Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to implement Section 8 of the Public Order Act 2023.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Section 8 of the Public Order Act 2023.
This section came into force on 3 May 2023.
In addition, the previous Government committed to carrying out post-legislative scrutiny of the Public Order Act 2023 two years after it received Royal Assent rather than the usual three to five years, in line with the recommendation made by the Home Affairs Select Committee.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has had discussions with representatives of the Fire Brigades Union on the Firefighters’ Manifesto published on 1 November 2023.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Home Office has not met with the FBU regarding the specific document, but continues to work with our partners, including all fire unions, to push for meaningful change for the benefit of both the sector and the public.
Minister Chris Philp has had a number of meetings with Matt Wrack and the Department meets the FBU regularly to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern.
The Government is committed to reform in the fire sector and published the response to the Fire Reform White Paper on 12 December setting out plans.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he plans to publish guidelines that protect LGBT+ refugees in relation to her proposals to offshore refugees to Rwanda.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
Protection from discrimination is enshrined within the Rwandan constitution. Rwanda does not criminalise or discriminate against sexual orientation in either law or policy.
The published country information notes (CIN) for Rwanda have been updated and can be found at the following link: Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill: supporting evidence - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), along with other supporting evidence relating to the safety of Rwanda.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an assessment of whether Rwanda is a safe country to which to send LGBT+ refugees.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
Protection from discrimination is enshrined within the Rwandan constitution. Rwanda does not criminalise or discriminate against sexual orientation in either law or policy.
The published country information notes (CIN) for Rwanda have been updated and can be found at the following link: Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill: supporting evidence - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), along with other supporting evidence relating to the safety of Rwanda.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Law Commission report Hate crime laws: Final report, HC 942, published in December 2021, if he will implement the recommendations in that report that all (a) anti-LGBT+ (b) and disability hate crimes be treated as aggravated offences.
Answered by Laura Farris
We have a robust legislative framework to respond to hate crimes which target transgender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation, and disability. We expect the police fully to investigate these abhorrent offences and ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.
The Government is pleased to see the overall reduction in police-recorded hate crime in the year ending March 2023, including a 6% reduction in sexual orientation hate crimes. Whilst an 11% increase in transgender hate crime was seen, and this may partly be due to a genuine rise, the biggest driver is likely to be general improvements in police recording along with increased victim willingness to come forward.
We are supporting the police by providing them with the resources they need. Part of this necessitates police recruitment and training – that is why we have the highest number of police officers on record in England and Wales.
The Government continues to fund True Vision, an online hate crime reporting portal, designed so that victims of all forms of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We also fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, a central capability designed to provide expert advice to support individual local police forces in dealing with online hate crime.
The Government is providing over £3m of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024, to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes projects targeting hate-related bullying and homophobic, biphobic and transphobic based bullying.
We are grateful for the detailed consideration the Law Commission has given to its review of hate crime laws. In April 2023, the Government published a response to Recommendation 8 on misogyny as a hate crime and will respond to the remaining recommendations in due course.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle the causes of changes in the levels of hate crime against LGBT+ people.
Answered by Laura Farris
We have a robust legislative framework to respond to hate crimes which target transgender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation, and disability. We expect the police fully to investigate these abhorrent offences and ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.
The Government is pleased to see the overall reduction in police-recorded hate crime in the year ending March 2023, including a 6% reduction in sexual orientation hate crimes. Whilst an 11% increase in transgender hate crime was seen, and this may partly be due to a genuine rise, the biggest driver is likely to be general improvements in police recording along with increased victim willingness to come forward.
We are supporting the police by providing them with the resources they need. Part of this necessitates police recruitment and training – that is why we have the highest number of police officers on record in England and Wales.
The Government continues to fund True Vision, an online hate crime reporting portal, designed so that victims of all forms of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We also fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, a central capability designed to provide expert advice to support individual local police forces in dealing with online hate crime.
The Government is providing over £3m of funding, between 10 August 2021 and 31 March 2024, to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. This includes projects targeting hate-related bullying and homophobic, biphobic and transphobic based bullying.
We are grateful for the detailed consideration the Law Commission has given to its review of hate crime laws. In April 2023, the Government published a response to Recommendation 8 on misogyny as a hate crime and will respond to the remaining recommendations in due course.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the (a) safety of asylum seekers aged under 18 and (b) adequacy of detention facilities for asylum seekers aged under 18.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the time it takes for passport checks at the border.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Border Force have robust plans in place to deploy officers flexibly to support passenger flow and to help minimise wait times and queues at the UK border.
Border Force’s number one priority is to keep our borders safe and secure for all passengers, and we will not compromise on this.
We are working closely with all UK ports and airports to ensure passengers have the smoothest possible journey.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that errors on biometric residence permits are not replicated on (a) travel documents and (b) driving licences.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
We strive to continuously improve our decision-making quality across all Immigration routes to minimise any potential errors. Where we are notified of an error on a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) we aim to correct the BRP within 5 working days to minimise inconvenience to the customer and prevent errors being replicated on a) travel documents and b) driving licences.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress the Government has made on the appointment of an Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The role of the Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC) as set out in the 2015 Modern Slavery Act is to encourage good practice in the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of slavery and human trafficking offences and the identification of victims.
The Home Secretary recognises the importance of the role of Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner and had launched a new open competition to recruit for this role.
The role went live on 23 February 2023 and applications have now closed. For further information and the estimated timeline for this appointment please see the public appointment section on gov.uk.
The competition will be conducted as quickly as possible, whilst ensuring we take the necessary steps to recruit the best person for the role.