Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will hold discussions with the Crown Prosecution Service on increasing prosecutions for assault of emergency workers in Bolton.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Any assault on an emergency worker is unacceptable and I am determined to do everything I can to ensure they are prevented.
As part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, we have brought forward legislation to double the maximum sentence for assaults on emergency workers.
The Office for National Statistics’ Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and its latest estimates shows that the number of incidences of violence has fallen by 41% since the year ending March 2010, to 1.1 million incidences.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of asylum seekers who have crossed the Channel in 2022 to date.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes statistics on small boat arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular Migration to the UK statistics’ report. Data on asylum claims from small boat arrivals are published in the ‘asylum claims from arrivals’ section of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK’ publication. The latest data relates to the end of June 2022. Future irregular migration publication release dates can be found on the research and statistics calendar.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to help ensure that asylum seekers settling in England are shared evenly between parliamentary constituencies.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
On 13th April this year, it was announced that with immediate effect we would move to a model of full dispersal for asylum seekers to ensure a fairer distribution of asylum seekers across the UK. Full dispersal means that all local authority areas in England, Scotland and Wales can be expected to participate in the new model. This approach will reduce relative pressures on those local authorities who accommodated asylum seekers prior to April 2022. We have been working collaboratively with LAs through our Strategic Migration Partnerships to generate regional plans that will support the implementation of full dispersal.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken with international partners to help reduce the number of migrant crossings across the English Channel.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Migrant crossings across the Channel are dangerous and unnecessary. This Government is determined to put the people smugglers out of business and make this route unviable.
We have agreed to a new joint strategy and operational plan with our French counterparts, for which the UK will provide up to €72.2 million this year, to drive forward our next phase of cooperation to tackle this issue. This will increase the number of French Officers with UK Officers being embedded
[Whitespace] with French counterparts. Our partnership with the French saw more than 23,000 crossings stopped in 2021 and has seen over 30,000 illegal crossings stopped so far this year.
As a Government, we have also introduced tough new penalties through the Nationality and Borders Act which introduces life sentences for those who facilitate illegal entry. Additionally, we have agreed a ground-breaking partnership with Rwanda, and we remain committed to operationalising the scheme as soon as possible.
We are committed to engaging with international partners, in particular Member States and the EU, on a ‘whole of route’ approach to addressing the challenges of, and risks posed by, irregular migration, including through an early meeting convening our near neighbours.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that cases of emotional abuse are afforded the same priority as physical abuse cases.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Tackling domestic abuse is a priority for this Government. The landmark Domestic Abuse Act 2021 introduced for the first time a legal definition of domestic abuse that is wide-ranging, recognising a range of abuses beyond physical violence; including sexual abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, economic abuse, and controlling or coercive behaviour. Putting the definition on a statutory footing aims to ensure that domestic abuse is properly understood and that all public agencies and relevant parties are applying a common definition in seeking to tackle this abhorrent crime.
Building on this, the Government went further and on 30 March, published the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan which will seek to transform the whole of society’s response to domestic abuse in all its forms.
Emotional abuse can form part of a pattern of controlling or coercive behaviour. The Domestic Abuse Act extended the coercive and controlling behaviour offence removing the ‘living together’ requirement to ensure that the offence applies to partners, ex-partners or family members, regardless of whether the victim and perpetrator live together. We are also in the process of updating the Controlling or Coercive Behaviour Statutory Guidance to further support frontline agencies in identifying, investigating and evidencing domestic abuse offences. We launched a public consultation on the draft guidance on 30 April.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that cases of emotional abuse are afforded the same priority as physical abuse cases.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle domestic abuse.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Tackling violence against woman and girls, including domestic abuse, is a Government priority. That is why we introduced our landmark Domestic Abuse Act in 2021.
In March 2022, we went even further and published our Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, backed by over £230 million and commits to exploring options for a register to manage the most harmful domestic abusers more robustly. This includes funding for children. In 2021-22, we provided over £3 million, through the Children Affected by Domestic Abuse (CADA) Fund to organisations providing specialist support within the community to children. This funding will be increased to £4.1 million in 2022-23 as set out in the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan.
This will provide further protections to victims, strengthen measures to bring perpetrators to justice and improve the response from agencies.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Home Office:
What progress her Department has made on introducing a points-based immigration system.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has set out our plans for a new points-based system to control immigration, that will deliver for the UK for years to come.
We have been clear that there will be no extension to the Transition period with the EU, and the introduction of the Immigration (and Social Security Co-ordination) Bill was a key part of delivering on that commitment.
From 1 January, our new system will provide simple, effective and flexible arrangements and lay the foundations for a firmer, fairer, skills-led immigration system
It will support our economic recovery by prioritising and investing in people in the UK while continuing to attract the talent and expertise we need from abroad.