Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking the help reduce the number of drug offences in (a) East Devon constituency and (b) Devon.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Reducing drug-related crime is a key priority of the Government’s 10-year Drugs Strategy. We are making good progress. Since April 2022, we have closed over 2,500 county lines nationally.
Through the County Lines Programme, our exporter force taskforces (Metropolitain Police Service, Merseyside, West Midlands and Greater Manchester Police) work in collaboration with importer forces, including Devon & Cornwall Police, to tackle the drug supply and exploitation associated with County Lines.
Through our County Lines Programme, we also fund the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre (NCLCC), to monitor the intelligence picture and co-ordinate the national law enforcement response. We have also established a dedicated Surge Fund to help forces tackle county lines, from which Devon and Cornwall Police have received investment.
Through the Drugs Strategy, we are also investing £532m into high quality drug treatment which reduces crime and reoffending. There are now 24,500 more people in treatment across England, including Devon.
The Government has asked every area in England to form a Combating Drugs Partnership (CDP) to work together to reduce drug-related harm and crime. East Devon is covered by the Devon CDP. The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Devon and Cornwall has established a Strategic Peninsular Drugs & Alcohol Partnership which meets 4 times a year and serves as a forum for the 4 CDPs (including Devon CDP) to come together at a Police Force Area level.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle anti-social behaviour in (a) East Devon constituency and (b) Devon.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Last year the Government launched the Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/anti-social-behaviour-action-plan), backed by £160m in new funding to ensure the police, local authorities and other relevant agencies have the tools they need to tackle anti-social behaviour.
This includes funding an increased police and other uniformed presence to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, targeting hotspots. Initially we worked with 10 police force areas and following its success in 2024 we are supporting a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales. Devon and Cornwall PCC has been awarded £1m in funding to carry out the Hotspot Response approach, tackling areas of high incidents of both ASB and serious violence.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of trends in the level of crime in (a) East Devon constituency and (b) Devon.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Across the country, communities are safer and the Government’s plan to cut crime and protect the public is working. Compared with 2010, people are now 60% less likely to have their home burgled and around 40% less likely to be victims of violent crime.
We are supporting Devon and Cornwall to reduce crime:
We continue to monitor all these measures to ensure they are having the impact on crime we all want to see.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle violence against women and girls in East Devon constituency.
Answered by Laura Farris
It is difficult to determine the specific activity to tackle violence against women in the East Devon constituency as services are mostly commissioned at a national level, and not monitored by the Home Office by constituency.
To help support local service commissioners, we published a revised National Statement of Expectations in March 2022, which sets out how local areas should commission effective services. It also aims to increase understanding of the need for specialist services and the value of those designed and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve.
As part of the effort to tackle these crimes across England and Wales, in 2021 we published our cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy to help ensure that women and girls are safe everywhere - at home, online, at work and in public. This was followed by a complementary cross-Government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan in 2022.
These documents aim to transform the whole of society’s response to these crimes with actions to prevent abuse, support victims and pursue perpetrators, as well as to strengthen the systems that underpin the response. The actions set out in both strategy documents benefit all regions across England and Wales, including East Devon.
The Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan committed to over £230 million from 2022-2025. As part of this commitment, the joint Home Office-Ministry of Justice VAWG Support and Specialist Service Fund will provide up to £8.3 million (in total) from 2023-2025 for specialist organisations to support victims often facing the greatest barriers to getting the help they need.
The Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan funding also includes the Children Affected by Domestic Abuse (CADA) Fund, which allocated £10.3 million over three years (2022-2025) to eight organisations across England and Wales to provide specialist support within the community to children who have been impacted by domestic abuse. Part of this includes c.£1.25m for the Children’s Society to provide direct support for children and young people and families, including those from rural and hard to reach communities, covering Devon, Shropshire, Rochdale and Merseyside.
In May 2023, the Home Office also launched a £300,000 ‘flexible fund’ trial in partnership with Women’s Aid Federation for England to make direct cash payments of £250 to victims and survivors of domestic abuse (£500 to those with children and those who are pregnant) to help remove barriers to leaving an abusive relationship. In November 2023, the Government commitment to support victims was renewed with a further £2m investment into the Flexible Fund until March 2025.
