Specialist Printing Equipment and Materials (Offences) Bill

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Friday 5th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Southend West (Mr Amess) on getting the Bill to this stage and on garnering support from Members on both sides of the House. I welcome the draft Specialist Printing Equipment and Materials (Offences) Bill. It is indeed a step towards cutting off the supply of machinery and equipment to those who intend to commit serious crimes such as identity theft and document forgery, including of passports, driving licences and credit cards.

To stop those who knowingly supply specialist equipment to criminals who undertake this activity is also to send a strong message of deterrence before these crimes are committed. Identity fraud ruins lives and it can take victims months or even years to undo the damage that perpetrators cause. The damage—financial, professional and personal—can be enormous, and any steps we can take to prevent this will be welcome.

We know how false documents are used by criminals across a spectrum of offences. Giving the police powers to stop this activity can have a real impact on the wider fight against other crimes, too. We also know that the police have identified this gap in enforcement. The police find it difficult to prosecute those who knowingly supply this equipment to criminals because of the absence of a targeted offence. By creating a specific criminal offence of knowingly supplying specialist printing equipment to criminals, the Bill will help the police to end this practice. This Bill is to be welcomed and there is widespread support across the House for it. I wish the hon. Gentleman the best of luck with this Bill.

Oral Answers to Questions

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Monday 17th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[James Brokenshire]

I can certainly underline the steps that we are taking to speed up the process. Moving offenders straight from prison to deportation is saving the taxpayer £27.5 million, and Operation Nexus ensures that police officers work alongside immigration enforcement officers to ensure that the information needed to aid deportation later in the process is provided. We are taking an end-to-end approach.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Recently, the Australian Government decided to deport an individual following serious concerns about the impact of his views on the safety of women. To prevent us from having to deport individuals as the Australians did, and given that his seminars promote choking and sexual assaults in order to seduce women, will the Home Secretary consider using her powers to exclude Julien Blanc from the UK if, like me, she assesses that his presence is not conducive to the public good?

[James Brokenshire]

The Government firmly underline their commitment to promoting the role of women within government, business and the whole country, and they condemn any action that might stand against that. The hon. Lady has alluded to a case highlighted in the press. I cannot comment on the specifics of that particular case, but I can assure her about the steps this Government are taking, and about the record of this Home Secretary in excluding more people on grounds of unacceptable behaviour than any of her predecessors.

Domestic Violence

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Wednesday 29th October 2014 Westminster Hall

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

I extend my congratulations to the hon. Member for Upper Bann (David Simpson) on securing the debate. He powerfully set the scene in relation to domestic abuse and domestic violence, recognising the work of Women’s Aid, the wider issues of domestic and sexual abuse, controlling behaviour and the impact on children. He also raised the question of how domestic violence cuts across class, ethnicity and background, and the fact that it is an issue for all of us. He showed how important it is to recognise the impact of domestic abuse and violence on people’s life chances, education and so on.

It is clear that domestic and sexual violence is little short of a national scandal and we need to do much more. Statistics have been shared in the debate, and however we look at things, the scale of reported incidents is staggering. Women reported more than 12 million incidents of domestic abuse last year. At least 750,000 children a year in the UK witness violence in their home, and two women a week are killed by their partner, or an ex. In some areas almost one in five 999 calls is about domestic violence. We also know that one in three 16 to 18-year-old girls has experienced groping or otherwise unwanted sexual touching at school and elsewhere. There are wider issues as well, if we treat violence against women and girls as the broader theme: thousands of girls are at risk of female genital mutilation and others disappear to become victims of forced marriage or honour violence—and it has been more comfortable for us to turn a blind eye to those issues.

I was proud to be at the launch of Plan International’s campaign to face up to violence against girls, and the launch of the END FGM campaign at the south bank just a few weeks ago. I pay tribute to the work done by many campaigners to raise our awareness of these issues which take the lives and health of millions of women and girls around the world, and to enable them to tackle them in their own families and communities. Domestic violence is a huge drain on the economy, as well as a blight on society. Domestic abuse alone costs the UK almost £16 billion a year.

