Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect of an increased use of technology at the border on safeguarding people from modern slavery.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Border Force has a role in identifying victims and perpetrators of modern slavery as they arrive in the UK. At the primary checkpoint, Border Force Officers have the unique advantage of being the first point of contact with UK authorities for many vulnerable children and adults as well as the criminals who traffic them.
New technological capabilities such as eGates offer a high standard of identification verification.
Border Force has developed an additional layer of security, by deploying roving officers in front of the eGates observing and interacting with passengers. At smaller ports an extra message appears when a child uses the gate and halts the transaction until the monitoring Border Force Officer is satisfied there are no safeguarding concerns.
Where there are concerns, including safeguarding, passengers are directed to a manual control for further questioning.
Furthermore, all freight vehicles and a percentage of tourist vehicles entering the UK through the juxtaposed controls are screened for people being smuggled into the UK using a range of techniques. This includes using carbon dioxide detectors and motion sensors as well as sniffer dogs to detect clandestines who are potentially victims of trafficking. Border Force have upgraded the heartbeat monitors , which are now called motion detectors (Clantect) as these detect more than just heartbeats.
Whilst not uniquely a result of technology, BF internal performance data shows a significant increase in identification of potential victims of Modern Slavery during this current year
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many cloud services contracts that were previously delivered by British cloud services providers for the Home Office are now delivered by multinational cloud service providers; what is the value of those contracts; and what are the names of the previous providers.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
It is difficult to accurately compare cloud service contracts previously held with British Companies to the hosting arrangements the Home Office currently has with multi-national cloud companies, as the services in question are not precisely like-for-like. At present, the Home Office has a number of cloud services contracts with different providers ranging from multi-nationals to British owned companies such as UK Cloud.
The Home Office process for selecting appropriate cloud service providers is closely aligned to the wider Government Cloud Strategy and a rigorous competitive commercial process is followed when awarding such contracts, layered with a rigorous technical decision process on aligning cloud service providers to various programmes and projects.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, following the report by the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration A re-inspection of Border Force's identification and treatment of Potential Victims of Modern Slavery, published on 28 March, they have made changes to the delivery of effective real-time communication between Roving Officers, Monitoring Officers and the referral desk for modern slavery; and if so, what changes have been made.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Further to my response of PQ HL7683, I can also confirm that, alongside the review into the existing Roving Officer guidance, that review will also consider the question of real time communications between Roving Officers, Monitoring Officers and the referral desk.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the Home Office's data is hosted (1) in the UK, and (2) overseas.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
We currently store some of our data with cloud services providers in the UK and Ireland.
The complexity and range of services means that we do not explicitly estimate the proportions of data hosted in each country, but the vast majority is in the UK, and we are moving the single facility outside of the UK, in Ireland, back to the UK. Our cloud services providers meet the requirements of current legislation.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 19 April (HL6898), why it is not possible to give even an approximate timetable for the review into the legal position of police firearms officers and an indication of whether that review will be published.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The review of the legal and procedural framework governing the police use of firearms will take account of relevant ongoing work including the new College of Policing post-incident guidelines for all death and serious injury cases.
The review is ongoing, further details will be available when it has concluded.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 28 March (HL6495), whether they will now answer the question asked on when the review into the legal position of police firearms officers will be concluded; and when the findings will be published.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The official-led review of the legal and procedural framework governing police use of firearms and post-incident investigation is ongoing and taking account of work by the College of Policing to produce new post-incident guidelines for all death and serious injury cases.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the review into the legal position of police firearms officers will be concluded; and whether they intend to publish the findings of that review.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave to Lord Hogan-Howe on the 12th March 2018, UIN HL5908.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was (1) the budget, (2) the complement of full time equivalent staff that the budget of the Border Force was designed to support; what was the average number of full time equivalent staff in post for each of the financial years from 2012–13 to 2016–17; and what are the corresponding projections for the financial years 2017–18 and 2018–19.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
| 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
Total resource including depreciation (£m) | 617 | 509 | 523 | 561 | 565 | 552 |
Staff - total (FTE) | 8,123 | 8,044 | 8,153 | 7,646 | 7,574 | N/A |
Paid Civil Servants (FTE) | 7,553 | 7,635 | 7,814 | 7,337 | 7,278 | N/A |
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Capital - Net Budget £m | 57 | 56 | 57 | 38 | 71 | N/A |
The budget for Border Force in 2017/18 is £552 million with a capital budget of 71m. The budget is allocated across a range of capabilities such as people, technology and processes that keep our borders safe. Therefore the size of budget is not directly linked to the number of staff. Border Force staffing figures for the 17/18 financial year are not currently available. They are due for publication 31 March 2018.
Future Border Force budgets are determined by a departmental allocation that is yet to be delegated to the operational commands within the Home Office.