Through the current Round Five of the Safer Streets Fund, the Home Office has directly awarded £34 million to Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales to deliver interventions to tackle neighbourhood crime, anti-social behaviour and VAWG. Devon and Cornwall received £819,998.64 (2024-2025) to support projects covering Paignton, Camborne and Redruth and are delivering educational training packages such as bystander training to help address behaviour and attitudes on VAWG and using night-time economy marshalls for patrols in the town centres.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on extending the Youth Mobility Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We remain committed to negotiating Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS) arrangements with other countries and territories, including the EU or nations within it. On 01 January, Iceland became a new addition to the scheme demonstrating the Government’s commitment to further expansion.
However, as each YMS is subject to a bilateral, reciprocal agreement which also provides benefit to UK nationals with the detail negotiated and agreed between the relevant parties, we are unable to disclose the status of negotiations as they occur. Further details of additional YMS agreements will be announced once they are concluded.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the Shortage Occupation List will be asked to consider the potential merits of treating occupations at qualification Level 1 and qualification Level 2 the same.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Government intends to commission the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to undertake a review of the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) later this year. The exact terms of the commission will be set out in a letter to the Chair of the MAC and will be published on GOV.UK, in line with the approach taken for previous SOL commissions.
More broadly, acting upon advice from the MAC, the Government broadened out the skills threshold of the Skilled Worker route to include occupations at RQF level 3 and lowered the general salary threshold to £25,600. The MAC’s modelling suggests the new threshold strikes a reasonable balance between controlling immigration and providing businesses access to labour.
Being on the SOL does not exempt an occupation from meeting the wider requirements of the Skilled Worker immigration route.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of whether chefs, occupation code 5434, should be added to the Shortage Occupation List.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Up until 6 April 2021, Chefs were on the Shortage Occupation List. The Government accepted a recommendation from the independent Migration Advisory Committee to remove Chefs from the SOL citing;
‘…the reduced restrictions and lower salary threshold under the Skilled Worker route compared to Tier 2 (General), and the on-going and persistent concerns that not enough is being done to train chefs from within the domestic workforce.’
Due to the expanded eligibility under our new system, for both salary and skill levels, chefs may now be recruited through the Skilled Worker visa without the requirement to demonstrate 5 years experience, and they can be paid £25,600 or more per year rather than the previous threshold of £29,570.
A job does not have to be on the Shortage Occupation List (SOL) to qualify for the Skilled Worker visa and being on it does not exempt a job from other requirements such as the English Language requirement.
Our Plan for Jobs is focused on helping people across the country retrain, build new skills and get back into work, rather than providing alternatives to this via immigration policy. Beyond the Points Based System, there is the resident labour market which includes UK workers and non-UK citizens with general work rights.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to allow people with existing DBS clearance to use that as evidence for other DBS-required roles they may undertake.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
There is no requirement to obtain a new DBS certificate each time an individual goes from one role to another, as a volunteer or paid worker in a regulated activity in the same workforce e.g. children’s workforce.
The Update Service is an online subscription for standard and enhanced checks (i.e. those which individuals working with children and vulnerable people or employers will be checking against). The Update Service enables an individual to take their DBS certificate from one job to the next unless an employer asks an individual to get a new certificate, or a different type of workforce certificate is needed, e.g. ‘adult workforce’ to ‘child workforce,’ or a different level of certificate is required, e.g. standard to enhanced.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether plans she has to enable au pairs to work in the UK under the points-based immigration system.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The UK’s points-based immigration system will not offer a dedicated route for au pairs, as has been the case since 2008. However, there are other immigration routes which will exist for people who may wish to take up these roles, such as the Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS).
We have indicated our desire to negotiate a YMS with the EU, or with individual countries within it, ensuring young people can continue to enjoy the social, cultural and educational benefits of living in the EU and the UK.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in how many cases has the Public Interest Immunity Procedure been invoked since the Justice and Security Act 2013 became law.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Justice and Security Act 2013 deals with oversight of the UK intelligence and security agencies and sets out the process by which closed material proceedings may be authorised to enable court hearings to take place using sensitive intelligence material.
The Home Office does not hold information on applications to the courts for Public Interest Immunity.
The Ministry of Justice publishes regular reports on the use of closed material proceedings under the Justice and Security Act 2013. These can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/use-of-closed-material-procedure-reports.