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Written Question
Migrants: Domestic Abuse
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will remove the reservation on Article 59 of the Istanbul Convention.

Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)

The reservation on Article 59 will be kept in place at this time but kept under review as the policies which address support for migrant victims of domestic abuse develop.

We continue to be committed to supporting migrant victims of domestic abuse. This includes the recently expanded Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession, the immediate settlement provisions under Appendix Victim of Domestic Abuse and the Support for Migrant Victims Scheme.


Written Question
Migrants: Domestic Abuse
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing migrant victims of domestic abuse to access support from (a) police and (b) statutory services.

Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)

Victims are entitled to access services under the Victims Code regardless of their resident status, including support services. They are rightly able to access statutory services irrespective of their immigration status and the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. As an example, the statutory guidance for the Duty to Provide Safe Accommodation under Part 4 of the Domestic Abuse Act is clear that this provision is for all victims of domestic abuse, including migrant survivors with insecure immigration status.

The government has kept the range of support under review and have made recent changes.

We allocated up to £5.6 million from April 2021 until March 2025 for the Support for Migrant Victim Scheme, which provides a support net for migrant victims of abuse with no recourse to public funds. And we have expanded access to the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC) to partners of workers or students, giving 3 months recourse to public funds whilst they potentially apply for an appropriate immigration status or return to their country of origin if it is safe for them to do so.


Written Question
Crimes of Violence: Victims
Tuesday 19th March 2024

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make it his policy to introduce a strategy to fund specialist services to support victims of violence that are (a) disabled, (b) an ethnic minority, (c) a religious minority, (d) identify as being LGBTQIA+ and (e) with no recourse to public funds.

Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)

The Home Office and Ministry of Justice have committed to a joint 'by and for' fund for services across England and Wales. The fund is providing £5.9m to organisations supporting marginalised groups affected by violence against women and girls (VAWG) over two years to March 2025. This includes organisations supporting victims from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled victims, and LGBT victims. ‘By and for’ services are specialist services that are led, designed, and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve.

Additionally, Police and Crime Commissioners receive annual grant funding to commission local victim services, including specialist 'by and for' services, based on an assessment of local needs.


Written Question
Entry Clearances: Gaza
Monday 4th March 2024

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what provision his Department has made for collecting biometric data from relatives of British nationals fleeing Gaza in the absence of functioning visa applications centres in Gaza.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Visa Application Centre in Gaza has been closed since 7 October 2023 due to the conflict in the region and to ensure the safety of staff and customers. UKVI will continue to monitor the situation and work closely with the commercial partner, TLS, to re-open the centre when it becomes safe to do so.

Those who wish to make a UK visa application will need to enrol their biometrics at an alternative Visa Application Centre in OPT (Ramallah or Jerusalem) or a nearby country. Customers can visit https://pos.tlscontact.com/ for an up to date list of Visa Application Centres in the region.


Written Question
Counter-terrorism: Higher Education
Tuesday 23rd January 2024

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the statutory guidance entitled Prevent duty guidance: for higher education institutions in England and Wales (2015), updated on 31 December 2023, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of that guidance on (a) academic research, (b) the number of students applying to higher education institutions, (c) students’ experience in higher education, (d) freedom of speech and (e) people with protected characteristics.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

The updated and refreshed guidance places no additional burdens on the education sector. There are no new requirements as a result of the refresh or additional responsibilities for the sector. The guidance reinforces that settings should understand their Prevent duty requirements as part of their wider safeguarding and welfare responsibilities.

The Prevent duty should not limit academic research but encourage debate, challenge ideas and advance knowledge on contentious topics. The government has legislated to ensure that universities in England are a place where academics, students and visiting speakers can express a diverse range of views without fear of repercussion.

In the most recent published assessment by the Office for Students (OfS) on the implementation of the Prevent programme in the English higher education sector in 2019, they found no cause for concern that free speech was being undermined by Prevent in external speakers’ policies and their implementation. The assessment is available here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/prevent-review-meetings-programme-findings/.

Institutions should encourage students to respect other people with particular regard to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010 Institutions should also be mindful of their commitments to protecting freedom of speech, provided that the speech is lawful.

A full Equality Impact Assessment was undertaken in line with responsibilities under the Public Sector Equality Duty. The Home Office commissioned an independent research agency to conduct in-depth research with frontline staff, particularly those with Prevent-specific responsibilities, across the key sectors of education, healthcare, local authorities, police and prisons & probation, to make sure that the new guidance is as robust as possible. This consultation covered England and Wales.


Written Question
Counter-terrorism
Tuesday 16th January 2024

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has to improve the complaints mechanism for challenging Prevent referrals.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

The Home Office is committed to implementing William Shawcross’s Independent Review of Prevent in full, which included recommendation 34: “Create a new standards and compliance unit answerable to ministers on the Prevent oversight board.”


Written Question
Emergency Services: Accidents
Thursday 23rd November 2023

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if his Department will undertake a review of the current system for compensation following fatal road traffic collisions with emergency service vehicles.

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

Compensation following a road collision involving the emergency services should be sought via motor insurance claims in the usual way. There are no current plans to review how compensation is awarded in these circumstances.


Written Question
Investigations After Police Use of Force Review
Monday 13th November 2023

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she took into account the findings of the Baroness Casey Review when formulating the terms of reference for her Department's review of investigations after police use of force.

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

The Terms of Reference (ToR) for the review of investigatory arrangements following police use of force and police driving are broad and encompass the interests of both police officers and the public. They make it clear that the review will seek to understand whether the current framework serves to maintain public confidence in the police, in particular for those impacted by police use of force. This includes whether individuals are held to account appropriately. We are seeking to gather evidence on the issues covered in the ToR, from a wide range of stakeholders, including third parties.

The Department is fully aware of the Casey Review and it was highlighted in representations made to the Home Secretary by the Independent Office for Police Conduct during the development of the Review’s ToR


Written Question
Investigations After Police Use of Force Review
Monday 13th November 2023

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with which third party organisations her Department consulted on the scope of the terms of reference for its review of investigations after police use of force.

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

The Terms of Reference (ToR) for the review of investigatory arrangements following police use of force and police driving are broad and encompass the interests of both police officers and the public. They make it clear that the review will seek to understand whether the current framework serves to maintain public confidence in the police, in particular for those impacted by police use of force. This includes whether individuals are held to account appropriately. We are seeking to gather evidence on the issues covered in the ToR, from a wide range of stakeholders, including third parties.

The Department is fully aware of the Casey Review and it was highlighted in representations made to the Home Secretary by the Independent Office for Police Conduct during the development of the Review’s ToR


Written Question
Investigations after Police Use of Force Review
Friday 10th November 2023

Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Streatham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the terms of reference for the review of investigatory arrangements which follow police use of force and police driving related incidents 2023, published on 24 October 2023, what assessment she has made of (a) the adequacy of the length of time provided for responses and (b) the potential impact of that length of time on the number of submissions that will be received.

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

It is critical that the review is carried out at pace to ensure the clarity and confidence of both officers and the public in the investigatory system relating to police use of force and police driving related incidents.

Given the urgent need for this review, the Government believes that the timeframe which we have allowed for gathering evidence from a wide range of stakeholders is appropriate.

Officials are proactively engaging a wide range of organisations in relation to the issues covered by the Terms of Reference, to ensure a balanced evidence base underpins the reviews’ findings.