Deaths in Police Custody

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Monday 30th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, from 1 April this year police forces across England and Wales have commenced the recording of a broad range of data following each instance in which force has been used, including the reason force was used, the injury data, the gender, ethnicity and perceived mental health of the subject involved, and the location and outcome of the incident. The use-of-force data collection system will remain under review to ensure that it continues to be fit for purpose, including through a programme board attended by the Home Office and led by the national police lead for use-of-force data. The publication of data on officers’ use of force will provide unprecedented transparency and accountability, as well as insight into the challenges faced by the police as they perform their duties. In the longer term, it will also provide an evidence base to support the development of tactics, training and equipment to enhance everyone’s safety.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, paragraph 45 of the executive summary says that a key theme to emerge from this review is the failure to learn lessons and to properly consider and implement recommendations from previous reports and studies. In the light of that, there is a recommendation for an independent office of compliance which should be answerable to Parliament and tasked with the dissemination of learning, the implementation of that learning, monitoring the consistency and application at a national level, and compliance with inquest outcomes and recommendations. Are the Government minded to set up that independent body which is accountable to Parliament so that lessons are learned and implemented?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, I do not know whether this will entirely answer the noble Lord’s question. I suspect that it may not, in which case I shall write to him afterwards. The independent office for police conduct and the existing commission structure will be replaced with a new single head—the director-general—with ultimate responsibility for all investigative decisions. This position is barred to anyone with a policing background—hence the independence. The director-general will have statutory powers to determine which posts in the IOPC are barred to former police. From the noble Lord’s gesture, I think that I shall write to him.

Refugees

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Wednesday 19th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, I, too, thank the right reverend Prelate for securing this debate. I share the sentiments expressed by the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge: some progress has been made, and it would be churlish not to acknowledge that. However, further progress still needs to be made.

The report states that,

“the evidence we received shows that experiences of the asylum system can have a detrimental impact on future integration for those who are granted refugee status”.

This a holistic approach: you cannot separate the asylum process from the granting of refugee status. I shall concentrate my remarks on those who seek asylum on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Many of the problems experienced by this group were highlighted in the excellent report by Stonewall and the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group entitled No Safe Refuge. When I attend UK LGIG events and ask people who have been granted asylum what that means to them, they do not talk about work or integration but about personal freedom—being able to be who they are and love who they wish, and getting back a sense of decent humanity and self-worth. However, that joy tends to turn to frustration quite fast once they become aware of the problems created by the way they have been treated by the asylum system, because for those who have been granted refugee status it tends to tie at least one hand behind their backs, and in some cases two.

I highlight three key issues. The first is detention of LGBTI people seeking refugee status. They say that it feels as if they are being put back into the closet, because they are held in detention with people from their homeland, some of whom hold very homophobic views. They also say that it affects their mental health and puts them back in that regard. Those who are granted refugee status want to integrate but do not feel they can totally be themselves, because they do not know what is going to happen round the corner, given the way they were treated when in detention. Because the Government have done that, they wonder whether there is something intrinsic in British society which means that the Government put them in a vulnerable position when they are seeking safety because of their sexuality. There are real issues in that regard.

Secondly, the length of time taken in decision-making is also highlighted in the report. The longer a decision takes, the more likely it is that the person will lose the skills and knowledge they may have which will keep them independent once they are granted refugee status. Only this week I met a wonderful Syrian couple, two young men who have waited 18 months for a decision. The Government accept that they are gay and that they are a couple: they have been given accommodation together. However, when you talk to them, they say, “I just want to work and be able to live independently”. They cite little things and say, “I cannot have a bank account. That takes away my independence. I cannot even open an Uber account because I do not have a bank account and a bank card, so I cannot get around and be independent”. The longer the decision takes, the less likely the applicant is to integrate easily.

The third issue concerns the Syrian vulnerable persons scheme. It is accepted that there will be LGBTI individuals among those vulnerable people. However, I cannot ascertain how the Government are recording whether any LGBTI person has been accepted on that scheme. Will the Minister confirm how many people have been accepted on the Syrian vulnerable persons scheme based on their sexuality or sexual orientation?

I have three questions. First, will the Minister commit to look at the detention of LGBTI individuals? The impact of that is traumatic, can be grave in terms of integration and can leave individuals scarred for life. Secondly, will she commit to look at the case of the two Syrians I have mentioned, not in terms of determining their case but looking at the human impact that a long period of 18 months can have before someone is granted refugee status? Rather than a statistic, it is a real human life example, which could make for better policy. Thirdly, will she review the way that the Syrian vulnerable persons scheme is working, or not, for LGBTI individuals? That clearly needs to be done. If the Minister and the Government commit to doing that, we can take this issue forward, help people integrate and play a bigger part in the life of this country and meet their full potential.

National Identity Cards

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Tuesday 14th March 2017 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

The identity card was a tackle-all type of card. The Government are now trying to be far more robust at identity assurance from a problem-solving perspective rather than seeking a particular solution.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, have not reports suggested that the way to deal with terrorism on these shores is through targeted, intelligence-led police operations rather than mass surveillance?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

The noble Lord is quite right.

