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Written Question
Aviation: Passengers
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many general aviation flights landed at UK airports without providing advance passenger information in each year since 2015.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Given our commitment to protecting the UK from harm, I am unable to share exact breakdowns on what flights submitted Advanced Passenger Information on security grounds. This is on the basis that the figures can reveal operational practices that could be exploited to evade border controls.

Border Force performs checks on passengers arriving at the UK border and risk-based intelligence led checks on goods, enabling interventions against those known or suspected to pose a risk to the national interest.


Written Question
Home Office: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution
Tuesday 5th December 2023

Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to transaction 127-DG - Delivery-65121 and 126-DG - Delivery-500 in the Home Office Procurement card spend over £500, March 2023 transparency release, whether the spend included alcoholic products.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

Yes, alcoholic products were purchased in line with the Home Office Gifts & Hospitality Guidance.


Written Question
Borders: Guard Dogs
Monday 4th December 2023

Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the spend by the Border Force on the (a) upkeep, (b) care and (c) maintenance of border security dogs was in each year since 2015.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

Border Force does not hold the spend on the upkeep, care and maintenance of border security dogs in each year since 2015 in an easily accessible format.

Home Office overall annual reports and accounts are available on the www.gov.uk website, which includes Border Force.


Written Question
UK Border Force: Dogs
Wednesday 29th November 2023

Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many detector dogs has the Border Force had for each year since 2015.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

We take the security of Border Force detector dogs very seriously.

It is a long-standing policy that we do not comment on security arrangements.


Written Question
Prisoners' Release: Reoffenders
Tuesday 28th November 2023

Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people released under investigation in each year since 2017 went on to commit another offence.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office has collected and published information on the number of people released under investigation since April 2020. The most recent data, up to March 2022, is available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1116971/released-under-investigation-data-tables-police-powers-and-procedures-year-ending-march-2022.ods

The Home Office does not centrally collect data on how many people released under investigation went on to commit another offence.


Written Question
Home Office: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution
Tuesday 14th November 2023

Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Government Procurement Card Transparency release on Home Office Spend over £500, updated 23 February 2023, how many animals were involved in transaction number 109-UKBE - UK Borders & Enforcement-600.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office can confirm 30 animals were involved in the transaction number.


Written Question
Fraud: Older People
Tuesday 4th July 2023

Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the level of threat to people over the age of 65 of being targeted by online (a) data phishing and (b) other scam attacks.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

The Government recognises the serious risks presented by online fraud and recently published a Fraud Strategy setting out our approach to block these scams and better protect the public.

Phishing is one of the main methods used to commit fraud in this country, with Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) data (year ending March 2022) indicating that one in two people reported receiving an email, text, or social media message that may have been phishing in the last month. This included 43% of 65-74 year olds and 28% of 75+ year olds. Source: Nature of fraud and computer misuse in England and Wales: Appendix tables - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).

Fraud affects people of all ages, with the CSEW indicating that the highest proportion of victims are those aged 45-54 (9%). People aged 18-24 (5%) and 75+ (6%) were significantly less likely to be a victim of fraud than the average adult (8%). Source: Nature of fraud and computer misuse in England and Wales: Appendix tables - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)


Written Question
Cybercrime
Thursday 19th January 2023

Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce cybercrime.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

Tackling cyber crime is at the heart of the Government’s new National Cyber Strategy which is supported by £2.6bn of new investment over the three year Spending Review period. The National Cyber Strategy (2022-2025) has set the direction and ambition for investment and efforts in UK Cyber. Delivery of the Strategy is being supported by the National Cyber Fund. This programme has allocated investment to lead government departments to support delivery of the objectives set out in the strategy.

We are continuing to invest in law enforcement capabilities at the national, regional and local levels to ensure they have the capacity to deal with the increasing volume and sophistication of cyber crime, which includes ensuring officers are being trained and upskilled.

The Cyber Aware campaign is a major national advertising campaign that aims to help businesses (as well as individuals) to protect themselves online. The campaign empowers and enables the public and micro businesses to understand the best ways to stay secure online and take the necessary protective actions; and supports wider efforts to combat the threat at source via the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERs), and through partnership interventions. This year’s campaign was launched on 18 March and is focusing on empowering citizens, microbusinesses and sole traders to keep their email accounts secure. Cyber Aware - NCSC.GOV.UK

The Governments’ Cyber Essentials Scheme provides the basic controls all businesses should implement to protect themselves. About Cyber Essentials - NCSC.GOV.UK

Cyber Prevent is an important part of our response to tackling cyber crime. This is an early intervention programme aimed at deterring individuals from getting involved in cyber crime in the first place, moving deeper into cyber crime or reoffending and diverting them towards positive directions. Since 2019, all local forces now have a Cyber Prevent capability.

Further good advice and helpful products from Government include the 10 Steps to Cyber Security and the Cyber Information Sharing Partnership (CISP). 10 Steps to Cyber Security - NCSC.GOV.UK

We have also rolled out Regional Cyber Resilience Centres in each of the nine policing regions, and London.  These are a collaboration between police, public, private sector and academic partners to provide subsidised or free products and cyber security consultancy services to help Small and Medium Sized Enterprise and micro businesses protect themselves better in a digital age.

We have developed and we continue to innovate on a series of Active Cyber Defence measures. Active Cyber Defence is the principle of implementing security measures to strengthen the security of a network or system to make it more robust against attack. The National Cyber Security Centre’s Active Cyber Defence programme provides tools that are free at the point of use which help organisations to tackle, in a relatively automated way, a significant proportion of the cyber attacks that hit the UK.


Written Question
Home Office: Security
Monday 7th November 2022

Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her letter to the Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, dated 31 October 2022, whether she has taken recent steps to increase the security of personal technology devices used by (a) her and (b) her staff members.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

In line with the practice of successive administrations, this Government does not comment on internal security issues.


Written Question
National Crime Agency
Monday 7th November 2022

Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps is taking to increase the effectiveness of the investigations of the National Crime Agency’s Combating Kleptocracy Cell.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

The Combatting Kleptocracy Cell (CKC) was established following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The CKC builds on the NCA’s existing expertise and uses all available capabilities to crack down on sanctions evasion and high-end money laundering.

To date, the CKC has secured a number of Freezing Orders (AFOs) over accounts held by individuals who are closely linked to sanctioned Russians, and an array of other disruptions against a range of Russian elites and their enablers. The CKC’s work has assisted in the freezing of numerous properties, eight yachts and four aircraft across the globe, and it continues to work in concert with the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) in HMT to ensure that other assets in the UK are frozen, as well as with global partners to target illicit wealth held abroad.

The CKC forms an integral part of the wider government response to Russia-linked illicit finance and the Home Office will continue to support the NCA by providing additional funding for the CKC this financial year