Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help deter Russian interference in democratic processes in the UK.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
Protecting the integrity and security of UK democratic processes from threats of foreign interference is a priority across government.
The National Security Act 2023 provides the security services and law enforcement agencies with the tools and powers they need to deter, detect, and disrupt modern-day state threats. The Act includes the Foreign Interference Offence and the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), both of which will contribute to the toolkit available to law enforcement and the intelligence agencies to disrupt foreign interference activity, protect the British public and address the evolving threat to our national security.
The Defending Democracy Taskforce also seeks to protect the democratic integrity of the UK from threats of foreign influence. The Taskforce works across government and with Parliament, the UK’s intelligence community, the devolved administrations, local authorities, the private sector, and civil society on the full range of threats facing our democratic institutions.
In recent years, the UK has taken several measures to clamp down on the malign activities of the Russian State and its intelligence services, which have been supported across Parliament. These include the expulsion of 24 Russian intelligence officers from the Russian Embassy; the sanctioning of individuals responsible for malign activity against the UK and our allies; and exposing Russia’s malicious cyber activity.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
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 police resources for tackling knife crime at a local level are used effectively.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government has set out an unprecedented mission to halve knife crime over the next decade.
As part of the £1 billion increase for policing in 2025-6 set out by the Home Secretary at the provisional police funding settlement, the Home Office is providing £49.7m for the continuation of the Violence Reduction Unit programme in 20 areas across England and Wales.
VRUs are delivering a whole system approach to tackling violence, including knife crime, bringing key local partners together to understand the local drivers of violence, and agree and deliver a coordinated response, including delivery of early intervention and prevention programmes aimed at diverting young people from involvement in crime and violence.
We will continue to build on, and learn from, this work during the development of our new Young Futures Programme
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the levels of Iranian-based activity in the UK.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government does not routinely comment on the detail of operational matters or specific threats. But the UK will always stand up to threats from foreign states and this Government will always treat threats to the UK with the upmost seriousness.
In concert with partners, the UK Government will continue to use all tools at our disposal to protect the UK and its overseas interests against any threats from the Iranian state.