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Written Question
Asylum: Hotels
Thursday 9th February 2023

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department provides compensation for financial losses incurred by people who have (a) weddings and (b) other bookings cancelled as a result of her Department's contracts with hotels to accommodate asylum seekers (i) generally and (ii) when standard wedding insurance does not cover the loss. .

Answered by Robert Jenrick

Successive years in which record numbers of people have crossed the Channel in small boats has placed our asylum infrastructure under immense strain. In order to meet our statutory obligations to accommodate asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute, we have been forced to temporarily house asylum seekers in hotels. The use of hotels is a short term solution and we are working hard with Local Authorities and our accommodation providers to find more appropriate accommodation.

Hotel owners are under no obligation to enter into a contract with our providers. However, they recognise a commercial benefit from this arrangement. The decision to cancel any pre booked reservations is the responsibility of the hotel and not the Home Office.


Written Question
Shoplifting: Prosecutions
Wednesday 1st February 2023

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure that perpetrators of shoplifting are charged.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government recognises the significant impact that shoplifting can have, not only on businesses but also the wider community and consumers.

We are working closely with retailers, trade organisations, police and enforcement partners across England and Wales via the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) to ensure the response to crimes affecting the retail sector, including shoplifting, is as robust as it can be.

We also support the police-led National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) and National Police Chiefs’ Council to help ensure businesses and police are working effectively together to tackle shoplifting. This includes encouraging businesses to report incidents when they occur, gather relevant evidence and work closely with the police to ensure incidents are dealt with appropriately.

The Crime and Policing Minister wrote to PCCs and Chief Constables in September 2020, setting out that the theft of goods valued up to £200 from a shop should be prosecuted as a criminal offence and therefore should not constrain the ability of the police to arrest or prosecute someone in the way they feel is most appropriate.

We expect that all reported crimes, including shoplifting, should be taken seriously and properly investigated.


Written Question
Police: Finance
Tuesday 9th November 2021

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in which financial year will the revised police national funding formula take effect.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

The Government has committed to reviewing the police funding formula before the next General Election and our intention is to introduce new arrangements at the earliest opportunity.

Reviewing the funding formula will be a complex process that will require close working with the policing sector and relevant experts to develop proposals, and a full public consultation will take place before any new funding arrangements are put in place.


Written Question
Independent Office for Police Conduct
Monday 24th May 2021

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many ongoing cases the Independent Office for Police Conduct has been investigating for more than 12 months.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

As at 18 May 2021, the IOPC has 29 cases that have been open for longer than 12 months.

For context, in 2020/21 the IOPC started 465 independent investigations.

Of the investigations it completed in 2020/21, it completed 86% within 12 months. When major investigations are excluded, the IOPC completed 91% of investigations in 12 months or less (against a target of 85%).


Written Question
Independent Office for Police Conduct: Staff
Monday 24th May 2021

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff work for the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

As at 30th April 2021, the IOPC workforce totalled 1,004 people.


Written Question
Independent Office for Police Conduct: Finance
Monday 24th May 2021

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the budget is for the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

The IOPC’s budget for 2021/22 is £69.65 million.


Written Question
Internet: Safety
Tuesday 28th July 2020

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the interim codes of practice will be published under the proposals in the Online Harms White Paper Initial Consultation Response.

Answered by James Brokenshire

The Government will be publishing interim codes of practice on terrorist use of the internet and child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) as part of the full government response to the Online Harms White Paper consultation. This will ensure that companies are provided with the necessary context to understand the expectations around what companies should do to address CSEA and terrorist content and activity online.

We are currently working swiftly to prepare the interim codes of practice and the full government response to the Online Harms White Paper, which we will publish in the autumn.

We will follow this publication with legislation, when Parliamentary time allow.


Written Question
Action Fraud
Tuesday 27th November 2018

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information his Department holds on the number of people who attempted to make reports of fraud to Action Fraud over the latest 12-month period for which data is available; of those who attempted to make such reports how many were successful over that period; how much enforcement activity was undertaken as a result of those reports; by which police authorities such action was undertaken; how many telephone calls were made to Action Fraud over that period; and, of those calls, how many were answered by Action Fraud.

Answered by Ben Wallace

Action Fraud provide online and telephone based services which enable the reporting of both fraud and cyber dependent crime.

Between October 2017 and September 2018 the service received 505,497 calls.

Of these callers, 314,668 callers spoke to a member of staff. The 190,829 callers that did not speak to a member of staff will include callers that chose to use the online service or callers who waited but did not receive an answer.

505,587 reports were made in this period, by phone or online, of which 318,629 were classified as crimes as set out in the Home Office Counting Rules. In the same period 57,181 crimes were disseminated for enforcement, by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), which analyses reports of crime made via Action Fraud. The NFIB disseminated a further 20,075 reports in this period either as intelligence or as a result of concern for the victim, this is in addition to victim based referrals made by contact centre staff direct to their local police force.

Force breakdown for outcomes are also available at this webpage
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/crime-outcomes-in-england-and-wales-2017-to-2018


Written Question
Drugs: Pregnancy
Tuesday 26th June 2018

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether it is an aggravated offence for a pregnant women to use (a) cannabis, (b) ecstasy, (c) heroin and (d) other illegal or street drugs during pregnancy; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Nick Hurd

There is no specific offence for drug use. It is an offence under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 for any person to possess a controlled drug. The penalty will depend on: the class and quantity of drug, where a person and the drugs were found, their personal history and other aggravating or mitigating factors.
The Government is determined to protect vulnerable women from drug misuse. Advice about alcohol and drugs is available to pregnant women as part of their routine antenatal care. Pregnant women who misuse alcohol or drugs will be put in contact with a midwife or doctor who has special expertise in the care of pregnant women with alcohol or drug problems. They will be able to refer them to an alcohol or drug treatment programme and other organisations that can help.


Written Question
Knives: Crime
Wednesday 9th May 2018

Asked by: Andrew Selous (Conservative - South West Bedfordshire)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of knife crime incidents recorded in England in the last year for which figures are available were linked to criminal drug taking activity; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Nick Hurd

The Home Office collects data on the number of selected offences involving a knife or a sharp instrument recorded by the police in England and Wales.

It is not possible to tell from this information whether an offence was related to criminal drug taking activity or not.

The most recently published data for offences involving knives or sharp instruments is for the calendar year 2017 and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables.