Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions she has written to the Speaker to explain why legislation has come info force before it has been laid before Parliament since 1 September 2020.
Answered by Kevin Foster
I can confirm the Home Office has not written to Mr Speaker since 1 September 2020 to explain legislation being brought into force before it is laid in both Houses.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of fines issued in error under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020; and if she will establish a review of all fines issued under those regulations since those regulations came into force.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are grateful to the police for enforcing unprecedented restrictions, and in doing so saving lives.
Evidential reviews are carried out by the police before fixed penalty notices (FPNs) are issued on their behalf by the ACRO Criminal Records Office. Individuals can choose not to pay an FPN and defend any prosecution for a relevant offence in court. The Home Office will continue to work closely with policing colleagues on the fair and effective enforcement of Covid regulations.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of existing police powers to manage protest; and what further powers she plans to give the police to manage protests under new legislation.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office liaised with the police and others to understand the efficacy of existing public order legislation and to identify what more can be done to make a practical difference, and we will legislate shortly. This follows concerns raised by the police about current legislation in the context of non-violent protests that have a significant impact on the community.
As part of this, the Home Secretary asked the independent police inspectorate, HMICFRS, to carry out a thematic inspection of how police manage protests. My officials engaged with the inspectorate in the formulation of the new legislative proposals.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government plans to publish its response to the Strengthening police powers to tackle unauthorised encampments consultation, before bringing forward legislative proposals on new police powers to tackle unauthorised encampments.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
It remains our firm intention to bring forward legislation this session as we set out in the briefing which accompanied the Queen’s Speech in December 2019. We will publish our response to the consultation before that.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government plans to take into account the outcome of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate for Constabulary and Fire Services (HMICFRS) report into how the police manage protest before bringing forward legislative proposals on protest.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
In October 2020, the Home Secretary commissioned HMICFRS to inspect how effectively the police manage protests. Home Office officials have been in touch with the inspectorate to understand their initial findings, these have supported our work to ensure that the police have the powers they need to manage highly disruptive protests.
The inspection is ongoing, and we look forward to receiving their final report.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what organisations have been allocated funding as part of the £500,000 allocation of the Windrush Schemes Community Fund; and what the future allocations will be made through that fund.
Answered by Priti Patel
The Home Office has been working with the Windrush Cross-Government Working Group to co-design and deliver the £500,000 Windrush Community Fund. Further details, including eligibility criteria and when the Fund will be open for bids will be released shortly.
The Community Fund will provide community and grassroots organisations with funding to run promotional and outreach activity to raise awareness of the Windrush Compensation Scheme and the Windrush Scheme.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to require police services to collect and publish data on the ethnicity of vehicle drivers stopped under the Road Traffic Act 1988 as part of the Home Office Annual Data Requirement.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
There are currently no plans to extend the Codes of Practice that support the Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to include road traffic stops.
For motoring offences, there are currently no plans to require police forces to collect data for vehicle stops under section 163 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. For non-motoring offences, the Home Office already collates data on vehicle stops as part of the stop and search data collection, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-england-and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2020
The statutory basis for data collection, the Annual Data Requirement (ADR) process, is set by the Police Act 1996. This process works closely with policy and operational colleagues, other government departments, National Policing Leads and other key police stakeholders to ensure that routine statistical data required on police forces remains proportionate and justified and eliminates unnecessary burdens. This ensures a proper balance between the accountability and efficiency of police operation and is reviewed on an annual basis.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will extend the Codes of Practice supporting the Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to include road traffic stops.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
There are currently no plans to extend the Codes of Practice that support the Police & Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to include road traffic stops.
For motoring offences, there are currently no plans to require police forces to collect data for vehicle stops under section 163 of the Road Traffic Act 1988. For non-motoring offences, the Home Office already collates data on vehicle stops as part of the stop and search data collection, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-england-and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2020
The statutory basis for data collection, the Annual Data Requirement (ADR) process, is set by the Police Act 1996. This process works closely with policy and operational colleagues, other government departments, National Policing Leads and other key police stakeholders to ensure that routine statistical data required on police forces remains proportionate and justified and eliminates unnecessary burdens. This ensures a proper balance between the accountability and efficiency of police operation and is reviewed on an annual basis.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward legislative proposals for police officer recruitment to maximise the number of black recruits.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Police forces that reflect the communities they serve are crucial to tackling crime and maintaining public trust and confidence in a modern diverse society. While the police workforce is more representative in terms of gender and ethnicity than it has ever been, there is still much more to be done.
We have been clear that the uplift in officers is a once in generation opportunity to improve diversity. The Equality Act 2010 includes positive action provisions to enable employers to address identified under-representation of protected groups in the workplace, such as black officers in the police, as well as Asian and other minority ethnic officers. There is much greater scope than has been used so far for the police to use the positive action provisions of equalities legislation to improve recruitment and progression of officers from under-represented groups.
Some forces have made significant improvements in the rate of black, Asian and minority ethnic joiners through successful positive action measures. The relative rates of representation vary from force to force. However, we are clear that every force should be striving to become representative of the communities it serves. Information is available on police.uk that shows the ethnicity and gender representation for each police force compared to local force area populations. This allows the public to hold forces to account.
There is already work in train across the sector to support forces in doing this. The College of Policing has delivered a major programme of work to support forces in their efforts to address under-representation in the recruitment, retention and progression of officers and has published advice on the lawful use of positive action to address under-representation in policing at all levels. The National Police Chiefs’ Council has also published a workforce representation toolkit which includes practical actions forces can take to increase the recruitment, retention and progression of officers from under-represented groups in policing
The Government has also supported innovative schemes, such as Police Now, which are making the police workforce more diverse than ever before; showing that we can attract the brightest and best into policing, whilst introducing new perspectives from some of the country’s most challenging neighbourhoods.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle (a) financial fraud committed by rogue traders and (b) doorstep crimes committed during the covid-19 lockdown.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We are aware that criminals are attempting to exploit opportunities around the coronavirus. The Government and law enforcement colleagues are working tirelessly to identify and disrupt those seeking to commit these crimes.
We have worked closely with National Trading Standards, the Financial Conduct Authority and other key partners to raise public awareness. For example, we launched a gov.uk page on coronavirus related fraud and cybercrime, including easy-to-follow steps for people to better protect themselves, as well as signposting all relevant advice and tips.
This page can currently be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-fraud-and-cyber-crime
National Trading Standards, using their 500,000 strong network of “Friends Against Scams” launched a targeted campaign during lockdown to encourage people to protect their friends and neighbours from COVID doorsteps scams.