Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she plans to take to ensure UK law enforcement authorities use criminal measures against professional enablers of economic crime who have exploited Crown Dependencies.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
Professional enablers are a critical facilitator of serious and organised crime.
As part of the Economic Crime Plan 2, the National Economic Crime Centre launched a cross-system strategy to tackle the threat posed by professional enablers to the UK earlier this year.
This sets out a series of actions for the public and private sectors including commitments to enhance collective understanding, improve information sharing, make better use of powers and intervention tools, and develop joint disruption strategies to tackle the threat. One of the key objectives is for law enforcement and supervisory bodies to deliver impactful disruptions and use the full range of intervention opportunities, including criminal justice outcomes, to achieve this. We expect the strategy to start delivering results in 2025.
The Crown Dependencies are separate, self-governing jurisdictions responsible for their own domestic affairs and whose law enforcement agencies are responsible for tackling criminality that occurs in their jurisdictions. The Home Office works closely with the Crown Dependencies to strengthen their transparency requirements to reduce the threat of professional enablers and companies laundering money in the Crown Dependencies.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that Crown Dependencies are not used to launder the proceeds of corruption.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Crown Dependencies are separate, self-governing jurisdictions responsible for their own domestic affairs, including financial services regulation. The Ministry of Justice is responsible for managing the UK’s constitutional relationship with the Crown Dependencies but all UK Government departments are responsible for their respective policy areas towards the Crown Dependencies and engage directly with them. The Home Office leads on illicit finance liaison with the Crown Dependencies for the UK Government.
Corruption and illicit finance threaten global security, harm democracy, hamper economic growth and prosperity, slow development, and harm victims. The UK Government is committed to working together with international financial centres, including the Crown Dependencies and the Overseas Territories, to help tackle corruption and money laundering.
The Crown Dependencies (the Bailiwick of Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey including Alderney, and the Isle of Man) have company beneficial ownership registers and they share data from these with UK law enforcement via the Exchange of Notes arrangements.
Publicly accessible company beneficial ownership registers are a critical tool for tackling illicit finance, making it more challenging for illicit actors to hide funds and launder the proceeds of corruption. The Home Office continues to work with the Crown Dependencies to help improve their beneficial ownership transparency and welcomes the commitments the Crown Dependencies have made for greater corporate transparency; the Crown Dependencies are working towards implementing legitimate interest access to their registers, including access for media and civil society.
However, this Government is committed to tackling illicit finance and expects this to be an interim step to public registers. I look forward to meeting with the Crown Dependencies in 2025 to discuss this ongoing agenda.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what headcount cap has she set for the National Crime Agency for financial year (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Secretary has not set headcount caps for the National Crime Agency.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of support provided to terrorism victims.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
This government understands the devastating impact terrorism has on individuals and their families and is determined to make sure victims and survivors receive the support they deserve
Since October 2020, the government has funded support services to provide practical and emotional support to victims and survivors of attacks. The services include a 24/7 support line, mental health assessments and referrals and access to long-term peer support networks.
The Home Office has reviewed the support provisions and is considering options for future improvements.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of re-opening the public enquiry office at Horwich police station.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Decisions relating to the police estate, including the availability of public enquiry counters, are decisions for Chief Constables and democratically elected Police and Crime Commissioners, as they are best placed to make decisions about frontline policing and how resources are best deployed at a local level.
I will write to the Hon Gentlemen with details of how he can make representations to the local police authorities about the facilities of Horwich police station.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the suspicious activity report programme.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
Intelligence from Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) enable law enforcement to identify, disrupt, and recover hundreds of millions of pounds which underpin serious and organised crime in the UK and disrupt criminals. The SARs Reform Programme was established to make several improvements, which have been delivered. These are: