Asked by: David Pinto-Duschinsky (Labour - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce (a) the prevalence of money mules and (b) other financial exploitation.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is committed to working with law enforcement, regulators, and the financial and third sectors to address and prevent the harms associated with money mule networks and related financial exploitation.
The Home Office published the Money Mules Action Plan in March, which is a first of its kind, cross-sector action plan. The Plan balances deterrents and safeguarding measures to disrupt money muling while protecting the public from related harms. It brings together cross-sector innovations, including public awareness materials on the risks of money muling, initiatives from the financial sector to identify mule networks, and law enforcement work to target criminals.
The Government also recognises the devastating impact financial and economic abuse can have on victims. Economic abuse more widely is recognised in law as part of the statutory definition of domestic abuse included in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. The government continues to promote awareness of economic abuse to improve the public and private sector’s response, particularly working with the specialist charity Surviving Economic Abuse to strengthen financial systems and support victims.
Asked by: David Pinto-Duschinsky (Labour - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to make public spaces safer for women and girls in Hendon constituency.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This Government has set out an unprecedented ambition to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade, and we are determined to use every lever available to us to deliver on that aim. That means working across Government departments to tackle threats to women’s safety in all areas of their lives, including in public spaces.
The Safer Streets Mission is the vehicle to drive delivery across Government to halve VAWG, halve knife crime, and restore confidence in the policing and justice system to record levels. We will spearhead a cross-government approach to VAWG and girls through the Safer Streets Mission Board.
Asked by: David Pinto-Duschinsky (Labour - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the accessibility of Cantonese-language guidance to Hongkongers applying for eVisa to replace their Biometric Residence Permit.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
We have ensured that the wording used to explain how to create a UVKI account and get access to an eVisa is simple and can be easily translated using various free online services. In consultation with stakeholders, we are also considering providing information about the transition to eVisas in other languages.
We are also working closely with our partner agency in delivering engagement activity with community groups, as they will be producing guidance materials translated into key languages.
We will continue to work with British Embassy communications teams at Post to explore the need for translations in specific regions. Where appropriate, we can provide editable social media assets that can be translated to support customer awareness of the changes to the immigration system in local languages.
We have engaged with, among others, the education sector, employers, local authorities and voluntary sector organisations to reach those affected by the transition to eVisas, including vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups. Many thousands of people have attended our calls.
People can nominate a ‘helper’ and give them limited access to their account, so that they can assist with creating a UKVI account, completing details to access an eVisa, and with any immigration application.
Where a person is unable to manage their own affairs due to, for example, age or disability, a ‘proxy’, who is authorised to act on their behalf, can create and manage the account on their behalf.