Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether it is their policy that police officers assigned as male at birth who now identify as women should be allowed to strip search female suspects and, if not, what advice they will offer to the National Police Chiefs’ Council and to police forces which currently allow this practice.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) and the PACE Codes of Practice have clear same-sex provisions in relation to the conduct of certain searches of persons by police officers.
All searches conducted in custody, including strip searches, as well as searches undertaken under stop and search powers involving the removal of more than an outer jacket and certain other garments, must be conducted by an officer of the same sex as the detainee.
It is not right, safe or respectful to women for an officer who is biologically male but who has simply self-identified as female to be able to conduct a strip search of a woman.
Whilst respecting the operational independence of the police, the Government expects chief constables to ensure that their force policies comply with all legal obligations, including under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and Equalities Act 2010.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 19 July (HL1970), what estimate they have made of the absolute number of (1) people, and (2) businesses, in the UK who were phished in the last period for which figures are available; and what proportion of such phishing attacks were successful.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office collects quarterly data on the number of fraud and Computer Misuse Act (CMA) offences made to Action Fraud which have been recorded as criminal offences by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB).
The most recently available data is available at Table A5 below: (and attached)
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesappendixtables
From information held centrally, it is not possible to separately identify offences of fraud and CMA offences in which phishing has been involved.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to enable operators of the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) to respond to individuals forwarding suspicious phishing emails to the service to confirm (1) the outcome of their investigations, (2) the actions taken, and which (a) phone numbers, (b) email addresses, and (c) web pages have been blocked as a result.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS) was launched by the NCSC in April 2020 and allows anyone who suspects an email, text or other form of communication to report it to report@phishing.gov.uk or forward a text to 7726, free of charge. As of 31st March 2021, over 5,500,000 reports have been received from the public, leading to the removal of over 41,000 scams and 81,000 URLs.
The NCSC analyses the suspect email and any websites it links to and also use any additional information provided to look for and monitor suspicious activity. If any activity is discovered that they believe is malicious, they may:
Every report receives an automated email response. While the NCSC is unable to inform the reporter of the outcome of its review, they do act upon every message received.
The automated response also states that SERS is not to be used to report a crime. If a person thinks they have been a victim of fraud or cyber crime, it is important that they should report this to Action Fraud (in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Police Scotland (in Scotland). Reports received are analysed by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and, where there is sufficient evidence, disseminated to an appropriate force for investigation. Action Fraud, as part of this process, also has the means to direct victims to specialist support organisations.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have for the police in England and Wales to follow the reported approach of Police Scotland of recording male perpetrators of rape or attempted rape who self-identify as female, as female on relevant police systems.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government takes all forms of sexual violence extremely seriously, regardless of between who it takes place or the profile of the perpetrator. Whether it is committed by a woman or a man, sexual violence in any situation, is completely unacceptable.
A total of 162,936 sexual offences were recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2020.
More details on the prevalence of sexual offences can be found at https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/sexualoffencesprevalenceandtrendsenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2020
It is an operational matter for the police to determine what relevant information should be recorded to assist in their investigation of individual crimes.
Home Office statisticians work with the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) on the quality of data from the police. The OSR have issued guidance on the collection and reporting of data about sex in official statistics which informs on-going conversations the Department has with policing partners on the issue of data:
https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/publication/draft-guidance-collecting-and-reporting-data-about-sex-in-official-statistics/
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statement by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 17 March (HL Deb, col 371), that “on an experimental basis” they “will ask police forces to identify and record any crimes of violence against the person, including stalking and harassment, as well as sexual offences where the victim perceives it to have been motivated by a hostility based on their sex”, whether the police will record the sex of the victim on the basis of the victim’s legal sex or of their self-identified sex.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office is discussing this request with the police in the near future, following which further details about the data collection will be made available.
Asked by: Lord Lucas (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will change the focus of the current round of the Safer Streets Fund so that all applications aimed at protecting women from attack are eligible.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Recent tragic events have highlighted the importance of ensuring people are safe whilst walking our streets.
We have announced we are investing a further £25m into the Safer Streets Fund this year, focused on ensuring people feel safe in public spaces and building on the £45m we have already committed. This investment will be launched in May once the Purdah period attached to local council and Police and Crime Commissioner elections has ended.
The Fund will deliver physical crime prevention measures, such as improved street lighting or increased CCTV coverage. There is strong evidence to show that simple solutions like these help prevent crimes before they happen, empowering communities and individuals, including women and girls, to feel truly safe.
The ongoing application process for the second, £20m round of Safer Streets Funding will remain unchanged.