Police National Database: Facial Images

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Thursday 2nd March 2017 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Scriven]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the storage of the 19 million facial images uploaded onto the police national database is compliant with data protection legislation.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con)]

My Lords, legislation gives police the power to take and store facial images from arrested persons. There has been no successful legal challenge to the retention of images on the PND on data protection grounds, but the Government acknowledge that there are privacy issues. The custody images review has now been published and makes recommendations for improvements to the retention regime.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

I thank the Minister for that Answer. She will know that the review published last week into the 19 million images held on the police national database was in response to a High Court case of 2012 that found that treating the images of convicted and non-convicted individuals the same was unlawful. How do the new rules in the review make it lawful when it states that the images both of convicted and non-convicted individuals can be stored and used on the police national database for 10 years?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, there is a presumption of deletion in certain categories—certainly for the under-18s, for those not convicted, as the noble Lord said, and for people who have been convicted of a non-recordable offence. These can all request that their images be deleted, but there are exceptions which I think are reasonable—if there is a substantive reason to believe that someone is linked to terrorism, if they are dangerous or if they are linked to organised crime. Otherwise, there is now an arrangement whereby people can request deletion.

Asylum: Sexual Orientation

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Wednesday 14th December 2016 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Scriven]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people claiming asylum in the last year did so on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity; and of those, how many have been granted asylum.

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con)]

My Lords, the Home Office does not publish statistics on the basis of asylum claims or the decisions arising from them. This is true for claims relating to gender and sexual identity. The Home Office is considering how data from its casework database may be assured and used to provide such information to a sufficiently accurate standard.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer, but those who sit on the Home Office strategic engagement group, set up after the Vine report in June 2014, will be surprised by it. At the last meeting, in September of this year, a senior civil servant said that the only reason that the statistics have not yet been published is because they are waiting for authority from the Minister. Which is wrong: the Answer from the Dispatch Box or the civil servant, who says that they will be published with the authority of the Minister?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, I am not that Minister. However, I can say that the Home Office collects information that records whether a claim is based on sexual orientation, and it is likely to correlate with the claimant’s sexual orientation, although an individual may have an asylum claim that is quite distinct from their sexual orientation. The data are management information only—I can assure the noble Lord of that—and they do not form part of our published statistics because they have not been quality assured to a sufficient standard.

National Identity Cards

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Wednesday 16th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My Lords, I would congratulate the noble Lord on introducing the identity card—but the Government do not agree with them and his identity card is probably invalid by now. I cannot help but repeat that we have passports. In fact, our passports now, particularly the e-passports, where facial identity can be cross-referenced with the actual document, are an improvement on what we had before.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, can the Minister name one country anywhere in the world whose citizens have identity cards or a number equating to their identity and has fewer problems with regard to benefit fraud, immigration or terrorism? Is there anywhere across the world were these problems have been completely eradicated on the basis of the demands of those who want to see this form of identification?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

Off the top of my head, no, I cannot.

Hillsborough

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Wednesday 27th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

It is quite right that we ensure that any ongoing criminal investigations are completed, and the Prime Minister has given a commitment.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, we must consider the crass statement that was put on the South Yorkshire Police website this morning, and the fact that the chief constable of South Yorkshire Police has just been suspended. In the light of what the noble Lord, Lord Blunkett, said, and whoever is elected as Police and Crime Commissioner next week, South Yorkshire Police is going to need extra support. What support will the Government look at giving to solve the problem of the clearly dysfunctional senior management within the South Yorkshire police force?

[Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon]

The noble Lord raises an important point, particularly regarding the responsibility of the Police and Crime Commissioner. They will have an important role to play, but we will certainly be reviewing the situation. As further details emerge, I will write to the noble Lord about the steps we are taking. The important point is that there is a responsibility in the higher echelons of that police force. The noble Lord mentioned the statement put on the website which, as I said earlier, was both concerning and regrettable. There is a history of their making a statement and then retracting it. One would have hoped that, on this occasion, they would not have done so, but that is exactly what has happened.

Immigration Bill

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Monday 21st March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Green of Deddington (CB)]

My Lords, this is a very difficult issue. The heart indeed speaks strong and it beats particularly strong, it seems, in this Chamber, but we also have to think it through a little. I entirely understand the good intentions behind the amendment, and nobody is better placed than the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, to propose it and the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, to speak to it. I would be perfectly content to support a Motion calling for HMG to accept a larger number of children and their families from the refugee camps elsewhere in the region. It is not a question of cost; it is a question of need and one that we should be ready to meet.

My concern is that the amendment refers specifically to unaccompanied children in Europe. These children are already in Europe and are initially the responsibility of the Governments in the countries where they find themselves. The idea seems to be that we, the UK, should take a fair share of these children, who indeed find themselves in terrible circumstances. But there is a risk, which we cannot dismiss—it is a serious risk—that in doing so we will make a bad situation even worse. We are not dealing here with a finite number of children—it is no use saying, “There are 24,000 children; we will take 3,000 of them”. We are dealing with a situation in which the families concerned have come to the view that if they can only get their children into Europe, they will be looked after, and as a secondary consideration they themselves might be able to follow them up later.