The hon. Member for North Swindon (Justin Tomlinson) talked about the importance of women’s refuges, and about under-reporting and funding issues. My hon. Friend the Member for Inverclyde (Mr McKenzie) described domestic abuse as a silent shame and spoke eloquently about those who suffer in silence, and about the need for support that victims can rely on. He also talked about our reluctance to get involved in what we see as something that happens behind closed doors, and about the idea that it is not for society to question what happens in the family sphere. We have come a long way from the time when rape in marriage was legal, but we have much further to go. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) spoke about strategies that are in play in Northern Ireland. Hon. Members are united in arguing that we need to do far more to prevent domestic abuse and domestic violence. My hon. Friend the Member for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock (Sandra Osborne) talked about prevention, protection and provision—the core strands of the strategy that we need.

I have had some discussions since I took on my new role as the shadow Minister for preventing violence against women and girls, and I have heard of shocking experiences, but I want to speak about those things in the context of three important areas. The first is prevention, and stepping up the challenge. The history of the issue includes reforms made under the Labour Government, such as specialist domestic violence courts, multi-agency risk assessment conferences and independent domestic violence advisors. That work has continued under the present Government. If we consider things collectively, we see that we have not managed to stem the tide of the prevalence of domestic abuse and violence. The second area I want to mention is support services—something frequently raised by hon. Members in the debate. Those who are victims of domestic violence, men or women, should be able to have confidence that services are available for them, and that they will get such services without delay.

The third area is improved access to justice, which has also been raised today, in terms of the performance of police, and by the HMIC in its report earlier this year. Hon. Members who have talked to women in refuges will know the struggle that they have to be heard in the court system and the lack of speed with which our court systems work to tackle some issues of domestic violence and issues between couples—I am referring to both the civil and criminal courts.

Let me start with prevention. I want to talk a little bit about sex and relationship education, which has been raised. Let us consider the challenges that young people face today and what they experience: they are under a lot of pressure to conform, whether that is through accessing pornography online, or through gang culture in some areas and in our schools. Having compulsory sex and relationship education is important, and it is not just about theory. Talking to those who have been delivering courses in schools, I have heard about how young people have developed the confidence to start talking about what is happening to them at school and, sometimes, at home. It is not just about theory, but about giving young people the resilience to stand up and be able to voice what is going on in their lives, and to be able to make very positive choices for the future. It is also very important in interrupting behaviours that may be learned at home if young people are experiencing domestic violence themselves, and watching it happening between their parents. It is also true to say that 88% of parents want sex and relationship education to be compulsory to tackle the dangers of pornography.

Labour has called for SRE in all state-funded schools from key stage 1, because there are aspects of age-appropriate sex and relationship education that are important for every age. Many young children at school today are not part of a huge family. Many are single children or have siblings who are younger, and they are learning how to share and about relationships for the first time. Having a way in which children learn about the values of respect, with others their own age, is incredibly important. A mum called me about an experience that her six-year old daughter had in her school: she was effectively assaulted by young boys her age. The school did not take it seriously. The trauma that the girl went through could be regarded as parallel to that experienced by someone of 16 or 26. In the end, she left school, and her mum is campaigning for change.

On support services, I pay tribute to the work of Women’s Aid, the End Violence Against Women Coalition, Rape Crisis and others. They do incredible work, not only in delivering services but in raising the profile of issues at a national level, and in making sure that we are getting the message of prevention and support out there.

We have talked today about the importance of funding. Labour and the shadow Home Secretary have committed to a new £3 million annual fund for refuges supporting victims of domestic violence. As we have said, we want to see the continuation of a national network of refuges. A 31% cut in funding for refuges and specialist advice is undermining action against domestic violence. In some areas, there is absolutely no specialist refuge. Refuges have also been disproportionately affected by cuts to local government, and according to Women’s Aid, eight refuges are under imminent threat of closure and are currently running on reserves.

Labour’s commitment is fully funded, through a small percentage of savings from abolishing the expensive police and crime commissioner elections. We are also calling for new FGM protection orders to stop children suspected of being at risk of FGM being taken abroad. On that, there is some commonality but also some differences between us and the Government, and we are looking at other measures that we will be able to bring in from the women’s safety commission, led by Vera Baird, QC, and Diana Holland. We hope to be launching those next month.

