Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the National Crime Agency’s International Corruption Unit is assisting the government of Bangladesh to identify assets allegedly stolen from its banks and institutions by officials.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK is committed to fighting corruption and illicit finance both domestically and internationally. The UK is fully committed to recovering and returning corruptly-obtained assets. This must be done in accordance with legal due process, which can take time, but ensures a fully fair and transparent process.
The National Crime Agency is part of the UK's effort to support Bangladesh in this area, as well as wider engagement on law enforcement issues. As a matter of policy, we do not routinely confirm or deny NCA investigations.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to assist in identifying, seizing, and returning assets located in the United Kingdom illicitly acquired by Bangladeshi officials.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK is committed to fighting corruption and illicit finance both domestically and internationally. The UK is fully committed to recovering and returning corruptly-obtained assets. This must be done in accordance with legal due process, which can take time, but ensures a fully fair and transparent process.
The National Crime Agency is part of the UK's effort to support Bangladesh in this area, as well as wider engagement on law enforcement issues. As a matter of policy, we do not routinely confirm or deny NCA investigations.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 23 December 2024 (HL3397), what is the evidential basis for the answer given; and by whom, when, and at what cost to the public purse was the analysis which gave rise to it expedited and completed.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The disproportionate cost threshold is used by Government departments to determine whether the transparency benefits of answering a particular question can justify costs involved in retrieving the requested information. The current disproportionate cost threshold is £850, calculated at 140% of the Freedom of Information Act cost limit, currently £600, to the nearest £50.
Upon receipt of the previous Parliamentary Question (PQ) on this issue, the Home Office team primarily responsible for decisions of this nature (Status Review Unit) carefully considered the time and administrative resource it would take to retrieve the information requested. It was considered that a manual review of every decision to revoke (or cancel) a person's visa, between 7 October 2023 and the date of the PQ, would be required to retrieve the information. Taking account of the volume of decisions involved, it was concluded that this action would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 11 December (HL2987), when the new IT system to provide more reliable data currently under development will be fully operational, and what will be the cost.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The IT system which will provide centrally held, reliable data for cancellation of permission to stay decisions remains under development. It is currently progressing through standard test phases before becoming fully operational at a date to be determined.
The IT system referred to forms part of the wider Immigration Project Technology (IPT) project. Information regarding the cost of the wider project can be found here in the UKVI transparency data information, last updated 6 December 2024.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 11 December (HL2985), why they do not currently hold data on the cost to individual police forces of collecting and collating data on non-crime hate incidents.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Data relating to non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs) is held by individual police forces.
Previous Conservative governments have made the decision to not centrally collate this data in order to minimise the burden on police forces.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have had with the National Police Chiefs’ Council regarding their review of guidance of trans identified police offers conducting strip searches; and when it will be published.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Ministers and officials meet with representatives of the NPCC on a regular basis and discuss a wide range of topics.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council is currently reviewing its national guidance on searching by transgender officers, and we anticipate this will be issued to forces in 2025.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 11 December (HL2987), what estimate they have made of the monetary cost of the collation and verification of data relating to individuals who have had their UK visas revoked on the grounds of (1) national security, and (2) being non-conducive to the public good.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
It has been established that the time it would take to individually review each case that has been considered for curtailment during the time frame requested would exceed the relevant cost limit.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to give the proposed Police Performance Unit powers to sanction police forces incorrectly recording (1) hate crimes, and (2) non-crime hate incidents.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes information on hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales. Information on non-crime hate incidents is not centrally collated. The Home Secretary has been clear about the consistent and common-sense approach that needs to be adopted when dealing with these matters, and we are working with the College of Policing on how best that can be done.
To drive up performance and standards and ensure communities can have confidence in their local police force, a new Police Performance Unit will be established in the Home Office. The Unit will harness national data to monitor performance and direct improvements, underpinned by a performance framework developed with the College of Policing, policing inspectorate (HMICFRS), National Police Chiefs’ Council and PCCs.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether there is any correlation between the incidence of non-crime hate incidents and hate crimes.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes information on hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales. Information on non-crime hate incidents is not centrally collated. The Home Secretary has been clear about the consistent and common-sense approach that needs to be adopted when dealing with these matters, and we are working with the College of Policing on how best that can be done.
To drive up performance and standards and ensure communities can have confidence in their local police force, a new Police Performance Unit will be established in the Home Office. The Unit will harness national data to monitor performance and direct improvements, underpinned by a performance framework developed with the College of Policing, policing inspectorate (HMICFRS), National Police Chiefs’ Council and PCCs.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which particular characteristics are covered by the Additional Threshold Test for recording non-crime hate incidents; what plans they have to expand that list; and on what evidence any such plans would be based.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The statutory Code of Practice on NCHIs, developed by the previous government, sets out that an NCHI involves hostility or prejudice towards persons with a particular characteristic. A particular characteristic is defined as meaning race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity – this aligns with the five protected characteristics covered in hate crime legislation in England and Wales. Further detail can be found in paragraph 16 of the Code.
This Government has made clear that we will work with policing to ensure there is a consistent and common-sense approach applied to non-crime hate incidents.