Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether it remains their policy to increase the minimum income for spouse/partner visas to £38,700 by 2025.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Secretary has commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the financial requirements in the Family Immigration Rules. Conducting a review of the financial requirements across the family routes will ensure we have a clear and consistent system.
There will be no changes to the current threshold of £29,000, or the ways in which the Minimum Income Requirement can be met, until the MAC review is complete.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to extend the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 to include GPS kits.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, which aims to prevent the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting.
The Act requires secondary legislation before it can come into effect. We will be carefully considering the views of those who may be affected by the legislation and its regulations, to determine the scope of the legislation and understand its potential implications.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of robbery and shoplifting offences in Hertfordshire; and what steps they plan to take to tackle those crimes in that area.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police recorded crime for England and Wales showed a 30% annual rise in shoplifting offences and 8% in robbery offences for year ending March 2024. Hertfordshire Police Force saw a 25% rise in shoplifting and a 35% rise in police recorded robbery offences in the same period.
In cases of shoplifting, more and more offenders are using violence and abuse against shopworkers. We will not stand for this. This Government will introduce a new offence for assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores. We will also end the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to low-value shoplifting of goods under £200.
Tackling serious violence, including robbery, is a priority for this Government. One of the ways we are doing this is through close working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Personal Robbery Steering Group.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 23 May (HL4639), when the findings of the feasibility study on the possibility of developing prevalence estimates for female genital mutilation and forced marriage will be published.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has committed to halving violence against women and girls over the next decade. Combatting so-called ‘honour’-based abuse (HBA) is very much a part of this work. The Home Office commissioned the University of Birmingham in 2023 to conduct a feasibility study on the possibility of developing prevalence estimates for female genital mutilation and forced marriage.
We are currently considering the findings of the feasibility study and we will confirm our next steps shortly.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication of the Kapersky State of Stalkerware Report 2023 on 20 March, which stated that 42 per cent of British citizens believe that cyberstalking of a romantic partner is acceptable, what steps they plan to take to increase awareness of online violence against women.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The scale of violence against women and girls in our country, including that which takes place online, is intolerable and this government will treat it as the national emergency that it is.
Stalking is an insidious crime, and the law is clear that what is illegal offline is also illegal online. Placing spyware on phones, hacking into accounts and accessing online accounts that perpetrators used to have authorised access to, are all crimes and should be reported to the police.
We will overhaul every aspect of society’s response to these devastating crimes, including tackling violent and misogynistic content online. This includes tackling the root causes of these crimes, by supporting our education system to teach children about healthy relationships and consent.
As part of our mission, we will be building on the Online Safety Act to tackle violent and misogynistic cultures online which can drive this kind of appalling crime. We will also strengthen the use of Stalking Protection Orders and will give women the right to know the identity of online stalkers.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to tighten restrictions on the sale of slingshots following reports of them being used to cause damage to vehicles and wildlife.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Government is clear that slingshots should not be used for illegal purposes, whether against wildlife, people or property.
Under provisions in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, The Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 and Animal Welfare Act 2006, there are a range of offences around injuring and inflicting unnecessary suffering on wildlife. These measures give the police broad powers to deal with cases where wildlife is attacked, including cases involving the misuse of slingshots.
It is an offence to carry an offensive weapon in a public place without lawful authority or reasonable excuse, under provisions in the Prevention of Crime Act 1953. If a slingshot is carried in a public place with the intention of causing injury it is likely to engage the legislation. The maximum penalty for having an offensive weapon in a public place is 4 years imprisonment. Where a slingshot is misused as a weapon, and a person is injured, there are a number of offences which may apply, such as causing actual bodily harm, which carry significant sentences.
The Criminal Damage Act 1971 creates offences around destroying or damaging property and possessing anything with intent to destroy or damage property. The maximum penalty for offences under the Act is 10 years imprisonment.
Slingshots do however have legitimate uses, for example within competitions and fishing and at present we consider that existing legislation provides the correct balance between protecting the public from the small number of individuals who misuse slingshots, while also allowing the public to enjoy legitimate pastimes. We have no plans to ban the sale of slingshots or slingshot ammunition at this time.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to tackle image-based sexual abuse among teenagers.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to intervening as early as possible to prevent vulnerable children and young people from experiencing all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse. This includes education and awareness raising initiatives and equipping frontline professionals and safeguarding partners with the tools and training to identify child sexual abuse and provide support to children and young people.
We are working to implement the groundbreaking Online Safety Act, which places clear legal duties on tech companies to identify, report and remove child sexual abuse material and proactively combat the threat on their platforms. Alongside this, it is crucial that all sectors, including tech, step up their efforts in going further and faster in keeping children safe online.
We are also working to tackle the rise in harmful sexual behaviour among children and young people. This includes supporting the Shore website, run by the Lucy Faithful Foundation, which provides resources and a helpline that provides confidential help, support and information to young people concerned about their own or someone else’s sexual thoughts and behaviour to prevent abuse and victimisation Children. Young people are also able to access the Report Remove tool, run by the IWF and NSPCC, that enables children whose images have been shared online to remove those images from public platforms.
We are committed to using all available levers to us and call on all sectors to work to keep children safe online and across our communities in the UK and around the world.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 29 April (HL3804), (1) when the feasibility report on prevalence estimates for female genital mutilation and forced marriage will be published, and (2) when they will publish their response to those findings.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Home Office commissioned the University of Birmingham in 2023 to conduct a feasibility study on the possibility of developing prevalence estimates for female genital mutilation and forced marriage.
We have now received the final report on the feasibility study. We are currently considering the findings of the report carefully and engaging with the police and other partners. We will confirm our next steps in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 27 February (HL2409), when the Government-funded feasibility study on estimating the prevalence of female genital mutilation and forced marriage in England and Wales will be published.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
As part of our commitment in the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy 2021, the Home Office commissioned the University of Birmingham in April 2023 to conduct a feasibility study to examine whether it is possible to develop prevalence estimates for both Female Genital Mutilation and Forced Marriage.
Given the hidden nature of these crimes and lack of robust estimates, knowing more about the individuals that experience it disproportionately will allow us to make more effective, evidence-based interventions.
We have now received the final report and are reviewing the findings to determine next steps.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to producing a rural crime strategy which would be fully integrated into the overall Government Crime Strategy, as called for in the National Rural Crime Network’s recent report, Rural Crime: Serious, Organised and International, published on 10 March.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
We welcome the National Rural Crime Network’s report and will consider its recommendations.
This Government is committed to tackling the threat from Serious and Organised Crime (SOC). In December 2023, we published the 2023 Serious and Organised Crime Strategy that commits to reducing SOC in the UK by disrupting and dismantling organised crime groups and networks operating in and against the UK.
Serious and organised crime is a major threat to the national security and prosperity of the UK. It costs lives, blights communities, hampers economic growth, and corrodes the global reputation of the UK and its institutions.
The Government welcomed the rural and wildlife crime strategy published by the National Police Chiefs’ Council in September 2022, this provides a comprehensive framework through which policing, and partner agencies can work together to tackle rural and wildlife crime, including where it is linked to other forms of serious and organised crime such as the drugs trade.
The National Rural Crime Unit works closely with Interpol to share information about stolen agricultural and construction machinery. As a result of the partnership it has established with INTERPOL, equipment has been recovered from criminal gangs across Europe.