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Written Question
Crimes of Violence: Internet
Wednesday 19th October 2022

Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)

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 - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

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.


Written Question
Crimes of Violence: Internet
Wednesday 19th October 2022

Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)

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 - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

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.


Written Question
Anti-social Behaviour: 101 Calls
Wednesday 29th June 2022

Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)

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.


Written Question
101 Calls
Wednesday 29th June 2022

Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)

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.


Written Question
Motorcycles: Registration
Wednesday 29th June 2022

Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)

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.


Written Question
Motorcycles: Registration
Wednesday 29th June 2022

Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)

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.


Written Question
Motorcycles: Crime
Wednesday 29th June 2022

Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)

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.


Written Question
Motorcycles: Seized Articles
Wednesday 29th June 2022

Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)

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.


Written Question
Motorcycles: Anti-social Behaviour
Wednesday 29th June 2022

Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of off road bike use in incidents of anti-social behaviour.

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.


Written Question
Action Fraud
Tuesday 28th September 2021

Asked by: Chris Evans (Labour (Co-op) - Islwyn)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what agency will take responsibility for the cases open by Action Fraud as at 21 September 2021.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Victims will continue to be able to report frauds centrally to allow us to best tackle the frauds that affect millions of people across the country. The Home Office is working with the City of London Police (CoLP) on plans to replace the current Action Fraud service. The new service will improve the service to victims, provide greater intelligence and insight to policing on fraud and cybercrime affecting communities, and allow for greater prevention and disruption at scale. Home Office officials are engaging a wide range of partners ahead of publication of a Fraud Action Plan after the Spending Review is finished.

In the meantime, we continue to work closely with the City of London Police, who manage the service, and a number of improvements to the existing system have been put in place over the last year to ensure a smooth transition to the new service.

Reports submitted to Action Fraud are considered by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). Where enough evidence is available and viable leads are identified, the case is sent to the appropriate local police force to consider whether enforcement activity should take place. Reports not deemed viable for investigation by local police forces are not closed but remain under constant consideration for links to newly reported crimes. The intelligence is also used to identify opportunities to disrupt offenders, protect victims, and prevent further frauds.

It is important that victims of fraud receive the support that they are entitled to. The Action Fraud Economic Crime Victim Care Unit delivers services to vulnerable victims of fraud and cyber crime to help them recover and prevent them from becoming victims in the future. Including those whose cases are not disseminated for investigation. Action Fraud also provides protective advice to individuals who contact the service. Further advice is currently available online at https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/.