Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department are taking to provide the police with support to stop disruptive protests.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 is already in force. This raised the maximum penalty for wilful obstruction of the highway, put public nuisance on to a statutory footing, and brought much needed updates to the Public Order Act 1986. The police are already using the public nuisance measure to tackle disruptive.
The Government intended to add further measures to the PCSC Bill but these were blocked in the Lords. Consequently, we introduced the Public Order Bill, which is now passing through Parliament and will further improve the police’s ability to respond to highly disruptive tactics. For example, lock-on offence and the associated stop and search power will allow the police to pro-actively prevent the selfish minority of protesters from causing serious disruption to the lives of the hard-working majority.
The Government will continue to work closely with the police going forwards to make sure they are able to make full use of these powers.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities in preventing violent crime associated with anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling violent crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB) are top government priorities and we are working tirelessly to keep young people, families, and communities safe. We know that involvement in anti-social behaviour can be an early indicator that someone may be more likely to become involved in violence, and so we take a joint approach to these challenges.
Estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed there were 1.1 million violent offences in the year to September 2022, no significant change compared with the year ending March 2020 and a 38% fall compared with the year ending March 2010.
This year the Government has made £130m available to tackle serious violent crime. This includes £64m for Violence Reduction Units (VRUs), set up in the 20 areas worst affected by serious violence, which bring together partners including local authorities, to tackle the drivers in their area. VRUs deliver a range of early interventions and prevention programmes to divert people away from a life of crime. Our £30m ‘Grip’ police enforcement programme operates in the same 20 areas as VRUs and is helping to drive down violence by using highly data-driven process to identify violence hotspots – often to individual street level – and target operational activity in those areas. In the first three years of funded delivery, the Grip and VRU programmes have collectively prevented an estimated 136,000 violence offences.
To help combat ASB, we have provided the police, local authorities, and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. The Act allows local areas to decide how best to deploy these powers depending on specific circumstances.
To further support local authorities, in July 2021 the Beating Crime Plan was published, which laid out the Government’s plan for tacking crime and ASB and committed to working with local agencies and partners to drive down ASB using the full range of powers and tools in the 2014 Act.
Lastly, at 31 December 2022, we have recruited 16,753 additional police officers in England and Wales through the Police Uplift Programme, 84% of the target of 20,000 officers by March 2023. By the end of March 2023, we will have the highest number of officers on record with over 148,400 in post surpassing the previous peak of 146,030 officers in March 2010.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to deter knife crime among young people.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling knife crime amongst young people is a top government priority and we are working tirelessly to keep young people, families, and communities safe. At the Home Office we are redoubling our efforts with a twin-track approach, combining tough enforcement to get dangerous weapons off the streets – including through stop and search methods – with programmes that steer young people away from crime.
This financial year we have invested £64m in our network of Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) which bring together local partners to tackle the drivers of violence in their area. VRUs are delivering a range of early intervention and prevention programmes to divert people away from a life of crime. They have reached over 215,000 vulnerable young people in their third year of funding alone.
Our £30m ‘Grip’ programme operates in these same 20 areas as VRUs and is helping to drive down violence by using a highly data-driven process to identify violence hotspots – often to individual street level – and target operational activity in those areas. In their first three years of funded delivery, these programmes have collectively prevented an estimated 136,000 violence without injury offences.
In addition, the Serious Violence Duty which commenced on 31st January requires a range of public bodies to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence in their local area. Of course, the Home Office is not able to tackle violence alone, and we work closely with a range of government departments to build protective factors against violence.
For instance, we work with the Department for Education as we know that education is a powerful protective factor against violence for young people. The Government is investing over £45 million to fund specialist support in both mainstream and Alternative Provision (AP) schools in the areas where serious violence is most damaging to local communities.
Additionally, we are also delivering the £3.3 million Creating Opportunities Forum with the Department for Work and Pensions to provide meaningful employment-related opportunities and raise the aspirations of young people at risk of serious violence.
The Government remains wholly committed to preventing youth violence and keeping young people safe from harm.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
What recent progress her Department has made on allocating Safer Streets funding.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
We have invested £120 million through four rounds of the Safer Streets fund supporting 270 projects helping to tackle Neighbourhood Crime, Anti-Social Behaviour and Violence Against Women and Girls.
Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner has already received over £1m for three projects lead by Ipswich Borough council. This includes £499,588 in the current round to target anti-social behaviour and violence against women and girls in the night-time economy.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support the police with preventing knife crime.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling knife crime is a priority and the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.
The Government is supporting the police every step of the way in this effort. including through the recruitment of 20,000 additional officers and increased police funding.
The Government is proposing a total police funding settlement of up to £17.2 billion in 2023/24, an increase of up to £287 million when compared to 2022/23. Assuming full take up of precept flexibility, overall police funding available to PCCs will increase by up to £523 million (3.6% in cash terms) next year.
Suffolk Police’s funding will be up to £157.0m in 2023/24, an increase of up to £6.1m when compared to 2022/23.
15,343 additional uplift officers have been recruited in England and Wales through the Police Uplift Programme, 77% of the target of 20,000 additional officers by March 2023, as at 30 September 2022. Suffolk Constabulary has recruited 128 additional uplift officers against a total three-year allocation of 179 officers, as at 30 September 2022.
The Government has made £130m available this financial year (22/23) to tackle serious violence, including murder and knife crime. This includes:
The combination of these two programmes has prevented an estimated 49,000 violent offences in their first two years of activity.
