Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle (a) knife crime by and (b) the online sale of bladed weapons to people under the age of 18 in Wales.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £5 million of funding for a Violence Reduction Unit in Wales (known as the Wales Violence Prevention Unit (VPU)) which is providing a multi-agency, preventative response designed to tackle the drivers of serious violence and knife crime. Over the same period, we have invested c.£3.5 million (including c.£535k in 2023/24) in ‘hotspot policing’ to boost the policing response to serious violence in South Wales. In 24/25, we are providing c.£4.4 million of funding to all force areas in Wales under the Hotspot Response fund to deliver high-visibility patrols and problem-solving tactics in the streets and neighbourhoods worst affected by serious violence and Anti Social Behaviour.
The Wales VPU is tasked with investing in evidence-based approaches designed to steer vulnerable young people away from involvement in violence. As part of this approach, the VPU is funding local interventions including A&E Navigators, delivering advice, support and guidance to patients of any age who have experienced violence with injury, with the aim of engaging with those injured whilst they are in hospital to help break the cycle of violence at the point of crisis. The VPU is also funding youth workers to deliver sessions to young people within both education and community settings covering issues such as knife crime. Additionally, just under £1m was awarded in 2023/24 to support delivery of the Serious Violence Duty across Wales.
We have also introduced new legislation which, subject to parliamentary approval, will ban zombie-style knives and machetes from 24 September 2024. Through the Criminal Justice Bill 2023, 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.
It is an offence to sell bladed articles to people under the age of 18 and with measures in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 we strengthened the requirements for age verification, and made it an offence to send bladed articles 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. This legislation is enforced by Trading Standards and the police. The Home Office does not hold enforcement data in relation to breaches of this legislation.
The Online Safety Act 2023 has finished its parliamentary passage and received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. The Government's intention is to have the regime operational as soon as possible.
Ofcom published the first draft codes of practice on illegal content for consultation on 9 November 2023. The 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. Tech companies will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content. This means less illegal content online and when it does appear it will be removed quicker.
Schedule 7 of the Act sets out a series of priority offences which includes the sale of weapons. Companies will need to take particularly robust action to prevent the proliferation of this content online and ensure that their services are not used for offending. This means 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.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made a recent assessment of the effectiveness of the enforcement of regulations on the sale of bladed items (a) to and (b) by persons under the age of 18.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £5 million of funding for a Violence Reduction Unit in Wales (known as the Wales Violence Prevention Unit (VPU)) which is providing a multi-agency, preventative response designed to tackle the drivers of serious violence and knife crime. Over the same period, we have invested c.£3.5 million (including c.£535k in 2023/24) in ‘hotspot policing’ to boost the policing response to serious violence in South Wales. In 24/25, we are providing c.£4.4 million of funding to all force areas in Wales under the Hotspot Response fund to deliver high-visibility patrols and problem-solving tactics in the streets and neighbourhoods worst affected by serious violence and Anti Social Behaviour.
The Wales VPU is tasked with investing in evidence-based approaches designed to steer vulnerable young people away from involvement in violence. As part of this approach, the VPU is funding local interventions including A&E Navigators, delivering advice, support and guidance to patients of any age who have experienced violence with injury, with the aim of engaging with those injured whilst they are in hospital to help break the cycle of violence at the point of crisis. The VPU is also funding youth workers to deliver sessions to young people within both education and community settings covering issues such as knife crime. Additionally, just under £1m was awarded in 2023/24 to support delivery of the Serious Violence Duty across Wales.
We have also introduced new legislation which, subject to parliamentary approval, will ban zombie-style knives and machetes from 24 September 2024. Through the Criminal Justice Bill 2023, 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.
It is an offence to sell bladed articles to people under the age of 18 and with measures in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 we strengthened the requirements for age verification, and made it an offence to send bladed articles 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. This legislation is enforced by Trading Standards and the police. The Home Office does not hold enforcement data in relation to breaches of this legislation.
The Online Safety Act 2023 has finished its parliamentary passage and received Royal Assent on 26 October 2023. The Government's intention is to have the regime operational as soon as possible.
Ofcom published the first draft codes of practice on illegal content for consultation on 9 November 2023. The 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. Tech companies will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content. This means less illegal content online and when it does appear it will be removed quicker.
