Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to Answer of 14 July to Question 29907, if she will increase Government resources for investigations of Rwandan nationals in the UK alleged to have taken part in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Information about spend on investigations into war crimes committed abroad is not held by the Home Office.
The Metropolitan Police has national responsibility for carrying out UK police inquiries for the investigation of all allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and torture.
It will receive up to £3.24 billion in 2022/23 through the police funding settlement, an increase of up to £169.3 million when compared to 2021/22.
Decisions on how to allocate resources and distribute funding, including for investigation of alleged war crimes, is an operationally independent matter for Chief Constables, PCCs and Mayors with PCC functions, in this case the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and the Mayor of London.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to Answer of 14 July to Question 29906, how much the Government has spent on investigations into war crimes committed abroad by suspects living in the UK over each of the last five years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Information about spend on investigations into war crimes committed abroad is not held by the Home Office.
The Metropolitan Police has national responsibility for carrying out UK police inquiries for the investigation of all allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and torture.
It will receive up to £3.24 billion in 2022/23 through the police funding settlement, an increase of up to £169.3 million when compared to 2021/22.
Decisions on how to allocate resources and distribute funding, including for investigation of alleged war crimes, is an operationally independent matter for Chief Constables, PCCs and Mayors with PCC functions, in this case the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and the Mayor of London.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether senior leaders outside of the police service can apply to be the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Details of the criteria for selecting the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner were published in the recruitment information pack: Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service: application pack - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The process to recruit a new Commissioner is well underway and there will be an announcement in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the criteria for selecting the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner will include non-police officers.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Details of the criteria for selecting the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner were published in the recruitment information pack: Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service: application pack - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The process to recruit a new Commissioner is well underway and there will be an announcement in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill, in what circumstances her Department envisages that undercover Food Standards agents will need authorisation to participate in criminal activity in the course of their duties.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act lists a range of public authorities who use Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) for general investigative purposes. The CHIS (Criminal Conduct) Bill restricts the number of public authorities able to authorise participation in criminal conduct to only those public authorities who have demonstrated a clear operational need for the tactic. Authorisations will be subject to a robust set of safeguards and an authorisation can only be granted where it is necessary and proportionate to the criminality it is seeking to prevent.
The Food Standards Agency is tasked with protecting consumers and the food industry from crime within food supply chains. Examples of such criminality include the use of stolen food in the supply chain, unlawful slaughter, diversion of unsafe food, adulteration, substitution or misrepresentation of food and document fraud.
An example of where they might need to authorise participation in criminal conduct is where an individual working within a food business, contacts handlers to pass on intelligence. This relates to the ongoing misrepresentation of meat as being of premium quality and the extension of meat durability dates, leading to out of date meat being consumed.
The continuing presence of the individual within the workplace necessitates them actively participating in presenting, packaging and re-labelling produce in order to misrepresent its quality and fitness for consumption, which are criminal offences. This provides opportunities for the evidential seizure of unfit produce and to identify those complicit in, and responsible for, directing fraudulent activity. As a result, evidence is available to support a successful prosecution.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his policy that Food Standards agents will receive training if they are authorised to participate in criminal activity in the course of their duties under Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill.
Answered by James Brokenshire
All authorisations are granted by an experienced and highly trained authorising officer who will ensure that the authorisation has strict parameters and that this is communicated to the ‘agent’ or CHIS. Authorising Officers receive robust training to ensure they understand necessity, proportionality and risk considerations.
Public authorities each have in place their own training processes for their authorising officers to reflect the specialist remit in which they operate.
The authorisation of CHIS participation in criminal conduct is, and will continue to be, subject to robust and independent oversight by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner.
The Commissioner has wide-ranging statutory responsibilities for the oversight of investigatory powers, including this power, which are set out in Part 8 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. The Bill sets out particular requirements in relation to participation in criminal conduct. It amends the Investigatory Powers Act to provide a requirement for the Investigatory Powers Commissioner to pay particular attention to public authorities’ use of the power to grant criminal conduct authorisations under new section 29B.It also requires the Investigatory Powers Commissioner to include information about public authorities’ use of criminal conduct authorisations in his annual report. This will include information such as statistics on relevant public authorities’ of the power, the operation of safeguards in relation to authorisations, and errors.
