Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's planned timetable is for announcing future funding settlements for (a) Violence Reduction Units and (v) the London Violence Reduction Unit.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
We recognise the valuable work and significant progress that Violence Reductions Units (VRUs), including the London Violence Reduction Unit, have made in understanding and preventing serious violence.
All decisions on funding post March 2025 will be subject to the spending review.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to exemptions under Section 21 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of police powers to investigate criminal abuse at Ofsted regulated residential schools.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Ensuring that all children are effectively safeguarded is a key priority for this Government including those who are looked after, and in whatever type of placement they may be.
The Children’s Wellbeing Bill will put children and their wellbeing at the centre of the education and social care systems, and make changes so they are safe, healthy, happy and treated fairly.
The police have a range of powers to investigate allegations of criminal offences. This includes the power to apply for search warrants to search and seize relevant evidence and to enter properties without a warrant to arrest suspects for indictable offences.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to collect data on the performance of (a) Serco, (b) Mears, (c) Clearsprings Ready Homes and (d) other providers of asylum accommodation.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
This government is committed to improving service delivery of the Asylum Accommodation Support Contracts (AASC).
The Asylum Accommodation and Support Services Contracts (AASC) Statement of Requirements below gives a detailed breakdown of all of the services to be undertaken by our accommodation providers and the standards expected. Details can be found at:
AASC_-_Schedule_2_- _Statement_of_Requirements.pdf (parliament.uk)(opens in a new tab).
Since 2020, the Home Office accommodation providers are required to visit each property at least monthly, and assurance that contractual requirements are met is tested by the Home Office Contract Assurance Team, which inspects properties and undertakes other assurance activities on an intelligence-led basis. Formal governance mechanisms are in place, to oversee performance and delivery against contractual requirements.
The Home Office has published the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) regime covering the contractual obligations accommodation providers and others working in the asylum sector are required to deliver. This has been done since April 2020. The most recent data is available at:
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to increase the number of inspections of asylum accommodation.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
This government is committed to improving service delivery of the Asylum Accommodation Support Contracts (AASC).
The Asylum Accommodation and Support Services Contracts (AASC) Statement of Requirements below gives a detailed breakdown of all of the services to be undertaken by our accommodation providers and the standards expected. Details can be found at:
AASC_-_Schedule_2_- _Statement_of_Requirements.pdf (parliament.uk)(opens in a new tab).
Since 2020, the Home Office accommodation providers are required to visit each property at least monthly, and assurance that contractual requirements are met is tested by the Home Office Contract Assurance Team, which inspects properties and undertakes other assurance activities on an intelligence-led basis. Formal governance mechanisms are in place, to oversee performance and delivery against contractual requirements.
The Home Office has published the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) regime covering the contractual obligations accommodation providers and others working in the asylum sector are required to deliver. This has been done since April 2020. The most recent data is available at:
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to (a) review and (b) update her Department's list of subcontractors working on behalf of (i) Serco, (ii) Mears and (iii) Clearsprings Ready Homes to provide asylum accommodation.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Yes, the Home Office plans to review the list of material sub-contractors.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ban ninja swords, zombie knives and machetes.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has a manifesto commitment to ban ninja swords and other weapons and we will be taking this forward as soon as possible, ensuring that lethal blades which have been used to kill teenagers on our streets are no longer available to buy or sell.
We will also be implementing the ban on zombie-style knives and zombie-style machetes approved by Parliament in April.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to ban zombie knives.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) (Amendment, Surrender and Compensation) Order 2024 was laid in Parliament on 25 January 2024.
Once the legislation has been approved by Parliament, a surrender scheme will be launched this summer to remove these knives from our streets.
Once the surrender scheme has been completed, the manufacture, supply, sale and possession of zombie-style knives and machetes will be outlawed from 24 September.
Additionally, through the Criminal Justice Bill, we are providing more powers for police to seize knives held in private that they believe will be used for unlawful violence, increasing the maximum penalty for the offences of selling prohibited weapons and selling knives to under 18s and creating a new offence of possessing an article with blade or point or an offensive weapon with intent to commit unlawful violence.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 18 October 2023 to Question 202514 and the absence of a reference to that potential legislation in the King's Speech, what plans his Department has to bring forward legislative proposals on banning machetes and zombie knives.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Organisations who sell knives to those aged under 18 face a range of fines from £500 to £1 million.
The government keeps knife crime legislation under continual review and has taken action in a number of areas.
