Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department most recently discussed with Sefton Council the potential placement within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton of people claiming asylum.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office are engaged with a number of local authorities on sourcing appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers. We are committed to engaging with local authorities and local partners to support successful delivery. The Home Office most recently met with Sefton Council on 12th January 2023 to discuss asylum support in the area.
As detailed in the Prime Minister’s statement to the house on 13th December, the Home Office are identifying options to provide alternative accommodation to support asylum seekers, this includes exploring the use of holiday parks. The Home Office are engaged with a number of local authorities, including Sefton Council, on sourcing appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has discussed with Sefton Council the use of holiday parks in the borough as accommodation for people claiming asylum.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office are engaged with a number of local authorities on sourcing appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers. We are committed to engaging with local authorities and local partners to support successful delivery. The Home Office most recently met with Sefton Council on 12th January 2023 to discuss asylum support in the area.
As detailed in the Prime Minister’s statement to the house on 13th December, the Home Office are identifying options to provide alternative accommodation to support asylum seekers, this includes exploring the use of holiday parks. The Home Office are engaged with a number of local authorities, including Sefton Council, on sourcing appropriate accommodation for asylum seekers.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has had recent discussions with Sefton Council on the potential placement of people claiming asylum within the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The record number of people that have crossed the Channel in small boats in recent years has placed the Home Office’s asylum support infrastructure and accommodation services under immense pressure.
The Home Office are engaged with many councils such as Sefton in respect of finding appropriate accommodation for Asylum accommodation in line with our statutory obligations.
When a site becomes available and meets the requirements of our accommodation standards, we follow our engagement process and notify the local MP as well as local authority officials in advance of using the location.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to relocate asylum seekers to Sefton Borough.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office is currently not looking to relocate asylum seekers to Sefton Borough at this present time. However, the unprecedented number of illegal Channel crossings have placed our immigration system under immense strain and our accommodation providers continue to consider contingency accommodation in all areas.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of in-work exploitation or abuse of migrants with no recourse to public funds.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The hidden nature of modern slavery makes producing an accurate measure of its scale difficult. In March 2020 the Office for National Statistics noted that there is no definitive source of data or suitable method available to accurately quantify the number of potential victims of modern slavery in the UK. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/modernslaveryintheuk/march2020
Nevertheless, the Government is committed to improving its understanding of the nature and scale of this complex crime. In July 2019, the Government announced a £10 million investment to create a new Policy and Evidence Centre for Modern Slavery and Human Rights to transform our understanding of modern slavery. The Home Office will continue working with the Centre and other partners to strengthen the evidence base underpinning our policy and operational response to modern slavery.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of levels of in-work exploitation or abuse among migrants with no recourse to public funds.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The hidden nature of modern slavery makes producing an accurate measure of its scale difficult. In March 2020 the Office for National Statistics noted that there is no definitive source of data or suitable method available to accurately quantify the number of potential victims of modern slavery in the UK. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/modernslaveryintheuk/march2020
Nevertheless, the Government is committed to improving its understanding of the nature and scale of this complex crime. In July 2019, the Government announced a £10 million investment to create a new Policy and Evidence Centre for Modern Slavery and Human Rights to transform our understanding of modern slavery. The Home Office will continue working with the Centre and other partners to strengthen the evidence base underpinning our policy and operational response to modern slavery.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding the Government plans to allocate to the owners and operators of public spaces and venues for measures to protect the public from terrorist attacks as part of the new Protect Duty announced on 26 February 2021.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Protect Duty consultation has proposed that certain owners and operators, responsible for publicly accessible locations, would be required to consider the threat posed by terrorist attack, and to take reasonably practicable mitigating measures.
The Government considers that it is reasonable for responsible parties to take appropriate and proportionate security measures to protect their staff and the public who visit their venues, in the same way that they prepare for and fund measures for the risk of fire, or to ensure that health and safety requirements are met.
Ahead of any changes, the Government will continue to provide a range of support to owners and operators, including freely available information on threat, mitigations, tools, and training products. To further support delivery across the public and private sector, a new interactive online platform will be launched later this year. The Government will also consider, further to the consultation, where additional support may be required when the Protect Duty is taken forward. We encourage all with an interest in public security to respond to the consultation by 2 July.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the effectiveness of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 in protecting the cyber security of local authorities.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office keeps the Computer Misuse Act (CMA) under regular review.
The Computer Misuse Act is an effective piece of legislation that allows for the prosecution of those responsible for attacks on computer systems.
The Home Office is engaged in ongoing discussions with relevant partners in law enforcement, government and private sector to ensure the legislation continues to remain effective.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many consultants his Department has hired in each year since 2016; and what the cost of that process has been to the public purse.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Department does not procure external consultancy services on an individual consultant basis but as discrete packages of work from consultancy providers therefore it is not possible to provide costs or numbers of individual consultants engaged.
The Departments spend on external consultancy services is published in the Departments Annual Report and Accounts, which are available here;
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ho-annual-reports-and-accounts
Spend for the Financial Year 2016/17 was £13.348M (page 60)
Spend for the Financial Year 2017/18 was £12.728M (page 72)
Spend for the current Financial Year is being assessed at will be published in the 2018/19 Annual Report and Accounts later in the year.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many consultations by his Department (a) are open, (b) are closed awaiting a Government response and (c) have been initiated since 2016.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
All consultations published by the Home Office and their status, including responses, are available on GOV.UK at this page: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations