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Written Question
Passports: Dover Port
Wednesday 15th June 2022

Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the Port of Dover are no longer accepting collective passports.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The UK is a signatory to the 1961 Council of Europe treaty which provides for collective passports for young people. Continued acceptance of these passports from those who have ratified the treaty is current practice. The UK has not left the Council of Europe.

It should be noted several EU countries have declared they will no longer accept a collective passport issued by the UK under this treaty.


Written Question
Community Safety Partnerships
Tuesday 15th March 2022

Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of the 322 Community Safety Partnerships in England and Wales (a) access and (b) share Cardiff Model data for preventing serious violence.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

Tackling violent crime is a top priority and this government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.

This is why we have invested £105.5m from 2019-2022 into the development of our Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) programme, which operates in the 18 police force areas worst affected by serious violence.

We know that information sharing is key to identifying and supporting young people at risk of violence. VRUs combine the collective expertise of local agency partners to identify the drivers of serious violence and agree a multi-agency response to them. This includes the proactive sharing of data between health and other partners, emulating the Cardiff Model. The Home Office closely monitors VRUs’ progress across key priorities, including effective sharing data sharing between partners. As per the published 2019/20 VRU Evaluation, all 18 areas have made good progress in generating and sharing data across numerous partners to inform their direction of travel.

The 2018 Serious Violence Strategy for England and Wales consolidates the expectation that, in line with the Cardiff Model for violence prevention, Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) work with local hospitals to implement the sharing of appropriate health data to tackle serious violence. Information standard ISB1594, which applies to all Accident and Emergency departments, sets out the details of the minimum dataset to be provided. At this time, data on the percentage of CSPs using this model is not held centrally.

More widely, we are introducing the Serious Violence Duty through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which will require authorities to work collaboratively and share data and information to prevent and reduce serious violence within their local communities.


Written Question
Crimes of Violence: Crime Prevention
Tuesday 15th March 2022

Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which of the 43 police forces in England and Wales use the Cardiff Model data to identify and target serious violence hotspots.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

Tackling violent crime is a top priority and this government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.

This is why we have invested £105.5m from 2019-2022 into the development of our Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) programme, which operates in the 18 police force areas worst affected by serious violence.

We know that information sharing is key to identifying and supporting young people at risk of violence. VRUs combine the collective expertise of local agency partners to identify the drivers of serious violence and agree a multi-agency response to them. This includes the proactive sharing of data between health and other partners, emulating the Cardiff Model. The Home Office closely monitors VRUs’ progress across key priorities, including effective sharing data sharing between partners. As per the published 2019/20 VRU Evaluation, all 18 areas have made good progress in generating and sharing data across numerous partners to inform their direction of travel.

The 2018 Serious Violence Strategy for England and Wales consolidates the expectation that, in line with the Cardiff Model for violence prevention, Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) work with local hospitals to implement the sharing of appropriate health data to tackle serious violence. Information standard ISB1594, which applies to all Accident and Emergency departments, sets out the details of the minimum dataset to be provided. At this time, data on the percentage of CSPs using this model is not held centrally.

More widely, we are introducing the Serious Violence Duty through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which will require authorities to work collaboratively and share data and information to prevent and reduce serious violence within their local communities.


Written Question
Domestic Abuse: Temporary Accommodation
Thursday 16th December 2021

Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help accommodate domestic abuse survivors with dogs access refuges and accommodation easily.

Answered by Rachel Maclean

The Domestic Abuse Act includes the first statutory definition of domestic abuse, outlining that this can encompass a wide range of behaviours that can affect many aspects of a victim’s life and relationships, including those with pets. The Act also amended the definition of ‘personally connected’, removing the ‘living together’ requirement for the controlling or coercive behaviour offence. This means, as of Spring 2022, the offence will now apply to intimate partners, ex-partners or family members, regardless of whether the victim and perpetrator live together, better capturing post-separation abuse.

The draft Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance published for consultation, and the upcoming Controlling or Coercive Behaviour Statutory Guidance, both recognise that domestic abuse can involve violence or threats against pets. Both pieces of guidance seek to support agencies in identifying and responding to domestic abuse and reducing risk to victims. Finalised Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance will be issued after all relevant updates have been made. The Controlling or Coercive Behaviour Guidance will be published for consultation shortly.

