Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle disruption caused by protests on motorways.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, contains measures which will improve the police's ability to deal with these disruptive protests.
The maximum penalty for wilful obstruction of the highway will be raised from a level 3 fine (currently £1,000) to an unlimited fine and/or six-months’ imprisonment. This will ensure offenders receive proportionate sentences for the disruption they cause.
We are also clarifying that this offence can still be committed if the free passage along the highway has already been obstructed by other protesters. This is to address the defence exploited by some who claim that they are not guilty of the offence if they join a protest on a highway after the police have closed it to ensure the safety of other protesters already obstructing it.
However, we are disappointed that the House of Lords did not back other measures which would have helped to further reduce this disruption caused by a selfish minority of protesters.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to reduce crime through the Safer Streets Fund.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are delivering on the people’s priorities to cut crime and make our communities safe. The Safer Streets Fund enables Police and Crime Commissioners and Local Authorities across England and Wales to support interventions, including improved CCTV and streetlighting in areas experiencing high rates of neighbourhood crimes, such as burglary.
In total, £70 million has been invested; the first round worth £25 million and the second worth £20 million focused on preventing neighbourhood crimes, whilst third £25 million round, announced following the tragic death of Sarah Everard, aims to increase the safety of public spaces for all, with a particular focus on helping combat violence against women and girls.
As part of the October 2021 Budget, it was announced that £50 million per each for each of the three years of the Spending Review will be dedicated to the Safer Streets Fund, helping it continue its vital crime prevention role. Details of future rounds of funding will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the progress of its Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Action we have taken since publishing our cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy in June 2021 includes:
We are continuing to work with Departments across Government to drive progress in implementing the Strategy and are also working closely with Maggie Blyth who has been appointed as the National Policing Lead for VAWG to improve the policing response to these crimes.
In the coming months, we will also publish a complementary Strategy on tackling Domestic Abuse.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on tackling county line drugs gangs.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
This Government is determined to crack down on the county lines gangs who are exploiting our children and have a devastating impact on our communities. On 6 December the Government published a ten-year Strategy to combat illicit drugs which sets out a whole-system approach of how the Government is doing more than ever to cut off the supply of drugs by criminal gangs.
Through the Strategy, we will bolster our flagship County Lines Programme, investing up to £145m over the next three years to tackle the most violent and exploitative distribution model yet seen. By 2024, we expect this to result in over 2,000 more county lines closed, through a sustained attack on the distribution model.
This new funding will build on our progress in tackling drugs supply and county lines. Since November 2019, through our programme, the Police have already closed more than 1,500 lines, made over 7,400 arrests, seized £4.3 million in cash and significant quantities of drugs, and safeguarded more than 4,000 vulnerable people.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on increasing the number of women police officers in England and Wales.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are increasing the number of police officers in England and Wales by 20,000, by March 2023. I am pleased to say excellent progress is being made in delivering against this target. As a result of their hard work and commitment police forces in England and Wales have recruited 11,053 additional officers, as at 30 September 2021. This is 55% of the 20,000 officer target.
We are also attracting a broad range of people into policing from all communities and backgrounds, including more women. I’m pleased to see that forces are seizing the opportunity of the uplift to make forces more representative of their communities.
Published data Police Officer uplift statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) show that as at 30 September 2021 there were 47,425 female officers (headcount) in total, representing 33.9% of officers in England and Wales. This is the highest number of female officers than ever before. Since April 2020, more than four in ten new recruits (42%) were female, an increase on 37% the year before.
The next set of quarterly statistics, showing progress to 31 December 2021,will be published on Wednesday 26 January 2022.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress the Government has made on the recruitment of 20,000 additional police officers by 2023.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are increasing the number of police officers in England and Wales by 20,000, by March 2023. I am pleased to say excellent progress is being made in delivering against this target. As a result of their hard work and commitment police forces in England and Wales have recruited 11,053 additional officers, as at 30 September 2021. This is 55% of the 20,000 officer target.
We are also attracting a broad range of people into policing from all communities and backgrounds, including more women. I’m pleased to see that forces are seizing the opportunity of the uplift to make forces more representative of their communities.
Published data Police Officer uplift statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) show that as at 30 September 2021 there were 47,425 female officers (headcount) in total, representing 33.9% of officers in England and Wales. This is the highest number of female officers than ever before. Since April 2020, more than four in ten new recruits (42%) were female, an increase on 37% the year before.
The next set of quarterly statistics, showing progress to 31 December 2021,will be published on Wednesday 26 January 2022.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce knife crime.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Tackling knife crime is a priority and the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.
We are supporting the police every step of the way in this effort. We have given them more powers and resources to go after criminals and take knives and other dangerous weapons off our streets, including through the recruitment of 20,000 additional officers and increasing police funding.
The Government has made £130.5m available this year to tackle serious violence, including murder and knife crime. This includes: £35.5m for Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) which bring together local partners to deliver a range of early intervention and prevention programmes and tackle the drivers of violence in the 18 areas worst affected by serious violence; £30m to support the police to take targeted action in parts of England and Wales most affected by serious violence through the Grip programme, which uses data to identify violence hotspots and target operational activity in those areas; and £20m for new early intervention programmes that will help stop young people from being drawn into violence, including cognitive behavioural therapy, family therapy, as well as specialist support in crisis moments such as when a person is admitted to A&E with a knife injury.
