Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to require the introduction of traceable labels on nitrous oxide canisters to track the point of sale.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the updated response issued to PQ 49048.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to introduce traceable labels on nitrous oxide canisters to allow the authorities to know the point of sale.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
With apologies for the previous answer, nitrous oxide is controlled as a Class C drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, and it is an offence to produce, supply, offer to supply, possess, possess with intent to supply, import and export nitrous oxide, where the intention is for it to be used for its psychoactive effects.
The Home Office is not responsible for labelling or tracking nitrous oxide in the many contexts in which its use is legitimate. This would fall to government departments and regulators for the relevant sectors.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will consider transferring responsibility for the misuse of drugs to the Department of Health and Social Care.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Responsibility for drug policy is shared across a number of departments and both the Home Office and the Department for Health and Social Care have important roles to play in setting policy to tackle drug use and to reduce drug-related crime and drug health harms. The Home Office is the lead department for the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and associated drug legislation, working with other departments as appropriate where changes in the law are required.
Illicit drug use affects the whole of society, and this Government is taking a collective response which will help our key missions to deliver safer streets, improve health outcomes and contribute to opportunities and growth through reducing crime and saving lives.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on the potential merits of expanding the Online Safety Act 2023 to tackle violence against women ans girls.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
I refer the Honourable Member to the Answer I gave on 10 February to Question UN 27910.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the contribution of youth services in preventing and tackling violence against women and girls.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
As referenced in my response to the answer I gave to question UIN 28128, the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy will set out our strategic direction and concrete actions to deliver our ambition to halve VAWG in the next decade.
We are considering a range of policy options across government to prevent these crimes including education for young people around healthy relationships and consent, community interventions and tackling online VAWG. That includes looking at how we can work most effectively with youth services and through the Young Future Hub programme to deliver this ambition.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what role Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships will play in the government's plans to tackle violence against women and girls.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government has committed to the creation of a new Young Futures Programme, which will establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships, to intervene earlier to ensure vulnerable and at-risk children and young people are identified and offered support in a more systematic way, as well as creating more opportunities for young people in their communities, through the provision of mental health and careers support.
The new Young Futures Hubs will bring together the support services that tackle the underlying needs of vulnerable children and young people and make them more accessible to those that need them. In doing so, the hubs will promote children and young people’s development, improve their mental health and wellbeing, and prevent them from being drawn into crime.
Prevention Partnerships will drive local multi-agency partnership working, improve evidence-based commissioning via existing and innovative mapping exercises and ensure the right support is available to children at-risk of knife crime, ASB and violence against women and girls.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of police officers in 2027.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police forces in England and Wales are expected to maintain officer numbers, as per the officer maintenance grant. The Government is currently working with police forces on setting an accurate baseline for neighbourhood policing numbers.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of children of British National (Overseas) (BNO) passport holders who are unable to access the BNO visa scheme because they (a) were born before 1 July 1997 and (b) do not hold a BNO passport of their own.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office publishes data on the BN(O) route as part of the ‘Immigration System Statistics’ quarterly release, in the entry clearance visas and extensions detailed datasets. The Home Office does not currently hold data on the number of children of BN(O) passport holders who were born before 1 July 1997 and who do not hold a BN(O) passport.
The British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) route reflects the UK’s historic commitment to those people of Hong Kong who chose to retain their ties to the UK by taking up BN(O) status and, has enabled thousands of eligible Hong Kongers and their family members to come to the UK to live, study and work in virtually any capacity, on a pathway to citizenship. We remain committed to this work while we decide on the future of departmental policies.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take urgent steps to allow children of British National (Overseas) (BNO) visa holders who (a) were born before 1 July 1997 and (b) do not hold a BNO passport of their own to access the BNO visa scheme.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office publishes data on the BN(O) route as part of the ‘Immigration System Statistics’ quarterly release, in the entry clearance visas and extensions detailed datasets. The Home Office does not currently hold data on the number of children of BN(O) passport holders who were born before 1 July 1997 and who do not hold a BN(O) passport.
The British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) route reflects the UK’s historic commitment to those people of Hong Kong who chose to retain their ties to the UK by taking up BN(O) status and, has enabled thousands of eligible Hong Kongers and their family members to come to the UK to live, study and work in virtually any capacity, on a pathway to citizenship. We remain committed to this work while we decide on the future of departmental policies.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will reintroduce the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Bill.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 gained Royal Assent on 20 July 2023.
We are committed to implementing the Act, which aims to prevent the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting. I recently met with Ruth Bailey, CEO of Agricultural Engineers Association on the 5th November 2024.
The Act requires secondary legislation before it can come into effect. We will be carefully considering the views of those who may be affected by the legislation and its regulations, to understand the potential implications and determine the scope of the legislation.