Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2024 to Question 18824 on UK Border Force: Seasonal Workers, what steps her Department has taken to mitigate the potential loss of capacity provided by the Border Force seasonal workforce.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Border Force’s seasonal workforce staff were recruited on fixed-term contracts to assist at the UK Border, covering shifts when operationally required, such as during peak periods of travel, and subject to their availability. These contracts utilised an authorised exception for short-term recruitment into the Civil Service.
Following an ongoing review of the recruitment process by the Civil Service Commission, Border Force has ceased to use these contracts and now recruits through a regular Civil Service recruitment process. All seasonal workforce staff on existing fixed-term contracts have been invited to apply through this recruitment process.
Our operational priority remains the protection of our border security, and this change will not affect the capacity of Border Force to deliver on that priority.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2024 to Question 18824 on UK Border Force: Seasonal Workers, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the decision to stand down the Border Force seasonal workforce on the operational capacity of Border Force.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Border Force’s seasonal workforce staff were recruited on fixed-term contracts to assist at the UK Border, covering shifts when operationally required, such as during peak periods of travel, and subject to their availability. These contracts utilised an authorised exception for short-term recruitment into the Civil Service.
Following an ongoing review of the recruitment process by the Civil Service Commission, Border Force has ceased to use these contracts and now recruits through a regular Civil Service recruitment process. All seasonal workforce staff on existing fixed-term contracts have been invited to apply through this recruitment process.
Our operational priority remains the protection of our border security, and this change will not affect the capacity of Border Force to deliver on that priority.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Border Force plans to continue using its seasonal workforce beyond 31 January 2025.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Border Force will continue to secure the border through effective planning and deployment of its resources, which after 31 January 2025 will not include utilisation of the seasonal workforce.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the recommendation in the report by The Law Commission entitled Hate Crime Laws: Final Report, published on 6 December 2021, HC 942, that hate crime law be reformed to offer greater protections for disabled persons.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
As set out in our manifesto, we have committed to changing hate crime legislation to bring parity of protection for disabled people under the aggravated offences. This mirrors one of the recommendations made by the Law Commission in 2021.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the scale of commercial sexual exploitation in Reigate.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation is a truly horrific crime. This Government has set out a mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, and we will use all of the levers available to us to deliver this.
The Government is working closely with law enforcement to tackle the drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation, including through operational intensifications to target perpetrators.
We have several ways to estimate the scale of sexual exploitation. Victims of sexual exploitation make up a significant proportion of referrals to the National Referral Mechanism (the framework for identifying and referring potential victims of modern slavery to appropriate support). The most recent statistics show that in 2023, sexual exploitation accounted for 10% (1,679) of all referrals, a 2% increase from the previous year, with 9% (1,470) of referrals relating to women. The Home Office does not hold data specific to Reigate. However, from January to June 2024, 9 potential victims of modern slavery referred to the NRM who reported (either part or wholly) sexual exploitation disclosed that their exploitation occurred in Surrey.