Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons a response has not been provided to Question 123677, tabled by the hon. Member for Croydon Central on 1 December 2020.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
With apologies for the delay, Question 123677 has now been responded to.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Answer of 27 June 2017 to Question 581 on Police: Per Capita Costs, what recent estimate she has made of the average annual cost to a police authority of employing a (a) police officer and (b) police community support officer; and what estimate she has made of that cost in each year from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The salary scales as recommended by the Police Remuneration and Review Body for England and Wales from 1st September 2020 are set out in the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) 6th report under Annex D.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times the County Lines Working Group has met to date.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
In October 2019 the Home Office established the County Lines Task and Finish Group to oversee delivery of the £25m County Lines Programme. The Task and Finish Group meets regularly to drive forward progress, monitor the impact of the funding, and identify challenges. The Group has met 26 times to date and will continue to meet and oversee delivery of the County Lines programme in 21/22.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many handsets or phones from victims of child criminal exploitation seized by police have been subject to forensic analysis of digital evidence in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Police forces do not currently gather the number of digital exhibits submitted for forensic examination by age of device owner.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police analysts are employed in each Violence Reduction Unit by her Department.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not regularly review the number of police analysts employed in each Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). VRUs decide locally on how many analysts are employed to ensure delivery of their VRU.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times Drug Dealing Telecommunications Restriction Orders have been issued since those orders came into force.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of DDTROs issued nationally. However, through our County Lines programme we are supporting targeted operational activity against county lines which includes the use of DDTROs. Through this programme, the West Midlands ROCU, have issued 91 DDTROs to date since November 2019.
In addition, through the County Lines programme, we are also funding the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC) to co-ordinate the national law enforcement response which includes establishing a civil and criminal orders team to ensure effectiveness and maximise the use of the range of civil orders to tackle county lines, with a particular focus on DDTROs. This includes working with forces and Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCU) to develop and disseminate best practice to raise awareness of these orders and their potential for disruption of county lines gangs.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of Drug Dealing Telecommunications Restriction Orders.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of DDTROs issued nationally. However, through our County Lines programme we are supporting targeted operational activity against county lines which includes the use of DDTROs. Through this programme, the West Midlands ROCU, have issued 91 DDTROs to date since November 2019.
In addition, through the County Lines programme, we are also funding the National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC) to co-ordinate the national law enforcement response which includes establishing a civil and criminal orders team to ensure effectiveness and maximise the use of the range of civil orders to tackle county lines, with a particular focus on DDTROs. This includes working with forces and Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCU) to develop and disseminate best practice to raise awareness of these orders and their potential for disruption of county lines gangs.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether all Violence Reduction Units have complete interoperability of data.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Over two financial years the Home Office has invested a total of £70m into the development of 18 Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in the areas worst affected by serious violence. VRUs bring together local partners to identify the drivers of serious violence and agree a multi-agency response to them, including sharing data to strengthen their understanding. On the 8 February the Home Office announced a further £35.5m investment into VRUs for 21/22.
Our independent evaluation found that in their first year of delivery (19/20) VRUs have made positive progress in embedding a local multi-agency approach including their use and access to data. You can read more of their first year of progress here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/910822/process-evaluation-of-the-violence-reduction-units-horr116.pdf?mc_cid=ec12552fcc&mc_eid=25c35f94a1
Over the past year VRUs have made further progress in gaining access to partners’ data, establishing Memoranda of Understanding and improving the quality of the data collected. We are working closely with VRUs to support further data sharing and have established a VRU data sharing and analysis network to further share best practice.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what activity her Department has participated in to prevent county lines gangs connecting with looked after children in children’s homes.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Office is working closely with colleagues across government, including with the Department for Education, to ensure children in care homes are kept safe from grooming and exploitation.
The Government wants to make sure that all homes are providing high quality care that meets each child’s individual needs, keeps them safe and enables them to fulfil their full potential. Ofsted inspects all children’s homes at least once per year and at present, 80% of homes are rated good or outstanding. In April 2015, DfE introduced the Children’s Homes Regulations (England) which included Quality Standards for children’s homes, specifying the outcomes that children must be supported to achieve while living in children’s homes.
We are currently supporting the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, which is taking a fundamental look at what is needed to make a real difference to the needs, experiences and outcomes of the children supported by children’s social care, including those in children’s homes.
Through our county lines programme the Home Office has provided up to £860,000 to provide specialist one-to-one support in London, the West Midlands and Merseyside to under 25’s and their families who are criminally exploited through county lines. Through this investment we are also delivering awareness sessions to care home staff to increase their understanding of criminally exploited children and young people.
We have also funded the Prevention Programme to deliver targeted virtual training sessions focussing on child sexual abuse and exploitation to children’s homes in the North East and North West and have worked alongside the British Transport Police to provide intelligence-led interventions to children’s homes to ensure appropriate safeguarding actions are taken in response.
The Department for Education is also funding the Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme to help safeguarding partners in local areas develop a strategic response to child exploitation and risk of harm from outside the family home, in particular child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation, including county lines drug trafficking and modern slavery.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what work streams there are in her Department and the Department of Education to coordinate both Departments' response to tackling grooming in care homes.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Office is working closely with colleagues across government, including with the Department for Education, to ensure children in care homes are kept safe from grooming and exploitation.
The Government wants to make sure that all homes are providing high quality care that meets each child’s individual needs, keeps them safe and enables them to fulfil their full potential. Ofsted inspects all children’s homes at least once per year and at present, 80% of homes are rated good or outstanding. In April 2015, DfE introduced the Children’s Homes Regulations (England) which included Quality Standards for children’s homes, specifying the outcomes that children must be supported to achieve while living in children’s homes.
We are currently supporting the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, which is taking a fundamental look at what is needed to make a real difference to the needs, experiences and outcomes of the children supported by children’s social care, including those in children’s homes.
Through our county lines programme the Home Office has provided up to £860,000 to provide specialist one-to-one support in London, the West Midlands and Merseyside to under 25’s and their families who are criminally exploited through county lines. Through this investment we are also delivering awareness sessions to care home staff to increase their understanding of criminally exploited children and young people.
We have also funded the Prevention Programme to deliver targeted virtual training sessions focussing on child sexual abuse and exploitation to children’s homes in the North East and North West and have worked alongside the British Transport Police to provide intelligence-led interventions to children’s homes to ensure appropriate safeguarding actions are taken in response.
The Department for Education is also funding the Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme to help safeguarding partners in local areas develop a strategic response to child exploitation and risk of harm from outside the family home, in particular child sexual exploitation and child criminal exploitation, including county lines drug trafficking and modern slavery.