To my mind, the follow-up adults are not the issue, rather it is the risk that still more children will be put at very serious risk. A well-intentioned action could have the perverse effect that many more thousands of children will be sent off to face the terrible conditions that have been described. If so, we would not be solving the problem, and indeed we might be exacerbating it. That is why I believe that the Government are right to take refugees from the region, but not from Europe. It is unsatisfactory, but it is perhaps the least bad outcome. We have to consider this carefully. A point which has frankly been ducked in this debate—I think only one speaker has mentioned it—is the risk that this will generate very large numbers of children being put at risk and make a bad situation worse.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, I rise to make two brief points. The first is in response to the noble Lord, Lord Lawson, who talked about anyone over the age of 12 not being vulnerable. I find that a quite incredible thing to say, not just in the sense that 13, 14 and 15 year-olds are vulnerable, but because when we talked about votes for 16 and 17 year-olds in your Lordships’ House, people on those Benches were saying that 16 and 17 year-olds were not mature. So there is a form of hypocrisy here in terms of the age of those who are seen as vulnerable.

My second point is that it is a complete nonsense to suggest that this amendment from the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, would act as a pull factor. It suggests that parents and children are sitting in a war-torn part of the world and suddenly say that because 3,000 children have been accepted into the United Kingdom they are going to send their children here. People are fleeing because they fear for their children’s lives and their own lives, not because of some rational thought about what is being said in the sanitised, oak-panelled walls of this Chamber.

I end by saying this. I was brought up to do the right thing, not necessarily the easy thing or the technical thing about the territorial boundaries of where a child in need is. The amendment moved by the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, is the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do. It sends a message about the morals of this country: that we open our hearts and our arms to those in greatest need. We do not turn our backs on vulnerable children.

[Baroness Hamwee (LD)]

My Lords, on behalf of these Benches, including my noble friends who have managed to restrain themselves from speaking—that is probably all of them—I want to say that the word “vulnerable” is overworked but entirely apt; this is not just about the youngest children. I have heard it said that a 14 or 16 year-old who has made his way from Afghanistan or Eritrea all the way across Europe is not a child. Well, he will certainly have had a lot of life experiences. Children come in a lot of shapes, sizes and ages, and a 14 year-old who is caring for his eight year-old brother still has the needs of a 14 year-old. The number of children who have disappeared must give us more than a hint of the abuse, exploitation and trafficking to which children can so easily fall prey. Even those who have not disappeared are unlikely to have avoided abuse and criminality entirely.

The Government have also claimed, although I do not think it has been referred to today, that accepting unaccompanied children risks separating them from their families. But the proposal, as I understand it, would apply to children who have been registered by the UNHCR as having no identifiable family in Europe or in their country of origin.

I turn to the pull factor. I will simply put it this way: there are so many push factors that we do not need to think about the pull factor. Something that has shocked volunteers working in northern Europe is the number of children involved, including some very tiny ones—their ages vary somewhat between the camps. This is not to deny the importance of assisting those who are in the camps in the Middle East, but to accept this amendment would be to acknowledge the huge public concern. When the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, referred to the contribution of refugees welcomed almost 80 years ago, I could see the nods of agreement right round the Chamber.

As to the mandatory nature of the amendment, I agree that it is not desirable to use legislation for a purpose for which it is not needed, but it would not have taken the form of an amendment if the Government had shown more movement towards the objective. Although the children in question may have rights in another European country, the situation surely is such that the UK should take the lead towards some sort of resolution.

I mentioned abuse, exploitation and trafficking. The noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, did not mention the Modern Slavery Act, but I suspect that it was in her mind. The Government are proud of that legislation, which addresses exploitation, abuse and trafficking. Let us join up the dots.

Children: Sexual Abuse

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Monday 14th March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bates]

One thing we are trialling to get just the type of feedback that the noble Baroness referred to is joint inspections of safeguarding boards by HMIC, the probation inspectorate, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission. Alan Wood’s review will report back into the process. It is taking time, but it is such a vital area that we need to get it right. Learning the lessons of the past is part of what Justice Goddard’s inquiry is seeking to do, to make sure that we can establish a body of learning to prevent such abuse in the future.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, will the Minister seriously consider direct intervention by the Government in South Yorkshire Police’s performance in dealing with child sexual exploitation? This has been highlighted by the recent report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, which said that South Yorkshire Police still needs to make major improvements. Following freedom of information requests to 10 forces across the country, a BBC report on Friday showed that, nationally, one in five cases reported is charged, but that in South Yorkshire the figure is one in 16.

[Lord Bates]

They are very serious claims. The HMIC report at least pointed to some improvement. We have Professor John Drew looking independently into this and will carefully follow his responses. It is very important to have the confidence of the public in that particular area, which has been at the centre of so many cases, so we will be watching very carefully indeed.

Immigration: Harmondsworth

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords—