Hate Crime Debate

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Department: Home Office

Hate Crime

Thangam Debbonaire Excerpts
Monday 12th March 2018

(6 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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Victoria Atkins Portrait Victoria Atkins
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The hon. Gentleman has set out beautifully the values that bind this House and our country together. I wish him luck on his visits across his constituency to the many mosques in the west midlands.

Thangam Debbonaire Portrait Thangam Debbonaire (Bristol West) (Lab)
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I welcome the funding that the Minister has promised for safeguarding mosques, but Muslims do not gather only at places of worship. What reassurance can she give the many Muslim community groups, schools and places where children gather—as well as places that are not specifically Muslim, but where there are groups of Muslims—that they will have funding for extra security, should that be needed, in Bristol West?

Victoria Atkins Portrait Victoria Atkins
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As I have said, the Government have not only pledged or, indeed, spent up to £2.4 million over three years, but have funded Tell MAMA, which is a very important intelligence tool, as it were, to help the police to understand where they should best focus their resources. If there are particular areas in the hon. Lady’s constituency about which she has concerns, I ask her to ensure that her chief constable and her police and crime commissioner know, because they are the ones who must make the operational decisions.