Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the recommendations from the HM Chief Inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service and HM Inspector of Constabulary report Joint Inspection of the Investigation and Prosecution of Fatal Road Traffic Incidents, published in February 2015, have been taken up.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Six of the 15 recommendations in the Joint Inspection of the Investigation and Prosecution of Fatal Road Traffic Incidents report were addressed to the police or to the College of Policing and are therefore operational in nature. It is the responsibility of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to ensure individual Chief Constables act on HMICFRS’ findings.
Nine of the recommendations were addressed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which falls under the remit of the Attorney General’s Office. The CPS carefully considers each and every recommendation made by the Inspectorate when it reports, implementing them as appropriate.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to (1) the remarks by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 28 February (HL Deb col 125) that "the service standard of a wait of no longer than 25 minutes for Border Force officers has been maintained throughout that period", and (2) the statement made by the chief executive of Eurostar, Gwendoline Cazenave, on 24 January that Eurostar are running trains more than a third empty, what is the current service standard of UK Border Force for each of the hours of operation in (a) St Pancras, (b) Paris, (c) Brussels, and (d) Amsterdam; and whether the same service could be achieved if Eurostar were able to run the trains full.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Border Force operate the same service standards across all international airports, ports and rail termini. The Border Force operation across international rail operates within published service standard levels. Border Force are only one part of a port ecosystem and we are unable to speculate on Eurostar commercial operations or the wider operation and capacity of port infrastructure and processes outside of our control.
We have regular engagement with partner countries and continue to discuss with them, and Eurostar, future border arrangements and infrastructure availability’.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to (1) the remarks by Lord Murray of Blidworth on 28 February (HL Deb col 125) that "the service standard of a wait of no longer than 25 minutes for Border Force officers has been maintained throughout that period", and (2) the statement made by the chief executive of Eurostar, Gwendoline Cazenave, on 24 January that Eurostar are running trains more than a third empty, what discussions they are having with the governments of (a) France, (b) Belgium, and (c) the Netherlands, to facilitate increasing the passenger throughput; and what support they are giving to Eurostar to enable them to carry the full capacity of their trains without delay.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Border Force operate the same service standards across all international airports, ports and rail termini. The Border Force operation across international rail operates within published service standard levels. Border Force are only one part of a port ecosystem and we are unable to speculate on Eurostar commercial operations or the wider operation and capacity of port infrastructure and processes outside of our control.
We have regular engagement with partner countries and continue to discuss with them, and Eurostar, future border arrangements and infrastructure availability’.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their policy for disposal of small boats used by asylum seekers crossing the English Channel.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
All vessels that have been subject to seizure are held by Border Force until completion of any criminal investigation activities. The majority of boats are not fit for re-sale or to ever go to sea again, as they arrive in very poor condition and may be damaged during the recovery process. The boats are disposed of by Border Force’s approved contractors and, where appropriate, any suitable materials are recycled.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) bicycles were reported as stolen, and (2) people were prosecuted for cycle theft, in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes official statistics on the number of bicycle theft offences and their investigative outcomes reported to and recorded by the police in England and Wales, on a quarterly basis.
These can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
The Ministry of Justice collects and publishes information on prosecutions as part of the outcomes by offence data tool.
This can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-june-2022.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Harrington of Watford on 1 June (HL337), and his remarks on 7 June in relation to Ukraine that “visas take between two and three days" and that "the number of applications awaiting conclusions is about 19,000" (HL Deb col 1088), how many of those applicants have been waiting for clearance for (1) one, (2) two, (3) five, and (4) more than 10, weeks; and what are the reasons for the longer delays.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Information on the number of visas granted under these schemes can be on the GOV.UK webpage: Ukraine Family Scheme and Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine) visa data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Applications are normally processed in date order from when documents were uploaded, or after an appointment at a Visa Application Centre (VAC). We are working seven days a week to process applications.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will respond to the email from Lord Berkeley to Lord Harrington of Watford sent on 22 April concerning the visa applications GWF064118049 and GWF064118784.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Lord Harrington responded to the Lord Berkeley’s correspondence on 19 May 2022.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what evidence they hold, or what estimates they have made, of the numbers of drivers (1) arrested for motoring offences, or (2) who are involved in (a) collisions, (b) serious collisions, or (c) fatal collisions, who were using hands-free mobile phone devices at the time of the offence or collision.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The information requested is not available.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests for notifiable offences on Gov.uk. Motoring offences are non-notifiable unless they involve death by dangerous driving, these would be recorded under violence against the person offences, more detailed breakdowns are not held centrally. Furthermore, information on whether a hands-free device was involved, is not collected.
The Home Office also publishes data on Fixed Penalty Notices and other outcomes for motoring offences, by broader offence group. However, data is not held centrally on whether a hands-free device was involved or if a collision occurred. The most recent data can be found on Gov.uk.
The Department for Transport publish data on road casualties, which can be found on Gov.uk. This data provide information on the severity of the accident however they do not include information on whether a hands-free device was involved.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the number of uninsured motor vehicles on UK roads; what they are doing to support police in removing uninsured vehicles from the roads; and what other measures they have considered to reduce this crime, including the use of automatic number plate recognition at petrol stations.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
There are an estimated one million uninsured motor vehicles on UK roads each day.
Operation Tutelage is a national policing initiative where police forces issue advisory letters to drivers who appear to have no motor insurance. The letter encourages the registered keeper to identify if there is a problem with the insurance for the vehicle, and to put things right. The initiative which is led by the NPCC and supported by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB), was introduced in January 2020 to help reduce uninsured driving levels across the UK.
The Government has established a Roads Policing Review (RPR), consisting of the Department for Transport, Home Office and the National Police Chiefs’ Council, to understand what can be done better to tackle road crime and improve roads safety. The review brings together partners from several agencies including the DVLA, DVSA, and Highways England and is the most comprehensive examination of roads policing ever conducted.
The Government will continue to support the police to ensure that they have the tools needed to enforce road traffic legislation. This includes the continued investment in ANPR technology to tackle crime.
Asked by: Lord Berkeley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the European Commission’s proposed regulation 2021/0387 on measures against transport operators that facilitate or engage in trafficking in persons or smuggling of migrants, what assessment they have made of the effect the regulations could have on (1) air, (2) sea, (3) road, and (4) rail operators between the UK and the EU, particularly on the island of Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
There is a high level of cooperation on border security between both the UK and Irish Governments to ensure we are taking all the necessary measures to protect and secure the Common Travel Area, this includes people travelling from Ireland to the UK.
The Home Office, Ireland’s Garda National Immigration Bureau and Border Management Unit, the Police Service of Northern Ireland and other police forces work together to tackle abuse of the CTA by conducting intelligence-led checks and enforcement operations.
We continue to take a whole route approach in pursuing the crime groups who facilitate people smuggling to the UK and who exploit vulnerable migrants, knowingly putting people in life-threatening situations.