Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
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 making wildlife crimes notifiable offences.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Wildlife crime can have devastating consequences for our natural environments and countryside communities. This Government is committed to reducing crime in rural areas and anyone exploiting or deliberately harming British wildlife should face the full force of the law.
That is why, along with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Home Office directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit, which plays a vital role in providing intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to the police and other law enforcement agencies across the UK.
Any non-notifiable wildlife crime reported to the police can still be investigated where appropriate, as Chief Constables have operational independence to tackle the crimes that matter most to their communities.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support the National Wildlife Crime Unit.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Wildlife crime can have devastating consequences for our natural environments and countryside communities. This Government is committed to reducing crime in rural areas and anyone exploiting or deliberately harming British wildlife should face the full force of the law.
That is why, along with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Home Office directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit, which plays a vital role in providing intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to the police and other law enforcement agencies across the UK.
Any non-notifiable wildlife crime reported to the police can still be investigated where appropriate, as Chief Constables have operational independence to tackle the crimes that matter most to their communities.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to remove violent images of assault from online sites.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
The Home Office is committed to ensuring action is taken against illegal content online that puts people at risk of serious violence. We are clear that internet companies must go further and faster to tackle this content.
Under the Online Safety Bill, technology companies will be held to account for tackling illegal content posted on their platforms. We recognise that social media is used in incitement to and threats of violence, which is why this is listed as a priority offence in the Bill. Platforms will have to take proactive steps to search for, remove and limit people’s exposure to this content and criminal behaviour. They will need to establish systems and processes to identify, assess and address these offences.
This might mean investing more resource for content moderation or limiting algorithmic promotion of content.
The requirements set out in the Online safety Bill will lead to less illegal content online and when it does appear it will be removed quicker.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent violent images of assault being (a) uploaded, and (b) distributed on online sites.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
The Home Office is committed to ensuring action is taken against illegal content online that puts people at risk of serious violence. We are clear that internet companies must go further and faster to tackle this content.
Under the Online Safety Bill, technology companies will be held to account for tackling illegal content posted on their platforms. We recognise that social media is used in incitement to and threats of violence, which is why this is listed as a priority offence in the Bill. Platforms will have to take proactive steps to search for, remove and limit people’s exposure to this content and criminal behaviour. They will need to establish systems and processes to identify, assess and address these offences.
This might mean investing more resource for content moderation or limiting algorithmic promotion of content.
The requirements set out in the Online safety Bill will lead to less illegal content online and when it does appear it will be removed quicker.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the impact of delays in answering calls to the 101 non emergency line on reporting of anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Police forces are operationally independent and the handling of 101 calls is a matter for them. It is for Chief Constables and elected Police and Crime Commissioners or Mayors to decide how to handle communications with the public, based on their experience and knowledge of the communities they serve.
However, the Home Office is clear that any call to the 101 number should be answered in a timely manner, and after providing details of the incident the caller should be given a crime reference number to track progress or request an update from the police on the case. In its Beating Crime Plan the Government committed to improving the responsiveness of local police to 101 and 999 calls by developing league tables for call answering times and ensuring that the public know how responsive their local force is when they call them for help.
On 31 May we published national data on answering times to 999 calls and later this year we are planning to publish performance data for all forces showing responsiveness to 101 calls.
The Home Office is making sure that the police have the resources they need to beat crime, which remains one of the Government’s top priorities.
This includes £14m in funding to the NPCC’s Digital Public Contact Programme to support delivery of the Single Online Home national policing digital platform. This provides a digital 101 service, an online facility to make it easier for victims of ASB to report incidents.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department are taking to reduce waiting times on the 101 non-emergency line.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Police forces are operationally independent and the handling of 101 calls is a matter for them. It is for Chief Constables and elected Police and Crime Commissioners or Mayors to decide how to handle communications with the public, based on their experience and knowledge of the communities they serve.
However, the Home Office is clear that any call to the 101 number should be answered in a timely manner, and after providing details of the incident the caller should be given a crime reference number to track progress or request an update from the police on the case. In its Beating Crime Plan the Government committed to improving the responsiveness of local police to 101 and 999 calls by developing league tables for call answering times and ensuring that the public know how responsive their local force is when they call them for help.
On 31 May we published national data on answering times to 999 calls and later this year we are planning to publish performance data for all forces showing responsiveness to 101 calls.
