Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to maintain public order during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The police are tasked with the critical responsibility for maintaining public order and are operationally independent of Government. They will continue to engage, explain and encourage people to follow the rules during the pandemic, but will enforce where necessary.
The Home Office continues to work closely with the police and operational partners to ensure they have the powers, resources and guidance they need.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to extend the visas of health and care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government recognises the vital contribution overseas NHS, health and social care workers have and continue to make in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier in the year we offered free visa extensions for key, frontline health professionals whose visas were due to expire between 31 March 2020 and 1 October 2020.
On 20 November, we announced we will renew this offer for those eligible health professionals and their family dependants whose visas expire between 1 October 2020 until 31 March 2021.
More details of this announcement can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thousands-more-health-workers-to-benefit-from-visa-extensions
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reform the UK’s asylum system.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Home Office is working to transform the broken asylum system and processes: the work will simplify, streamline and digitise processes, ensuring that asylum claimants are treated quickly, fairly and are supported, and that claims which do not qualify are rapidly identified and prepared for return.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to remove foreign national offenders from the UK.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
One of this Government’s key objectives is to protect the public by removing foreign national offenders who commit criminal offences and have no right to remain in the UK. Foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them. Since January 2019, we have removed 6,450 foreign national offenders from the UK.
Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity. Every week we remove foreign criminals from the UK to different countries who have no right to be here. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have continued to return and deport foreign offenders and other immigration offenders where flight routes have been available to us, both on scheduled flights and charter flights.
For non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals, deportation will be pursued where it is conducive to the public good including where a person receives a custodial sentence of 12 months or more, commits an offence that caused serious harm or is a persistent offender. Currently, European Economic Area (EEA) nationals are deported in accordance with European Union (EU) law on the grounds of public policy or public security.
The UK’s departure from the EU means that, in future, an EEA national who commits an offence after the end of the transition period (31 December 2020) will be considered under the same deportation thresholds that apply to non-EEA nationals.
This Government’s priority is keeping the people of this country safe, and we make no apology for seeking to remove dangerous foreign criminals.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of Outcome 21 in preventing children from being criminalised as a result of self-generated indecent images.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
We are working across Government and engaging industry to prevent all forms of online child sexual exploitation and abuse. We welcome the All-Party Parliamentary Group of Social Media inquiry into the rise of self-generated indecent imagery. As part of our response to the pandemic, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-keeping-children-safe-online/coronavirus-covid-19-support-for-parents-and-carers-to-keep-children-safe-online has been published for parents and children outlining resources to help keep children safe from different risks online, including apps to help children stay safe online, and how to access support and advice.
The Government is continuing to engage with technology companies around the Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, a framework of principles launched by the Five Country Ministerial partners in March. However, while some companies are working proactively to tackle illegal and harmful content and activity that occurs on their platforms, more needs to be done.
The Full Government Response to the Online Harms White paper consultation has been recently published and sets out our plans to introduce world-leading legislation to tackle harmful content online and make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. This legislation will include a legal duty of care on online platforms, backed up by an independent regulator to hold them to account.
The Government recognises the risks of criminalising children as a result of self-generated images. Outcome 21 is assigned by the police where a crime has been reported but further investigation is not in the public interest.
When the police use Outcome 21, it allows them to properly record and capture crimes, whilst demonstrating they are satisfied that there is very low risk of harm. Outcome 21 cases will not normally be subject to any subsequent disclosure.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the manufacturers of internet-enabled devices about the increase in self-generated indecent images of children online.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
We are working across Government and engaging industry to prevent all forms of online child sexual exploitation and abuse. We welcome the All-Party Parliamentary Group of Social Media inquiry into the rise of self-generated indecent imagery. As part of our response to the pandemic, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-keeping-children-safe-online/coronavirus-covid-19-support-for-parents-and-carers-to-keep-children-safe-online has been published for parents and children outlining resources to help keep children safe from different risks online, including apps to help children stay safe online, and how to access support and advice.
The Government is continuing to engage with technology companies around the Voluntary Principles to Counter Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, a framework of principles launched by the Five Country Ministerial partners in March. However, while some companies are working proactively to tackle illegal and harmful content and activity that occurs on their platforms, more needs to be done.
The Full Government Response to the Online Harms White paper consultation has been recently published and sets out our plans to introduce world-leading legislation to tackle harmful content online and make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. This legislation will include a legal duty of care on online platforms, backed up by an independent regulator to hold them to account.
The Government recognises the risks of criminalising children as a result of self-generated images. Outcome 21 is assigned by the police where a crime has been reported but further investigation is not in the public interest.
When the police use Outcome 21, it allows them to properly record and capture crimes, whilst demonstrating they are satisfied that there is very low risk of harm. Outcome 21 cases will not normally be subject to any subsequent disclosure.
Asked by: Baroness Eaton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following reports that senior members of Hamas have been awarded Turkish citizenship, what plans they have to ensure UK Border Control and Home Office officials are appraised of the identity of any Hamas members recently awarded Turkish citizenship with the right to travel, with a view to preventing their entry into the United Kingdom.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Those who obtain Turkish citizenship do not have the right to travel freely to the UK, they are subject to the requirement to obtain a visa for travel. We can, and do, refuse visas on grounds on national security and exclude terrorists from obtaining clearance to travel to the UK. This is achieved through a suite of security checks.
100 percent of scheduled passengers arriving at the border are checked against our security systems. The majority of these are checked against our systems before they even travel, through the collection of advanced passenger information (API).