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Written Question
Fire and Rescue Services: Staff
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times since 26 October 2022 the Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire has met (a) current and (b) former firefighters who have experienced bullying, discrimination or sexual harassment at work.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire has prioritised engagement with the sector on integrity matters. This has included Chief Fire Officers, Fire and Rescue Authority Chairs, His Majesty’s Inspectorate, the National Fire Chiefs Council, the Local Government Association and representative groups such as the Fire Brigades Union. In addition to regularly meeting frontline firefighters and police officers when visiting fire and police stations.

He will continue to meet with sector leaders to hear first-hand on these issues.

The Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire has corresponded with both current and former staff in fire and rescue services, who have raised concerns regarding bullying, harassment, and discrimination.

The Home Office will continue to call for action to ensure fire and rescue services are welcoming, respectful workplaces that enable all individuals who work in them to thrive.


Written Question
Fire Regulations: Holiday Accommodation
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of (a) compliance with fire regulations by providers of small paying guest accommodation and (b) the numbers of fire assessors to ensure that compliance.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO) is the main piece of fire safety legislation that applies to all non-domestic premises in England and Wales. The FSO places a legal duty on Responsible Persons (RPs) to undertake a fire risk assessment and put in place a suitable set of fire safety precautions to ensure the safety of those who use the premises.

Fire and Rescue Authorities are the main enforcement body for the FSO. Each FRA is required to deliver an independent annual risk-based inspection programme to check the compliance of premises in their area.


Written Question
Visas: Graduates
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the economic impact of scrapping the Graduate Route.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), led by Professor Brian Bell, has been commissioned to provide further evidence to support the Government’s understanding of how the Graduate route is operating in practice and to what extent it is supporting the original objectives.

No decisions have been made on the future of the Graduate route. We will consider evidence put forward by the MAC closely and ensure any policy proposals are subject to rigorous assessment of their impacts.


Written Question
Theft: Retail Trade
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle retail theft.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government recognises the significant impact shoplifting has on businesses, communities, and consumers. The Crime Survey for England and Wales shows neighbourhood crime is down 51% compared to findings from the year ending March 2010.

However, Police Recorded Crime figures show shoplifting offences increased by 32% in the 12 months to September 2023. Statistics also show the number of people charged with shoplifting offences has risen by 34% in the year ending September 2023, showing that police are taking action.

We have recently taken significant steps to improve the police response to retail crime, including shoplifting.

In October 2023, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published the Retail Crime Action Plan. Through this Plan, all forces across England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will run this through the Police National Database to aid efforts to identify prolific offenders or potentially dangerous individuals.

This builds on the NPCC commitment that police forces across England and Wales will follow up all crimes where there is actionable evidence and the chance of identifying an offender, including shoplifting.

October also saw the launch of Pegasus, a unique private-public partnership, which involves retailers providing data, intelligence and evidence to Opal, the national police intelligence unit on organised acquisitive crime, to develop a better strategic picture and help forces crack down on serious offenders.

We are continuing to work closely with retail businesses, security representatives, trade associations and policing through the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG), which meets on a quarterly basis, to ensure the response to retail crime, including shoplifting, is as robust as it can be.


Written Question
Crime: Pharmacy
Monday 25th March 2024

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information his Department holds on the most common crimes that take place at community pharmacies.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office holds data on the number of offences recorded by the police in England and Wales, and collects and publishes data on crime affecting commercial business premises, including retail premises, in England and Wales as part of the Commercial Victimisation Survey.

Neither data source provides the level of detail necessary to identify crimes that take place in community pharmacies.

The Commercial Victimisation Survey provides the most reliable estimate of crime impacting wholesale and retail premises in England and Wales. The most recent available data, for the year 2022, is available online:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/crime-against-businesses-findings-from-the-2022-commercial-victimisation-survey.

The National Business Crime Centre has published guidance containing practical advice to help pharmacies identify risks and prevent crime, the guidance is published here: Pharmacies October 22.pdf (nbcc.police.uk).