Schedule 7 of the Act sets out a series of priority offences which includes the sale of weapons. Companies will need to take particularly robust action to prevent the proliferation of this content online and ensure that their services are not used for offending. This means 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.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of raising the earning threshold for family visas on people who intend to marry a foreign partner (a) before and (b) after Spring 2024 whose salary does not meet this threshold.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Analytical work has been undertaken across Government to support decision making in this process, and an Impact Assessment will be developed in due course.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of raising the earnings threshold for family visas to on the human rights of (a) UK citizens and (b) foreign partners of UK citizens.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The family Immigration Rules contain a provision for exceptional circumstances, including a breach of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, where there would be unjustifiably harsh consequences for the applicant, their partner, a relevant child, or another family member, if their application were to be refused.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an estimate of trends in the number of applications for spouse and family visas in the period before the implementation of the proposed higher earnings threshold.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Analytical work has been undertaken across Government to support decision making in this process, and an Impact Assessment will be developed in due course.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to introduce a quota to determine the number of adult asylum seekers placed in each (a) local authority area and (b) parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
From 13 April 2022, all local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales are considered a dispersal area and will need to take part in asylum dispersal. This is to ensure a fair and equitable accommodation spread of asylum seekers across the UK.
We have asked local authorities across the United Kingdom to provide the Home Office with plans for dispersal within their nation or region and have agreed targets, based on those plans, for every local authority and region in the UK to deliver by the end of 2023.
As of March 31st 2023, there are no supported asylum seekers being accommodated in Arfon, Wales.
The latest Home Office figures holds show that Wales holds 2.6% of supported asylum seekers when Wales makes up 5.2% of the UK’s population. The current number of asylum seekers being accommodated in Wales is lower than it was in June 2020, despite the significant increase in asylum claims. Currently, Wales is considerably off track meeting their dispersal target.
The Standard Operating Procedure sets out that when a site is identified for use on the Asylum Support Contracts, the Deputy Director of Asylum Support will initially notify the Chief Executive of the relevant local authority and the Member of Parliament.
If you would like to put forward specific proposals, please do contact the Home Office at: rasiengagementhubregionalconsultation@homeoffice.gov.uk(opens in a new tab) and officials will happily discuss this in greater detail with you.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with (a) local authorities, (b) Health Boards, (c ) the local voluntary sector and (d) the Senedd on accommodating asylum seekers in Wales.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office has an established governance process with local authorities in Wales, as it does with other nations and local authorities in England, to drive delivery of our full dispersal plans.
The governance process includes a monthly meeting between the Home Office, our accommodation providers, Strategic Migration Partnerships and local authorities in Wales to drive collective delivery against this target. The focus of these discussions is to consider progress against the regional dispersal plan, opportunities and local housing market pressures.
The Standard Operating Procedure sets out that when a site is identified for use on the Asylum Support Contracts, the Deputy Director of Asylum Support will initially notify the Chief Executive of the relevant local authority and the Member of Parliament. This will notify the local authority that we have identified the site as a potential contingency site and that we will commence engagement with local authority officials, as well as Police and Health partners.
We are committed to work closely with all local authorities and stakeholders through Multi Agency Forum (MAF) meetings to address any concerns of the local community and reduce the impact on local services.
Furthermore, we recently met with Welsh counterparts such as Minister for Social Justice Jane Hutt MP on 30th March.
The latest Home Office figures show that Wales holds 2.6% of supported asylum seekers while Wales makes up 5.2% of the UK’s population. The current number of asylum seekers being accommodated in Wales is lower than it was in June 2020, despite the significant increase in asylum claims.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to provide wi-fi for asylum seekers accommodated in Arfon constituency.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Welsh Government have funded and worked in partnership with accommodation providers to provide Mi-Fi, a Wi-Fi device, across all dispersal accommodation sites in Wales enabling internet coverage for supported asylum seekers. As of March 31st 2023, there are no supported asylum seekers being accommodated in Arfon Wales.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to provide independent inspections of the (a) accommodation and (b) support for asylum seekers in Wales.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The government has a statutory obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and other support whilst their application for asylum is being considered as set out in the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. The Act also sets out the need to meet essential living needs. The support package provided consists of accommodation and a weekly cash allowance to meet other essential living needs such as food, toiletries, travel and clothing. The support rate for those in contingency accommodation is intended to cover essential living items that are not met by the accommodation provider such as clothing, non-prescription medicine and travel.
All asylum properties are also inspected by our accommodation providers at least monthly. Additionally, our contract assurance team carries out targeted inspections, for example, targeting for inspection properties about which issues have been raised via Migrant Help. Our inspectors have procedures and tools to focus inspections on all relevant aspects of contract compliance.
If accommodation providers have been found to have fallen short of the required standards then we can take action, including but not limited to the application of financial remedies.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to provide lessons in (a) English and (b) Welsh to asylum seekers in Wales.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office does not provide English or Welsh Language lessons as part of the provision of Asylum Support. Accommodation providers do signpost asylum seekers they accommodate to local statutory and non-statutory bodies who may provide these services. Local authorities have a duty to provide suitable full-time education for all children of compulsory school age resident in their area. The education must be appropriate to the child’s age, ability, and any special educational needs they may have, regardless of their immigration status. Local authorities must offer free school places in accordance with their published admissions arrangements, and they must ensure that there is no unreasonable delay in securing school admission for any child.