The Government is also supporting the work of the police with new legislation. Knife Crime Prevention Orders have been requested by the police to help steer those most at risk away from serious violence. They are being piloted by the Metropolitan Police in London before they are rolled out more widely.
Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) were introduced in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and will give the police powers to take a more proactive approach and make it easier to target those already convicted of knife and offensive weapon offences, giving them the automatic right to search these offenders. SVROs will be piloted in the Sussex, West Midlands, Merseyside and Thames Valley Police areas before a decision is made on national rollout.
The Government also continues to encourage police forces to undertake a series of coordinated national weeks of action to tackle knife crime under Operation Sceptre. The operation includes targeted stop and searches, weapon sweeps of hotspot areas, surrender of knives, including through amnesty bins, test purchases of knives from retailers, and educational events. The latest phase of the operation took place between 14 to 20 November 2022. Officers seized 653 knives, and 6380 were either surrendered or seized during sweeps.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to reduce the number of asylum-seekers housed in hotel accommodation.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The enduring solution to this challenge is to stop the illegal, dangerous and unnecessary small boat crossings that are overwhelming our asylum system. Not only is every crossing attempt a potential tragedy, as we have seen far too often, but the people arriving via these small boats have travelled through, and have left, safe countries with fully functioning asylum systems to reach the UK.
We are taking a range of steps to reduce our dependency on hotels to support those already in the asylum system. All local authority areas in England, Scotland and Wales became an asylum dispersal area by default in April 2022. This is increasing the number of suitable properties that can be procured for destitute asylum seekers across the UK, ensuring a fair spread across the country and reducing our reliance on hotels. We also intend to bring forward a range of alternative sites, such as disused holiday parks, former student halls, and surplus military sites, to add thousands of places at half the cost of hotels.
The Home Office is tackling the asylum legacy caseload so that people can exit the system, either by returning to their home country, or granting them asylum so they can begin to make a contribution to the UK. The Home Office has already increased the number of its asylum caseworkers from 597 in 2019/20 to more than 1,000 today, and we are on course to add a further 500 caseworkers by March 2023. We are also improving the productivity of these decision-makers by re-engineering the caseworking process from top to bottom. This includes conducting more focused interviews and streamlining and digitising the caseworking process.
These reforms will speed up decision making, reduce the number of asylum seekers who are awaiting a decision and ease the pressure on local authorities by reducing our dependency on hotels and the number of asylum seekers accommodated in them.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support local authorities in deterring anti-social behaviour in town centres.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour (ASB). We know the serious impact that persistent ASB can have on both individuals and the wider community.
We provided the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
It is for local areas to decide how best to deploy these powers depending on the specific circumstances. The Home Office published statutory guidance to support local areas to make effective use of these powers. The guidance sets out the importance of focusing on the needs of the victim and the local community, as well as ensuring that the relevant legal tests are met.
The Home Office announced in March this year that ASB would be one of the primary crime and issue types being targeted in the next rounds of the Safer Streets Fund. This funding goes towards local projects aimed at increasing the safety of public spaces for all with a particular focus on addressing neighbourhood crime, anti-social behaviour and tackling violence against women and girls. At the end of July, we announced the outcome of Round Four of the Safer Streets Fund, investing an additional £50 million and supporting 111 projects across England and Wales.
We are committed to ensuring that policing has the resources it needs to cut crime and increasing the number of police officers by 20,000 by March 2023. These 20,000 additional officers will be on top of recruitment to cover retirement and those leaving the police.
Police forces in England and Wales have recruited 15,343 additional uplift officers as at 30 September 2022, through the Police Uplift Programme, 77% of the 20,000 officer target by March 2023.
It is for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners, as operational leaders and elected local representatives respectively, to decide how best to respond to local.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of pet thefts in the last 12 months compared to the 12 months prior.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Information on the scale of pet theft was gathered as part of the recent Pet Theft Taskforce and evidence included data from 33 police forces in England and Wales on trends in reported dog thefts from 2015 to 2020 and is available here:
Pet theft taskforce report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Pet Theft Taskforce estimated that around 2,000 dog thefts were reported to the police each year (2019 and 2020) in England and Wales. The Pet Theft Taskforce recommended exploring options which would lead to improving the consistency of recording and collection data on pet thefts by all police forces across England and Wales and government across the entirety of the criminal justice system.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for acquisitive crime has written to all forces asking them to ensure details about stolen dogs are recorded consistently. Operation Opal (the NPCC’s national intelligence unit focused on serious organised acquisitive crime) has suggested that forces across England and Wales are seeing a fall in the number of these crimes, and we are pressing for a further update on the data.
The Government is acting on the recommendations of the Task Force which includes introducing a new dog abduction offence which has been added by the Government to the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, bolstering the raft of measures it already includes to further protect pets, livestock and kept wild animals.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda on the number of small boats crossing the English Channel.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Successfully implementing our ambitious and world-leading Migration and Economic Development Partnership will require a concerted effort but allowing this deadly trade of evil people smuggling gangs to continue is not an option for any humanitarian nation.
Long-lasting change will not happen overnight, it requires a long-term plan. This arrangement with Rwanda is part of a suite of measures aimed at deterring small boat crossings and as with all policies its impact will be kept under review.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to review the police allocation formula.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Police Funding Formula Review is currently in progress, with ministers having confirmed their intention to introduce a new formula before the end of this Parliament.
The technical phase of the Review, which will deliver proposals for new funding arrangements, is underway, and a public consultation will take place before any new funding arrangements are implemented.