Before closing, I want to say a few words about improved access to justice. We need to ensure that there is a joined-up justice system that works fast, gets it right and is cost-effective and easy to access. We believe that we need a new commissioner for domestic and sexual violence who sits at the heart of Government to ensure that victims’ voices are heard, that there is a way they are heard fast, and that there is a fast response to the challenges that are being raised. I am working closely on that with Keir Starmer, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, because we need to see a new agency—a new body—that can sit alongside the Victims’ Commissioner and the Children’s Commissioner to say we need to join this up, but we need some challenge to the centre in order to make sure that victims’ voices and victims’ challenges come through to the system as a whole.

We also need new national standards for policing to drive up performance across the board. We have all heard harrowing stories of victims who do not feel that they have been believed. I met a woman at a refuge who told me that the policeman who attended when she was a victim of serious violence at the hands of her partner thought that she was drunk when, in fact, she was concussed, having been hit around the head by her partner. Police training needs to be updated and refreshed. We need to make sure that there are minimum standards so that victims will be believed; so that we know such incidents will be dealt with within an allotted time; so that evidence will be collected and the follow-up will be done; and so that the Crown Prosecution Service’s advice will be sought early to build a case. Those are all vital to maintaining public confidence in policing.

I close by saying that this has been an incredibly important debate. We know that we are a long way from the end of this, and that we need to bring in measures, as Labour hopes to do in its first Queen’s Speech, in a Bill addressing violence against women and girls. The fact that we have come together in this debate this afternoon and that this debate has also been led by men is an incredibly important step that we are taking, collectively as the British Parliament, to say that we want to make sure that there is zero tolerance of violence in relationships, that that message goes early to schools and our young people, and that we address these matters with the utmost seriousness in every way that we can, from every part of Government.

--- Later in debate ---

[Norman Baker]

Some of the £40 million—not a great proportion, it has to be said—goes towards helping organisations that are there directly to provide an outlet for men who wish to report such matters. We think that the number of men who were victims of domestic abuse was 721,000, and of that number, 517,000 experienced partner abuse. That may be same-sex partner abuse or by women on men. Nevertheless, it is also a very high figure, and the hon. Gentleman is right to draw attention to it, although it would be wrong of me not to point out that the majority of domestic abuse is by men on women.

I was about to mention two powerful initiatives that we have been rolling out across England and Wales to support victims. The domestic violence disclosure scheme is a system whereby anyone can seek disclosure of a partner’s violent past. Those with the legal right to know are provided with information that could well save lives, empowering them to make an informed choice about their future. As the Minister for Crime Prevention, I say that if we can prevent crime in the first place, that is the best outcome.

Domestic violence protection orders offer respite to victims in the immediate aftermath of domestic abuse. They have the power to ban a perpetrator from the home and from having contact with the victim for up to 28 days. That offers both the victim and the perpetrator the chance to reflect on the incident. In the case of the victim, it provides an opportunity to determine the best course of action to end the cycle of abuse. In my view, it is a welcome change that it may be the perpetrator who is required to leave the house, rather than the victim leaving, as has all too often been the case in the past. Together, the two initiatives significantly improve the reality for victims of these appalling crimes.

[Seema Malhotra]

Will the Minister give his assessment of the take-up so far of domestic violence protection orders?

[Norman Baker]

The early indications are encouraging. The orders are certainly working, but as the hon. Lady will appreciate, we have rolled them out just recently so we do not have the full-year figures yet. Of course, we will, as a matter of course, publish those figures as and when they are available, but the early indications, as I said, are positive.

Also important is the Government’s decision in April 2011 to place domestic homicide reviews on a statutory footing. Now, every local report on a domestic homicide is reviewed and quality-assured by a panel of independent and Home Office experts. Each review results in a tailored action plan that must be delivered by the area in question to ensure that we learn from those individual tragedies. The Home Office has published a document collating the national lessons learned from those reviews and making recommendations to local areas to drive improvements in practice.