The Criminal Justice Bill includes new measures for tackling knife crime, including increasing the maximum penalty for selling specified weapons or for selling any knives to under 18s to 2 years.
This measure will bring the offence within the remit of PACE powers, which is key to the police’s ability to investigate some of the more serious offences, for example, those who sell knives privately to under 18s, or those who sell prohibited weapons through social media or personal messaging applications.
The Criminal Justice Bill will strengthen measures which we took in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 around age verification for online sales, including stopping knives being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements in place with the delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered into the hands of a person under 18.
Further controls have been introduced through the Online Safety Act 2023 which sets out a series of priority offences which includes the sale of weapons. Companies will need to proactively mitigate the risk that their services are used for illegal activity or to share this illegal content, to design their services to mitigate the risk of this occurring and to remove any content that does appear as soon as they are made aware of it.
Ofcom published the first draft codes of practice on illegal content for consultation on 9 November 2023. Government expects these to be finalised in late 2024.These codes of practice will set out the steps companies can take to fulfil the duties for illegal content. In scope services will either need to follow these codes, or show their approach is equally effective.
On 30 August 2023 the Government response to our consultation on new knife legislation was published confirming that the Government will seek to legislate to ban certain types of large knives and machetes. The ban on zombie style machetes and knives will be implemented by secondary legislation when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of age verification and identity checks by (a) Temu and (b) other online shopping apps for sales of (i) knives and (ii) other age-restricted items.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Organisations who sell knives to those aged under 18 face a range of fines from £500 to £1 million.
The government keeps knife crime legislation under continual review and has taken action in a number of areas.
The Criminal Justice Bill includes new measures for tackling knife crime, including increasing the maximum penalty for selling specified weapons or for selling any knives to under 18s to 2 years.
This measure will bring the offence within the remit of PACE powers, which is key to the police’s ability to investigate some of the more serious offences, for example, those who sell knives privately to under 18s, or those who sell prohibited weapons through social media or personal messaging applications.
The Criminal Justice Bill will strengthen measures which we took in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 around age verification for online sales, including stopping knives being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements in place with the delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered into the hands of a person under 18.
Further controls have been introduced through the Online Safety Act 2023 which sets out a series of priority offences which includes the sale of weapons. Companies will need to proactively mitigate the risk that their services are used for illegal activity or to share this illegal content, to design their services to mitigate the risk of this occurring and to remove any content that does appear as soon as they are made aware of it.
Ofcom published the first draft codes of practice on illegal content for consultation on 9 November 2023. Government expects these to be finalised in late 2024.These codes of practice will set out the steps companies can take to fulfil the duties for illegal content. In scope services will either need to follow these codes, or show their approach is equally effective.
On 30 August 2023 the Government response to our consultation on new knife legislation was published confirming that the Government will seek to legislate to ban certain types of large knives and machetes. The ban on zombie style machetes and knives will be implemented by secondary legislation when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of reports of the sale of (a) knives and (b) other illegal weapons on online shopping apps.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Organisations who sell knives to those aged under 18 face a range of fines from £500 to £1 million.
The government keeps knife crime legislation under continual review and has taken action in a number of areas.
The Criminal Justice Bill includes new measures for tackling knife crime, including increasing the maximum penalty for selling specified weapons or for selling any knives to under 18s to 2 years.
This measure will bring the offence within the remit of PACE powers, which is key to the police’s ability to investigate some of the more serious offences, for example, those who sell knives privately to under 18s, or those who sell prohibited weapons through social media or personal messaging applications.
The Criminal Justice Bill will strengthen measures which we took in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 around age verification for online sales, including stopping knives being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements in place with the delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered into the hands of a person under 18.
Further controls have been introduced through the Online Safety Act 2023 which sets out a series of priority offences which includes the sale of weapons. Companies will need to proactively mitigate the risk that their services are used for illegal activity or to share this illegal content, to design their services to mitigate the risk of this occurring and to remove any content that does appear as soon as they are made aware of it.
Ofcom published the first draft codes of practice on illegal content for consultation on 9 November 2023. Government expects these to be finalised in late 2024.These codes of practice will set out the steps companies can take to fulfil the duties for illegal content. In scope services will either need to follow these codes, or show their approach is equally effective.
On 30 August 2023 the Government response to our consultation on new knife legislation was published confirming that the Government will seek to legislate to ban certain types of large knives and machetes. The ban on zombie style machetes and knives will be implemented by secondary legislation when parliamentary time allows.