same level of commitment for child sexual exploitation. In recent years there has been some good work in this area. But the reality is that the threat has evolved quicker than industry’s response and industry has not kept up. And there are some companies that refuse to take it seriously.

I am not just asking for change, I am demanding it. And the people are demanding it too.

And if web giants do not take more measures to remove this type of content from their platforms, then I won’t be afraid to take action.

How far we legislate will be informed by the action and attitude that industry takes.

He said that he expects technology companies to:

• block child sexual abuse material as soon as companies detect it being uploaded
• stop child grooming taking place on their platforms
• work with government and law enforcement to shut down live-streamed child abuse
• for companies to be much more forward leaning in helping law enforcement agencies to deal with these types of crimes
• show a greater level of openness and transparency and a willingness to share best practice and technology between companies

Today, the Home Secretary announced an extra £21.5 million investment in law enforcement over the next 18 months to reduce the volume of offending and pursue the most hardened and dangerous abusers. The majority of this funding will go to UK law enforcement and intelligence agencies to tackle the most tech-savvy and dedicated abusers.

The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse estimates that 15% of girls and 5% of boys experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 16 while NSPCC research shows some children are being groomed online and blackmailed to perform sexual acts in less than 45 minutes from initial contact.

Director General Lynne Owens at the NCA said:

There are a significant number of sophisticated offenders including those involved in grooming, streaming of live abuse and transnational sex offending, who are very dangerous. The NCA and the police prioritise these investigations to prosecute offenders and safeguard vulnerable children. However, investigators are facing a constant uphill struggle because of the significant numbers of offenders committing preventable crimes, such as viewing and sharing images and videos that are easily accessible online.

The technology exists for industry to design-out these offences and to stop this material from being viewed. Some online platforms have taken important steps to improve safety, but we are asking for more. We want industry to invest in preventing these online offences from happening in the first place. It is not just a matter for law enforcement. We need industry to make it harder for anyone to access indecent images on the internet.

A further £2.6 million will be made available for prevention work, including to the child protection charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation. The charity works to reduce demand for online sexual images of children and prevent offending before it occurs.

Chief Executive of the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, Elaine McConnell said:

For the last 3 years we’ve been working to deter illegal online behaviour by highlighting to offenders and potential offenders that viewing or sharing sexual images of children is a crime, that it’s incredibly harmful to the children in the images and that the consequences of the behaviour are serious.

Not all offenders want to stop – but we know many do, and we know that with our help they can change their behaviour – the challenge for us is reaching them. We would welcome more collaborative working with tech companies to spread deterrence messages and signpost to our services.

With funding from the Home Office announced today, we will be able to answer more calls through our confidential ‘Stop it Now!’ helpline to reduce offending, reduce demand for images, and protect more children.

To further support the response the Home Secretary also outlined measures to support law enforcement to track down offenders, build children’s resilience, prevent abuse occurring and support victims. These include:

• the Home Secretary will be convening a meeting of industry experts in the US, in partnership with Microsoft to challenge companies to work together to come up with tools to detect online child grooming which will then be offered for free to other companies
• £250,000 being made available to support new ideas on how to detect and disrupt live streaming of abuse
• concerted international co-operation at the next Five Country Ministerial – a major meeting of the Five Eyes security partners – which will be held in London in 2019, focusing on targeting online CSE
• a new international network of Government advisers on serious and organised crime who will be stationed around the world and will help coordinate and drive action to tackle child sexual abuse in different regions
• a working group will be established with business and the advertising industry to look at stopping profit being generated from adverts on child abuse websites

The measures outlined by the Home Secretary builds on the government’s substantial investment since 2015 in UK law enforcement capabilities to tackle child sexual exploitation. This includes:

• nearly doubling the number of officers in the National Crime Agency combatting CSE
• investing £600,000 in Project Arachnid – a ground-breaking piece of technology that helps identify and remove Child Sexual Abuse material from the internet. It’s already crawled 1.3 billion web pages for suspected child sexual abuse material, analysed 51 billion images and issued more than 800,000 takedown notices
• establishing the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to thoroughly examine the extent to which institutions in England and Wales have done their job at protecting children
• announcing that relationship education will be made mandatory in primary schools as well as teaching children at every level about staying safe online
• awarding 11 councils £13 million through the Trusted Relationships Fund to protect vulnerable children from exploitation and abuse

Mark Field, Minister for Asia and the Pacific, said:

I am extremely disappointed that two Reuters journalists in Burma, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, have today been found guilty and sentenced to seven years imprisonment for nothing more than doing their jobs. They provided valuable reporting on abhorrent human rights violations in Rakhine State, and I have consistently called for their immediate release, including directly with the Burmese government.

In any democracy, journalists must be free to carry out their jobs without fear or intimidation. This verdict has undermined both freedom of the media and the rule of law in Burma. Officials from the British Embassy in Rangoon have attended the trial throughout, and believe that the judge has ignored the evidence presented to him, as well as ruling against Burma’s own laws.

This is a bad day for Burma, but those of us who have consistently called for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo’s freedom will not give up. We call again today for their immediate release. We will remain in close contact with Reuters, and maintain our support as they consider next steps.

Further information

Published 3 September 2018