Of course, we have more to do. I think that the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) said that every 30 seconds a victim of domestic abuse summons up the courage to call the police. That is a huge percentage of the number of calls that the police receive. When a victim reaches out for help, it is vital that the police are equipped to respond effectively and to end a cycle of abuse that in many cases will have been going on for years. Sometimes a person will have been subjected to abuse 50, 60 or 70 times before they make that call to the police. It is also vital that victims have confidence that the criminal justice system will prosecute the perpetrators of these appalling crimes and will work for the victims.

Following a dip in referrals from the police to the Crown Prosecution Service, I am encouraged to see that the volumes of referrals, prosecutions and successful convictions are rising. For example, the volume of referrals to the CPS rose to 103,569 in 2013-14. That represents a rise of 17.5% from the previous year and the highest level ever. It compares with 91,184 referrals in 2009-10. Following action that we have taken with the Attorney-General, the number of defendants being charged has risen from about 60,000 to almost 73,000 in the last year. That represents a 21% increase and, again, the highest level ever achieved. It is subsequently translating into a rise in conviction rates, from 72% of those facing a charge in 2009-10 to 74.6% in 2012-13. However, I am the first to say that, despite the encouraging rise in referrals and prosecutions, we need to do more to ensure that front-line agencies treat domestic abuse as the serious crime that it is.

Hon. Members will be aware that HMIC published its report in March this year on the police response to domestic abuse across all 43 forces in England and Wales. That report made for depressing reading. It showed that a combination of poor leadership, bad culture and basic policing skills being lacking was failing victims. For example, on leadership, the report found that many chief constables and their top teams still focused more on volume and acquisitive crime reduction than on domestic abuse. Leadership on domestic abuse was not present, translating into poor management and supervision in the police to reinforce the right behaviours, attitudes and actions of officers.

On culture, HMIC identified that there were many examples of officers who work tirelessly to keep victims safe and sometimes with little support from their wider force, but there were also officers who showed a poor attitude towards victims and failed to treat them with the empathy they deserve. Victims reported feeling judged and not taken seriously.

On core policing skills, basic evidence collection that could help to support a prosecution to bring a perpetrator to justice simply was not happening. When HMIC reviewed 615 actual bodily harm cases connected with domestic abuse, photographs of injuries were taken in only half the cases and, in 30% of cases, officers’ statements lacked important details about the crime scene or the victim.

The failings I have described meant that, crucially, the priority that police and crime commissioners give domestic abuse in their crime plans, which is quite general, I am happy to say, was not translating into operational reality. That is completely unacceptable. People in desperate circumstances should know that they can rely on the police to respond quickly, effectively and professionally. Chief constables must take urgent action to make significant changes to front-line policing so that victims are protected and perpetrators brought to justice.

To ensure that real change happens, the Home Secretary and I sit on a new national oversight group that she has established and that meets quarterly to drive through the recommendations in HMIC’s report. I am pleased to inform hon. Members that we will shortly publish our first progress report, a copy of which will be placed in the Library of the House.

All police forces in England and Wales have now submitted action plans to HMIC to address the report’s findings. HMIC will quality-assure those plans over the next two months with voluntary sector partners, and will report its findings at the next national oversight group meeting in December. I expect police and crime commissioners and the College Of Policing to use the plans, plus the outcomes arising from the national oversight group, to support their forces and hold them to account.

Some forces have already taken action to address the issues that HMIC has highlighted. Merseyside police identified a problem with the initial evidence collected by officers in domestic abuse cases and trained 1,500 front-line officers to improve their investigation skills. Following a re-inspection, Gloucestershire police have been deemed by HMIC to be much improved. We are seeing good progress, and it shows that the police can respond in a positive and effective way.

I am clear that the work that the police are undertaking to improve their response must be supported by the Government and the wider response of the criminal justice system. Last month, the Secretary of State for Justice announced a victims package, which launched a new package of reforms including the establishment of a new victims information service and strengthening the protection for vulnerable victims by improving the court experience. We are also piloting pre-trial cross-examination in three Crown courts, and the Director of Public Prosecutions is updating guidance for prosecutors to complement that work.

