Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, i if she will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of changes in the level of thefts of farming GPS equipment.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is committed to reducing crime and disorder in rural areas, given the devastating impact rural crime can have on communities. Under our reforms, rural communities will be safeguarded, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping.
The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver thousands of additional neighbourhood police, police community support officers and Special Constables, across England and Wales, including in rural areas, to speed up response times and build public confidence.
Removeable GPS units are particularly vulnerable to theft and can massively disrupt day to day farming operations. The National Farmers Union (NFU) reports the UK cost of GPS theft increased by 137% to £4.2 million in 2023.
We are committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, which aims to prevent the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting. The Act requires secondary legislation before it can come into effect. We are carefully considering the views of those who may be affected by the legislation and its regulations, to understand the potential implications and determine the scope of the legislation.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the reasons for thefts of farming GPS equipment.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is committed to reducing crime and disorder in rural areas, given the devastating impact rural crime can have on communities. Under our reforms, rural communities will be safeguarded, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping.
The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver thousands of additional neighbourhood police, police community support officers and Special Constables, across England and Wales, including in rural areas, to speed up response times and build public confidence.
Removeable GPS units are particularly vulnerable to theft and can massively disrupt day to day farming operations. The National Farmers Union (NFU) reports the UK cost of GPS theft increased by 137% to £4.2 million in 2023.
We are committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, which aims to prevent the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting. The Act requires secondary legislation before it can come into effect. We are carefully considering the views of those who may be affected by the legislation and its regulations, to understand the potential implications and determine the scope of the legislation.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which homelessness stakeholders he has met since his appointment.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities lead on homelessness and rough sleeping and as such have regular meetings with stakeholders.
The Home Office has additionally engaged with police, local authorities, Police and Crime Commissioners and other organisations including the homelessness sector on this topic. This has highlighted that more direct tools were needed to respond to begging and rough sleeping where it causes nuisance to others.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing exit plans from hotel accommodation to give settled residents 56 days notice.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Since September 2023, all individuals receive a minimum of 28 days’ support (including accommodation) after being issued with a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP). There are no current plans to extend the 28 days prescribed in legislation due to the huge pressures on the asylum system.
We offer move on support to all individuals through Migrant Help or their partner organisation. This includes providing advice on accessing the labour market, on applying for Universal Credit and signposting to local authorities for assistance with housing. Individuals do not need to wait for their BRP to make a claim for benefits and are encouraged to do so as early as possible if they require them.
We work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to ensure the right asylum decision data is being shared with local authorities to enable effective planning and to lessen the impact on existing homelessness and rough sleeping pressures. Our accommodation providers are directly working with local authorities to notify them when an individual is due to have their asylum support ended. We are working with our partners, including local authorities, to provide timely notification of key events that impact them. We are working with our Strategic Migration Partners (SMPs) to facilitate regional sessions with councils and to share data.
We are also utilising Home Office Liaison Officers (HOLOs) to replicate part of the Afghan resettlement move on process. We have been working in three local authority areas since December 2023; Glasgow, Brent and Hillingdon. This has now been expanded to Manchester and Liverpool.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when his Department plans to end the use of hotels in Weaver Vale constituency for (a) adults and (b) children seeking asylum.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
By the end of this month, we will have successfully closed 100 hotels. We continue to work with accommodation providers on closing further hotels across the estate and will write to local authorities and MPs when a decision to close a site has been made.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the report entitled Progress against the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 1 recommendations, published on 29 June 2023, if he will publish an updated report.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Government publishes a detailed bi-annual progress tracker on implementation of the Phase 1 recommendations. The next iteration is due to be published shortly.
The tracker can be found on the gov.uk website under Grenfell Progress Tracker. The June 2023 tracker reported the following overall completion rates:
7 out of 8 for other bodies including other emergency services.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of ensuring that people who (a) live in high-rise buildings and (b) cannot self-evacuate have personal emergency evacuation plans.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Government consulted on personal emergency evacuation plans, identifying concerns over their practicality, proportionality and safety.
A new package of measures to address these concerns was consulted on, and government is currently considering the responses and will publish a response in due course.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of the recommendations from phase one of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry have been implemented.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Government published the 6th bi-annual progress tracker on implementation of the Phase 1 recommendations on 29 June on gov.uk and Fire England.
This reported that 31 of the 46 recommendations have been completed overall. This includes the following completion rates:
· 10 out of 15 recommendations for Government.
· 13 out of the 14 for LFB only.
· 1 out of the 9 for all fire and rescue services (FRSs). FRSs have, however, reported completion rates of 91% of their actions on average, but national recommendations cannot be signed off as complete until all 44 services have completed all actions in full.
7 out of 8 for other bodies including other emergency services.
Government remains committed to overseeing the delivery of all of the Phase 1 recommendations. The 7th tracker is due to be published shortly and will report on the further progress made by FRSs and Government.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number and proportion of people served with a seven-day notice to quit accommodation when section 95 support was ceased who were without alternative accommodation on leaving that accommodation in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office does not publish the information requested.
Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Independent - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 25 July 2023 to Question 194471 on Court Orders: Children, if she will investigate the circumstances under which Ibrahim Faraj was taken out of the UK on 12 November 2022.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Shadow Minister (Home Office) (Security)
The UK’s Joint International Crime Centre based in the National Crime Agency are working with Cheshire police following the abduction of Ibrahim Faraj from the UK last year.
FCDO officials met with the family in July to discuss this case. It would be inappropriate for us to comment further. The FCDO provides consular assistance to British nationals overseas; they do not provide assistance to foreign nationals outside the UK even if they usually live in the UK.