Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to work with the police to identify Hamas supporters at anti-Israel rallies in the UK.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Government takes proscription offences seriously. Investigations into the activities of proscribed organisations or individuals who may be members of or who demonstrate support for proscribed organisations are an operational matter for the police and intelligence agencies.
Following the terrorist attacks on Israel, the Home Secretary wrote to police chiefs in England and Wales urging them to step up patrols and use the full force of the law to tackle those inciting hatred towards our Jewish communities.
The Home Secretary and the Prime Minister have hosted a roundtable with police chiefs and the Community Security Trust (CST) to discuss the practical steps that can be taken to enhance the operational response to any potential disorder.
Public order policing has disseminated briefing materials to police forces covering hate crime and the proscription offences, including advice on the flags associated with proscribed organisations Hamas and Hizballah.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what policy HM Passport Office has on allowing someone without a Gender Recognition Certificate to change the sex registered on their passport.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
HM Passport Office's gender recognition policy includes guidance for customers regarding the evidence required when someone is changing their passport sex marker without a gender recognition certificate. The policy can be found at Gender recognition policy - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the time taken to process passport applications and tackle the current backlog.
Answered by Kevin Foster
HM Passport Office continues to operate at a small percentage of its usual staffing levels so its people can continue to socially distance while on site in line with public health guidance, yet it has been rapidly acquiring additional office space, and since 23 March has so far added 172 COVID-secure desks.
Additionally, HM Passport Office is part way through developing a new system which digitises applications, including the supporting documentation, which will substantially increase the ability of staff to process applications from home. Currently, about 40% of passport applications are being processed through this system and, for those simplest cases where checks upon the application can be fully completed with minimal manual intervention, they are being processed quickly.
Asked by: Nick Fletcher (Conservative - Don Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department is making on its paper on group-based child sexual exploitation.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Secretary has expressed her determination to ensure failures of the past are not repeated and to do all we can to bear down on offenders and support victims. That is why on 19th May the Government announced its intention to publish a paper on group-based child sexual exploitation by the end of the year, following consultation with subject matter experts. We intend this paper to present the best available evidence on the characteristics of this form of offending, bringing together insight from existing research, independent reviews, and all of the evidence from the Home Office's own work in this area.
The Home Office will set up an External Reference Group, comprising of broad membership with a range of experience and expertise, to review the Pape before its publication. We plan to engage with the External Reference Group over the summer. It is vital we allow time for the External Reference Group to play a proper part in scrutinising the findings and setting the direction for further work.
Subject to engagement with the External Reference Group, we intend to publish the Paper on group-based child sexual exploitation in the autumn.