Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what his Department's standard completion timetable is for processing DBS applications; how many applications his Department are processing and how many applications have been processed outside the standard timetable in the last 12 months.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
For the 2023/24 financial year, the Disclosure and Barring Service’s (DBS) targets are to complete 85% of Basic checks within two days, 85% of Standard checks within three days, and 80% of Enhanced checks within 14 days.
DBS publishes its performance against these targets on a quarterly basis at DBS dataset 1: DBS checks, the DBS Update Service, and disputes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). This includes the total monthly volumes of applications processed and the totals issued within target. The latest published information is up to December 2023.
In addition to this data, DBS’s performance for January and February 2024 is as follows:
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what was the cost to the public purse of accommodating unprocessed asylum seekers in hotels in the most recent week for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Under the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999, the Home Office has a statutory obligation to house asylum seekers, who would otherwise be destitute, whilst their claim is under consideration. The cost for hotel rooms has now reached £6 million a day. The enduring solution is to stop the boats and that’s why we have brought forward the Immigration bill.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on the establishment of a new national cyber crime force; and what recent steps her Department has taken to provide the police with new technologies to help reduce crime.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Fraud is a national threat and often cases can be complex and sophisticated. It is therefore paramount our policing colleagues have what they need to keep pace with criminals and encourage innovation within industry. That is why, through the Spending Review 21 settlement and the Economic Crime Levy an overall package over the next three years of circa £400 million is being used to tackle economic crime, including fraud.
This funding will be used to replace and upgrade Action Fraud with a new national Fraud and Cyber Reporting and Analysis Service which will gather better analysis to improve the number, quality and timeliness of information packages given to police and expand fraud investigation teams across all Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) and increase investigative capacity in the City of London Police (CoLP). This funding will also support the National Crime Agency, (NCA) to increase their capabilities on fraud.
The pilot of a national cyber crime force focused on fraud, based in the NCA was set out in the 2021 Statement of Progress on the Economic Crime Plan. The NCA’s pilot has delivered new tasking, intelligence and strategic communications capabilities in the NCA. This new national cyber crime force focused on fraud will be fully established by 2025.
Later this year, we will publish a new strategy to address the threat of fraud. This will further set out how we will work with law enforcement to tackle fraud and bring offenders to justice.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, what steps she has taken to improve the (a) safety and (b) security of public venues.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Government, working with the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) and the Centre for Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), continues to ensure that all stakeholders have access to the advice, training and guidance to ensure they understand terrorist threats and measures which can be taken to protect their staff and the public.
To further support delivery across the public and private sector and sharing of CT content, the Home Office has collaborated with NaCTSO and Pool Reinsurance to develop a new interactive online platform; ProtectUK. The platform was released at Security & Policing 2022 and is gathering feedback ahead of a more formal, public launch later this year.
Whilst our engagement and advice has done much to improve security and preparedness measures at public places, this is undertaken on a voluntary basis. This Government announced our intention to introduce a ‘Protect Duty’ in legislation. The new duty will seek to improve the safety and security at public venues through the application of proportionate security measures.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to (a) help tackle unauthorised encampments established by travellers, (b) introduce new powers for the police to seize (i) vehicles and (ii) other property owned by people who trespass and (c) make intentional trespass a criminal offence.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, which received Royal Assent in April, strengthened the police’s powers to arrest and seize the vehicles and other property of those who set up unauthorised encampments and cause damage, disruption or distress.
The measures also extend the powers of the police to direct trespassers to leave land.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has taken recent steps to strengthen the accountability of Police and Crime Commissioners; what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Police and Crime Commissioner position since it was established; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
In March 2022 we completed a two-part Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Review, delivering on the manifesto commitment to strengthen and expand the role of PCCs. Ten years on from the introduction of the PCC model, it is right to have stepped back and evaluated the role of PCCs to ensure we can continue to evolve the model.
Recommendations from the Review will sharpen local accountability, improve transparency and enhance the public’s ability to hold their PCC to account for their record on reducing crime.
The package of reforms will also ensure that PCCs have the necessary tools and levers to cut crime in their local areas; turning the dial on their involvement in the criminal justice system, including establishing the foundations for a greater role in offender management; improving their levers in local partnerships; and increasing their access to criminal justice data.
We are working closely with our partners to implement these important reforms as quickly as possible, including legislating when parliamentary time allows.
Recommendations from Part One of the review were announced to Parliament on 16 March 2021 here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-03-16/debates/21031653000006/PoliceAndCrimeCommissionerReviewConcludingPartOne.
Recommendations from Part Two of the review were announced to Parliament on 7 March 2022 here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2022-03-07/hcws664.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to establish a National Crime Laboratory.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Establishing a National Crime and Justice Laboratory is part of the Government’s ambition to make better use of data in the fight against crime.
We are working closely with stakeholders from across the Criminal Justice System to deliver this manifesto commitment. This has included a project working with stakeholders and suppliers to explore the technical requirements needed to underpin its development.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress she has made on recruiting new police officers; and what the breakdown of operational officer numbers was for each of the past seven years in (a) the UK and (b) North Wales.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
As part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme, the Home Office publishes a quarterly update on the number of officers (in headcount terms) in England and Wales, broken down by Police Force Area (PFA). Data are available here: Police Officer uplift statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The Home Office collects and publishes information on officers in England and Wales only.
The latest statistics show that as at March 2022 police forces in England and Wales have recruited 13,576 additional officers as part of the Police Uplift Programme. In North Wales 164 additional officers have been recruited.
While the ‘Police officer uplift’ statistical bulletin provides a timely update on overall officer numbers, the Home Office also collects and publishes data on the size and composition of the police workforce in England and Wales on a biannual basis in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin. These biannual statistics remain the key measure of the size of the police workforce and provide information on both a headcount and a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis.
Information on the total number of officers in England and Wales in each financial year since 2003 can be found in table H3 of the data tables which accompany the latest publication:
Information on the number and proportion of officers performing frontline roles (both visible operational frontline and non-visible frontline) by financial year is published in table F5.
Both these tables are presented in full-time equivalent terms and should therefore not be directly compared with the ‘Police officer uplift’ statistics, which are published in headcount terms.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with police representatives on the StreetSafe pilot tool; and what further steps is she taking to raise awareness of that tool.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Just under 14,000 reports have been made on the StreetSafe tool since the pilot began in September 2021, with reports from all jurisdictions in England and Wales, and availability of the tool has been extended post pilot until the end of March 2022. The Home Office is currently working with policing on an evaluation of the pilot, and a decision on the future of the tool will be made shortly.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps are in place to (a) enable entry and (b) provide a fast-track process for Special Constables to enter into the regular police force.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Specials are an incredibly valuable resource for policing. They provide effective community engagement and for many they will go on to join as a Police Constable.
The College of Policing has designed a Special Constable to Police Constable programme which is currently being piloted across a number of early adopter forces. This pilot will support the service in ensuring the valuable experience of Special Constables can be formally recognised when applying for regular entry routes.