Written Question
Seasonal Workers: Health
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, who is responsible for (a) accommodating, (b) maintaining, (c) supporting and (d) compensating workers in the UK on the Seasonal Worker visa who become ill; who is responsible for (i) monitoring and (ii) enforcing this right; and which body handles complaints on healthcare support for those workers.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Scheme Operators are responsible for monitoring pay, conditions, and worker’s general welfare whilst they are in the UK.

The Home Office works closely with DEFRA to monitor the scheme to ensure Scheme Operators adhere to the stringent requirements set for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the seasonal workers. This includes ongoing monitoring of the route’s performance, regular communication with Scheme Operators and ongoing compliance monitoring which is underpinned by compliance visits to both Scheme Operators and growers, which are carried out by UKVI. Action is taken if concerns are identified during sponsor visits, with sponsor licences being suspended while UKVI investigate further.


Written Question
Vetting: Standards
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what his Department's standard completion timetable is for processing DBS applications; how many applications his Department are processing and how many applications have been processed outside the standard timetable in the last 12 months.

Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)

For the 2023/24 financial year, the Disclosure and Barring Service’s (DBS) targets are to complete 85% of Basic checks within two days, 85% of Standard checks within three days, and 80% of Enhanced checks within 14 days.

DBS publishes its performance against these targets on a quarterly basis at DBS dataset 1: DBS checks, the DBS Update Service, and disputes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). This includes the total monthly volumes of applications processed and the totals issued within target. The latest published information is up to December 2023.

In addition to this data, DBS’s performance for January and February 2024 is as follows:

  • Basic checks – 435,350 checks processed of which 382,412 completed within the two-day target, exceeding the 85% target.
  • Standard checks – 70,729 checks processed, of which 62,898 completed within the three-day target, exceeding the 85% target.
  • Enhanced checks – 691,244 checks processed, of which 544,082 completed within the 14-day target, achieving 78.7% against the 80% target.

Written Question
Seasonal Workers: Pay
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2024 to Question 14330 on Seasonal Workers, who is responsible for ensuring that seasonal workers receive a minimum of 32 hour’s pay each week for each week of their time in the UK; and what steps his Department is taking to support enforcement of this.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Scheme Operators are responsible for monitoring pay, conditions, and worker’s general welfare whilst they are in the UK.

The Home Office works closely with DEFRA to monitor the scheme to ensure Scheme Operators adhere to the stringent requirements set for ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the seasonal workers. This includes ongoing monitoring of the route’s performance, regular communication with Scheme Operators and ongoing compliance monitoring which is underpinned by compliance visits to both Scheme Operators and growers, which are carried out by UKVI. Action is taken if concerns are identified during sponsor visits, with sponsor licences being suspended while UKVI investigate further.


Written Question
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the Government has not proscribed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps; and what discussions he has had with his US counterpart on that issue.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

While the UK Government keeps the list of proscribed organisations under review, we do not routinely comment on whether an organisation is or is not being considered for proscription.

The UK Government has long been clear about our concerns over the malign activity of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The UK maintains sanctions on over 400 Iranian individuals and entities covering human rights abuses and nuclear proliferation. The Government has also imposed sanctions on the IRGC in its entirety and on several senior security and political figures in Iran, including senior commanders within the IRGC and its Basij force.

The UK Government, working with the US, has engaged closely with European partners on Iranian transnational threats and we will continue to hold Iran and the IRGC to account. On 24 January 2024, we took coordinated action with the US and imposed sanctions on several members of the IRGC for their involvement in plots to assassinate individuals on UK soil.


Written Question
Members: Correspondence
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: John Penrose (Conservative - Weston-super-Mare)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when he will plans reply to the letters of 15 January and 12 February 2024 from the Hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare on behalf of a constituent about potential examples of two-tier policing in the UK.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 14 March 2024. I apologise for the delay in responding.