Victims of domestic abuse with pets can face additional barriers to leaving an abusive relationship. The Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) introduced a new legal duty within the Domestic Abuse Act on local authorities, which came into force on 1 October 2021, to provide support for victims of domestic abuse and their children within safe accommodation including refuges, backed by £125 million of Government funding to ensure that these vital services are available to anyone who need them, wherever they live. This includes victims who have a pet. Associated regulations provide clear definitions of safe accommodation under the duty. Local authorities can refer to the regulations to help them provide support in safe accommodation suitable for victims with pets fleeing domestic abuse.


Written Question
Domestic Abuse: Pets
Thursday 16th December 2021

Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department holds data on the use of pets as coercive control in domestic abuse.

Answered by Rachel Maclean

The Domestic Abuse Act includes the first statutory definition of domestic abuse, outlining that this can encompass a wide range of behaviours that can affect many aspects of a victim’s life and relationships, including those with pets.

Both the draft Domestic Abuse Statutory Guidance and upcoming Controlling or Coercive Behaviour Statutory Guidance recognise that pets can be used as a means to perpetrate domestic abuse, including to coerce or exert control over a victim. While the relationship between controlling or coercive behaviour and using pets to perpetrate this is recognised by the Home Office, we do not currently hold data specifically on the use of pets as part of controlling or coercive behaviour.

More generally, data shows that the number of recorded controlling or coercive behaviour offences has increased year on year, with 24,856 controlling or coercive behaviour offences being recorded in 2019/20 (ONS, 2020).


Written Question
Migrant Workers: Large Goods Vehicle Drivers
Monday 25th October 2021

Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on extending the additional HGV driver visas beyond Christmas 2021.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The UK Government is working with the haulage sector to promote jobs, training and a range of other initiatives to get more people into HGV driving.

Like other sectors the focus should be on training and recruiting from the UK based workforce in the first instance, especially given the impact of the pandemic resulting in more looking for secure new employment.

The temporary visa provision for HGV drivers was introduced in response to potential reduced availability of some food products in the run up to Christmas, enabling drivers to work in the UK until 28 February 2022. There are no plans to extend the validity of these visas beyond this date.


Written Question
Alcoholic Drinks: Drugs
Friday 22nd October 2021

Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) businesses in the hospitality sector to help tackle the spiking of drinks within nightclubs and hospitality venues.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

The reports of the spiking of drinks with illegal substances, and of other attacks on individuals in night time venues, are of course concerning. This is an ongoing matter which the police are investigating. The Home Secretary has asked the police for an urgent update on the issues reported, including what steps they are taking to prevent the offences and apprehend the perpetrators. We would encourage anyone who is a victim or a witness of the offences to report the information to the police.


Written Question
Offences against Children: Females
Monday 6th September 2021

Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of girls aged (a) 11 to 14 and (b) 15 to 18 who have been referred to the police with sexual exploitation and/or sexual violence assessed as a factor in each of the last three years.

Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

All forms of sexual violence against children are terrible crimes, which have devastating consequences on young lives. The Government is determined to protect and support those who are targeted, exploited and harmed by criminals. We are working to improve our understanding of the scale and nature of child sexual abuse, to enable us to better prevent and disrupt offending. We use data gathered through the Office of National Statistics England and Wales Crime Survey to understand the number of victims and their ages. We also draw on the research and insight produced by the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse, which we established in 2017, and the insight of other experts including the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Abuse.

The Home Office does not receive data on cases referred to the police, but instead collects data on offences recorded by police.

In 2021, the Office for National Statistics published data on the gender and age of victims of all sexual offences between March 2019 and March 2020, excluding image offences, in the records of 24 police forces. This data shows that 24.1% of female victims of sexual offences were aged 10 to 14 and 21.0% of female victims of sexual offences were aged 15 to 19.


Written Question
Domestic Abuse
Wednesday 16th June 2021

Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish the 2021 Domestic Abuse Strategy.

Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

The Government is determined to tackle domestic abuse.

Following the landmark Domestic Abuse Act, the Government will be publishing a first-ever, national Domestic Abuse Strategy, as well as a complementary Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls strategy, this year.


Written Question
Educational Visits: EU Countries
Thursday 10th June 2021

Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effect of leaving the List of Travellers visa scheme on educational and recreational school visits to mainland Europe; and if she will take steps with the Secretary of State for Education to support improved travel arrangements for those visits.

Answered by Kevin Foster

The List of Travellers is an EU scheme and the EU announced in July last year the UK would no longer be part of it from 1 January 2021.

The UK Government decided to continue to accept travel to the UK on the List of Travellers until 1 October to allow this change to be made at the same time as the change on the acceptance of EU/EEA and Swiss identity cards.

It is for the EU to decide on what documents it requires for travel to the EU, just as the UK can now determine our own requirements now we have left.