Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the benefits and costs to the UK of membership of the European Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Government values the role of Europol in helping law enforcement agencies coordinate investigations in cross border serious and organised crime. That is why the UK opted-in to the new Europol Regulation, which came into force on 1 May 2017, enabling us to maintain our current access to the agency and to continue to benefit from its cooperation and operational advantages.
Europol has a budget of £82mn (€95mn) and is centrally funded from the EU budget. The UK contributes to the budget as a whole, not to individual projects. The UK financing share (net of the rebate) of the 2016 EU budget was 13.45%.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the benefits and costs to the UK of membership of the European body for the enhancement of judicial cooperation.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The Government values the role of Eurojust and that is why Eurojust was one of the measures we rejoined in December 2014 as part of the decision under Protocol (No. 36) to the EU Treaties to opt out of all pre-Lisbon JHA legislation and opt back into 35 key measures.
Eurojust can lead to improved criminal justice outcomes by ensuring that investigators and prosecutors share information and evidence, agree strategies and co-ordinate activity in order to tackle cross-border criminality in a more efficient and effective manner.
Eurojust has a budget of £29.285m (€34m) and is centrally funded from the EU budget. The UK contributes to the budget as a whole, not to individual projects. The UK financing share (net of the rebate) of the 2016 EU budget was 13.45%.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the benefits and costs to the UK of membership of the European Agency for the operational management of large IT systems in the area of freedom, security and justice.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The European Agency for the operational management of large IT systems in the area of freedom, security and justice (also known as eu-LISA) manages the Second Generation Schengen Information System (SIS II), the EURODAC system for storing the fingerprints of asylum seekers and certain illegal migrants and the Schengen Visa Information System (VIS). Of these, the UK takes part in EURODAC and the police and judicial cooperation aspects of SIS II. The Government considers that eu-LISA manages these systems effectively.
The UK contributes to eu-LISA for the management of the systems we take part in. Our contribution is made through our payment to the EU budget as a whole, and not through a direct payment to eu-LISA.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the benefits and costs to the UK of membership of the European Asylum Support Office.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) plays an important role in supporting asylum cooperation between Member States and in helping those Member States whose asylum and reception systems are under pressure. EASO is funded directly by the EU budget.
The Government continues to support the principle of EU hotspots and has deployed resources through EASO to the hotspots in Italy and Greece.
Last year, the Government took a decision not to opt in to the proposed EU Agency for Asylum, which will replace EASO. The Government’s key consideration was the significant amount of oversight of the UK asylum system, which would be given to the Agency should the UK choose to participate. Written Ministerial Statement HCWS373 of 16 December refers.
Until the UK leaves the EU, there will be no immediate changes to how the UK engages with EASO. Until then, we remain a full member of EASO, maintaining voting rights at the management board and playing a strong role in influencing EU asylum policy.
The Government will consider the UK’s future relationship with the EU in terms of asylum cooperation as part of the broader EU exit negotiations.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
Her Majesty's Government what is their action plan to tackle female genital mutilation; and what assessment they have made of the success of that plan to date.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Shadow Chief Whip (Lords)
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a crime and it is child abuse. We will not tolerate a practice that can cause extreme and lifelong physical and psychological suffering to women and girls. That is why our work to end this practice is an integral part of the cross-Government Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, which is backed by increased funding of £100M.
We have significantly strengthened the law, including introducing a new offence of failing to protect a girl from FGM, lifelong anonymity for victims, and a mandatory reporting duty requiring specified professionals to report known cases in under 18s to the police. We have also introduced FGM Protection Orders to protect women and girls at the earliest opportunity. These are already being used to good effect - since their introduction in July 2015, over 100 orders have been made.
Raising awareness amongst frontline professionals is essential. That is why in April 2016 we published multi-agency guidance on FGM, which is statutory for the first time, and have developed free e-learning which has been completed by over 100,000 individuals to date. The Home Office’s FGM Unit is carrying out awareness raising outreach across the UK. These tools are helping increase awareness, encourage good practice, and support training.
Significant work is under way to improve the response from health and social care professionals. The Department of Health, in partnership with the NHS, is leading a £4m national FGM Prevention Programme, and as part of the Department for Education’s £200m Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme a range of projects have been funded. DfE have also invested £375,000 to raise awareness amongst school staff and pupils.