Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 22 January (HL3896), what assessment they have made of the proportion of Muslims among members of grooming gangs.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Further to my previous response, the Government will lay out a clear timetable before Easter on how we will take forward the 20 recommendations from the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. We will also set up a new panel to ensure victims' and survivors' voices are prioritised in future policy making.
We have been clear that local authorities, who are responsible for delivering local services, are best placed to commission local inquiries, and we stand ready to support as we can. That is why the Home Secretary announced to Parliament on the 6 and 16 January 2025 a range of measures, including stronger national backing for local inquiries and funding provisions to help local councils set up their own reviews. The Home Office will develop a new effective framework for victim-centred, locally-led inquiries, and work with Oldham Council and four other pilot areas to implement it. Additionally, local councils which are yet to hold regional investigations where the group-based sexual offences have been more prevalent will be urged to conduct their own reviews to prevent offending happening again.
I refer the Rt Hon Member to the Home Secretary's statement made on 16 January, which set out the actions the Government is taking forward to improve our response to, and understanding of, child sexual exploitation and abuse, including group-based abuse This includes improving the data available on the perpetration of these crimes and the Home Secretary has asked the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce to expand the ethnicity data it collects and publishes - gathering data from the end of the investigation when a fuller picture is available.
The Home Secretary is also appointing Baroness Louise Casey to lead an audit to improve our understanding of the scale, nature and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse at a national and local level, including what is known about the demographics of perpetrators and victims, and to make recommendations on what additional action is needed to improve our response.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to initiate an inquiry into grooming gangs.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government's priority is to support victims and survivors and take action on delivering against the recommendations of the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.
The Government will continue to support further inquiries that are needed to expose failings and wrongdoings in local areas and institutions. It is right that these take place at a localised level so that those directly responsible for delivering services work to improve those services and ensure lessons are learnt.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for monitoring mosques and madrassas.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Security Service and Counter-Terrorism Policing, which are operationally independent of government, determine their own investigative priorities. These will be informed by the risk posed by individuals or groups, and their activities. This is not based on the religious affiliation that certain premises have.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for banning the wearing of a burka in public.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much police time since 2014 has been spent recording and investigating non-criminal hate incidents, and how this compares with the amount of time spent investigating crimes involving (1) rape, (2) burglary and (3) Islamist terrorism.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not centrally hold or collate information on the number of non-crime hate incidents recorded by police forces.
Non-crime hate incidents would not appear on a basic or standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether non-criminal hate incidents are disclosed on prospective employees' criminal records; and if so, what assessment they have made of the implications for the careers of individuals affected.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not centrally hold or collate information on the number of non-crime hate incidents recorded by police forces.
Non-crime hate incidents would not appear on a basic or standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many non-criminal hate incidents have been recorded but not pursued by police since 2014.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not centrally hold or collate information on the number of non-crime hate incidents recorded by police forces.
Non-crime hate incidents would not appear on a basic or standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the recent conviction of Stephen Green, whether they intend to introduce legislation to amend the Public Order Act 2023 to ensure that it is not a criminal offence to display publicly Psalm 139 anywhere.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Government respects people’s rights provided under Article 9 (freedom of thought, religion and belief), Article 10 (freedom of expression) and Article 11 (freedom of association and assembly) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The Government has recently consulted publicly on non-statutory guidance for section 9. We are currently analysing all responses to the consultation, which closed on 22 January, and we will publish the final guidance in due course.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the report by Malcolm Newsam and Gary Ridgeway Independent assurance review into historic child sexual exploitation (CSE) in Rochdale, published on 15 January, what percentage of those involved in the grooming gangs were Muslim.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The independent review into historic child sexual exploitation in Rochdale identifies widespread organised sexual exploitation of children involving multiple ‘grooming gangs’. It also highlighted that many potential perpetrators were never investigated or identified.
The report does not disaggregate known offending by individual ‘grooming gang’ nor by ethnicity or religion. However, there are references throughout the report to perpetrators in these particular cases being predominantly ‘Asian’ or British-Pakistani men.
The 2020 Home Office report on Group Based Child Sexual Exploitation sets out the best evidence on ethnicity, age, offender networks, the context in which these crimes are committed and implications for national and local policy. As noted within the report, beyond specific high-profile cases such as in Rochdale or Rotherham, the academic literature highlights significant limitations to what can be said about links between ethnicity and group-based child sexual exploitation.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the circumstances in which journalists may lawfully be prevented from attending peaceful public events by (1) the police, and (2) the event organisers.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Government is clear that the role of members of the press must be respected. It is vital that journalists are able to do their job freely and without restriction.
Section 17 of the Public Order Act 2023 sets out that the police may not exercise their powers for the sole purpose of preventing a person from observing or reporting on a protest.
However, this does not prevent the police from using their powers, such as the power of arrest, for other purposes, for example to maintain public order and safety.
The use of police powers is an operational matter for the police. The Government is unable to intervene in operational decisions of this nature. To do so would undermine their operational independence.
In most cases, event organisers cannot exclude individuals from freely accessing public spaces.