Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's policy is on whether an email, image of a signed letter written by an applicant or a physical signature are required for a letter of authority.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ban commercial breeding for use in animal testing; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Scientific research using animals plays a vital part in our understanding of how biological systems work in health and disease. This brings benefits for human and animal healthcare, public safety, and the environment. The commercial breeding of animals for use in regulatory testing is primarily to support the safety of new medicines.
The Government is committed to the protection and welfare of animals and ensuring that animals are only ever used in science where there are no alternatives.
Government policy is to actively support and fund the development and dissemination of techniques that Replace, Reduce and Refine the use of animals in research (the 3Rs). This is achieved through funding UK Research and Investment who fund the National Centre for the 3Rs and fund further research through Innovate UK, the Medical Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council into the development of alternatives.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to protect shopworkers from abusive customers.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government conducted a call for evidence on violence and abuse toward shop staff to understand the extent of the issue and how we can improve the response to these crimes. The Government’s formal response was published 7 July 2020 and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/violence-and-abuse-toward-shop-staff-call-for-evidence
To address the actions raised in the call for evidence the Home Office has worked closely with retailers and trade organisations through the National Retail Crime Steering Group. We have developed resources to assist retailers to report crimes when they occur, resources for shop staff who are victims of violence and abuse, and the #Shopkind communications campaign. The downloadable resources are free to use and are available here: https://brc.org.uk/nrcsg-against-shop-worker-abuse-and-violence/
The next phase of the work will look at the causes of retail violence, such as drug and alcohol addiction, and what can be done to address these in the retail setting.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many appeals rights exhausted asylum seekers are being housed in South Northamptonshire; and at what cost to the taxpayer.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support
Accommodation costs are considered to be commercially confidential so we do not provide this information, however, total asylum spends are published as part of transparency data https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effect of adverse childhood experiences on (a) levels of criminality and (b) rates of youth offending.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Serious Violence Strategy, published in April last year, sets out our assessment of the risk and protective factors which impact on an individual’s likelihood of becoming involved in serious violence as a victim or perpetrator. The impact of adverse childhood experiences are highlighted within this context. The Strategy stresses the importance of early intervention to tackle the root causes of serious violence and provide young people with the skills and resilience to lead productive lives free from violence. We are investing in early intervention through the £22 million Early Intervention Youth Fund and the longer term £200 million Youth Endowment Fund, to ensure those most at risk are given the opportunity to turn away from crime and violence and lead positive lives.
Through the Police Transformation Fund, we have also awarded £6.87m to South Wales Police for three years from 2017/18 onwards to deliver the Early Action Together (EAT) project with all four police forces in Wales and a range of partners. The police are working in collaboration with Public Health Wales to develop and test a new approach to policing, which prevents and mitigates Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The project aims to prevent further crime from being committed and stop the generational cycle of offending by providing the right support early to vulnerable people, which in turn reduces demand on services such as policing and health.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the recommendations of the Inter Ministerial Group on early years family support have been agreed by his Department; and what further steps he has taken to improve early years family support.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We recognise the impact of adverse childhood experiences and the importance of a stable, safe and supportive early years for children. The department is therefore pleased to have been involved in the work of the EYFS Ministerial Group.
The Group has considered how the Government can improve the coordination and cost-effectiveness of early years (conception to age 2) family support and bolster local provision. The group has now made recommendations to Secretaries of State which will be considered in due course.
Asked by: Andrea Leadsom (Conservative - South Northamptonshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to work with police forces across the country to protect children from online sexual exploitation.
Answered by Norman Baker
The Government is committed to preventing online child abuse. Details of the Government plans to strengthen the protection of children from online sexual exploitation were published last summer in the Action Plan of the National Group to tackle Sexual Violence Against Children and Vulnerable People. Copies will be placed in the House Library and can be found at the following link;
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/230443
/Sexual_Violence_against_Children_and_Vulnerable_People.pdf
The Child Exploitation Online Protection Command of the National Crime Agency (NCA-CEOP) is the UK's national law enforcement agency committed to preventing and tackling the sexual abuse of children both online and offline. In 2012/13, NCA-CEOP safeguarded and protected 790 children, an increase of 85% on the previous year.
The NCA-CEOP Command works closely with all 43 police forces in England and Wales, Police Scotland and PSNI.
In January 2013, the police created a National Child Sexual Exploitation Action Plan which sought to improve the police response to all forms of CSE both online and offline. Each force has now completed a benchmarking exercise, allowing them to understand and improve their capability to deal with CSE.
HMIC are close to completing an inspection into the policing of online sexual exploitation and should be publishing their findings in the near future. This will help us identify best practice and also where the service needs to improve to deal with the proliferation of indecent images on the internet and grooming.