Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of using any of the savings from abolishing Police and Crime Commissioners to help fund Community Safety Partnerships.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Abolishing Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) is expected to save the taxpayer around £100m in this Parliament. Savings from cancelling future PCC elections will be retained by the Exchequer with the remainder reinvested back into policing.
Funding for Community Safety Partnerships (CSP) is provided locally by partners. We are working closely with other government departments to consider how existing partnership arrangements, including CSPs, should operate within the new police governance system.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what conversations her department has had with delivery companies to reduce harm from rapid alcohol deliveries.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Licensing Act 2003 provides the legal framework for the sale and supply of alcohol in England and Wales. It is already an offence under the Act to knowingly sell or attempt to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk or underage.
Consumer alcohol purchasing habits have evolved in recent years, particularly with a notable growth in sales made via online platforms and rapid delivery services. The Department for Health and Social Care, which has responsibility for policy on health harms, and the Home Office are looking at how current licensing rules apply to these services to ensure these are effective.
This includes seeking the views of experts, those with lived experience and other stakeholders and evaluating emerging evidence on the impact this may be having on people’s health and the upholding of the licensing objectives. I chaired a roundtable last month on this issue, jointly with the Minister for Public Health and Prevention, and we are now determining our next steps, including engagement with delivery companies.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department will be taking to protect vulnerable people from rapid alcohol deliveries, and if she can provide a timeline for these steps.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Licensing Act 2003 provides the legal framework for the sale and supply of alcohol in England and Wales. It is already an offence under the Act to knowingly sell or attempt to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk or underage.
Consumer alcohol purchasing habits have evolved in recent years, particularly with a notable growth in sales made via online platforms and rapid delivery services. The Department for Health and Social Care, which has responsibility for policy on health harms, and the Home Office are looking at how current licensing rules apply to these services to ensure these are effective.
This includes seeking the views of experts, those with lived experience and other stakeholders and evaluating emerging evidence on the impact this may be having on people’s health and the upholding of the licensing objectives. I chaired a roundtable last month on this issue, jointly with the Minister for Public Health and Prevention, and we are now determining our next steps, including engagement with delivery companies.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of amending the 1996 Police Act to allow staff associations other than the Police Federation of England and Wales to represent police officers.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government wants to see a strong staff association that provides a strong voice for police officers and represents their interests effectively.
Recognising widely-reported concerns about the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), we expect to see clear plans and rapid, demonstrable improvement in the PFEW’s operation. In the absence of such improvements, this Government stands ready to bring forward reforms to ensure that the interests of rank-and-file officers are properly, effectively and robustly represented.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many officials in her Department are trained in (a) Hong Kong laws and (b) processing applications to settle in the UK.
Answered by Mike Tapp
Home Officials are fully trained in all aspects of the policy on deciding applications made under the British National (Overseas) immigration route. The BNO visa allows status holders and their eligible family members to live, work and study in the UK. The route provides a direct pathway to settlement (indefinite Leave to Remain) after five years.
Generally, the Home Office allocates sufficient resources to applications for indefinite leave to remain to ensure that the forecasted volume of applications can be decided within the timeframe of the published service standard.
With regards to the request for information on the specific number of officials who are processing applications to settle in the UK, this could only be provided at a disproportionate cost given the breadth of the ask. The Cabinet Office’s Guide to Parliamentary Work (available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guide-to-parliamentary-work(opens in a new tab)) sets out: “There is an advisory cost limit known as the disproportionate cost threshold which is the level above which departments can decide not to answer a written question. The current disproportionate cost threshold is £850.”
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure that former arrests of BNO status holders (a) under Hong Kong's National Security Law and (b) for engaging in protests do not delay or prevent British citizenship applications.
Answered by Mike Tapp
Adults and children aged ten or over applying for British citizenship must meet the good character requirement in the British Nationality Act 1981.
The good character policy is clear that it will normally be appropriate to disregard a criminal conviction for behaviour that is considered legitimate in the UK.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average waiting time is for her Department to reach a decision on British citizenship applications for people from Hong Kong.
Answered by Mike Tapp
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost
Immigration statistics for the last 10 years are published at Migration statistics.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) police forces and (b) individual officers are now trained in specialist Counter Terrorism support for Hong Kongers (i) with bounties placed on them and (ii) experiencing transnational suppression by the Chinese Communist Party.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring the police are trained to deal with transnational repression. Since launching new training and guidance in July 2024, nearly 50,000 officers and staff from police forces across the UK and Northern Ireland have completed Foreign Interference modules, and over 23,000 have completed an online module on the powers available under the National Security Act, which was launched in 2023.
A team of CTP experts also provide briefings for officers and staff, focusing on those in key roles where they may encounter reports of foreign interference – such as call handlers. Over 30,000 officers and staff attended briefings in the last year.
Anyone who believes they are a victim of state directed activity should report to the police via 101, 999, or at a local station.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessments she has made of the adequacy of the regulation of broadcasters to prevent the advertising and promotion of proscribed terrorist groups such as Hezbollah on any platform, including LuaLua.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The borderless nature of the internet and the rapid spread of unlawful terrorist material means that threats online remain persistent. The Government is clear that terrorist propaganda and material have no place on the internet, and continues to take robust action in response.
The Home Office works to influence industry partners to increase action to tackle online content used to radicalise, recruit and incite terrorism by providing threat assessment, insight and support.
Under the Online Safety Act, tech companies are accountable to Ofcom, the independent online safety regulator, to keep their users safe, and they need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content, including terrorist material.
Only linear TV channels listed on a regulated electronic programme guide (such as Freeview) require a broadcasting licence and must comply with Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code. LuaLua TV is currently only streamed via a website, not a broadcast channel.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will issue new guidance to police authorities to require that a) stopping suspected criminals fleeing is prioritised above the safety of the person being sought, b) bikes are stopped by officers even when it could cause injury to a fleeing suspect and c) officers do not face prosecution for the apprehension of suspects at crime scenes.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The safety of the public, including suspects, and police officers is paramount. Decisions on police operational tactics, including for pursuit, are a matter for the police who are required to act lawfully, proportionately.
The Government has no plans to issue guidance for police officers on tactics as police have the knowledge, expertise and training to inform proportionate tactical decisions.