The Government will ensure that front-line criminal justice agencies have the tools they need to tackle domestic abuse effectively. Hon. Members will be aware that the Home Office has recently concluded a consultation on whether the law on domestic abuse needs to be strengthened, a point that many hon. Members have made this afternoon. There is widespread understanding that domestic abuse is not simply about physical violence, and the expanded definition that we introduced last year makes it clear that domestic abuse extends to coercive and controlling behaviour. We want to ensure that the legal framework is unambiguous in recognising and prosecuting domestic abuse in all its forms. We received more than 750 responses to our consultation, which we are currently analysing, and we will publish our response shortly.

Let me pick up some of the points that hon. Members have raised. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Upper Bann for referring to the White Ribbon pledge. I can inform him that I have signed it, because it was initiated by my local authority, which has a good record on the matter. I encourage other hon. Members to do likewise.

The hon. Gentleman was right to refer to the effect of domestic violence on children. That is a serious issue, and he is quite right that the effects can remain with children throughout their lives. Although I cannot provide a statistical analysis, I have a suspicion that those who witness or are subject to domestic violence at an early age may be more vulnerable to sexual violence later in life than those who do not. Witnessing violence in the home at an early age cannot be good for children.

Several hon. Members spoke about refuges. I have made it plain that local authorities that provide money for refuges should not see cutting refuges as an easy saving. I appreciate that local authorities are under considerable financial strain, but they should not be cutting services for vulnerable people. I understand that the case has been made for looking afresh at national funding for refuges, and I have met Women’s Aid and other groups to discuss the matter. We are currently considering where we go with that, but I want to make it plain that we should see no further closures of refuges in this country.

Although hon. Members have not raised this point, we must do everything we can to help local authorities to commission services properly, because there is clearly a problem with that. Some local authorities have commissioned services in a way that does not help refuges, and that must be addressed. For example, some refuges have said that they will accept references only from the local community, but if a woman has been subject to physical abuse, the last thing that she will want to do is to stay in her community. She will want to escape from it, so that condition, which some local authorities have imposed, is nonsensical. The Home Office is working with local authorities to help them with commissioning practices, to ensure that they get the best value for money and the best service for those—predominantly women—who use refuges. More can be done on that. Current commissioning practices waste money by imposing requirements that are not necessary for the operation of the refuge service, and that money could be better spent on protecting women.

My hon. Friend the Member for North Swindon (Justin Tomlinson) mentioned the engagement of football authorities. As he recognises, they responded quite well to the initiative that he mentioned. I have had a meeting with the various elements of football—the FA, the Premier League and others—to discuss what they might do further to deal with domestic violence, and how they might use their voices to help tackle that societal problem. They have gone away to consider what they can do to help, and I am waiting for them to come back with their offer. We are very much on the case with that, and I am grateful to the football authorities, in their various guises, for the positive way in which they have engaged with me and the women’s organisations to which my hon. Friend referred.

The hon. Member for Inverclyde (Mr McKenzie) mentioned a figure for the increase in domestic violence. I urge caution, because it can be difficult to determine to what extent there has been an increase in domestic violence, and to what extent there has been an increase in reporting. Those are not quite the same thing, as he will appreciate. The Government is encouraging victims of violence to come forward—that is a common approach across the House—and they are doing so, partly because they now have more confidence in the police than they used to. When we see figures for the number of reported incidents of domestic violence, we must be careful not to assume that that represents an increase, because it may simply represent a welcome increase in reporting. That is not to be in any way complacent about the figures, because they are far too high. I simply want to put a cautionary marker on the use of such figures. The hon. Member for Strangford raised that point as well, and I hope I picked his point up, too.

The question of legal aid was raised by the hon. Member for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock (Sandra Osborne), and I want to provide her with some reassurance. We have retained legal aid in key areas that impact on women, particularly injunctions to protect victims from domestic abuse, and in family cases such as child contact or division of assets after separation where domestic violence is a feature. We continue to provide civil legal aid for the victims of domestic violence to apply for protected injunctions, such as non-molestation orders. We will also continue to waive the financial eligibility limits in such cases. Our changes to the scope of legal aid do not affect those cases.

