Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce incidences of knife crime against shop workers.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office has provided £130m this financial year (22/23) to tackle and drive down serious violence, including funding for Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) and the Home Office ‘Grip’ programme.
We have introduced legislation to tackle these crimes. Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) are new court orders introduced via the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 that will give the police the power to stop and search adults already convicted of knife or offensive weapons offences. We will pilot SVROs in four police force areas to build an understanding of the impact and effectiveness of the new orders before making a decision on whether we should introduce them nationally.
Knife Crime Prevention Orders (KCPOs) were introduced in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019. KCPOs impose curfews and restrictions on high-risk individuals. They are currently being piloted by the Metropolitan Police before a decision is taken on wider rollout.
In addition, section 156 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 introduced a statutory aggravating factor for assault against any public facing worker. This ensures the courts treat the public-facing nature of a victim’s role as an aggravating factor when considering the sentence for any assault offence where they consider this factor to be relevant.
The Home Office continues to work closely with retailers, trade associations and the police through the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) to encourage retailers to work with police so that crimes are effectively dealt with at a local level. The NRCSG has produced practical resources to assist with crime prevention and encourage retailers to report crimes when they occur.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have dual British-Iranian citizenship; and of those, what estimate they have made of the number currently residing in Iran.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Under UK law, there is no restriction on holding other passports so only the ‘relevant’ nationality to a case is generally captured in a analysable form.
We cannot provide a figure on how many Iranians have rights or claims to dual British citizenship. Eligibility for British citizenship depends on an individual’s ability to meet all of the statutory requirements, and eligibility for dual nationality would also be subject to the rules of the other country involved.
In addition to foreign nationals who qualify for registration or naturalisation as a British citizen, there are a number of people who acquire dual nationality by virtue of their birth in the UK to foreign parents, or their birth overseas to British parents.
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 any security threat posed by the collection of biometric data by direct-to-consumer DNA testing ancestry companies.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office has made no such assessment.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many reported instances of stop-and-search occurred in Hertfordshire in (1) 2022, (2) 2021, (3) 2020, and (4) 2019.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes stop and search data on a financial year basis. The table below shows the number of stop and searches recorded by Hertfordshire Constabulary in the last four financial years. This includes searches under section 1 of the Policing and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (and associated legislation) and section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
Financial Year | Number of stop and searches |
2018/19 | 7,131 |
2019/20 | 7,931 |
2020/21 | 9,881 |
2021/22 | 7,335 |
The data can be accessed in full here: Police powers and procedures: Stop and search and arrests, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
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 13 December 2022 (HL3856), whether they can provide an itemised table from the Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) that details how many incidents where sky lanterns have been confirmed as the source of a fire.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Data collected through the Fire and Rescue Service Incident Recording System (IRS) does not include data on whether fire incidents attended were caused by or involved sky lanterns.
The Home Office collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs), with this data including the cause of the fire and the source of ignition. However, the answer categories for cause of fire and source of ignition do not specifically provide sky lanterns as an option. This data is published in a variety of publications, available at Gov.UK.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimates they have made of the cost to the state of gambling-driven crime.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold the information which you have requested on the estimates for state costs arising from gambling- driven crime.
The Home Office holds information on the value of assets recovered under POCA 2002 from offenders who committed other types of offences including fraud and money laundering. This data is included in the Asset Recovery Statistical Bulletin which is published every year. Its latest release was in September 2022, covering the period between financial year 2016 to 2017 and 2021 to 2022. The total value of proceeds of crime recovered under POCA from fraud related offences over the last six financial years, is £388m as shown in Table 11.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the UK–Albania announcement on a joint task force against illegal migration, how many British caseworkers will be sent to Tirana; and how much is the total cost of the policy.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Following the new approach agreed with the Albanian government on 13th Dec, we are in close discussions with them on the operational details. Under the joint communiqué, the UK will support the relevant Albanian structures to bolster mechanisms used to refer victims for appropriate support and increase the existing Albanian Responsible Authority and National Referral Mechanism capacity to reinforce processes and decision-making in line with the European Convention on Action against Trafficking of Human Beings. We are not currently expecting to send any caseworkers to Tirana; rather support will be offered from the UK and the British Embassy in Tirana. Currently resources are being reprioritised and reallocated to deliver on the commitments made from within existing budgets.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the Prime Minister's statement on illegal migration on 13 December, whether they will respond to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' appeal to the UK to uphold its legal obligations.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
I can assure the Honourable Bishop that the statement is under consideration and any response deemed necessary will be made by the Government in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will list all incidents of fires having been caused by sky lanterns in the last five years.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Data collected through the Fire and Rescue Service Incident Recording System (IRS) does not include data on whether fire incidents attended were caused by or involved sky lanterns.
The Home Office collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs), with this data including the cause of the fire and the source of ignition. This data is published in a variety of publications, available at Gov.UK.
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 grant more overseas workers permits for work in food production in the Lee Valley.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Our skills-based immigration system enables us to treat people from every part of the world equally. We have broadened the eligibility of Skilled Worker visas from graduate jobs only to include jobs skilled to RQF level 3 and lowered the salary threshold to £25,600, making more overseas worker eligible to enter the UK. There are already a range of occupations in the agri-food sector which are eligible under our immigration system, if English language and salary requirements are met. Our immigration system is not regional and therefore available to all employers (including those in the Lee Valley area).
The Seasonal Worker visa allows workers to come to the UK for up to six months to work in agriculture, enabling up to 38,000 people to enter the UK this year to work in horticulture. Additionally, on 18 October the route was expanded to enable 2,000 poultry workers to come to the UK to support that sector in the run up to Christmas.
Beyond the UK immigration system is the resident labour market, which includes UK workers and migrants with general work rights, who can all work without meeting Home Office requirements.