Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Autumn Statement 2023 on 22 November 2023, Official Report, column 326, what funding he provides to tackle anti-black racism in the UK.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government is committed to the right of individuals to freely practise their religion. That is why in June 2023, building on the work of the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme, the Security Minister pledged £24.5 million of funding in 2023-24 to protect mosques and Muslim faith schools through the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme, providing security measures like CCTV and intruder alarms. In light of the crisis in Israel and Gaza, the Home Secretary announced in October that the Government will grant an additional £3 million to the Community Security Trust to support Jewish communities in the UK. At the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor announced that this would be extended to 2024-25. The Home Office has also increased available funding for the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme by 20%
The Government is also taking strides to combat ethnic discrimination and hate crime. Through the Online Safety Act 2023, we are compelling social media companies to tackle discriminatory content posted on their platforms. The also Government provides £300,000 in annual grant funding to the National Online Hate Crime Hub, which provides expert advice to police investigating hate crimes.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has (a) provided training for police officers on and (b) taken steps to monitor enforcement by police of the new crime of arranging for a child to marry since the introduction of the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age) Act 2022; whether her Department has published guidance for police officers on (i) preventing and (ii) intervening in suspected child marriage cases; what data her Department holds on safeguarding measures introduced by police forces to help ensure that suspected child marriage cases are managed adequately; and whether she has had discussions with the Secretaries of State for Health and for Education on (A) training on, (B) monitoring of, (C) guidance on and (D) safeguarding measures for the management of such cases by (1) social workers and (2) teachers.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage. On 27 February 2023, we brought into force legislation which raised the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership in England and Wales to 18, and expanded the offence of forced marriage so it is illegal to do anything to cause a child to marry before they turn 18, even if coercion is not used.
The joint Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) has been actively raising awareness of the new forced marriage legislation in all its presentations and across its social media platforms since January 2023.
The FMU runs regular workshops and presentations for police officers, social workers, local authorities, registrars and others. In 2022, the FMU delivered training to 1,537 professionals and the unit has reached over 3,000 professionals by the end of September 2023. This includes bespoke training sessions on request to police forces. Over 650 police officers have been given this training since the legislation changed in February 2023. The Home Office also worked with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on HBA to ensure that forces were prepared for the commencement of the legislation. This included a joint national meeting with relevant force leads and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before the legislation came into force.
While the Home Office does not directly hold data on safeguarding measures introduced by police forces to help ensure that suspected child marriage cases are managed adequately, we do work closely with the dedicated NPCC lead for Honour Based Abuse to ensure forces have the support they need. In addition, the College of Policing published authorised professional practice guidance for officers on ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA) which has been updated together with domestic abuse training and the Police Education Qualifications Framework to incorporate material about the new legislation.
Whilst there have not been dedicated meetings on this subject with Home Office Ministers and the DHSC and DfE Secretaries of State, Ministers do meet regularly to discuss matters of crime and safeguarding, with a dedicated VAWG Ministerial Steering Group taking place later this month.
The FMU is jointly funded by the Home Office and FCDO. It currently has six full time staff, two joint heads (one from each department) and four case workers. The Unit’s operating costs including staff time, outreach activity and casework are funded through the departmental budgets of its parent organisations.
Statistics on prosecutions and convictions for the new offence of arranging for a child to marry as part of the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age) Act 2022 are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and are not currently available as the offence only came into force in February 2023. Statistics on the offence will be available in future publications of MoJ’s Criminal Justice System Statistics. The Government does not hold data on arrests or investigations for the offence. The FMU publishes annual statistics, including on the total number of cases per year, online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forced-marriage-unit-statistics.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding and how many full-time equivalent staff have been allocated to the Forced Marriage Unit in each financial year since its foundation; and how many cases have been reported to that unit in each of those years.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage. On 27 February 2023, we brought into force legislation which raised the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership in England and Wales to 18, and expanded the offence of forced marriage so it is illegal to do anything to cause a child to marry before they turn 18, even if coercion is not used.
The joint Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) has been actively raising awareness of the new forced marriage legislation in all its presentations and across its social media platforms since January 2023.
The FMU runs regular workshops and presentations for police officers, social workers, local authorities, registrars and others. In 2022, the FMU delivered training to 1,537 professionals and the unit has reached over 3,000 professionals by the end of September 2023. This includes bespoke training sessions on request to police forces. Over 650 police officers have been given this training since the legislation changed in February 2023. The Home Office also worked with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on HBA to ensure that forces were prepared for the commencement of the legislation. This included a joint national meeting with relevant force leads and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before the legislation came into force.
