Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will make an estimate of the median level of student debt held by people in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The median debt of full-time undergraduate borrowers funded by student finance England, whose postcode is within the Aldershot constituency, and who entered repayment within the last five financial years is £46,577. The median debt includes tuition fees and maintenance loans and the effective date of the data is 30 April 2024.
The borrower’s postcode refers to the current contact or home address supplied by the borrower to the Student Loans Company.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of charge rates for anti-social behaviour in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission to take back our streets.
We will put thousands of Neighbourhood Police and Community Support Officers into local communities so that residents have a named officer they and crack down on those causing havoc on our high streets by introducing tougher powers including new Respect Orders to tackle repeat offending.
The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of notifiable offences recorded by the police in England and Wales, and their investigative outcomes but it is not currently possible to separately identify those which involve anti-social behaviour.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of vehicles stolen in (a) Aldershot constituency, (b) Hampshire and (c) England in each of the last 12 years.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of ‘Aggravated vehicle taking’ and ‘theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle’ offences recorded by the police in England and Wales on a quarterly basis. The latest information, to the year ending March 2024, can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
This information is available at the Police Force Area and Community Safety Partnership area level. Information at the constituency level is not held centrally.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department has taken to help improve children's oracy skills in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
High and rising school standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best life chances.
The independent Curriculum and Assessment review will seek to deliver a curriculum which is rich and broad, inclusive and innovative to ensure that children and young people leave compulsory education ready for life and ready for work, building the knowledge, skills and attributes young people need to thrive. This includes embedding oracy, digital and life skills in their learning. The Review will consider the recently published report of the Oracy Commission as part of this work.
In the early years, too, developing language skills is vital to enable children to thrive. The department is funding evidence-based early language interventions, targeting children needing extra support with their speech and language development.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport applications have (a) been and (b) not yet been processed from people in Aldershot constituency in the last 12 months.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The data requested is not held in a reportable format.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve standards in policing in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has been clear on its commitment to raise standards in policing. This will include introducing mandatory professional standards on vetting and improving police suspension provisions. More information on the Government’s plans will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prevent knife crime in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Halving knife crime over the next decade is a key part of the Government’s mission to take back our streets. The Government is taking a range of steps to realise this ambition.
The government introduced a ban of zombie style knives and zombie style machetes. A surrender scheme was launched on 26 August to remove these knives from our streets. Following this, the manufacture, supply, sale and possession of zombie-style knives and machetes was outlawed on 24 September 2024. The government will soon so go further by publishing a consultation on the ban of lethal ninja swords.
We will also create a new Young Futures programme - intervening earlier to stop young people being drawn into crime. It is vital we have a system that can identify and support those young people who need it most and we will be introducing Prevention Partnerships and Young Futures Hubs to help deliver this.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she plans to take to help tackle anti-social behaviour in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission to take back our streets.
We will put thousands of new neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities, so that residents have a named officer they can turn to when things go wrong and crack down on those causing havoc on our high streets by introducing tougher powers including new Respect Orders to tackle repeat offending.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) financial and (b) other steps her Department is taking to help prevent crime in (i) Aldershot constituency, (ii) Hampshire, and (iii) England.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 2024-25 police funding settlement provides funding of up to £18.5 billion. Hampshire Police’s funding will be up to £461.9m in 2024-25. This is in addition to £4.2m provided for the 2024-25 pay award which has been allocated outside of the police funding settlement.
Across all funding rounds of the Safer Streets Fund and the Safety of Women at Night Fund, the Hampshire police force area has received over £4.2 million, supporting 12 projects. This includes just over £820,000 through the latest, fifth round of funding to deliver three projects across various locations, including in Rushmoor, Hart, Portsmouth, and Southampton, which have a focus on preventing Anti-Social Behaviour, violence against women and girls, and neighbourhood crime.
Further funding has been provided through the Hotspot Response Programme, under which Hampshire and Isle of Wight have been allocated (2024-25) around £1.5m to deliver additional high-visibility patrols in the streets and neighbourhoods worst affected by serious violence and Anti-Social Behaviour.
More broadly, this Government will treat tackling violence against women and girls as a national emergency and we will use every tool to target perpetrators and address the root causes of violence.
Finally, this Government has put prevention front and centre of our plans to improve the lives of people across the country. We have committed to rolling out a network of Young Futures Hubs which will bring together services to help improve the way young people can access the support they need. We will be engaging with local communities, the police, charities, and other key partners to support the design of the hubs and explore options for their delivery.
Asked by: Alex Baker (Labour - Aldershot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle street crime against women and girls in Aldershot constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 2024-25 police funding settlement provides funding of up to £18.5 billion. Hampshire Police’s funding will be up to £461.9m in 2024-25. This is in addition to £4.2m provided for the 2024-25 pay award which has been allocated outside of the police funding settlement.
Across all funding rounds of the Safer Streets Fund and the Safety of Women at Night Fund, the Hampshire police force area has received over £4.2 million, supporting 12 projects. This includes just over £820,000 through the latest, fifth round of funding to deliver three projects across various locations, including in Rushmoor, Hart, Portsmouth, and Southampton, which have a focus on preventing Anti-Social Behaviour, violence against women and girls, and neighbourhood crime.
Further funding has been provided through the Hotspot Response Programme, under which Hampshire and Isle of Wight have been allocated (2024-25) around £1.5m to deliver additional high-visibility patrols in the streets and neighbourhoods worst affected by serious violence and Anti-Social Behaviour.
More broadly, this Government will treat tackling violence against women and girls as a national emergency and we will use every tool to target perpetrators and address the root causes of violence.
Finally, this Government has put prevention front and centre of our plans to improve the lives of people across the country. We have committed to rolling out a network of Young Futures Hubs which will bring together services to help improve the way young people can access the support they need. We will be engaging with local communities, the police, charities, and other key partners to support the design of the hubs and explore options for their delivery.