Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has held with the Scottish Government on the 14 day quarantine policy for travellers returning to the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
As public health matters are devolved, we have been working closely with the Devolved Administrations, including colleagues in Scotland, to build a four nations approach. This has included meetings to establish the measures to be introduced and their operation.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Office, if she will publish the number of passengers that arrived at UK airports from abroad (a) from 11 May 2020 to 18 May 2020 and (b) from 19 May 2020 to 26 May 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on passenger arrivals to the UK in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of arrivals can be found in the admissions tables. Information on passenger arrivals up to the end of June 2020 will be published in the August 2020 release.
In addition, the Home Office published Statistics relating to Covid-19 and the immigration system, May 2020, which includes information on the impact of COVID-19 on passenger arrivals.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will extend the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme to allow the recruitment of seasonal labour for work in the non-edible horticulture sector.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Government has committed to continue the Seasonal Workers Pilot and in our election manifesto we set out plans to increase the scheme to 10,000 places following the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Details will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the number of non-natural deaths (a) in police custody and (b) on the prison estate.
Answered by Mike Penning
Every death in police custody and on the prison estate is a tragedy and this is a priority area for the Government.
The Ministerial Council for Deaths in Custody looks at this issue across Government. The Council considers what lessons can be learnt following a death in custody and the development of a clear and robust legislative and policy framework to help prevent deaths in any state custody setting.
The Home Secretary announced a major review into deaths in police custody on 23 July. This review is being led by Dame Elish Angiolini who is working closely with victims, families and the police. At its heart will be the experience of the families of those who have died in custody. The review is scheduled to report in the summer of 2016. My officials also work closely with police forces, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the National Offender Management Service and other partners to take action to minimise the risks to detainees and prevent deaths from occurring in custody environments. Police forces are required to refer all matters concerning deaths in police custody to the Independent Police Complaints Commission who will decide whether the matter should be investigated and, if so, what form that investigation should take.
All deaths in prison are subject to a police investigation, an independent investigation by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman (PPO) and a Coroner’s inquest. The Ministry of Justice works hard to learn lessons from each death, and has accepted and acted on the vast majority of recommendations from recent investigations by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman.
All prisons are required to have procedures in place to identify, manage and support people who are at risk of harm to themselves, and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has put in place additional resources to undertake this safer custody work.
Health partners are engaged in supporting all prisoners' physical and mental health and wellbeing, and play an important role in the identification and management of prisoners at risk of self-harm and suicide.
On 17 December 2015 the Government published its response to the Harris Review into the deaths in custody of young adults and reaffirmed its commitment to reducing the levels of self-harm and self-inflicted deaths in custody.
NOMS has an extensive programme of work aimed at preventing self-inflicted deaths and reducing levels of self-harm.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce medical experimentation on live animals in England.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The Home Office is responsible for regulating the use of live animals in scientific research under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA). The principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement (the 3Rs) are at the core of project authorisation under this legislation. Furthermore, these principles also extend to breeding, accommodation and care of protected animals.
Animals can only be used where no scientifically satisfactory, non-animal alternative exists which has been suitably validated. The number of animals used must be reduced to the minimum needed to achieve the results sought. For those animals which are used, procedures must be refined as much as possible to cause the minimum pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm.
In addition the Home Office also works with the National Centre for the 3Rs (NC3Rs) who work towards replacing, reducing and refining the use of animals in research. This has included projects such as CRACK IT which to date has invested over £15million with the aims to accelerate the availability of technologies which will deliver i) measurable 3Rs impacts, ii) new marketable products and iii) more efficient business processes.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to reduce the number of dogs used for medical experimentation.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Our annual statistics show that in 2014 less than 0.1% of animals used in research in Great Britain are dogs. Dogs are primarily used in procedures for regulatory testing. They are also used in other procedures such as nutritional studies and to better understand naturally occurring diseases and to develop treatments for dogs themselves.
The Home Office is responsible for regulating the use of dogs in research under the Ani-mals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Dogs are a specially protected species under the Act and the Home Office will grant a project licence for a programme of work using dogs only where the purpose of the programme of work specified in the licence can be achieved only by their use; or where it is not practicable to obtain other suitable animals.
Since 2010 the number of procedures performed on dogs has dropped nearly 30% from 5,782 in 2010 to 4,107 in 2014.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that local fire authorities install deaf awareness alternative smoke alarms in homes which make use of warning lights rather than sound as a warning system when requested.
Answered by Mike Penning
We expect local fire and rescue authorities to determine how to allocate their resources to best protect their communities from the risks from fire. Although each authority delivers a range of community fire safety interventions designed to prevent and reduce the risk from accidental dwelling fires, all also carry out a programme of home fire safety visits. In some cases, these visits, which offered tailored fire safety advice in the home, are focussed specifically on those who may be particularly vulnerable, including older people and those with disabilities. Fire and rescue authorities will, in certain circumstances, offer to provide and install free smoke alarms to households without them. This will include alarms designed specifically for those who may be deaf or have other hearing difficulties. How fire and rescue authorities decide where best to target their home fire safety visits and what fire safety equipment, if any, would reduce most effectively the risk to the household is a local matter based on a local assessment of risk.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had on increasing the number of armed response (a) officers and (b) vehicles in the West Mercia police force area.
Answered by Mike Penning
It is for Chief Officers in conjunction with Police and Crime Commissioners to determine the number of armed response officers and vehicles in their areas based on a thorough assessment of threat and risk. As announced in the Police Grant Report for England and Wales Written Ministerial Statement on 17 December 2015, this Government will provide £34 million in 2016-17 to enable a national uplift in armed policing capability and capacity to respond more quickly and effectively to a firearms attack. Decisions over where this money will be distributed are yet to be made, however for reasons of national security we do not publically disclose the detailed allocation of funding for counter terrorism by force area or by capability.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November 2015 to Question 15775, on how many occasions since 2010 an authorisation under section 60AA of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 has been granted in each police force area in England and Wales; and for what purpose each such authorisation was granted.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Home Office does not collect data on either the number of authorisations under section 60AA of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 or the reasons for granting such authorisations.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will establish a Coastal Watch of volunteers who can work alongside police and other agencies to report unusual or suspicious activities in the UK's harbours and ports.
Answered by James Brokenshire
National Crime Agency, police, and Border Force have established Project Kraken, an initiative aimed at increasing public vigilance on matters related along the UK’s coastal and maritime security. Project Kraken encourages the public to report any unusual or suspicious behaviour in harbours, ports and other maritime environments.
In addition, Border Force is already working closely with the National Coastwatch Institution volunteer network. The network use their expert knowledge of the maritime environment to spot and report unusual or suspicious activities along the coastline. Any such information is provided directly to the National Maritime Information Centre (NMIC) which is a cross-government organisation that is focussed on sharing intelligence concerning maritime security issues. Border Force is actively exploring similar arrangements with other maritime related organisations