Asked by: Lord Balfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Prime Minister's statement on 22 September that the enforcement of the COVID-19 restrictions will include “a greater police presence on our streets, and the option to draw on military support where required to free up the police” (HC Deb, col 798), whether police and army leave will be cancelled for the Christmas and new year period for this purpose.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Decisions on the deployment of officers and use of police resources is a matter for individual forces. However, we have been working alongside policing partners throughout this emergency to ensure they have the resources required to be able to effectively respond and enforce the COVID measures in place. This work continues and includes consideration of how we could free up more police officers in the future if it is needed. This includes considering the option of using military support to backfill certain non-public facing police roles.
Asked by: Lord Balfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the ability of Russian citizens who have been denied visas to enter the UK to circumvent this restriction by taking citizenship of Israel.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
As a non-visa national, citizens of Israel do not require a visa prior to arrival in the UK, if the purpose of travel is to visit for a duration not exceeding six months.
However, a non-visa national would still require leave to enter the UK, which would be assessed against the Immigration Rules at the border by a Border Force Officer. Where a person has previously been refused a visa, this would be identified and considered as part of the assessment on whether to refuse or grant leave to enter.
Asked by: Lord Balfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the ability of Russian citizens who have been denied visas to enter the UK to circumvent this restriction by taking citizenship of another EU country.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Citizens of EEA countries may enter or remain in the UK by virtue of the provisions of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2016, which sets out the right of admission for EEA nationals. This right is not absolute and in certain cases admission can be refused or the individual can be excluded.
Asked by: Lord Balfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what policy the Home Office applies in respect of responding to letters from Members of the House of Lords.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office follows Cabinet Office guidance on handling correspondence from Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Lords, MEPs and members of devolved bodies. This guidance can be found on the Gov.uk. website entitled “handling government correspondence guidance”.
Asked by: Lord Balfe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps are being taken to prevent online social media platforms such as Twitter being used by terrorist organisations such as ISIS to spread propaganda and to radicalise and recruit vulnerable Europeans.
Answered by Lord Bates
We are working with responsible social media companies to take robust action against terrorist material from groups like ISIL. Since 2010, over 95,000 pieces of terrorist-related material have been removed at the request of the dedicated Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit.
We are also working with Europol and other EU member states to set up an EU-Internet Referral Unit, based on the British model – this is now up and running in pilot form and will assist with the volumes of terrorist and extremist content online, in a number of European languages.
We want industry to go further and see them employ a zero tolerance approach to terrorist activity on their networks. We will continue encouraging companies to produce industry standards for the identification, removal and referral of terrorist activity.