WIREDGOV

The Information Commissioner is reminding organisations to be transparent with people’s personal information.

One year on since the original benchmark research, the ICO has conducted another round of public research into trust & confidence into how organisations handle personal data, which revealed it is still low, despite an improvement across sectors.

The research found that 34% have trust & confidence in companies & organisations storing and using their personal information.  This is up from 21% of people in 2017.  Trust & confidence is lowest amongst social media companies, with only 15% of people stating that they have trust & confidence in them.

Rough sleepers will receive further support after the government set out plans to fund 83 areas with the highest numbers of people at risk over the next 2 years.

Following on from the launch of its Rough Sleeping Strategy last month, the government has announced provisional allocations of a £34m fund to provide local support for those living on the streets.  Councils across England with the highest numbers of rough sleepers will receive a share of the funding to back on-going initiatives in their area, such as dedicated support teams and securing additional bed spaces.

A nationwide pilot to bring migrant workers to UK farms has been announced by the Home Secretary and Environment Secretary.

The 2-year pilot will mean fruit & vegetable farmers are able to employ migrant workers for seasonal work for up to 6 months.  2,500 workers from outside the EU will be able to come to the UK each year, alleviating labour shortages during peak production periods.

Soft fruit production in the UK has grown dramatically, by 130% in the last 20 years.  To ensure that this growth continues and the UK is at the forefront of the next agriculture revolution, farmers must also look at ways that technology can reduce demands for labour.

The Home Secretary has set out the scale of online child sexual exploitation, with a 700% increase in child abuse images being referred to the National Crime Agency 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 & younger children.

In a speech at the headquarters of the 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.

The Sentencing Council has published a new guideline (comes into force in courts in England & Wales on 1 January 2019) for how those guilty of child cruelty offences should be sentenced.

When someone is prosecuted for harming a child, the offence charged will vary according to the circumstances, and it is important to distinguish the offences in this guideline from other offences that may be charged, such as assault, murder and manslaughter.  There are also cases in which a child is harmed and one person is charged with assault and another with allowing the child to suffer serious physical harm.