Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of India about the large-scale online organisations identified by the BBC's Scam Interceptors programme, which seek to defraud UK internet users and which operate out of Kolkata.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are developing stronger partnerships with countries across the world to build the global response to this vile threat and tackle fraudsters wherever they are based. We are hosting the inaugural Global Fraud Summit in March, which will convene key allies to spearhead a coordinated diplomatic and law enforcement approach to tackling fraud internationally.
We are also engaging with the Government of India directly to see what more can be done, including on law enforcement collaboration and sharing best practice on fraud prevention.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have gathered data on the prevalence of e-bikers exceeding the speed limit of 15.5 miles per hour in urban areas; and if so, whether they will publish them.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on fixed penalty notices (FPNs) and other outcomes for motoring offences in England and Wales on an annual basis, as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures: Other PACE’ statistical bulletin. The most recent data, up to 2021, is available here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1118166/fixed-penalty-notices-and-other-motoring-offences-statistics-police-powers-and-procedures-year-ending-31-december-2021.ods
However, the Home Office does not centrally collect data on the type of vehicle involved in the offence.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why it has taken six years for them to respond to the report The patronising disposition of unaccountable power: A report to ensure the pain and suffering of the Hillsborough families is not repeated (Session 2017–19, HC 511) on the Hillsborough disaster of 1989.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
For much of the time since Bishop James Jones’ report on the experiences of the Hillsborough families was published there were ongoing legal proceedings; it was clearly important that the Government did not take any action which might risk prejudicing the outcome of those proceedings.
More recently, the Government has been undertaking work to go further to deliver on issues that are important to the families, and to make sure that similar injustices are not repeated.
In publishing its response to Bishop James’ report on 6 December, ministers in both Houses apologised to the Hillsborough families on behalf of the Government for the length of time taken to do so.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the root cause of the nationwide failure of passport e-gates on 26 and 27 May.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
It has never been government practice, for reasons of law enforcement, to comment on operational issues relating to border security and immigration controls. This includes offering commentary on the performance of border systems and of ePassport Gates data specifically.
Border Force’s number one priority is to maintain a secure border, and we will not compromise on this, but we are committed to ensuring passengers have the smoothest possible journey they can. As we continue to deliver change to our border systems we are committed to ensuring that resilience is at the heart of everything that we do
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of (1) the incidence, and (2) aggregate cost to victims, of online fraud; and what assessment they have made of the success of (a) the technology platforms, and (b) enforcement authorities of (i) identifying fraudulent sites or activity, and (ii) effectively countering them.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
As of March 2021, online fraud was estimated, using data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, at 58% of fraud while the volume of fraud against individuals was 4.65 million incidents. The most recent estimate (December 2021) of fraud against individuals was 5.2 million incidents. However, an estimate of online fraud for this period is unavailable at present.
The Home Office does not collate statistics regarding costs to victims of online fraud. The most recent estimate of the total cost of fraud against individuals is £4.7 bn for the FY 2015/16. The Home Office also does not measure ‘success’ of technology platforms and enforcement authorities in identifying fraudulent sites and activity and countering them. The Home Office works closely with the National Cyber Security Centre who launched their Suspicious Email Reporting Service in April 2020. This has already led to over 11 million reports received and the removal of over 78,000 scams and 144,000 harmful websites to date.
The Government’s programme of work to tackle fraudulent online advertising in collaboration with industry includes the Online Safety Bill and the Online Advertising Programme.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 7 October (HL8409), whether they will now answer the question put, namely what percentage of e-mails received by the Home Office Coronavirus Immigration Help Centre in August were answered within the usual reply period of five working days.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office does not collate the specific information requested, however, the progress of responses to questions directed to the Coronavirus Immigration Team is monitored regularly and remains a priority.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of e-mails received by the Home Office Coronavirus Immigration Help Centre in August were answered within the usual reply period of five working days.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Asylum seekers can work in the UK if their claim has been outstanding for 12 months, through no fault of their own. Those allowed to work are restricted to jobs on the Shortage Occupation List, which is published by the Home Office and based on expert advice from the Migration Advisory Committee.
It is important to distinguish between those who need protection and those seeking to work here, who can apply for a work visa under the Immigration Rules. Our wider policy could be undermined if migrants bypassed work visa Rules by lodging unfounded asylum claims here.
The Home Office is currently reviewing policy on right to work.
As part of the plans to speed up Asylum decision making, over the last 18 months, UK Visas and Immigration have increased the number of Asylum decision makers and support staff as part of a rolling recruitment campaign and mobilised a transformation programme that seeks to simplify, streamline and digitise processes.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the success of tactics used to police large gatherings of people who are not adhering to COVID-19 preventative measures.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The deployment of tactics is an operational matter for the police. The police response follows the four-step escalation principles – engaging, explaining, encouraging, and then enforcing. In general the public have followed the rules without any need for enforcement action. We have empowered the police to disperse gatherings and issue Fixed Penalty Notices for those who break the rules. This includes £10,000 fines to those who hold, or are involved in the holding of, illegal gatherings as well as fines for those who participate.
The National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) regularly publish data on fixed penalty notices issued under COVID-19 emergency health regulations by police forces and are in the process of collating data relating to the number of £10,000 fines issued.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of police officer recruits remain in the police for two years or more.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office collects and publishes information on the length of service of police officers on an annual basis in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.
As at 31 March 2019, 88% of officers had been in the police service for two years or more.
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 8 April (HL15089), whether organised acquisitive crime in rural areas is rising.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Crime Survey for England and Wales which the independent Office for National Statistics cites as the most reliable measure of long-term trends in crime does not capture whether or not crime is perpetrated by organised criminal gangs.
Some information about organised crime committed against businesses is available from the Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS). Victims of crime interviewed by the CVS are asked whether they perceived crimes to have been committed by “an organised group of criminals”, a “loosely knit group”, or “someone working alone”. It is important to note the subjective nature of this question and findings should be interpreted with caution.
The 2017 CVS showed that 39% of business premises in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector that had been victims of burglary thought it was committed by “an organised group of criminals”, an increase of 16 percentage points compared with the previous survey in 2013. Estimates for other acquisitive crimes are not available due to small sample sizes in the survey.