Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Home Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Cheryl Gillan Excerpts
Monday 17th November 2014

(10 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Baroness May of Maidenhead Portrait Mrs May
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As the Minister for Crime Prevention has said, we have had discussions with the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the CST on the various issues that they have raised concerning anti-Semitic incidents, and in particular on how the police are responding to them. The extremism taskforce has been looking at how social media companies respond to Government requests relating to extremist material and hate crimes. We have initiated discussions on that matter and more generally on how extremist material can be taken down from such sites, and we will be progressing that work.

Cheryl Gillan Portrait Mrs Cheryl Gillan (Chesham and Amersham) (Con)
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The Home Secretary will know that at least four people have recently been killed by a substance known as DNP, including, tragically, my 23-year-old constituent Sarah Houston. The substance is readily available on the internet, and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency cannot ban it because it is not a pharmaceutical product. Will she look again at reclassifying this substance as a class C drug so that no further young lives are so tragically lost?

Baroness Featherstone Portrait Lynne Featherstone
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I am sorry to hear about my right hon. Friend’s constituent. We keep under constant review the way in which these matters are evolving and the way in which these substances are classified, and I undertake to look into the issue that she has raised.