While the Home Office does not directly hold data on safeguarding measures introduced by police forces to help ensure that suspected child marriage cases are managed adequately, we do work closely with the dedicated NPCC lead for Honour Based Abuse to ensure forces have the support they need. In addition, the College of Policing published authorised professional practice guidance for officers on ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA) which has been updated together with domestic abuse training and the Police Education Qualifications Framework to incorporate material about the new legislation.
Whilst there have not been dedicated meetings on this subject with Home Office Ministers and the DHSC and DfE Secretaries of State, Ministers do meet regularly to discuss matters of crime and safeguarding, with a dedicated VAWG Ministerial Steering Group taking place later this month.
The FMU is jointly funded by the Home Office and FCDO. It currently has six full time staff, two joint heads (one from each department) and four case workers. The Unit’s operating costs including staff time, outreach activity and casework are funded through the departmental budgets of its parent organisations.
Statistics on prosecutions and convictions for the new offence of arranging for a child to marry as part of the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age) Act 2022 are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and are not currently available as the offence only came into force in February 2023. Statistics on the offence will be available in future publications of MoJ’s Criminal Justice System Statistics. The Government does not hold data on arrests or investigations for the offence. The FMU publishes annual statistics, including on the total number of cases per year, online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forced-marriage-unit-statistics.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Crown Prosecution Service is adequately resourced to prosecute hate crime against members of religious minority communities (a) on social media and (b) in community settings.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government is committed to delivering justice for victims of hate crimes committed in our communities and online, and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) considers all cases referred by the police.
Considering the events unfolding in the Middle East, a package of measures has been put in place to provide ongoing support to the police. This includes updating existing guidance on protests and offering the use of prosecutors in command centres to advise in real time.
In the rolling year to March 2023, the CPS has prosecuted 380 religiously aggravated and 9,1234 racially aggravated hate crime offences, with a charge rate of 85% and 87% respectively. These include aggravated malicious communication offences.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how (a) much funding and (b) many full-time equivalent staff have been allocated to the Forced Marriage Unit in each financial year since its was founded; and how many cases have been reported to that unit in each of those years.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage. On 27 February 2023, we brought into force legislation which raised the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership in England and Wales to 18, and expanded the offence of forced marriage so it is illegal to do anything to cause a child to marry before they turn 18, even if coercion is not used.
The joint Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) has been actively raising awareness of the new forced marriage legislation in all its presentations and across its social media platforms since January 2023.
The FMU runs regular workshops and presentations for police officers, social workers, local authorities, registrars and others. In 2022, the FMU delivered training to 1,537 professionals and the unit has reached over 3,000 professionals by the end of September 2023. This includes bespoke training sessions on request to police forces. Over 650 police officers have been given this training since the legislation changed in February 2023. The Home Office also worked with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on HBA to ensure that forces were prepared for the commencement of the legislation. This included a joint national meeting with relevant force leads and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before the legislation came into force.
While the Home Office does not directly hold data on safeguarding measures introduced by police forces to help ensure that suspected child marriage cases are managed adequately, we do work closely with the dedicated NPCC lead for Honour Based Abuse to ensure forces have the support they need. In addition, the College of Policing published authorised professional practice guidance for officers on ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA) which has been updated together with domestic abuse training and the Police Education Qualifications Framework to incorporate material about the new legislation.
Whilst there have not been dedicated meetings on this subject with Home Office Ministers and the DHSC and DfE Secretaries of State, Ministers do meet regularly to discuss matters of crime and safeguarding, with a dedicated VAWG Ministerial Steering Group taking place later this month.
The FMU is jointly funded by the Home Office and FCDO. It currently has six full time staff, two joint heads (one from each department) and four case workers. The Unit’s operating costs including staff time, outreach activity and casework are funded through the departmental budgets of its parent organisations.
Statistics on prosecutions and convictions for the new offence of arranging for a child to marry as part of the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age) Act 2022 are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and are not currently available as the offence only came into force in February 2023. Statistics on the offence will be available in future publications of MoJ’s Criminal Justice System Statistics. The Government does not hold data on arrests or investigations for the offence. The FMU publishes annual statistics, including on the total number of cases per year, online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forced-marriage-unit-statistics.