We have also invested £200m over 10 years for the Youth Endowment Fund, which is funding projects to support children and young people at risk of violence and exploitation and to steer them away from crime.
We acknowledge there is more to do which is why we are bringing forward the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill so the law-abiding majority can be confident they are safe. The Bill includes: Serious Violence Reduction Orders, which will give the police the power to stop and search adults already convicted of knife or offensive weapons offences; the Serious Violence Duty, which will require authorities and bodies delivering public services to collaborate to prevent and reduce serious violence in their areas; and offensive weapons homicide reviews which will be introduced to improve the national and local understanding of causes, patterns, victims and perpetrators of violence and homicide.
We have also prohibited certain particularly dangerous types of knife through the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 and have introduced the offence of possessing specified offensive weapons in private. The Act also introduced Knife Crime Prevention Orders which will provide the police with a vital means to steer those most at risk away from serious violence. On 5 July 2021 we introduced a pilot for KCPOs across the Metropolitan Police area.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle online fraud.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Frauds that are committed online are pernicious crimes. They can cause terrible financial and emotional harm to victims. The Government has been working with partners in the public and private sectors to keep the public safe and bring these fraudsters to justice.
DCMS are leading ground-breaking work on the Online Safety Bill. The Bill will require regulated companies to take action to tackle user-generated fraud on their platforms. This will impact some of the most harmful online fraud types such as investment and romance scams. The Joint Committee recently published their report on the Bill and we are scrutinising this closely to make sure we comprehensively address their recommendations. DCMS are also leading work through the Online Advertising Programme that will consider, amongst other things, the role online advertising plays in enabling online fraud.
We have also been working closely alongside the National Cyber Security Centre who launched their Suspicious Email Reporting Service last year. This has already led to over 8.1 million reports received and the removal of over 67,000 scams and 124,000 harmful websites, since its inception in April 2020.
However, Government and the public sector cannot tackle online fraud alone. That is why, on the 21 October 2021, the Joint Fraud Taskforce was relaunched under my [Security Minister] chairmanship. The JFT brings together leaders from across the Government, private sector, regulators, law enforcement and victim groups to encourage collaboration to keep the public safe from these crimes. Alongside the relaunch, we published voluntary agreement with the retail banking, telecommunications and accountancy sectors outlining innovative measures to reduce fraud facilitated through these industries (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/joint-fraud-taskforce). The Online Fraud Steering Group (OFSG) is a public-private group focused on reducing the threat from online fraud in the UK. It reports into the Joint Fraud Taskforce and is co-chaired by the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), UK Finance and techUK.
We continue to encourage the public to report fraud to Action fraud and to forward any suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and suspicious texts to 7726, free of charge.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to attract international workers with science, technology, maths, and engineering qualifications to the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Attracting international talent is a key component of our global points-based immigration system. We have a very generous immigration offer, which enables talented scientists, academics and creatives to come to the UK through several different routes, including Global Talent, Skilled Worker, Creative and Temporary Worker Government Authorised Exchange (GAE) routes.
The new Points-Based System is working well, attracting skills the UK needs, as demonstrated by the latest Immigration Statistics for yearend September 2021 with issuance of work visas across all routes is up on both 2020 and 2019 (pre-pandemic).
Since its launch in 2020 the Global Talent route has seen a significant increase in applicants compared to the predecessor route, despite the impact on international travel caused by the pandemic. The number of visas granted on this route has continued to grow from 422 between its launch in February 2020 to year end September 2020, to 1,709 applicants for the year ending September 2021.
A new High Potential route will launch later this year, to further enhance our excellent offer to talented individuals with qualifications in sectors such as science, technology, maths and engineering.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The EU Settlement Scheme opened to the public on 30 March 2019 and the deadline for the scheme for those resident in the UK by the end of the transition period was 30 June 2021. However, there is scope to make a late application based on reasonable grounds for missing the deadline. The scheme also remains open to applications for those wishing to apply as Joining Family Members or who want to apply for settled status after having been granted pre-settled status.
The Home Office remains committed to ensuring those who are eligible for the EU Settlement Scheme can apply, including those who are vulnerable or need extra support. £25 million of funding has been awarded to a network of now 72 charities and local authorities across the UK, to ensure important information and assistance gets through to those who are hardest to reach, and no one is left behind. These organisations have helped more than 405k vulnerable people to apply to the EUSS already.
The Home Office has delivered a comprehensive range of communications activity, at a cost of £8m, to increase awareness of the EUSS, engaging extensively with a wide range of stakeholder organisations and other government departments, to provide the materials they need to communicate about the Settlement Scheme.
This includes toolkits, assets and information translated into 26 EEA languages, and Welsh, for local authorities, community groups, employers, and the Grant Funded Network, who work closely with vulnerable, hard to reach audiences to provide application support.
Guidance on how to apply and details of the support available to applicants (as it has been throughout the pandemic), is available through the EU Settlement Resolution Centre (SRC), which is open seven days a week to provide assistance over the telephone and by email. The SRC also provides a direct line for organisations working with vulnerable groups. In specific cases the SRC has the capacity to transfer customers to Assisted Digital for more bespoke support.
Further information can also be found at www.gov.uk/help-eu-settlement-scheme.