The hon. Lady expressed her view that personal, social, health and economic education should be mandatory in state schools. The Home Office has done a great deal to help to educate boys, in particular, about the nature of appropriate relationships. We have run a successful campaign, as I hope the hon. Lady knows, called, “This is abuse”, involving stars from “Hollyoaks” and various pop bands. We have used MTV and other channels to ensure that the campaign reaches young people, and the response to it has been quite good. I understand entirely the point about compulsory PSHE, which several others have echoed, and I have raised that with the new Education Secretary. I do not want to commit her to anything, but I think she is prepared to look at the matter, so we might make some progress on that front.

I welcome the shadow Minister to her post, in what I believe is her first outing in such a debate, and I agree with much of what she said. I agree that we must have the confidence of victims if they are to come forward, and I have tried to address that point in my response. I also agree that the performance of the police and the Courts Service must improve. I hope she acknowledges that we are taking steps to bring about such improvements, as I have outlined.

The shadow Minister mentioned the figure of 31% in relation to cuts to refuges. That is not a figure I accept. It comes from a survey based on an average from 63 local authorities that made cuts to their refuge service, which did not take into account the responses from 201 authorities that did not make cuts. That figure, therefore, is inaccurate and misleading, and I would be grateful if she did not use it. As I have made clear, I am in no way complacent about refuges, but we must make sure that the figures we use are accurate.

The situation that faces us is no small challenge. The Government has introduced significant initiatives to enhance victim safety, but we have also made it clear that changes to the law or new powers alone are not sufficient. We must not fall into the trap of thinking that the statute book is the answer to everything, because it is not. The police have significant changes to make following HMIC’s report. I am determined to create an environment in which all victims of domestic abuse who find the courage to seek help have their needs met. That will, ultimately, encourage more victims to come forward, which will mean that more perpetrators are brought to justice, more cycles of abuse are disrupted and we take a giant step closer to becoming a society in which domestic abuse is a thing of the past.

Oral Answers to Questions

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Monday 13th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mike Penning]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. When people come forward, they must have confidence in the force and the police officers who are dealing with their complaint. I hope that that is why more people are having the confidence to come forward these days.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Police performance in dealing with crimes of rape is getting worse, not better. Last year there were 4,000 more crimes recorded in the UK, but on this Government’s watch since 2010 we have seen hundreds fewer prosecutions and convictions, and there is a postcode lottery around the country. In Suffolk, for example, we know from freedom of information requests that the police have no-crimed more reports of rape than they have detected rapists. In Lincolnshire, the no-crime rate for rape is over 20%. Does the Minister agree that this is unacceptable, and will he now back Labour’s plan for a commissioner on domestic and sexual violence to raise standards across every police force in this country?

[Mike Penning]

I congratulate the hon. Lady on what I think is her first outing at the Dispatch Box with her new portfolio, but I can agree with hardly anything she said, apart from that we must take rape very, very seriously, whether it be against women or men, and we want more and more people to come forward and to be confident that the investigation will be robust. That is what we need, not running down the police time and again.

Oral Answers to Questions

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Monday 7th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Karen Bradley]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. He perfectly sums up the threats we in the UK face from cyber-attacks on businesses and public services. Working with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Home Office is involved in the cybercrime reduction partnership, and we have set up CERT-UK, the computer emergency response team, which includes CISP—the Cyber-Security Information Sharing Partnership—through which businesses can share their experiences of cyber-attacks.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

According to Which?, the average amount lost by people because of scams, including online scams, is £1,500, and online shopping scams are by far the most likely to fool people. The Home Affairs Select Committee has expressed concern that there appears to be a black hole where low-level e-crime is committed with impunity. What impact does the Minister believe the initiatives she has announced are having, and what more can the Home Office do to raise awareness of e-crime for our citizens?

[Karen Bradley]

The hon. Lady makes an important point—that we need to raise awareness and to make sure that people know where they can report cybercrime. Action Fraud, which I visited last week when it was hosted by the City of London police, is the portal through which people can report cyber-attacks. That is where information will be disseminated and intelligence shared, ensuring that local police forces have the information and intelligence they need to be able to act against this crime.