As part of this, we anticipate that the IPC and his office will identify if any public body is failing to train and assess their officers to a sufficiently high standard.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether officials of her Department engaged with their US counterparts on the FBI’s policy expressly limiting the crimes which its covert human intelligence sources may commit when preparing the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill.
Answered by James Brokenshire
A covert human intelligence source (CHIS) will never be given authority to commit any and all crime. All authorisations must be necessary and proportionate to the criminality they are seeking to prevent and the Authorising Officer must ensure that the level of criminality authorised must be at the lowest level of intrusion possible to achieve the aims of the operation.
There are limits to the activity that can be authorised under this Bill and these are contained in the Human Rights Act. This includes the right to life, and prohibition of torture or subjecting someone to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The Bill does not list specific crimes which may be authorised, or prohibited, as to do so would place into the hands of criminals, terrorists and hostile states a means of creating a checklist for suspected CHIS to be tested against. This would threaten the future of the CHIS capability, and result in an increased threat to the public.
With regards to international comparisons, different countries have different legal systems, threat pictures and operational practices which means that simply comparing respective legislation gives only a very partial picture. In the course of developing this Bill, officials have engaged with a variety of stakeholders, including US counterparts.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to reduce youth-related violence in Sutton Coldfield constituency.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
This Government is determined to reduce youth-related violence. This includes giving the police the resources and tools they need to keep families, communities and our country safe. The Government has recently launched a national campaign to begin to recruit 20,000 new police officers over the next three years, and we are making it easier for the police to use stop and search powers. Police funding is increasing by more than £1 billion this year, including council tax and additional funding through the £100 million Serious Violence Fund. This Fund covers 18 areas worst affected by serious violence and includes £63.4 million for surge operational activity, £35 million to support Violence Reduction Units, and £1.6 million to help improve the quality of data on serious violence. West Midlands PCC is receiving £7,620,000 for surge operational activity and up to £3,370,000 to support the development of their Violence Reduction Unit.
The Government is also investing over £220 million into early intervention projects to steer young people away from crime. The West Midlands PCC was awarded over £2m from the Early Intervention Youth Fund to target resources and interventions at the young people most at risk and we recently awarded over £170k from the anti-knife crime Community Fund to projects in the West Midlands. Additionally, projects in Birmingham will benefit from investment from the first allocations from the Youth Endowment Fund.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the level of vehicle theft in the West Midlands.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
To support the fight against crime, West Midlands Police are receiving £568.8m in funding in 2019/20, an increase of £34.4m on 2018/19.
The previous Policing Minister chaired a Vehicle Theft Taskforce which brought together the police, the motor industry and others. The Government continues to work with partners to ensure that the response to this crime is as robust as it can be.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that the UK is not perceived as a safe haven for people suspected of committing international crimes.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The United Kingdom is committed to holding those who commit the most serious crimes accountable for their actions. It is Government policy that the United Kingdom should not provide a safe haven for war criminals or those responsible for other serious violations of international law. We are committed to ending impunity for such crimes, and encourage action to be taken to bring such individuals to justice wherever possible, within the rule of law and depending on the sufficiency of the available evidence.
The UK is committed to helping other countries to prosecute offences that take place within their territory or within their jurisdiction. Hence, the UK has arrangements to provide mutual legal assistance to other countries and permits the surrender of its own nationals subject to statutory safeguards.
In addition to extradition arrangements with its regular extradition partners, the UK recognises its important international obligations to the international tribunals, as well as under a range of UN Conventions (torture, hijacking etc). The UK stands ready to consider extradition requests from those countries with which it has no extradition arrangements. All requests are considered in accordance with the statutory bars set out in our domestic legal system.