Oral Answers to Questions

David Amess Excerpts

Monday 9th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I must tell the hon. Lady that her analysis is wrong. This Government did make a difference to the Prevent programme when they came to office. We observed that, all too often, people were seeing the Labour Government’s integration work under Prevent through the prism of the Government’s spying on them, and of counter-terrorism, so we changed the way in which Prevent operated. The Home Office has not cut its funding for Prevent, and I am pleased to say that Prevent programmes have reached more than 50,000 people in this country.

[Sir David Amess (Southend West) (Con)]

8. What steps her Department is taking to tackle identity crime.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Karen Bradley)]

We have developed a programme of activity to tackle the important issue of the manufacture and use of false identities, working closely with the national policing lead on identity crime.

[Sir David Amess]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the Specialist Printing Equipment and Materials (Offences) Bill, which is being taken through its final stages in the House of Lords by Baroness Berridge, is vital to tackling the dire situation that is being caused by identity fraud?

[Karen Bradley]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his Bill, which the Government fully support. I know that, once it has completed its passage through the other place, it will make a significant difference to the tackling of identity crime.