Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what processes are in place to evaluate the credibility of threats leading to the issuing of Osman warnings in the Sikh community.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The UK is proud of its diverse communities, and British Sikhs contribute immensely to the strength of our society.
We continually assess potential threats in the UK, and take the protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety in the UK seriously.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to liaise with the Sikh community over safety concerns.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The UK is proud of its diverse communities, and British Sikhs contribute immensely to the strength of our society.
We continually assess potential threats in the UK, and take the protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety in the UK seriously.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of Government policies on housing stability for refugees.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
A number of policies and mitigations are in place for those refugees who are destitute and require housing support. Individuals who are granted asylum remain on asylum support for 28 days from when they receive their Biometric Residence Permit. This enables individuals to make the necessary arrangements for their onward support and accommodation. We also have our contractor, Migrant Help, available to provide advice and support to help them access the labour market and housing support. Our accommodation providers also notify local authorities before an individual departs asylum accommodation, to ensure any emergency housing can be put in place for those with priority need.
We are working closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure the process for individuals moving on is clear. Furthermore, we have a number of integration measures in place, which refugees may be able to access.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to improve (a) cyber security and (b) security of personal data in police forces.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government Cyber Security Strategy sets out how we will ensure that all government organisations - across the whole public sector - are resilient to the cyber threats we face.
While individual Chief Constables are responsible for their own cyber security and the security of personal data in their own force, the Home Office is taking action to support them.
This includes supporting Police Digital Service (PDS) through the National Management Centre, which provides dedicated cyber protection to police forces across the UK against cybercrime, and its Cyber Security Services, to manage the risk and impact of cyber security and information security threats for UK policing. Following recent data breach incidents, I have written recently to Chief Constable, Jo Farrell, Chair of the NPCC DDaT Co-ordination Committee, to seek assurance that all Chief Constables have sufficiently robust processes and systems in place to address any further cases of data breach.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether new British citizens receive a letter congratulating them on obtaining British citizenship.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
All individuals who attend a citizenship ceremony to become a British Citizen receive a welcome pack which includes a letter from the Secretary of State for the Home Department welcoming them into our national community.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps they are taking to help ensure that their Department (a) gives sufficient attention to long term strategic challenges, (b) does not allow current events to slow down work on long term strategic issues and (c) consistently undertakes horizon scanning.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Liaison Committee recently launched an inquiry into select committee scrutiny of strategic thinking across Whitehall. The Government will be providing written evidence to this in due course.
Under Rishi Sunak, this Conservative Government will always look to make the right long-term decisions for the country.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which Minister in their Department is responsible for overseeing work on long-term strategic challenges; and how many officials in their Department (a) undertake horizon scanning work and (b) focus on delivering long-term priorities.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Liaison Committee recently launched an inquiry into select committee scrutiny of strategic thinking across Whitehall.
The Government will be providing written evidence to this in due course. Under Rishi Sunak, this Conservative Government will always look to make the right long-term decisions for the country.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure individuals fraudulently impersonating positions of authority do not undermine trust in (a) the police, (b) financial regulators, (c) ombudsmans and (d) other state institutions.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The British public need to be able to trust the institutions that serve them. That is why a central part of the Home Office’s fraud response is blocking the communications individuals use to impersonate organisations and institutional bodies.
In 2019, in collaboration with the banking and telecoms sectors, Ofcom created the ‘Do Not Originate’(DNO) list. It contains over 12,000 phone numbers which are blocked so they cannot be used by fraudsters. This list has successfully protected the public from fraudulent calls and is regularly updated in partnership with the telecommunications sector. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre also operates the NCSC Takedown Service, which works with host providers to remove email addresses and websites impersonating UK Government brands and services.
The forthcoming Online Safety Bill will also give regulators the powers they need to force social media companies to do more to block fraud on their platforms, including fraudulent advertising. These measures will disrupt criminals’ efforts to exploit these platforms to defraud the British public.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been reported missing for more than (a) one, (b) six and (c) twelve months.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The United Kingdom Missing Persons Unit collates annual data from police forces and produces an Annual Missing Persons Data (AMPD) report which includes the most accurate figures held nationally on missing persons.
The latest AMPD report includes the following figures for England and Wales for the financial year 2021/22.
Number of long term missing persons: 4521
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of perceived reputational damage on the likelihood that a police force will take steps to investigation allegations of criminality against members of its force; and if she will take steps to ensure that perceived reputational damage does not serve as a barrier to tackling (a) such allegations and (b) other matters relating to public safety and wider public interest.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
All police forces have specialist departments focused on investigating serious wrong-doing – including criminality – by members of their force. There is a comprehensive legislative framework governing these processes, including a statutory requirement for the most serious allegations to be referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)
The Government is committed to ensuring transparency in how such matters are handled by police forces and so collects and publishes data on police misconduct and criminal investigations in the ‘Police misconduct, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin
On 31 August, the Government announced a series of reforms to strengthen the police disciplinary system, including giving Chief Constables greater responsibilities to decide who is fit to serve in their force.