Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether, following the report by the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration A re-inspection of Border Force's identification and treatment of Potential Victims of Modern Slavery, published on 28 March, they have made changes to the delivery of effective real-time communication between Roving Officers, Monitoring Officers and the referral desk for modern slavery; and if so, what changes have been made.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Further to my response of PQ HL7683, I can also confirm that, alongside the review into the existing Roving Officer guidance, that review will also consider the question of real time communications between Roving Officers, Monitoring Officers and the referral desk.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the Home Office's data is hosted (1) in the UK, and (2) overseas.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
We currently store some of our data with cloud services providers in the UK and Ireland.
The complexity and range of services means that we do not explicitly estimate the proportions of data hosted in each country, but the vast majority is in the UK, and we are moving the single facility outside of the UK, in Ireland, back to the UK. Our cloud services providers meet the requirements of current legislation.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 19 April (HL6898), why it is not possible to give even an approximate timetable for the review into the legal position of police firearms officers and an indication of whether that review will be published.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The review of the legal and procedural framework governing the police use of firearms will take account of relevant ongoing work including the new College of Policing post-incident guidelines for all death and serious injury cases.
The review is ongoing, further details will be available when it has concluded.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 28 March (HL6495), whether they will now answer the question asked on when the review into the legal position of police firearms officers will be concluded; and when the findings will be published.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The official-led review of the legal and procedural framework governing police use of firearms and post-incident investigation is ongoing and taking account of work by the College of Policing to produce new post-incident guidelines for all death and serious injury cases.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the review into the legal position of police firearms officers will be concluded; and whether they intend to publish the findings of that review.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave to Lord Hogan-Howe on the 12th March 2018, UIN HL5908.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was (1) the budget, (2) the complement of full time equivalent staff that the budget of the Border Force was designed to support; what was the average number of full time equivalent staff in post for each of the financial years from 2012–13 to 2016–17; and what are the corresponding projections for the financial years 2017–18 and 2018–19.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
| 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
Total resource including depreciation (£m) | 617 | 509 | 523 | 561 | 565 | 552 |
Staff - total (FTE) | 8,123 | 8,044 | 8,153 | 7,646 | 7,574 | N/A |
Paid Civil Servants (FTE) | 7,553 | 7,635 | 7,814 | 7,337 | 7,278 | N/A |
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Capital - Net Budget £m | 57 | 56 | 57 | 38 | 71 | N/A |
The budget for Border Force in 2017/18 is £552 million with a capital budget of 71m. The budget is allocated across a range of capabilities such as people, technology and processes that keep our borders safe. Therefore the size of budget is not directly linked to the number of staff. Border Force staffing figures for the 17/18 financial year are not currently available. They are due for publication 31 March 2018.
Future Border Force budgets are determined by a departmental allocation that is yet to be delegated to the operational commands within the Home Office.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they next intend to review the regulations issued under the Private Security Industry Act 2002; and what representations they have received about those regulations from (1) the Security Industry Authority, (2) bodies representing security companies, including those representing the smaller security companies, and (3) bodies representing security officers.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Regulation of the private security industry was included within the scope of the recent review of the Security Industry Authority, which sought evidence from the industry. The Government’s response to the review may include measures requiring a review of regulations issued.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of security contracts let by (1) central government departments, (2) government agencies, (3) NHS bodies, and (4) local government, are to members of the SIA Approved Contractor Scheme.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the work done by the Scottish Procurement Directorate to promote the use of the SIA Approved Contractor Scheme in public body contracts for security services in Scotland might be a model that would have a beneficial effect elsewhere in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
No assessment has been made of the potential benefit for the rest of the UK of the work done by the Scottish Procurement Directorate in relation to the Approved Contractor Scheme.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of security companies are members of the SIA Approved Contractor Scheme; and what measures they are taking to encourage security companies to join the Approved Contractor Scheme.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Security Industry Authority operates a voluntary Approved Contractor Scheme which measures private security suppliers against independently assessed criteria. There are 831 companies currently registered under this scheme.