Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Reform UK - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2024 to Question 14367 on Non-Crime Hate Incidents, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on non-crime hate incidents.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is carefully considering next steps relating to the recording of non-crime hate incidents.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of time spent by police officers completing paperwork as part of the requirements set out in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is important for the investigation of offences, as well as for ensuring transparency and accountability in policing, that effective records are kept, and data is recorded. But it is vital that these processes are proportionate and do not get in the way of everyday police work.
This Government is committed to tackling unnecessary bureaucracy and will work with police forces to build on the foundation of the Policing Productivity Review, working with the College of Policing to support forces to ensure officers are able to use their time more productively.
The Home Office’s Annual Data Requirement (ADR) is a list of all requests for data made to chief officers of police forces in England and Wales under the Home Secretary’s statutory powers. There is a robust and stringent process underpinning the ADR to review existing requests and consider new or amended requests.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) police officers, (b) Police Community Support Officers and (c) special constables are planned to be recruited between 1 December 2024 and 31 March 2025.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
As part of the Government’s Safer Streets mission, the Home Secretary has made a clear commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing through the introduction of a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. This will include delivering an additional 13,000 police officers, PCSOs and special constables in neighbourhood policing roles and ensuring every community has a named officer to turn to.
We are working closely with policing to implement this commitment and will announce our plans for the delivery of neighbourhood officers shortly.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has had discussions with the Fire Brigades Union, in the context of the report entitled Dangerous cladding: the government’s remediation portfolio, published by the National Audit Office on 4 November 2024.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government is the lead on building remediation and is due to meet the Fire Brigades Union in the new year.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will reimburse police forces with the cost of proposed increases to employer national insurance contributions.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government will fully compensate police forces for the impact of the changes to National Insurance Employer contributions.
Details on the allocation of this funding will be confirmed at the provisional police settlement in mid-December.
Asked by: Colum Eastwood (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Foyle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to (a) review and (b) raise the classification of pregabalin under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Pregabalin is currently controlled under Class C of the Misuse of Dugs Act 1971. The Government takes expert advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), which is the independent advisory body on drugs, on the classification of substances under the 1971 Act and scheduling under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001.
Controlled drugs are placed in the appropriate class and schedule following consideration of advice from the ACMD on the potential harms of misuse, and an assessment of their medicinal or therapeutic usefulness and the need for legitimate access. The ACMD announced in February this year that they are looking to launch an updated harms assessment for gabapentinoids, which includes pregabalin, to review the position of these drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The Government will consider the findings of the ACMD’s review once published.
The ACMD’s work programme is available on the Gov.UK website: ACMD work programme 2024 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Matt Bishop (Labour - Forest of Dean)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the suspension of firearm certificate grants by Gloucestershire Constabulary.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Chief Constables have operational responsibility for consideration of firearms licensing applications and the allocation of resources to firearms licensing units.
However, we expect police forces to ensure that all applications for firearm certificates, whether new applications or those for renewal, are dealt with as efficiently as possible subject to addressing public safety risks.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to extend the temporary off-sales regulatory easement in the Business and Planning Act 2020 beyond 31 March 2025.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office conducted a consultation on the future of the temporary off-sales regulatory easement earlier this year. A response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department has spent on consultancy fees in each year since 2021.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office holds information on consultancy fees and reports this in its Annual Report and Accounts.
Refer to the links and pages below for the available published information that relates to consultancy spending.
Pages 155-157 (Pages 159-161 on the pdf reader) of the 2023-24 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts
Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2023 to 2024 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Pages 173-175 of the 2022-23 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts
Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2022-2023 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Pages 107-108 of the the 2022-23 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts
Home_Office_ARA_21-22_Final_-_Gov.uk.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Pages 99-101 of the 2020-21 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts
HO annual report and accounts 2020-21 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Information relating to financial year 2024-25 will be available following the end of the financial year and once the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts have been laid before Parliament.
Note that the Home Office reports by its financial year (April-March), rather than on a calendar year basis.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals on penalties for theft of (a) livestock and (b) GPS farming equipment.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is committed to reducing crime in rural areas, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping.
The government recognises the distress livestock worrying can cause animals and their keepers. We are considering the most effective ways to deliver our commitments in this area and will be setting out next steps in due course.
We are also committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 and support its intentions to fend off the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly equipment used in an agricultural setting.I met with Ruth Bailey, CEO of Agriculture Association on the 5th November 2024 .
The Act requires secondary legislation before it can come into effect. We are currently considering the views of those who may be affected by the legislation and its regulations, including manufacturers, to understand the potential implications and determine the scope of the legislation, including what equipment it will include.