HM Passport Office

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

As I thought I had made clear to the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell), we do meet front-line staff and will do so again in order to discuss this issue. For the purposes of the review, representations will be received from a number of people, both those involved in the passport service and those who, I am sure, have experienced similar kinds of customer service. The review is necessary to ensure that we are doing things in the best possible way in order to give the best possible service to customers, and front-line staff will of course be met during that process.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Many of my constituents have contacted me about this problem, including three British citizens who applied for passports for children born abroad. One has waited for six months, another for five months, and a third for three months. One child’s school admission has been delayed, another’s health treatment has been delayed, and in the third case flights were booked and then cancelled at a cost of £1,600. Will the Home Secretary tell us when her new measures may come into force, whether my constituents are likely to benefit from them, and whether there is any consistency in what the Home Office is saying? We have been told that the suggested time lines are intended as guidance, but the Home Secretary is now talking of advice that is on the website.

[Mrs May]

The time that it takes to process an application from overseas will vary according to the complexity of the case that is before the Passport Office. Obviously I cannot comment on the individual cases raised by the hon. Lady because I do not know the details, but, as I have said, I will write to Members explaining clearly when it will be possible to apply for the emergency travel documents—I referred to part of that process in response to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Steve Brine)—so that they understand the new arrangements and can advise their constituents accordingly.

Extremism

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I thank my hon. Friend, and he is right to point out that the strategies we have adopted are looked to with respect around the world. Of course there is always more for us to do, which is why we look constantly at the work we are undertaking to ensure that we are doing as much as possible and learning any lessons from the past. We have a good record on the strategies we have put in place. Yes, we can look to do more, as I have said, but we should not lose sight of the fact that Contest and Prevent are looked at with respect around the world.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

I spoke last week to Muslim leaders in my constituency, and I recognise that the vast majority of the Muslim community are extremely concerned about the activity of extremists, not least because they know that their sons and daughters are some of those most at risk. They want to know that they are being backed to keep their families and communities safe. Will the Home Secretary therefore explain why she cut the anti-extremism programmes’ support for community action from £17 million for 93 local authorities to £1 million for 30 local authorities?

[Mrs May]

First, it is indeed important to reach out to and work with communities, as I have said in response to a number of questions this afternoon. I am sorry to repeat the point I made to the shadow Home Secretary, but we have changed the way that various parts of what was the last Government’s Prevent strategy are delivered. We therefore cannot look at Home Office figures and say that there has been a cut in funding, because the Home Office has changed, and we are funding activity that is much more focused than it was. Two Departments are responsible for the different elements of the Prevent strategy, and the reason for that is simple: it is precisely Muslim communities who were getting concerned about the way the strategy operated under the last Government, and its mixing of the counter-terrorism strategy with communities integration work. We responded to that.

UNHCR Syrian Refugees Programme

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Wednesday 29th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend makes an important point and I have specifically discussed that issue with the UN. It told me that it is keen to ensure that support is provided, and it gave the example of young gay men who have suffered homophobic abuse and persecution, and who may need additional assistance. That is why it is important to include LGBT issues in our consideration of vulnerable refugees who may need additional sanctuary elsewhere and outside the region.

We should rightly provide sanctuary alongside other countries across the world. No one country can shoulder this alone, and we should work together and urge others to join us. France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the USA, Canada, Australia and many other countries are helping to provide sanctuary. That is why Britain must also do its bit and why it would have been wrong for it to turn its back.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for all the work she has done over the past couple of weeks in highlighting this issue and working with charities and organisations outside Parliament. Does she agree that the UK taking in refugees—as the Government have now stated we will—is a mark of our responsibility in the world and of our need to lead efforts and lead by example? A constituent wrote to me stating:

“I feel…very concerned at the UK’s refusal to accept displaced persons…We are shamed by the actions of other countries.”

That is a sad thing for a church in my constituency to be saying.

