Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the impact of China's policies towards the UK on national security.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
As the Integrated Review Refresh (IRR) 2023 made clear, China poses an epoch-defining challenge to the type of international order we want to see, both in terms of security and values. As you would expect, we continually assess threats to UK national security and we will continue to strengthen our national security protections in those areas where the actions of the CCP pose a threat to our people prosperity and security.
The National Security Act 2023 will enable our law enforcement and intelligence agencies to deter, detect, and disrupt the full range of modern day state threats, including from China.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to tackle antisocial behaviour by large groups of people.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 27 March, the Government launched the Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/anti-social-behaviour-action-plan) which sets out a new framework for the Government, police forces, Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), local authorities and other partners – such as housing associations and youth offending teams – to work together to prevent and tackle anti-social behaviour.
This plan is backed by £160m of funding. This includes up to £60m to fund an increased police and other uniformed presence to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, targeting hotspots. We are working with 10 police force areas who have started their patrols in July 2023 and from 2024 we will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales, which will see thousands of additional patrols taking place in places blighted by anti-social behaviour.
In addition, we are providing up to £50m to establish new Immediate Justice pathways aimed at delivering swift, visible punishment for anti-social behaviour. This has started in 10 initial trailblazer police force areas in July 2023 and will be rolled out across England and Wales in 2024.
On 6 July, we launched a further fifth round of the Safer Streets Fund, which will support local initiatives aimed at increasing the safety of public spaces, including town centres, by tackling neighbourhood crime, anti-social behaviour and violence against women and girls. Since the fund launched in 2020, we have invested £120 million through four rounds supporting 270 projects across England and Wales, with a range of interventions including CCTV cameras.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales indicates that in the year to December 2022, overall crime (excluding fraud and computer misuse) was 52% lower than in the year to March 2010.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing (a) fines and (b) prison terms for people who participate in protests that (i) stop the free flow of traffic and (ii) block emergency vehicles.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is unacceptable that protests should disrupt our incredible emergency services or hard-working people going about their daily business.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 is already in force. This raised the maximum penalty for wilful obstruction of the highway to 6 months’ imprisonment, a level 3 fine on the standard scale, or both.
The Public Order Act 2023, which received Royal Assent on 2 May, has also introduced new measures to improve the police’s ability to respond to highly disruptive protests. This includes the offence of interference with key national infrastructure and locking-on, which carry a maximum penalty of 12 months’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both and six months’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both, respectively.
In addition, Parliament has approved a Statutory Instrument providing greater clarity to law enforcement on when conditions can be imposed on protest causing serious disruption. Since that was enacted, we have seen a swifter response to slow walks in London.
We will continue to work closely with the police going forwards to make sure they are able to make full use of these powers.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with the Northern Ireland Department of Justice on human trafficking in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Home Secretary chairs an Interministerial Group on safety and security with the devolved administrations to consider matters of shared interest. Senior officials from the Northern Ireland Civil Service attend the group in observer capacity in the absence of NI Executive Ministers.
Further, the Home Office engages regularly with officials in the Northern Ireland Department of Justice on modern slavery, as well as hosts quarterly meetings on modern slavery between senior Home Office officials and representatives of the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to collaborate with devolved Governments on tackling illegal migration.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Immigration is a reserved matter and representatives from across Government meet with their counterparts and will continue to do so as part of regular engagement with the Devolved Administrations.
The Home Secretary chaired the Home Office’s Interministerial Group with the Devolved Administrations on 11th July 2023, where one of the items for discussion was the Illegal Migration Bill.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prevent grooming by gangs.
Answered by Sarah Dines
In April the Prime Minister and Home Secretary announced a package of measures to improve our response to child sexual exploitation, including a new Child Sexual Exploitation Police Taskforce. The Police Taskforce will help improve how the police investigate child sexual exploitation, providing practical, expert, on the ground support for forces on all forms of child sexual abuse, with a particular focus on complex and organised child sexual exploitation, including grooming gangs.
Through the Government’s Drug Strategy, we are bolstering our flagship County Lines Programme, investing up to £145m over three years to tackle the most violent and exploitive distribution model yet seen.
To strengthen the policing response and prevent grooming by gangs, we fund several national programmes to develop and deliver an effective and victim-focused response to these crimes. This includes the Prevention Programme, delivered by The Children’s Society, which works with a range of partners across the statutory, charitable and private sectors, to tackle and prevent child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation, child financial exploitation and modern slavery, both nationally and regionally.
The Government also funds the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme which identifies and shares best practice across police forces, the Tackling Organised Exploitation Programme which helps police to uncover more of this offending, as well as a range of officer training programmes across all ranks to improve their confidence and capability to investigate these crimes. The Government’s Child Exploitation Disruption Toolkit was also re-developed and updated in September 2022 to provide frontline agencies and all those who engage with children further knowledge on how these abhorrent crimes can be disrupted.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of vetting of police staff.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
All police forces in England and Wales carry out their vetting, for both officers and staff, in accordance with the College of Policing’s vetting code of practice and vetting authorised professional practice (APP) guidance. The Home Secretary has asked the College of Policing to strengthen its vetting code in order to make the obligations all Chiefs must have due regard to stricter and clearer. This will be laid in Parliament following standard approval processes.
On 11 May, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) published findings of the Home Secretary commissioned rapid review of forces’ progress against its November 2022 vetting, misconduct and misogyny inspection. This included a review of vetting decision-making in cases which contained adverse information, involving both police officers and staff. The report highlighted that progress is being made but forces must continue to demonstrate their commitment to strengthening vetting processes.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Illegal Migration Bill on waitiing times for National Referrals Mechanism decisions.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The objective of the modern slavery provisions in the Illegal Migration Bill is to address the serious and immediate threat to public order in the UK, arising from exceptional circumstances relating to the illegal entry and dangerous journeys made by individuals into the UK which creates additional pressure on public services.
We will continue to monitor NRM waiting times and the impact the Bill will have. We regularly publish statistics on NRM decision making. You can access the latest NRM stats here.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Illegal Migration Bill includes exemptions from (a) detention and (b) removal from the UK for people who have (i) entered the UK illegally as a result of trafficking and (ii) been referred to the police as a potential victim of modern slavery under the National Referral Mechanism.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Under the provisions of the Illegal Migration Bill, those who arrive illegally will be liable to detention and will be removed to their home country or to a safe third country.
Under clause 21, a person subject to the clause 2 duty to make removal arrangements and who receives a positive Modern Slavery Reasonable Grounds decision will, subject to limited exceptions, be disqualified from the benefits of the National Referral Mechanism and arrangements for their removal will be made in line with the duty in clause 2 of the Bill
Clauses 21 to 24 are not blanket approaches, as individuals may be exempt from a public order disqualification in specific circumstances. Namely, the exemption applies where the Secretary of State satisfied that the person is cooperating with a public authority in connection with an investigation or criminal proceedings relating to the alleged exploitation, and the Secretary of State considers that it is necessary for the person to be present in the UK to provide that cooperation. The legislative detail of this exemption is set out in clause 21 of the Illegal Migration Bill.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children in the UK are suspected of being victims of trafficking gangs.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Home Office publishes statistics of potential victims of modern slavery referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM). The data shows the number of potential victims referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) where exploitation occurred when they were a child
It also shows the number of referrals received which are linked to County Lines. National Referral Mechanism statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)