Asked by: Lord Cashman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support LGBTQ+ young people who have been victims of (1) transphobic, and (2) racist, abuse.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government has made it clear that all forms of abuse and hatred are unacceptable.
The UK has a robust legislative framework to respond to hate crimes, which target race, religion, sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity. The Government published the hate crime action plan (Action Against Hate: The UK Government’s plan for tackling hate crime) in 2016 and refreshed this Plan in October 2018.
As part of the 2018 refresh and LGBT Action Plan the same year, the Government committed to a public awareness campaign to address the unacceptability of all hate crimes, and to a Law Commission review of the adequacy of current hate crime legislation. Also, the Home Office has funded multiple projects aimed at tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime including:
The Government will continue to work with the police, stakeholders including Galop and Stonewall and others to understand the concerns of LGBTQ+ communities and what should be done to address those concerns.
Asked by: Lord Cashman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 12 December 2016 (HL Deb, col 1021) that Her Majesty's Government was committed to addressing historical wrongs experienced by homosexual and bisexual men who were convicted of actions that are no longer crimes, what plans they have to use the power contained in section 166 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017 to expand the list of now repealed or abolished offences contained in section 92 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 in order that gay people previously cautioned for, or convicted of, offences, such as solicitation, can apply for a disregard and, if successful, obtain a pardon.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government is committed to upholding the intent and purpose of the disregard scheme and to working closely with counterparts across government, particularly the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Defence, to explore the feasibility of bringing further offences within scope.
Work to identify what further offences might be added under the provisions enabling the Secretary of State to extend, by regulations, the list of offences currently eligible for a disregard under the provisions of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 must be completed before any proposed amendments can be brought forward. This work is ongoing and the Government remains fully committed to considering any appropriate proposals, in due course.
Asked by: Lord Cashman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many pardons have been applied for under the Policing and Crime Act 2017 pardon scheme for gay men; of those, how many have been granted; where applicants have not been pardoned, whether reasons have been given; and if so, what were those reasons.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Pardons under Section 165 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017 are granted automatically when an individual applies successfully for a conviction to be disregarded. To date, there have been 174 pardons granted through this route, from 404 applications for convictions to be disregarded.
If a disregard application is unsuccessful, the applicant will receive a letter detailing the reason for rejection. Most applications are unsuccessful as the convictions concerned are for ineligible offences, such as theft. Applications are also rejected if the activity was non-consensual, involved a person under 16, or remains an offence.
Full statistics are regularly published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Cashman (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks of Baroness Williams of Trafford on 12 December 2016 (HL Deb, col 1021), what progress they have made in giving consideration to including additional offences in Chapter 4 of Part 5 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 and which specific offences they have identified as appropriate for inclusion.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The provisions enabling the Secretary of State to extend, by regulations, the list of offences eligible for a disregard under the provisions of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, will come into force two months after the Policing and Crime Bill received Royal Assent. This happened on 31 January 2017. The Government will work with stakeholders to identify what offences might be appropriately added to that list.