The Home Office is making sure that the police have the resources they need to beat crime, which remains one of the Government’s top priorities.
This includes £14m in funding to the NPCC’s Digital Public Contact Programme to support delivery of the Single Online Home national policing digital platform. This provides a digital 101 service, an online facility to make it easier for victims of ASB to report incidents.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking ensure all off road bikes are registered to new owners when ownership is transferred.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government recognises that misuse of off-road bikes can cause nuisance and distress to communities. The Minister for Safeguarding set out the Government’s approach to dealing with this problem in an adjournment debate on 20 June 2022. Data on the number of incidents is not held centrally.
Between May and September 2021, the Government held a consultation seeking views on new levels of fees applied to the removal and storage of vehicles under the Police Reform Act 2002 in England and Wales. The consultation also sought views on whether aspects of the regulations and legislation are adequate to provide a sustainable service for vehicle recovery. However, the consultation did not include plans to amend the Section 59 powers. We will shortly announce the next steps following our consultation.
The Government does not believe that the introduction of a mandatory registration scheme for off-road quad bikes would be the most effective way to tackle dangerous and anti-social use. It would also place a burden and cost on law abiding citizens who would be most impacted by the requirements.
We will continue to support the police to enforce road traffic legislation and will use every available measure to confront the scourge of antisocial behaviour.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department will take to help ensure that (a) all off road bikes are registered and (b) all owners of those types of bikes are identifiable.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government recognises that misuse of off-road bikes can cause nuisance and distress to communities. The Minister for Safeguarding set out the Government’s approach to dealing with this problem in an adjournment debate on 20 June 2022. Data on the number of incidents is not held centrally.
Between May and September 2021, the Government held a consultation seeking views on new levels of fees applied to the removal and storage of vehicles under the Police Reform Act 2002 in England and Wales. The consultation also sought views on whether aspects of the regulations and legislation are adequate to provide a sustainable service for vehicle recovery. However, the consultation did not include plans to amend the Section 59 powers. We will shortly announce the next steps following our consultation.
The Government does not believe that the introduction of a mandatory registration scheme for off-road quad bikes would be the most effective way to tackle dangerous and anti-social use. It would also place a burden and cost on law abiding citizens who would be most impacted by the requirements.
We will continue to support the police to enforce road traffic legislation and will use every available measure to confront the scourge of antisocial behaviour.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
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 amending Section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002 to include vehicles which transport illegal off road bikes.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government recognises that misuse of off-road bikes can cause nuisance and distress to communities. The Minister for Safeguarding set out the Government’s approach to dealing with this problem in an adjournment debate on 20 June 2022. Data on the number of incidents is not held centrally.
Between May and September 2021, the Government held a consultation seeking views on new levels of fees applied to the removal and storage of vehicles under the Police Reform Act 2002 in England and Wales. The consultation also sought views on whether aspects of the regulations and legislation are adequate to provide a sustainable service for vehicle recovery. However, the consultation did not include plans to amend the Section 59 powers. We will shortly announce the next steps following our consultation.
The Government does not believe that the introduction of a mandatory registration scheme for off-road quad bikes would be the most effective way to tackle dangerous and anti-social use. It would also place a burden and cost on law abiding citizens who would be most impacted by the requirements.
We will continue to support the police to enforce road traffic legislation and will use every available measure to confront the scourge of antisocial behaviour.
Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Caerphilly)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to raise the cost to recover an off road bike after it has been seized by the police.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government recognises that misuse of off-road bikes can cause nuisance and distress to communities. The Minister for Safeguarding set out the Government’s approach to dealing with this problem in an adjournment debate on 20 June 2022. Data on the number of incidents is not held centrally.
Between May and September 2021, the Government held a consultation seeking views on new levels of fees applied to the removal and storage of vehicles under the Police Reform Act 2002 in England and Wales. The consultation also sought views on whether aspects of the regulations and legislation are adequate to provide a sustainable service for vehicle recovery. However, the consultation did not include plans to amend the Section 59 powers. We will shortly announce the next steps following our consultation.
The Government does not believe that the introduction of a mandatory registration scheme for off-road quad bikes would be the most effective way to tackle dangerous and anti-social use. It would also place a burden and cost on law abiding citizens who would be most impacted by the requirements.
We will continue to support the police to enforce road traffic legislation and will use every available measure to confront the scourge of antisocial behaviour.