Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of (a) arrests and (b) cost of enforcement of the Public Order Act 2023 since its implementation.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Home Office does not hold the requested data, but the department has published statistics on arrests for public order offences in the year ending March 2024, the first statistical series since the Public Order Act 2023 was implemented:
Stop and search, arrests and mental health detentions, March 2024 - GOV.UK
We have committed to holding expedited post-legislative scrutiny of the Public Order Act 2023, beginning in May 2025. This process will include an assessment of how the Act has worked in practice since it came into force, which will include the number of arrests made and the enforcement of the Act.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of deaths by suicide as a result of (a) domestic violence and (b) emotional abuse.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office is working to develop the evidence base on suicides that follow domestic abuse through funding research into the Domestic Homicide Project, which captures information on suicides with a known history of domestic abuse from all 43 police forces in England and Wales.
In the latest published data capturing deaths from April 2022 to March 2023, 242 deaths were counted, with 93 deaths (38%) classified as suspected suicides following domestic abuse. The full report can be found at the following link: https://www.vkpp.org.uk/vkpp-work/domestic-homicide-project/
However, we recognise that the number identified in the report does not represent all suicides linked to domestic abuse and that more needs to be done to identify these tragic deaths. The scale of violence against women and girls is intolerable and this Government will treat it as the national emergency that it is. The Government is committed to halving violence against women and girls in a decade, and preventing domestic abuse related deaths is a key part of that mission
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of women murdered by domestic abusers in (a) England and Wales and (b) Merseyside in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The latest published data on the number domestic homicides between 2018/19 and 2022/23 in (a) England and Wales and (b) Merseyside can be found in the table below.
Table: Number of domestic homicides of women aged 16 and over, Merseyside and England and Wales, 2018/19 to 2022/23
2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | |
Merseyside | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
England and Wales | 110 | 88 | 78 | 83 | 70 |
The scale of violence against women and girls is intolerable and this Government will treat it as the national emergency that it is. The Government has made it our mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, and tackling domestic homicide is a key part of that mission.
Domestic homicide is a horrific crime that disproportionately impacts women. Every death linked to domestic abuse should be considered for a Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) to ensure that national and local agencies, local communities and society as a whole continues to learn lessons from domestic abuse related deaths and treats every death as preventable.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make a comparative assessment of the processing times for (a) parent, (b) spousal and (c) work visas.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Applications for parental, spouse and work visas are assessed against different immigration rules and as such, processing times are subject to the complexities of the individual routes.
The Home Office keeps visa processing times constantly under review and steps have been taken to reduce these across all visa routes where possible.
Information on visa processing times for applications made outside of the UK can be found here: Visa processing times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Information on visa processing times for applications made from within the UK can be found here: Visa processing times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to reduce the time taken to process visas for the parents of people living in the UK.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Home Office keeps visa processing times under review, including on the routes available to parents. Different routes, and individual circumstances, involve varying levels of complexity but the Home Office is committed to improving process efficiency wherever possible.
Information on visa processing times for applications made outside of the UK can be found here: Visa processing times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Information on visa processing times for applications made from within the UK can be found here: Visa processing times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with police forces on how to effectively enforce the law in respect to buffer zones around abortion clinics.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Crown Prosecution Service published guidance on 31 October 2024, alongside further information from the College of Policing, setting out how the police and prosecutors should approach enforcing the new offence.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has responded to the regulation 28 prevention of future deaths report issued on 20 May 2024 in the case of deaths in the Forbury Gardens terror attack of 20 June 2020, to which a response was due under statute by 15 July 2024.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The deaths of James Furlong, Joseph Ritchie-Bennett and David Wails in the Forbury Gardens terror attack of 20 June 2020 were a tragedy. Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of James, Joseph and David, and with all of those individuals impacted by this incident.
The Home Office response to the Regulation 28 Report to Prevent Future Deaths was submitted to the Judge Coroner on 9 September 2024 and can now be viewed on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-0276-Response-from-the-Home-Office.pdf. The Home Office and other interested persons received an extension from the original deadline of 15 July 2024 due to the timing of the General Election.
In this response, the Home Secretary fully supported the Judge Coroner’s conclusion that the Home Office has made improvements since this tragic incident and that effective monitoring of these improvements is required. The Home Secretary will be overseeing the rigorous and robust implementation of recommendations and new commitments made.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to address the intelligence failings outlined in the regulation 28 prevention of future deaths report issued on 20 May 2024 in the case of deaths in the Forbury Gardens terror attack of 20 June 2020.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The deaths of James Furlong, Joseph Ritchie-Bennett and David Wails in the Forbury Gardens terror attack of 20 June 2020 were a tragedy. Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of James, Joseph and David, and with all of those individuals impacted by this incident.
The Home Office response to the Regulation 28 Report to Prevent Future Deaths was submitted to the Judge Coroner on 9 September 2024 and can now be viewed on the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/2024-0276-Response-from-the-Home-Office.pdf. The Home Office and other interested persons received an extension from the original deadline of 15 July 2024 due to the timing of the General Election.
In this response, the Home Secretary fully supported the Judge Coroner’s conclusion that the Home Office has made improvements since this tragic incident and that effective monitoring of these improvements is required. The Home Secretary will be overseeing the rigorous and robust implementation of recommendations and new commitments made.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to monitor far-right activity.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The government is absolutely committed to tackling those who spread views that promote violence and hatred against individuals and communities in our society, and that radicalise others into terrorism.
To understand such threats, we routinely monitor and assess all forms of extremist activity and behaviour, which includes Extreme Right Wing. We work closely with law enforcement and multi-agency partners to respond to any such activity which may pose as a threat.
Asked by: Paula Barker (Labour - Liverpool Wavertree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with the Metropolitan Police in relation to (a) reports of planned protests by Tommy Robinson on Saturday 26 October 2024 and (b) public protection during those protests.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Home Secretary is in regular contact with the Metropolitan Police Service on a range of issues, including public order.
The management of demonstrations is an operational decision for the police, who are independent from government.