Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to make the creation of false personas online, for the purpose of coercing people into fraudulent relationships, a criminal offence.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government is aware of the harms caused by identity crime and that criminals use false identities to commit and enable a range of offences. We are deeply concerned by the growth in scale and complexity of scams and fraudulent activity online. Victims can suffer both financial and emotional harm, and we are conscious that criminals exploit social relationships to achieve their objectives.
Where a person:
dishonestly makes a false representation knowing that it is untrue or misleading, or knowing that it might be, and
they intend to make a gain, to cause loss to another, or to expose another to a risk of loss
then they will be committing an offence under section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 of fraud by false representation.
The Government is firmly committed to making the UK the safest place to be online, and we are looking to bring forward legislation to do so as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to make creating a false identity on a social networking platform, for the purpose of deception, abuse or fraud, a criminal offence.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government is aware of the harms caused by identity crime and that criminals use false identities to commit and enable a range of offences. We are deeply concerned by the growth in scale and complexity of scams and fraudulent activity online. Victims can suffer both financial and emotional harm, and we are conscious that criminals exploit social relationships to achieve their objectives.
Where a person:
dishonestly makes a false representation knowing that it is untrue or misleading, or knowing that it might be, and
they intend to make a gain, to cause loss to another, or to expose another to a risk of loss
then they will be committing an offence under section 2 of the Fraud Act 2006 of fraud by false representation.
The Government is firmly committed to making the UK the safest place to be online, and we are looking to bring forward legislation to do so as soon as possible.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people were held in immigration detention centres in each month of 2020 to date.
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 publishes data on people in detention in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release
Data on the number of people detained under immigration powers at the end of each quarter are published in table Det_D02 of the immigration detention detailed datasets. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/returns-and-detention-datasets#immigration-detention
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to those in detention as at 31 December 2019. Additionally, the Home Office publishes a high-level overview of the data in the 'summary tables'. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on detention.
Figures covering the first quarter of 2020, including those detained as at 31 March 2020 will be released on 21st May 2020. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/returns-and-detention-datasets#immigration-detention
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the cost of each police authority in England and Wales in 2011–12.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Government does not collate centrally information in respect of the cost of the former Police Authorities or of the Offices of the Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs).
Under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, it is the responsibility of PCCs to determine how each police area’s funding settlement is allocated, including setting the police force budget and the running of the PCC’s office.
The 2011 Act specifies that PCCs must publish key information as prescribed by the Secretary of State. The Elected Local Policing Bodies (Specified Information) Order 2011 (and amended in 2012) sets out what information must be published: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2011/3050/contents/made
The publication of this information enables the local electorate to judge whether the PCC is making the best use of public money at the ballot box.
PCCs perform a completely different role from the old Police Authorities they replaced. PCCs are providing accountable, visible leadership, and making a real difference to policing locally.
The Home Affairs Select Committee recognised in their 2014 report that individual PCCs are providing greater clarity of leadership for policing in their areas, and are increasingly recognised for the strategic direction they are providing. In contrast, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary found, in 2010, that only four of the 22 police authorities inspected were judged to have performed well in two of their primary functions: setting strategic direction and ensuring value for money.