Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The National Vehicle Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) is a national policing unit funded by industry, including finance and leasing companies, insurers and hauliers, to provide dedicated specialist intelligence and enforcement.
We are providing £250,000 this financial year to help support enforcement at the ports to prevent stolen vehicles and vehicle parts being shipped abroad, including additional staff and specialist equipment.
Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the number of asylum seekers being housed in hotels in the West Midlands.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and subsistence support whilst their application for asylum is being considered.
This Government inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain, with thousands stuck in a backlog without their claims being processed.
The Home Secretary took immediate action by restarting asylum processing and scrapping the unworkable Rwanda policy. This will save an estimated £4 billion for the taxpayer over the next two years. We are delivering a major uplift in returns to remove people with no right to be in the UK. Over the long term this will reduce our reliance on hotels and costs of accommodation.
We remain absolutely committed to ending the use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers as part of this programme to reduce overall asylum costs.
Asked by: Rachel Taylor (Labour - North Warwickshire and Bedworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle serious organised freight crime.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Freight crime can have significant impacts on businesses and drivers.
We are working with the National Vehicle Crime Working Group, led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, which has established a network of vehicle crime specialists, involving every police force in England and Wales, to help share information about emerging trends in vehicle crime and better tackle regional issues.
We are also continuing to work closely with Opal, the police’s national intelligence unit focused on serious organised acquisitive crime, which has multiple thematic desks, including a vehicle crime intelligence desk which covers freight crime.