Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of making cuckooing a crime.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Cuckooing is an appalling practice associated with violence, exploitation and anti-social behaviour.
The Government’s Safer Streets Mission aims to tackle these issues and we will make further announcements in the normal way in due course.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what criteria she will use to measure the success of the ambition to halve violence against women and girls.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are undertaking a programme of work to bring together suitable data and metrics to measure progress against the ambition to halve VAWG in a decade. We are working closely with The Office for National Statistics and other stakeholders in producing the metrics underpinning how the government will measure success. Further details will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will launch an inquiry into grooming and rape gangs.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government's priority is to take action on delivering against the recommendations of the final report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). The Home Secretary announced on 6th January that we will be bringing in mandatory reporting, making grooming an aggravating factor in CSA cases, and setting up a new panel to ensure victims' and survivors' voices are prioritised in future policy making.
The Government will continue to support further inquiries that are needed, which can expose failings and wrongdoings in local areas and institutions. It is right that these take place at a localised level so that those are responsible for delivering services work to ensure lessons are learnt and that local partners are doing all they can to improve their response. We support local areas like Oldham Council, who have confirmed that work to set up a further local inquiry is already underway.
The Government invest in the Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce (or 'Grooming Gangs Taskforce') which provides practical, expert, on the ground support for local forces investigating complex, group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation, with a focus on grooming gangs.
The Taskforce collect and report on data on group-based offending quarterly. 'Group-based' offending in this context includes any offence with two or more perpetrators. This will include - but is not limited to - 'grooming gang' type offending; other 'group-based' offending includes intra-familial and peer-on-peer abuse, for example.
In November 2024, the Taskforce published 2023 data on group-based offending (available here: https://www.hydrantprogramme.co.uk/publications/hydrant-publications#LatestNews) which includes data on ethnicity. However, it is important to note that ethnicity data is limited and should be treated with caution. The Government will be working with the Taskforce to improve data collection, including dealing with the issues around ethnicity.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the immigration status was for Mohamed Lidow at the time he committed the manslaughter and rape of Natalie Shotter.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
My thoughts are with the victims of these appalling crimes and their families, and I applaud the work of the police forces who brought perpetrators for these crimes to justice.
The Honourable Member will understand that, even in such appalling cases, the personal data of the perpetrators, including immigration and citizenship status, is exempt from release if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the immigration status was of Fawzi Omar when he committed a sexual assault on 8 May 2024.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
My thoughts are with the victims of these appalling crimes and their families, and I applaud the work of the police forces who brought perpetrators for these crimes to justice.
The Honourable Member will understand that, even in such appalling cases, the personal data of the perpetrators, including immigration and citizenship status, is exempt from release if disclosure would contravene any of the data protection principles in Article 5(1) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation and section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to announce which countries will be included in the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
Work is underway to identify which foreign powers will be placed on the enhanced tier, based on robust security and intelligence analysis.
We will set out our approach to the use of the enhanced tier, including which foreign powers and foreign power-controlled entities will be specified, in due course.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to reject asylum applications from former government officials of the Syrian regime led by Bashar al-Assad.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office acted swiftly to temporarily pause decisions on Syrian asylum claims whilst we assess the current situation.
We keep all country guidance relating to asylum claims under constant review so we can respond to emerging issues.
While all asylum claims are routinely considered on their individual merits, it is standard procedure to deny protection to anyone who has committed crimes against peace, war crimes, crimes against humanity, other serious crimes abroad or acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK police were deployed in each Overseas Territory in November 2023.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
UK Policing is operationally independent and continues to support the development of policing capabilities across the Overseas Territories.
In November 2024, authorisations were provided for the deployment of three police officers to Bermuda, two to the Falkland Islands, one to Anguilla, one to Gibraltar and seven to the Sovereign Base Areas.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which Minister in her Department is responsible for relations with the Overseas Territories.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Lord Hanson of Flint is the Home Office minister responsible for relations with Overseas Territories.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK police are deployed in each Overseas Territory.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
UK Policing is operationally independent and continues to support the development of policing capabilities across the Overseas Territories.
In November 2024, authorisations were provided for the deployment of three police officers to Bermuda, two to the Falkland Islands, one to Anguilla, one to Gibraltar and seven to the Sovereign Base Areas.