Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of using premise closure orders to tackle anti-social behaviour in homes managed by housing associations.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 27 March, the Government launched the Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/anti-social-behaviour-action-plan) ensuring the police, local authorities and other relevant agencies have the tools they need to tackle anti-social behaviour.
The powers available under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, including closure orders, are deliberately local in nature as local agencies are best placed to determine whether their use is appropriate in the specific circumstances. However, we have recently undertaken a consultation on the powers to ensure they can be used as effectively as possible.
The plan is backed by £160m of funding. This includes up to £60m to fund an increased police and other uniformed presence to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, targeting hotspots. Initially we will work with 10 police force areas, including Durham, but from 2024 will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales.
The Safer Streets Fund is supporting local initiatives aimed at increasing the safety of public spaces by tackling neighbourhood crime, anti-social behaviour and violence against women and girls. Since the Fund launched in 2020, we have invested £120 million through four rounds supporting 270 projects across England and Wales, with a range of interventions including CCTV cameras. On 6th July we launched a further fifth £60million round.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential benefits of encouraging the use of non-operating CCTV cameras to help tackle anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 27 March, the Government launched the Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/anti-social-behaviour-action-plan) ensuring the police, local authorities and other relevant agencies have the tools they need to tackle anti-social behaviour.
The powers available under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, including closure orders, are deliberately local in nature as local agencies are best placed to determine whether their use is appropriate in the specific circumstances. However, we have recently undertaken a consultation on the powers to ensure they can be used as effectively as possible.
The plan is backed by £160m of funding. This includes up to £60m to fund an increased police and other uniformed presence to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, targeting hotspots. Initially we will work with 10 police force areas, including Durham, but from 2024 will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales.
The Safer Streets Fund is supporting local initiatives aimed at increasing the safety of public spaces by tackling neighbourhood crime, anti-social behaviour and violence against women and girls. Since the Fund launched in 2020, we have invested £120 million through four rounds supporting 270 projects across England and Wales, with a range of interventions including CCTV cameras. On 6th July we launched a further fifth £60million round.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to prevent asylum applications being awarded to individuals who support proscribed terror groups.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
All asylum seekers undergo security checks against immigration and police databases to identify those who may have been involved in criminality both in the UK or abroad – including war crimes, crimes against humanity and terrorism.
All foreign nationals, including asylum seekers and refugees, can and will face prosecution for criminal offences in the same way as any other individual in the UK, and will have their immigration status reviewed if convicted.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the disclosure and reporting obligations of the Modern Slavery Act 2015; and what steps she is taking to ensure that all qualifying companies fulfil their disclosure and reporting obligations under that Act.
Answered by Sarah Dines
Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 requires businesses with a turnover of £36 million or more to report annually on the steps taken to prevent modern slavery in their operations and supply chains.
Compliance with section 54 is high. Following a Home Office commission, the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre completed an audit of compliance with Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act. The high-level findings of this audit were published on 17 September 2020 in the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s annual report, available here: Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s annual report 2019 to 2020.
To further increase compliance with section 54, the Government_response_to_transparency_in_supply_chains_consultation, published on 22 September 2020, committed to taking forwards an ambitious package of measures to strengthen the Act’s transparency legislation, including: extending the reporting requirement to public bodies with a budget of £36 million or more; mandating the specific reporting topics statements must cover; and requiring organisations to publish their statement on the Government registry.
The Government has also committed to introduce financial penalties for organisations who fail to meet their statutory obligations to publish annual modern slavery statements. These measures require primary legislation and will be introduced when parliamentary time allows.
The Government registry was launched in March 2021 as a key tool to monitor and improve compliance with Section 54. Since launch, over 9,800 modern slavery statements covering over 32,800 organisations have been voluntarily submitted.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has put checks in place to help ensure that commercial breeding licences for animal testing are used appropriately.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The use of animals in science is highly regulated. All establishments licensed to breed or supply animals, or to carry out regulated procedures on animals in Great Britain are subject to the requirements of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA), including a three-tier licensing system and standards for the care and accommodation of animals, published in the Code of Practice. The Home Office regularly audits the compliance of all licence holders including announced and unannounced on-site inspections.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help protect dogs from (a) cosmetic and (b) medical testing; and if she will make it her policy to take legislative steps to prohibit the use of dogs for (i) cosmetic and (ii) medical testing.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Animal testing of cosmetics to permit their marketing for consumer use has been banned in the UK since 1998. It is illegal to test cosmetic products or their ingredients on animals if that testing is to meet the requirements of the Cosmetics Regulations 2009. Chemicals legislation to protect human health and the environment may require animal testing as a last resort, where there are no alternatives, under the UK REACH Regulations. However, this does not include finished cosmetic products.
Animal testing is required by global medicines regulators to protect human health and safety. Many products which would not be safe or effective in humans are detected through animal testing thus avoiding harm to humans.
The Government is committed to assuring that those animals used in science, including dogs, are protected. The legal framework in the UK requires that animals are only ever used in scientific procedures where there are no alternatives, where the number of animals used is the minimum needed to achieve the scientific benefit, and where the potential harm to animals is limited to that needed to achieve the scientific benefit.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department are taking to support the police to tackle fraud.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
We recognise the devastating emotional and financial harms that victims of fraud can suffer. The 2020 ONS released the Nature of crime: fraud and computer misuse, indicated that 20% of respondents felt loss of confidence or felt vulnerable.
Tackling fraud requires a unified and co-ordinated response from government, law enforcement and the private sector to better protect the public and businesses from fraud, reduce the impact of fraud on victims, and increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters and we will publish a fraud strategy in due course, setting out how we will do this.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding available to the police to tackle fraud.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
We recognise the devastating emotional and financial harms that victims of fraud can suffer. The 2020 ONS released the Nature of crime: fraud and computer misuse, indicated that 20% of respondents felt loss of confidence or felt vulnerable.
Tackling fraud requires a unified and co-ordinated response from government, law enforcement and the private sector to better protect the public and businesses from fraud, reduce the impact of fraud on victims, and increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters and we will publish a fraud strategy in due course, setting out how we will do this.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the economy of fraud in 2022.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
We recognise the devastating emotional and financial harms that victims of fraud can suffer. The 2020 ONS released the Nature of crime: fraud and computer misuse, indicated that 20% of respondents felt loss of confidence or felt vulnerable.
Tackling fraud requires a unified and co-ordinated response from government, law enforcement and the private sector to better protect the public and businesses from fraud, reduce the impact of fraud on victims, and increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters and we will publish a fraud strategy in due course, setting out how we will do this.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made on the impact of fraud on victims of this crime.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
We recognise the devastating emotional and financial harms that victims of fraud can suffer. The 2020 ONS released the Nature of crime: fraud and computer misuse, indicated that 20% of respondents felt loss of confidence or felt vulnerable.
Tackling fraud requires a unified and co-ordinated response from government, law enforcement and the private sector to better protect the public and businesses from fraud, reduce the impact of fraud on victims, and increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters and we will publish a fraud strategy in due course, setting out how we will do this.