Asked by: Oliver Dowden (Conservative - Hertsmere)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of police staff are dedicated solely to monitoring social media.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The requested data is not centrally held, and could only be collated for the purpose of answering these queries at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Oliver Dowden (Conservative - Hertsmere)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of police staff regularly monitor social media for malicious communications.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The requested data is not centrally held, and could only be collated for the purpose of answering these queries at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on the suicide prevention strategy; and what steps he is taking to help reduce suicide rates.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There has been significant work and progress across the Government, the National Health Service, the police, the voluntary sector, academia, and wider partners to deliver the strategy.
As part of our mission to build an NHS that is fit for the future and that is there when people need it, the Government will recruit 8,500 mental health workers specially trained to support people at risk of suicide, to help ease pressure on busy mental health services.
The Government also continues to fund the Multicentre Study of Self-harm, whose work is vital in informing the development of policy, and of clinical practice.
The Online Safety Act puts new duties on social media companies and search services to help protect children and adults from harmful content online.
Between August 2023 and March 2025, £10 million was made available to voluntary, community, and social enterprises in England through the national 2023 to 2025 Suicide Prevention Grant Fund. The Department is now evaluating the impact of the fund, and learning from the evaluation will help to inform the delivery of the Government’s mission to reduce the lives lost to suicide.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they intend to take following the emergence of a video appearing to show throat-slit gestures made by an individual at the Pakistan High Commission in London.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Should a protest contravene the law and criminality take place on a protest, the police have the powers to respond. The use of these powers and the management of demonstrations are an operational matter for the police. We are aware of reports of a video being circulated on social media and understand that the Metropolitan Police is investigating. It would not be appropriate to offer further comment at this stage.
Asked by: Blair McDougall (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of legislation covering hate crimes at providing police with sufficient powers to pursue incidents that occur on social media platforms.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have robust legislation in place to deal with threatening, abusive, or harassing behaviour and incitement to hatred, including laws to tackle perpetrators who stir up racial and religious hatred and hatred based on sexual orientation. Importantly, the law also ensures that people are protected against criminal activity, including threatening and abusive behaviour both online and offline.
Hate crime is listed as a “priority offence” in the Online Safety Act 2023. These priority offences reflect the most serious and prevalent illegal content in relation to which companies must take proactive steps to ensure their services are not used to facilitate or commit these types of crime. Under their new Online Safety Act legal duties, online platforms need to put in place systems and processes to proactively prevent, identify, and remove priority illegal content and activity online. This includes safety by design measures to mitigate the likelihood of the most serious illegal content from appearing on platforms in the first place. They also need to have systems and processes to take down other illegal content.
The Government funds the National Online Hate Crime Hub which supports individual local police forces in dealing specifically with online hate crime. The Hub provides expert advice to police forces to support them in investigating these abhorrent offences.
Asked by: Blair McDougall (Labour - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will consider extending statutory regulations so that all social media platforms are covered by legislation on hate crime.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We have robust legislation in place to deal with threatening, abusive, or harassing behaviour and incitement to hatred, including laws to tackle perpetrators who stir up racial and religious hatred and hatred based on sexual orientation. Importantly, the law also ensures that people are protected against criminal activity, including threatening and abusive behaviour both online and offline.
Hate crime is listed as a “priority offence” in the Online Safety Act 2023. These priority offences reflect the most serious and prevalent illegal content in relation to which companies must take proactive steps to ensure their services are not used to facilitate or commit these types of crime. Under their new Online Safety Act legal duties, online platforms need to put in place systems and processes to proactively prevent, identify, and remove priority illegal content and activity online. This includes safety by design measures to mitigate the likelihood of the most serious illegal content from appearing on platforms in the first place. They also need to have systems and processes to take down other illegal content.
