Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will have discussions with West Yorkshire police on the steps being taken to (a) provide support to and (b) respond to threats made against the suspended teacher from Batley Grammar school.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office was in close contact with West Yorkshire Police, who worked with local partners to take swift action at the time to protect the individual involved, in recognition of the significant interest both locally, nationally and across various media outlets. We expect the police to continue to take appropriate and proportionate action in relation to any threats made.
It would not be appropriate to provide further information or details in relation to a specific case. The government remains steadfast in our commitment to tackling those who spread views that promote violence and hatred against individuals and communities in our society, and must always stand up to those who seek to undermine our fundamental values.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the number of assaults in fast-food outlets at (a) night and (b) other times.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police forces across England and Wales have recently committed to pursuing any available evidence where there is a reasonable chance it could lead to catching a perpetrator and solving a crime. For assaults in fast-food outlets, this could include reviewing CCTV evidence and using the Police National Database for facial searches to identify suspects where appropriate to do so.
The Government is clear that violent and abusive behaviour towards any public-facing worker is never acceptable. We take this issue very seriously and recognise the implications these incidents can have on businesses as well as the victims.
The Government took a significant step and legislated to introduce a statutory aggravating factor for assault against any public facing worker via section 156 of the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This ensures the public facing nature of a victim’s role will be considered an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing for assault offences.
We have record ever police numbers across England and Wales.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with police forces on preventing the use of flags of extremist organisations at protests.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The management of protests is an operational matter for the police, who are independent of government.
The Home Office remains in regular contact with the police to ensure that they are fully supported in tackling unlawful behaviour at protests.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help women who have experienced adult sexual exploitation.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Government is fully committed to protecting victims from, and tackling, the devastating harm associated with adult sexual exploitation.
Adult sexual exploitation can occur across a spectrum of offending, from intimate partner violence, including domestic abuse and rape and sexual violence to serious and organised crime, including human trafficking. These offences are covered under a range of legislation.
Due to the complex nature of adult sexual exploitation, victims can access tailored support across different services depending on the harm they have experienced.
The Home Office is providing £1.36 million over three years to Changing Lives for their Net-Reach project, providing early intervention and targeted support for women and girls at high-risk of commercial online exploitation and the risk on online sexual harm. We are also providing over £180,000 in 2023/24 to Trevi Women to provide support to women with complex and multiple needs, including women seeking to exit on-street prostitution in Plymouth.
The Government funded Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract also provides victims of modern slavery access to safehouse accommodation and a dedicated support worker who provides information on their rights and facilitates access to wider statutory support services, specifically related to the victim’s experience – this can be gender specific, such as assistance with accessing sexual health services as a result of sexual exploitation.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent criminal organisations committing sextortion offences.
Answered by Sarah Dines
“Sextortion”, or blackmail involving the use of indecent or intimate images, is a horrific crime which the government is determined to tackle.
The Home Office is providing £150k in 2022/23 to the Revenge Porn Hotline to support victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing, colloquially known as “revenge porn”, which includes victims of “sextortion”.
The Government remains firmly committed to tackling all forms of child sexual abuse online, including cases involving “sextortion”. Our approach is underpinned by the Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy which sets out firm commitments to drive action across the whole system. The Home Office invests in a number of capabilities to support law enforcement to tackle child sexual abuse.
The Home Office funds the National Crime Agency to use its unique capabilities to disrupt the highest harm child sexual abuse offenders and safeguard children. Since 2017, the Home Office has invested in a network of Undercover Online Officers in Regional Organised Crime Units to disrupt high harm offenders, including those seeking to groom or otherwise manipulate children into sharing sexual images.
We remain committed to continuing close collaboration with international partners to share best practice and insights and build international capacity to tackle all forms of child exploitation and abuse, including “sextortion”.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward legislation to enable pubs to serve take away pints permanently.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
In order to continue to support the hospitality sector, the Government recently announced the extension of the temporary off-sales regulatory easement - set out in the Business and Planning Act 2020 - until 31 March 2025. This extension enables holders of licences that only cover ‘on sales’ to continue to sell alcohol for consumption off the premises, including ‘takeaway pints’, for a further 18 months.
The Government is considering next steps and continues to keep the Licensing Act 2003 under review.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to strengthen disciplinary procedures in police forces.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is committed to providing the police with the powers they need to protect the public. On 31 August 2023, this Government announced a raft of changes to strengthen the police disciplinary system, which will see corrupt police officers swiftly identified and robustly dealt with.
That includes handing responsibility for chairing misconduct hearings back to senior police officers, introducing a presumption of dismissal for gross misconduct and clarifying a route to remove officers who are unable to maintain vetting. Details of these changes can be found here:
Government to make it easier to sack rogue police officers - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The majority of these reforms will require changes to secondary legislation and the Government is committed to delivering these as soon as practicable
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to prevent people subject to deportation orders from being able to submit further asylum claims.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Work is underway to bring the provisions in the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 relating to priority removal notices and expedited appeals into force as soon as possible. The aim of these measures is to reduce the volume of further claims or repeat claims from those liable to deportation or removal from the UK.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure support from the French authorities in preventing small boats from crossing the Channel.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Home Office officials regularly meet with French counterparts to exchange information so that operational activity against these dangerous, illegal and unnecessary crossings is optimised. As a result of those joint efforts nearly 33,000 crossing attempts were prevented in 2022, an increase of over 40% on 2021 and over 16,000 more have been prevented so far this year.
Measures introduced to tackle illegal migration since the Prime Minister took office include a package of measures agreed with France which will see the deployment of more than double the number of French personnel and enhanced technology to patrol beaches.
A strengthened partnership with Turkey which includes UK and Turkish law enforcement officers stepping up joint operations to tackle Organised Immigration Crime and disrupt the supply chain of boat parts and other materials used as part of illegal migration journeys.
A new partnership between social media companies and government to tackle people smuggling content online. Backed by a new Online Capability Centre, it will undermine and disrupt organised crime groups using the internet to facilitate these journeys
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes are deported.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We are absolutely committed to protecting the public by removing foreign criminals and are determined to do all we can to ensure that they cannot frustrate the removal process.
Last year, under the Nationality and Borders Act (NABA) 2022, we expanded the early removal scheme (ERS) for FNOs to allow them to be removed directly from prison from a maximum of 9 months to 12 months before the end of their custodial sentence.
Our new Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Albania came into force in May 2022, and we are working closely with other countries to speed up the removal of foreign national offenders, freeing up space in our prisons and reducing costs to the British taxpayer.