Asked by: Pauline Latham (Conservative - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) convictions, (b) prosecutions, (c) arrests and (d) live, ongoing criminal investigations there were for the new crime of arranging for a child to marry between the introduction of the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age) Act 2022 and 31 July 2023; and how many referrals the Forced Marriage Unit has received for child marriage cases in that time period.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Government is committed to tackling forced marriage. On 27 February 2023, we brought into force legislation which raised the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership in England and Wales to 18, and expanded the offence of forced marriage so it is illegal to do anything to cause a child to marry before they turn 18, even if coercion is not used.
The joint Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) has been actively raising awareness of the new forced marriage legislation in all its presentations and across its social media platforms since January 2023.
The FMU runs regular workshops and presentations for police officers, social workers, local authorities, registrars and others. In 2022, the FMU delivered training to 1,537 professionals and the unit has reached over 3,000 professionals by the end of September 2023. This includes bespoke training sessions on request to police forces. Over 650 police officers have been given this training since the legislation changed in February 2023. The Home Office also worked with the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on HBA to ensure that forces were prepared for the commencement of the legislation. This included a joint national meeting with relevant force leads and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before the legislation came into force.
While the Home Office does not directly hold data on safeguarding measures introduced by police forces to help ensure that suspected child marriage cases are managed adequately, we do work closely with the dedicated NPCC lead for Honour Based Abuse to ensure forces have the support they need. In addition, the College of Policing published authorised professional practice guidance for officers on ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA) which has been updated together with domestic abuse training and the Police Education Qualifications Framework to incorporate material about the new legislation.
Whilst there have not been dedicated meetings on this subject with Home Office Ministers and the DHSC and DfE Secretaries of State, Ministers do meet regularly to discuss matters of crime and safeguarding, with a dedicated VAWG Ministerial Steering Group taking place later this month.
The FMU is jointly funded by the Home Office and FCDO. It currently has six full time staff, two joint heads (one from each department) and four case workers. The Unit’s operating costs including staff time, outreach activity and casework are funded through the departmental budgets of its parent organisations.
Statistics on prosecutions and convictions for the new offence of arranging for a child to marry as part of the Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age) Act 2022 are the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and are not currently available as the offence only came into force in February 2023. Statistics on the offence will be available in future publications of MoJ’s Criminal Justice System Statistics. The Government does not hold data on arrests or investigations for the offence. The FMU publishes annual statistics, including on the total number of cases per year, online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/forced-marriage-unit-statistics.
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: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with police forces on the sharing of data with the social media company Meta.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Home Secretary and Ministers hold regular meetings with policing colleagues to discuss a range of matters, which could include sharing of data.
The Home Office is unable to comment on any specific case or incident. However, as a matter of general practice, the Information Commissioners’ Office (ICO) sets out in their guidance how data should be shared by competent authorities, including law enforcement. This is available online at: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/data-sharing/data-sharing-and-reuse-of-data-by-competent-authorities/
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to support the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of Ministry of Defence Police officers.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Recruitment of Ministry of Defence Police officers targets locations facing the most acute recruitment challenges and uses a variety of outreach methods including social media, events and briefings. The terms and conditions of Ministry of Defence Police officers are subject to regular review including locational and other allowances. Feedback from exit interviews informs consideration of monetary and non-monetary steps to support retention.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the case of Miller v College of Policing, what steps they are taking to ensure that police forces in England and Wales pay due regard to freedom of speech in the discharge of their responsibilities in respect of allegations of criminal activity arising from social media communication.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
To address the Miller v College of Policing judgment and wider concerns relating to the recording of non-crime hate incidents, the Government has introduced a statutory code of practice on this recording for police officers in England and Wales, as provided for in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
The code, which entered into effect on 3 June following Parliamentary approval, introduces a new threshold test that means that personal data may only be included in a non-crime hate incident record if the event is clearly motivated by intentional hostility and there is a risk of escalation causing significant harm or a criminal offence. The code will ensure non-crime hate incidents are only recorded when it is absolutely necessary and proportionate to do so, and not simply because someone is offended.
This Government is confident that the code strikes the right balance between better protecting people’s fundamental right to freedom of expression, whilst enabling the police to continue to protect vulnerable people and communities.
Reported hate crimes will continue to be recorded in line with the College of Policing’s operational guidance on hate crime.