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 ensure that people who need fast-track HM Passport Office appointments for (a) business and (b) compassionate purposes are able to secure an appointment as a priority.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Her Majesty’s Passport Office has explored options to further increase appointment capacity for its urgent services. This has led to the recent opening of an eighth public counter, in Birmingham, to help support those people whose need for urgent travel does not meet the compassionate criteria.
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 assessment she has made of the current level of violence perpetrated against retail workers.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government recognises the significant and long-lasting impact violence and abuse towards retail workers can have on its victims.
The Home Office Annual Commercial Victimisation Survey was published on 30 March 2022. The surveys highlight the sector’s experience of, and concerns about, levels of violence and abuse towards shop workers, and shop theft by customers. Annual retail sector crime surveys, undertaken by the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS), Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) and the British Retail Consortium (BRC) were published in Spring 2022. Each of these surveys show an increase in violence and abuse towards retail workers in the previous year.
The Government has taken action to tackle assaults against any worker providing a service to the public by introducing a statutory aggravating factor via the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
The public-facing nature of the victim’s role will be considered an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing for assault offences. It applies where an assault is committed against those providing a public service, performing a public duty or providing a service to the public. This includes those working in retail and other public-facing roles. The provision commenced on 28 June and builds on the important work already underway by the Home Office through the National Retail Crime Steering Group to ensure assaults are not seen as part of a retail worker’s job.
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 UK Visas and Immigration and HM Passport Office's customer service operations data, published on 26 May 2022, what her timeframe is for reaching the performance target of 95 per cent in respect of responses to letters and emails from hon. Members.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Performance against target has been impacted by a significant increase in the volume of correspondence received, including the unprecedented amount of correspondence about the situation in Afghanistan and more recently in Ukraine.
The Department continues to prioritise enquiries related to Ukraine and recognises it has not been able to meet service standard in other cases. Actions are being taken to clear backlogs and drive-up performance. MPs can also escalate urgent and compassionate cases via the team at Portcullis House.
The Department continues to recruit additional resources and has recently been loaned staff from non-operational areas to assist in clearing the backlogs.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to respond to the correspondence of (a) 15 September 2021, (b) 24 February 2022 and (c) 16 May 2022 from the hon. Member for Ealing Central and Acton, reference RH51240.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office responded to the correspondence on 16 June 2022
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 assessment she has made of the potential impact of the National Security Bill on press freedom.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Government has always taken a strong leadership role in the fight for global media freedom and the protection of the important values we hold dear, such as freedom of expression.
The National Security Bill will protect our freedoms and democracy and keep us safe by making the UK a harder target for states to conduct hostile activity in or against.
The Bill includes appropriate safeguards to ensures that legitimate activity is not inhibited.