Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many cases the Forced Marriage Unit provided advice and support to in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The joint Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) lead efforts to combat forced marriage both at home and abroad, providing support and advice for victims, those at risk, and professionals, through its public helpline and inbox. The support offered ranges from providing information on forced marriage general enquiries and guidance to assistance in repatriation to the UK (for victims overseas).
The FMU publishes annual statistics that represent only the cases that have been reported to the FMU. Forced marriage is a hidden crime, so these figures will not reflect the full scale of the abuse. For this reason, the FMU is also involved in activities to raise awareness of forced marriage among key professions.
Data for the years 2019 – 2023, regarding FMU cases, is as follows:
A more detailed breakdown of these statistics is available for the years 2019 – 2023 and is accessible to the public via GOV.uk.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure better co-ordination of guidance given to medical practitioners, teachers, and faith leaders on reporting and protecting girls from female genital mutilation.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is an important part of this Government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. We are focused on preventing these crimes from happening in the first place, supporting and protecting survivors and those at risk, and bringing perpetrators to justice.
Frontline professionals and agencies with safeguarding responsibilities are crucial to protecting survivors and those at risk of FGM. Statutory guidance is therefore in place for agencies with safeguarding responsibilities to equip them with information on the law on FGM and to provide detailed advice on identifying FGM cases and how to coordinate appropriate responses.
The guidance also makes clear the importance of reporting for safeguarding professionals. It includes explicit reference to the mandatory reporting duty of some professionals (teachers, health and social care workers), making clear that under the law, they must rapidly inform the police of ‘known’ FGM cases among under-18s.
In addition to statutory guidance, there is an official FGM Resource Pack available for professionals which highlights what works in protecting survivors and those at risk of FGM. The Resource Pack includes training and assessment resources, as well as information about available specialist support services to enable coordinated responses.
Finally, the Government has developed free e-learning on FGM for frontline staff in healthcare, police, Border Force and children’s social care.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to changing the statutory definition of domestic abuse to that those under the age of 16 can be considered victims of domestic abuse.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government is considering a range of actions to address teenage relationship abuse, including considering whether any changes to the law are needed, and supporting our education system to teach children about respectful and healthy relationships and consent.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether it remains their policy to increase the minimum income for spouse/partner visas to £38,700 by 2025.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Secretary has commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the financial requirements in the Family Immigration Rules. Conducting a review of the financial requirements across the family routes will ensure we have a clear and consistent system.
There will be no changes to the current threshold of £29,000, or the ways in which the Minimum Income Requirement can be met, until the MAC review is complete.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to extend the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 to include GPS kits.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, which aims to prevent the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting.
The Act requires secondary legislation before it can come into effect. We will be carefully considering the views of those who may be affected by the legislation and its regulations, to determine the scope of the legislation and understand its potential implications.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of robbery and shoplifting offences in Hertfordshire; and what steps they plan to take to tackle those crimes in that area.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police recorded crime for England and Wales showed a 30% annual rise in shoplifting offences and 8% in robbery offences for year ending March 2024. Hertfordshire Police Force saw a 25% rise in shoplifting and a 35% rise in police recorded robbery offences in the same period.
In cases of shoplifting, more and more offenders are using violence and abuse against shopworkers. We will not stand for this. This Government will introduce a new offence for assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores. We will also end the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to low-value shoplifting of goods under £200.
Tackling serious violence, including robbery, is a priority for this Government. One of the ways we are doing this is through close working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Personal Robbery Steering Group.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 23 May (HL4639), when the findings of the feasibility study on the possibility of developing prevalence estimates for female genital mutilation and forced marriage will be published.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has committed to halving violence against women and girls over the next decade. Combatting so-called ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA) is very much a part of this work. The Home Office commissioned the University of Birmingham in 2023 to conduct a feasibility study on the possibility of developing prevalence estimates for female genital mutilation and forced marriage.
We are currently considering the findings of the feasibility study and we will confirm our next steps shortly.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication of the Kapersky State of Stalkerware Report 2023 on 20 March, which stated that 42 per cent of British citizens believe that cyberstalking of a romantic partner is acceptable, what steps they plan to take to increase awareness of online violence against women.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The scale of violence against women and girls in our country, including that which takes place online, is intolerable and this government will treat it as the national emergency that it is.
Stalking is an insidious crime, and the law is clear that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. Placing spyware on phones, hacking into accounts and accessing online accounts that perpetrators used to have authorised access to, are all crimes and should be reported to the police.
We will overhaul every aspect of society’s response to these devastating crimes, including tackling violent and misogynistic content online. This includes tackling the root causes of these crimes, by supporting our education system to teach children about healthy relationships and consent.
As part of our mission, we will be building on the Online Safety Act to tackle violent and misogynistic cultures online which can drive this kind of appalling crime. We will also strengthen the use of Stalking Protection Orders and will give women the right to know the identity of online stalkers.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to tighten restrictions on the sale of slingshots following reports of them being used to cause damage to vehicles and wildlife.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is clear that slingshots should not be used for illegal purposes, whether against wildlife, people or property.
Under provisions in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, The Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 and Animal Welfare Act 2006, there are a range of offences around injuring and inflicting unnecessary suffering on wildlife. These measures give the police broad powers to deal with cases where wildlife is attacked, including cases involving the misuse of slingshots.
It is an offence to carry an offensive weapon in a public place without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, under provisions in the Prevention of Crime Act 1953. If a slingshot is carried in a public place with the intention of causing injury it is likely to engage the legislation. The maximum penalty for having an offensive weapon in a public place is 4 years imprisonment. Where a slingshot is misused as a weapon, and a person is injured, there are a number of offences which may apply, such as causing actual bodily harm, which carry significant sentences.
The Criminal Damage Act 1971 creates offences around destroying or damaging property and possessing anything with intent to destroy or damage property. The maximum penalty for offences under the Act is 10 years imprisonment.
Slingshots do however have legitimate uses, for example within competitions and fishing and at present we consider that existing legislation provides the correct balance between protecting the public from the small number of individuals who misuse slingshots, while also allowing the public to enjoy legitimate pastimes. We have no plans to ban the sale of slingshots or slingshot ammunition at this time.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to tackle image-based sexual abuse among teenagers.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is committed to intervening as early as possible to prevent vulnerable children and young people from experiencing all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse. This includes education and awareness raising initiatives and equipping frontline professionals and safeguarding partners with the tools and training to identify child sexual abuse and provide support to children and young people.
We are working to implement the groundbreaking Online Safety Act, which places clear legal duties on tech companies to identify, report and remove child sexual abuse material and proactively combat the threat on their platforms. Alongside this, it is crucial that all sectors, including tech, step up their efforts in going further and faster in keeping children safe online.
We are also working to tackle the rise in harmful sexual behaviour among children and young people. This includes supporting the Shore website, run by the Lucy Faithful Foundation, which provides resources and a helpline that provides confidential help, support and information to young people concerned about their own or someone else’s sexual thoughts and behaviour to prevent abuse and victimisation Children. Young people are also able to access the Report Remove tool, run by the IWF and NSPCC, that enables children whose images have been shared online to remove those images from public platforms.
We are committed to using all available levers to us and call on all sectors to work to keep children safe online and across our communities in the UK and around the world.