[Yvette Cooper]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. We must not only urge other countries to do more, but do our bit and show that we stand together in humanitarian causes right across the world. We are stronger if we stand together, and it says something about who we are as a country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Thursday 31st October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Jo Swinson]

My hon. Friend raises a very good point. The Government are working with 52 different firms that have signed up to the voluntary code of conduct. Indeed, my right hon. Friend the Business Secretary has appointed an experienced diversity champion, Charlotte Sweeney, to review the effectiveness of the code and report back to him in the new year. My hon. Friend is right to raise the issue of Departments that employ head-hunting firms for public appointments, but it is made absolutely clear that one of the key attributes that they need to look for is diversity.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the Minister confirm whether Labour’s target that 50% of new appointments should be women has continued, and whether the Government have removed the targets to increase the number of ethnic minorities and people with disabilities in public appointments?

[Jo Swinson]

It is very important that we address diversity in all its forms. Sadly, the previous Government did not achieve the aim of women comprising 50% of all new appointments. We are working towards achieving that by the end of this Parliament, but I think we all agree that we need to do more. The hon. Lady is absolutely right to say that other areas of diversity, including background, ethnicity and disability—a whole range of different characteristics—are also important. To get truly high-functioning teams, we need diversity in all its forms.

Immigration Bill

Seema Malhotra Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Teather]

No, I do not accept that. This happens because of the culture of disbelief in the Home Office, and it is that culture that needs to change, yet I see nothing in the Bill that will have any impact on the quality of decision making or on how individual officials treat constituents such as mine when they go with their asylum or visa applications. In my 10 years as an MP, I have seen countless examples of this behaviour, as all Members will have done. Those of us with the highest levels of immigration casework will have seen more, but it is a source of huge frustration for many MPs that our advice surgeries are spent mostly dealing with stuff that the Home Office should be dealing with.

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

The hon. Lady is making some powerful points about the human cost of the way our immigration system works. Has she, too, experienced cases like those in Feltham and Heston of people who have been given leave to be here and to work but have struggled for months at places where they have been given jobs because they are waiting for documentation? Their lives, and those of their families, are on hold and they then fall into poverty.

[Sarah Teather]

The hon. Lady makes an excellent point. These are the sort of people I worry will fall foul of the Bill because they struggle to provide their documentation. We know that there are a lot of people who fall through the net when they are first given refugee status and end up destitute. They make up the bulk of the people whom the British Red Cross deals with in terms of food parcels because they cannot prove their entitlement to benefits. A significant number of people have the right to stay but will struggle to be able to prove it.

Personally, I have never seen an organisation more in need of checks and balances on its own use of power than the Home Office or, indeed, its predecessor, the Border Agency. Instead, the Bill gives powers that it is not equipped, nor frankly able, to meet and powers that it cannot be relied upon to exercise properly. Where it exceeds or abuses its power, or simply fails to do the job, it will be shielded from challenge in many cases and there will be no redress whatever. The implications of the Bill cannot be understood without also placing it in the wider context of legal aid changes and proposals to restrict judicial review.

The problem is that the impact on individual lives gets lost in the grandstanding of headlines. When immigration is all about reducing numbers on a spreadsheet to meet an arbitrary cap or creating arbitrary political dividing lines and traps for opponents to fall into, the subjects of the legislation—the human beings at the centre of it—are somehow invisible. I am weary of a politics that creates and defines enemies in order to demonstrate potency but, frankly, it angers me to see politics do that at the expense of those who have the least power to change their own futures. All three Front Benches, I am afraid, are at it, including my own, scrabbling over the mantle of toughness, chasing opinion polls and, in some cases, wilfully whipping up fear and loathing in the process. It is staggeringly careless with lives and with community relationships that have been built up over a long time.

I am afraid that whatever the damage that is done by the detail of the Bill when, I dare say, it is ultimately passed, some of the worst damage has been done in our debate in the lead-up to it. The language with which this was brought forward is what really causes the damage to community relations. I remind hon. Members of the debate we had earlier about the Home Office vans. That is a case in point; it had almost no effect on the ground except to whip up real tension between communities. My constituency was one of those areas that was targeted by the vans.