Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of the review of the Tier 2 visa cap on healthcare in the North East.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
On Friday 15 June, the Government announced changes to the allocation of places within the Tier 2 (General) cap of 20,700. The change – which will be implemented through amended Immigration Rules coming into effect on 6 July – will ensure that all doctors and all nurses needed in the UK will be able to be recruited to work here without being counted against the cap. This is intended to be a temporary change which recognises the importance of alleviating pressure on the NHS and which creates extra space within the cap for other sectors of the economy.
As part of this announcement, we will be asking the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the full composition of the Shortage Occupation List.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the UK's requirement for international doctors specialising in mental health after the UK leaves the EU; and whether that requirement will form part of his Department’s review of the Tier 2 visa cap.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Government is considering a range of options for the future immigration system and will set out initial plans in due course. We will build a comprehensive picture of the needs and interests of all parts of the UK and look to develop a system which works for all.
We will ensure that decisions on the long-term arrangements are based on evidence. The commission that we asked the MAC to undertake is very much part of this. The MAC are due to report back by September 2018.
The Government has separately commissioned the MAC to undertake a review of the composition of the Shortage Occupation List.
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Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many referrals has the National Crime Agency received from the Solicitors Regulation Authority in relation to potential criminal activity under (a) section 327-9 and (b) section 330 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2017.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The NCA is the lead agency for the response to serious and organised crime in the UK. As described in the NCA’s 2017 / 2018 Annual Plan, the remit of the NCA is particularly focused on tackling criminality at ‘the high end of high risk’. High-end money laundering has been identified as one of the top six national priorities for agencies tackling serious and organised crime – accordingly it is a key priority for the NCA. A range of other agencies are involved in investigating and prosecuting money laundering activity.
Potential money laundering investigations can be identified and triggered in different ways, such as tips, suspicious activity reports, or referrals from regulatory authorities including the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority; or through parallel investigations into a predicate offence where there are suspected proceeds of crime. The NCA does not routinely comment on specific referrals or the number of investigations underway related to particular offences.
The NCA’s 2017/2018 Annual Plan can be found here: www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/889-nca-annual-plan-2018
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many investigations are being undertaking by the National Crime Agency into offences committed under (a) section 327-329 and (b) section 330 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2017.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The NCA is the lead agency for the response to serious and organised crime in the UK. As described in the NCA’s 2017 / 2018 Annual Plan, the remit of the NCA is particularly focused on tackling criminality at ‘the high end of high risk’. High-end money laundering has been identified as one of the top six national priorities for agencies tackling serious and organised crime – accordingly it is a key priority for the NCA. A range of other agencies are involved in investigating and prosecuting money laundering activity.
Potential money laundering investigations can be identified and triggered in different ways, such as tips, suspicious activity reports, or referrals from regulatory authorities including the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority; or through parallel investigations into a predicate offence where there are suspected proceeds of crime. The NCA does not routinely comment on specific referrals or the number of investigations underway related to particular offences.
The NCA’s 2017/2018 Annual Plan can be found here: www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/889-nca-annual-plan-2018
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to prevent knife crime in the North East of England.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
On 9 April 2018, the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy that set out action being taken to address serious violence and in particular the recent increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicide. This also includes the national knife crime media campaign, #knifefree, to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime among young people and to encourage them to take up positive activities.
We will continue to encourage police forces in England and Wales to undertake a series of coordinated national weeks of action to tackle knife crime under Operation Sceptre. In February this year, the police forces in Northumbria, Cleveland and Durham all participated in Operation Sceptre, which includes targeted stop and searches, weapon sweeps, test purchases of knives from identified retailers, the use of surrender bins and educational activities. We also announced up to £1million for a new round of the anti-knife crime Community Fund which will invite bids for funding later this Spring from community groups to tackle knife crime in their area.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the net change has been in the number of police officers in (a) the North East and (b) England in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office collects and publishes statistics on the number of police officers employed by each police force in England and Wales on a bi-annual basis. These data are published in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletins.
The latest data available on the number of police officers, by police force area and region, as at 30 September 2017, can be found in the Table 1 of the police workforce statistics published in January 2018:
Data on the number of police officers, as at 31 March each year back to March 2007, can be found in the accompanying Open Data Table: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/629362/open-data-table-police-workforce.ods
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the number of knife crime incidents in Newcastle in each of the last seven years.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office does not hold the information requested.
The Home Office collects and publishes data for offences involving knives or sharp instruments for selected offences in England and Wales, at police force area level only.
These data are published quarterly, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/675512/prc-knife-open-data-march2009-onwards-tables.ods
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2018 to Question 133769, what specific steps her Department is taking to encourage social media companies to tackle online hate crime.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The 2016 Hate Crime Action Plan set out a number of Home Office and cross-Government actions to tackle online hate crime, including engagement with industry. We will be refreshing the action plan this year.
The Government has already gone further than these actions: in October 2017 the Home Secretary announced funding for a national online hate crime hub that will help the police to manage online cases more effectively and efficiently; we have successfully worked with industry and partners internationally to agree the removal of illegal hate speech within 24 hours through the EU Commission Code of Conduct on Illegal Hate Speech; and we will publish the Government response to the Internet Safety Strategy consultation in the spring which will set out details on a comprehensive new social media code of practice.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State of 17 January 2018, Official Report, Column 348WH, on County Lines, when she plans to launch the nationwide awareness-raising campaign.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The nationwide awareness-raising communications activity on county lines was launched on 9 April. The activity is targeted to young and vulnerable people on how to avoid becoming involved and exploited by gangs.
The Home Secretary also launched the Serious Violence Strategy on 9 April, which builds upon the significant programme of work already underway to tackle county lines and other forms of serious violence. The Strategy sets out a new balance between prevention and the rigorous law enforcement activity already happening up and down the country.
Asked by: Catherine McKinnell (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many family reunion visa applications have been rejected in each of the last five years.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The available information relates to outcomes (grants, refusals, withdrawn, lapsed) in the Family: Other category, the large majority of whom are family reunion cases, and is published in the quarterly Immigration Statistics, Visas volume 1, table vi_01_q, latest edition at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-statistics-october-to-december-2017.
The “Family: Other” category consists of:
There are a small number of applications for family reunion where leave is granted in exceptional circumstances outside the Immigration Rules which are not included in the Family: Other category.