Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding from the public purse she plans to allocate to Violence Reduction Units in each of the next three years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Of the £100million Serious Violence Fund that was announced in March 2019 for 2019/20, £35million was invested towards Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in England and Wales.
VRUs provide leadership and strategic coordination of the local response to serious violence by bringing together police, local government, health and education professionals, community leaders and other key partners to identify the drivers of serious violence and agree a multi-agency response to them.
We are pleased with the early progress that has been made in establishing the VRUs and the work they are now beginning to deliver to ensure that the right support and services are directed to children and young people most at risk of involvement in serious violence.
On 29 December 2019 the Home Secretary announced a further £35 million to continue funding VRUs in 2020/21. These first two years of funding will provide local areas with the resources to start building and developing a public health approach to serious violence. We expect them to build on this platform over time and we hope to see VRUs operating beyond the end of 2021. That is why future funding for VRUs will be a key element of our spending review bid.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to provide suppression and prevention training on wildfires for the Fire and Rescue Service.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The National Fire Chiefs Council are responsible for driving work to further improve the fire sector’s approach to wildfire preparedness. They are increasing the number of specialist wildfire tactical advisors across the country and are developing a wildfires asset register to more easily source specialist equipment when required.
In addition, the Home Office supports services by providing over £27m for specialist capabilities, such as high-volume pumps, which are well used to combat major wildfires. This funding covers the training required for the pumps, which is overseen by the National Resilience Assurance Team in Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to complete the ratification of the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence; and what recent discussions the Government has had with devolved Administrations on the necessary legislative changes to complete the ratification.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government signed the Istanbul Convention to signal the UK’s strong commitment to tackling violence against women and girls.
The Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Act 2017 requires Ministers to publish annual reports on their progress towards being able to ratify the Convention. The next progress report is due to be published by 1 November 2019. This will, like previous reports, cover measures taken by the devolved administrations.
Following consultation with the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Department of Justice, the Domestic Abuse Bill includes measures extending the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the criminal courts in Scotland and Northern Ireland (as well as in England and Wales) to certain violent and sexual offences, and provides for a new domestic abuse offence in Northern Ireland. These legislative changes will support ratification of the Convention.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to tackle gangs involved in organised immigration crime.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The UK is playing a leading role in tackling organised immigration crime. The Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce, which the Government set up in 2015, brings together officers from the National Crime Agency, Border Force, Immigration Enforcement International and the Crown Prosecution Service to exploit every opportunity at source, in transit countries and in Europe to identify and disrupt organised crime groups involved in immigration crime.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of application rates in the EU Settlement scheme.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
On 10 June 2019, the Home Secretary confirmed that more than 800,000 applications had been received under the EU Settlement Scheme and that almost 700,000 of these had been granted status.
The second official statistics – ‘EU Settlement Scheme Statistics, May 2019’ – on the operation of the scheme were published on 20 June 2019, including applications received by nationality and constituent parts of the UK. These can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/eu-settlement-scheme-statistics-may-2019.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the number of police officers taking time off work for stress-related reasons in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The number of police officers taking time off work for stress-related reasons is not collected centrally by the Home Office.
The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of police officers on long-term absence as at 31st March each year, including long-term absence for sickness. Long-term absence includes officers on leave for 28 days or more.
These data are available in the Absence Open Data tables published alongside the annual ‘Police workforce’ statistical bulletin, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-open-data-tables
The Home Office also collects information on the number of police officers on short/medium term sick absence as at 31st March each year. Short/medium term absence due to sickness includes officers on leave for 28 days or less.
This information is published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services in their Value for Money profiles, available here: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmic/our-work/value-for-money-inspections/value-for-money-profiles.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the criteria is for selecting which passport holders have access to e-passport gates; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending that criteria to include British national (overseas) passport holders.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Government is prepared to consider whether British National (Over-seas) passport holders can be added to the list of those able to use ePass-port gates routinely. In doing so, they will be assessed against the full range of factors used to determine ePassport gate access including immigration abuse, security, cooperation on border matters, prosperity etc). If this group are found to be suitable, we will endeavor to add them at the next available opportunity.
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of forensic beds available for people with severe mental health conditions held in police custody.
Answered by Nick Hurd
As mentioned in Professor Sir Simon Wessely’s review of the Mental Health Act, the Home Office is aware that some individuals who require detention under the Mental Health Act for in-patient assessment or treatment are left for extended periods in police custody pending identification of a suitable bed. The Home Office is working with the Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that local Clinical Commissioning Groups fulfil their respon-sibilities to put arrangements in place for the reception of patients in cases of special urgency
Asked by: Andrea Jenkyns (Conservative - Morley and Outwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Home Department, whether the Government plans to bring forward plans to increase the number of secure structures available for people with mental health problems in police custody.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Government is committed to keeping mentally ill people who have committed no offence. out of police cells, and have made changes to the Mental Health Act to help ensure this. There are no plans to create any additional secure facilities within police custody settings for those with mental health problems.