Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the aim of the Bottle Stop campaign to ensure that all bottles in clubs and bars are plastic instead of glass.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Licensing Act 2003 regulates the sale and supply of alcohol in licensed premises across England and Wales and devolves decision-making to local licensing authorities.
The Government publishes guidance for licensing authorities to assist them in carrying out their functions under the Act in line with the four licensing objectives: the prevention of crime and disorder; the prevention of public nuisance, upholding public safety, and the protection of children from harm.
This guidance specifically states that a number of matters should be considered by a licensing authority in relation to public safety, which may include requiring, as part of a premises licence, the use of plastic containers and preventing customer access to glass bottles.
We keep under review licensing of alcohol premises.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will hold discussions with Alcohol Change UK on their research entitled The need for responsible alcohol delivery, published on 8 May 2024.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Government recognises that the way in which people purchase alcohol has changed in recent years, with sales increasingly being made online.
Accordingly, we recently ran a consultation that closed on 30 March this year that requested views on whether the Licensing Act 2003 should be amended to include a requirement for age verification to occur when alcohol purchased remotely is delivered. We also asked for views on whether the Act should be amended to specify that it is an offence to deliver alcohol to someone who is already intoxicated.
We are currently analysing the responses to this consultation and will publish a response in due course.
Home Office officials meet regularly with Alcohol Change UK to discuss the licensing framework in England and Wales.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the the potential merits of updating the Licensing Act 2003 to regulate online alcohol delivery services.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Government recognises that the way in which people purchase alcohol has changed in recent years, with sales increasingly being made online.
Accordingly, we recently ran a consultation that closed on 30 March this year that requested views on whether the Licensing Act 2003 should be amended to include a requirement for age verification to occur when alcohol purchased remotely is delivered. We also asked for views on whether the Act should be amended to specify that it is an offence to deliver alcohol to someone who is already intoxicated.
We are currently analysing the responses to this consultation and will publish a response in due course.
Home Office officials meet regularly with Alcohol Change UK to discuss the licensing framework in England and Wales.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to increase the range of wildlife crimes which have notifiable status.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
This Government recognises the importance of tackling wildlife crime, which is why, along with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Home Office directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) to help tackle these crimes.
The NWCU provides intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to the police and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime. This includes supporting cases referred by Border Force to the National Crime Agency or to individual forces. The NWCU is also the UK policing focal point for EUROPOL and INTERPOL wildlife crime activity.
The NWCU uses this information to produce strategic and tactical assessments of wildlife crime across the UK. These assessments also take into consideration the views of the Wildlife Crime Conservation Advisory Group, which highlight priorities based on the conservation status of specific species and review all other non-priority intelligence to identify any emerging threats. It is these assessments which ultimately drive the operational response to tackling wildlife crime in the UK.
We will keep under review any legislative proposals to increase the range of wildlife crimes that have notifiable status. If a non-notifiable wildlife crime is reported to police it can still be investigated. Chief Constables have operational independence to tackle the crimes that matter most to their communities.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to announce whether he plans to extend the seasonal agricultural workers scheme beyond December 2024.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Government keeps the Seasonal Worker route under close review, and we will say more in due course.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether UK Visas and Immigration is meeting its service standard for processing student visa applications as of November 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
We have remained continually within service standard for straightforward standard, priority, and super priority Student visa applications. Where applications are complex and we require further information or checks, we may take to take longer to reach a decision. This is to ensure the applicant meets the requirements of the immigration rules and prevent abuse of our immigration system.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of student visa applications have not been renewed since 1 June 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Information on how many people extend their permission within the Student or Graduate route can be found at: Immigration system statistics, year ending June 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Where eligible, students may also apply to switch into an alternative appropriate category. We do not routinely publish data on how many students switch into other immigration categories.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the time taken to process (a) student visa and (b) student sponsor license applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office has continually remained within published service standard for straightforward applications within the Student route. We work closely with the education sector and through public communications campaigns to encourage students to apply as early as possible and to check they have submitted the right documents, to reduce delays. Customers applying to the Student route from overseas can apply up to six months ahead of the course start date, once their education sponsor has provided the Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS). We continue to review internal processes to identify opportunities to improve the customer journey.
Student Sponsor license applications have an eight-week service standard which includes a pre-licence visit. To reduce processing times, the pre-licence visits are now undertaken by dedicated Study Compliance officers. Applications may take longer to decide where further information is required from the prospective sponsor following the visit, to confirm the licence requirements are met.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of capacity in UKAS accredited forensic science police laboratories; and whether there is a backlog in cases as of 17 October 2023.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Home Office does not hold data on capacity at police laboratories and the deployment of resources on forensic science activities is for individual forces and Police and Crime Commissioners to determine. However, the Forensics Reform Programme Board has oversight of strategic capacity issues. Through this Board we have assessed that there are capacity shortfalls in some areas of forensics, including digital.
The Home Office has invested £4.33m in 2022/23 and £3.2m for 2023/24 to the police-led Forensic Capability Network which provides ongoing support to over 4,000 forensics professionals by coordinating a wide range of national activities. BlueLight Commercial works with the National Police Chief’s Council and the Forensics Capability Network to manages forensic science contracts and other commercial functions in England and Wales.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum applications were rejected on the grounds of a false claim of LGB in each year since 2010.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office publishes data on LGB asylum claims in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on initial decisions (including refusals) on asylum applications where sexual orientation formed part of the basis for the claim is published in table SOC_02 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’. Please note that information on the reason for refusal is not published and therefore the statistics do not separately identify refusals on the grounds of false claims from refusals for other reasons.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to 2022. Data prior to 2015 is not published.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.