Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set out (a) the number of FTE's and (b) the resources devoted to the Kleptocracy cell in the National Crime Agency.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The National Crime Agency welcomes the announcement on the Combatting Kleptocracy Cell to focus on corrupt elites laundering their assets within the UK.
They have already surged additional officers to support existing efforts and will move at pace to enhance the unit further to drive forwards what are inevitably complex and lengthy operations.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which Minister approved the catalogue of data collection fields on the UK Passenger Locator Form.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Passenger Locator Form data capture field requirements are agreed by officials across government, predominately in health and transport departments to ensure alignment with Ministerial decisions on travel requirements and contact tracing strategy.
The Passenger Locator Form is a system for all four nations, so data fields are also included to align with requirements set by the devolved Administrations for Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) policies and (b) grant and funding programmes her Department has introduced to provide support to individuals and organisations in response to the covid-19 outbreak; and what funding has been allocated to each of those programmes in the 2020-21 financial year.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Details of the Home Office’s additional funding for domestic abuse support services during the Covid-19 pandemic is available on Gov.uk, where the Home Office has allocated £2m of funding to charities with a national or regional presence and for which the other domestic abuse-focused funding streams were not specifically designed. Please refer to the link below.
Funds launched in response to covid-19 outbreak include: the Covid-19 Vulnerable Children National Charities Strategic Relief Fund
and Support for Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Fund.
The Home Office has also awarded other grants to provide support to individuals and organisations in response to the covid-19 outbreak. The details of these grants will be published by Cabinet Office in due course
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations he has received from the Mayor of the West Midlands on police funding.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Secretary last met with the Mayor of the West Midlands on 7 August 2018 where they discussed a range of issues including police funding and devolution
Ministers meet regularly with Police and Crime Commissioners and Mayors to discuss a range of topics. This includes significant recent engagement on demand ahead of the publication of the Provisional Police Funding Settlement last month.
Under these proposals total funding for West Midlands Police could increase by up to £34.2 million to £568.6 million in 2019/20, including funding from council tax, if the Police and Crime Commissioner uses the full precept flexibility provided.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times he has met with the Mayor of the West Midlands since 1 November 2018.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Secretary last met with the Mayor of the West Midlands on 7 August 2018 where they discussed a range of issues including police funding and devolution
Ministers meet regularly with Police and Crime Commissioners and Mayors to discuss a range of topics. This includes significant recent engagement on demand ahead of the publication of the Provisional Police Funding Settlement last month.
Under these proposals total funding for West Midlands Police could increase by up to £34.2 million to £568.6 million in 2019/20, including funding from council tax, if the Police and Crime Commissioner uses the full precept flexibility provided.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to implement the provisions of the draft Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The UK continues to lead international efforts to prevent terrorist use of the internet. This includes working closely with the EU and other international partners to push industry to take a more proactive approach to detecting and removing terrorist content from their platforms, including by legislative means.
On 12 September, the European Commission announced a regulation to tackle terrorist content online. The UK has worked with the Commission and other Member States to ensure the proposed Regulation is ambitious and has meaningful impact on the problem.
If agreed, the Regulation would have direct effect in domestic law and as such, we do not consider that any changes to domestic law would be necessary. This would be dependent on the outcome of EU Exit negotiations.
Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much the UK spent on policing as a proportion of GDP in the 2017-18 financial year; and how that figure compares to the (a) G7 and (b) EU average.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Total funding for Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales, counter-terrorism policing and national policing programmes was £12.5 bil-lion in 2017-18, including council tax, which represents 0.62% of GDP. This figure excludes policing in Scotland and Northern Ireland as these are matters for devolved administrations and not the responsibility of the Home Office.
Overall, public investment in policing is growing by over £1 billion from £11.9 billion in 2015/16 to £13 billion in 2018/19, including counter-terrorism policing, funding for national programmes and local policing in England and Wales.
The Home Office does not collect or hold direct international comparisons for these statistics.