The Government funds the National Online Hate Crime Hub which supports individual local police forces in dealing specifically with online hate crime. The Hub provides expert advice to police forces to support them in investigating these abhorrent offences.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to help increase levels of public awareness of the responsibilities of dog owners to prevent livestock worrying incidents.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Countryside Code highlights best practice for signage for livestock keepers, and comprehensive guidance for dog walkers. We encourage livestock keepers to adhere to this, raising public awareness by indicating the presence of animals with signs on walkways or field entrances. The Countryside Code also promotes messages on its social media pages and campaign web pages to raise awareness.
The Government is supporting a Private Members’ Bill which will introduce new measures to tackle the serious issue of livestock worrying in England and Wales. The Bill will modernise definitions and scope, strengthen police powers, and increase the maximum penalty from a fine of £1,000 to an “unlimited” fine to act as a deterrent.
Asked by: Satvir Kaur (Labour - Southampton Test)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of gambling premises on (a) anti-social behaviour and (b) other crime.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Those experiencing gambling-related harm in England can access specialist treatment through specialist NHS Gambling Clinics available in every region of the country, including the Southern Gambling Service. There is also a range of support through the National Gambling Support Network.
The Government has introduced a statutory levy on gambling operators to improve and expand the research, prevention and treatment of gambling harms. This will include ringfenced funding overseen by NHS England and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales to commission the full treatment pathway, from referral and triage through to aftercare. We will continue to work with NHS England in collaboration with the Scottish and Welsh governments, as well as third sector providers, to design and deliver our approach to treatment of gambling-related harms across Great Britain.
Licensing authorities are able to set conditions on premises to mitigate risks posed by anti-social behaviour and crime. This can include imposing enhanced security requirements which take into account risks from their local area profiles. Premises licence holders must also conduct a local area risk assessment for each of their premises which includes risk mitigation around crime and anti-social behaviour. The local area risk assessment is subject to inspection by the licensing authority. There are also schemes such as Betwatch, a community-based crime prevention scheme between the Gambling Commission, the police, local council, and gambling premises, which is designed to tackle localised anti-social and criminal behaviour in and around betting shops.
Asked by: Satvir Kaur (Labour - Southampton Test)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle gambling harms (a) nationally and (b) in Southampton Test constituency.
Answered by Stephanie Peacock - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Those experiencing gambling-related harm in England can access specialist treatment through specialist NHS Gambling Clinics available in every region of the country, including the Southern Gambling Service. There is also a range of support through the National Gambling Support Network.
The Government has introduced a statutory levy on gambling operators to improve and expand the research, prevention and treatment of gambling harms. This will include ringfenced funding overseen by NHS England and appropriate bodies in Scotland and Wales to commission the full treatment pathway, from referral and triage through to aftercare. We will continue to work with NHS England in collaboration with the Scottish and Welsh governments, as well as third sector providers, to design and deliver our approach to treatment of gambling-related harms across Great Britain.
Licensing authorities are able to set conditions on premises to mitigate risks posed by anti-social behaviour and crime. This can include imposing enhanced security requirements which take into account risks from their local area profiles. Premises licence holders must also conduct a local area risk assessment for each of their premises which includes risk mitigation around crime and anti-social behaviour. The local area risk assessment is subject to inspection by the licensing authority. There are also schemes such as Betwatch, a community-based crime prevention scheme between the Gambling Commission, the police, local council, and gambling premises, which is designed to tackle localised anti-social and criminal behaviour in and around betting shops.
Asked by: Cameron Thomas (Liberal Democrat - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps she has taken to support (a) schools and (b) other institutions that are being targeted by social media hate campaigns.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Online Safety Act introduces new responsibilities for social media companies and search services to ensure the safety of their users on their platforms. All relevant services must have systems and processes in place to allow users and others to report harmful content that the services are responsible for under the Act.
All school employers have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees.
No school staff should feel unsafe or face violence or abuse in the workplace. The department will always support school staff to ensure they can work in a safe and calm environment.
Schools should have their own clear processes in place for dealing with issues of bullying or harassment, including online hate aimed towards school staff. All incidences of bullying or harassment should be reported immediately to the designated lead and headteacher or governing body or proprietor. Should an incident constitute a potential criminal offence, it would be for the school to consider involving the police.