Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many detainees have reportedly been sexually assaulted or raped inside Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre since Serco took over its operation.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Serco, the private supplier at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre (IRC), took over the centre’s operation in February 2007. Since 2008, the date from which local records have been collated centrally, there have been twenty three allegations of sexual assault or rape made by detainees against staff. This includes two allegations of rape, of which one was unsubstantiated and one is subject to continuing criminal proceedings. This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.
All complaints made by detainees at an IRC are investigated by the IRC supplier in accordance with Detention Services Order 03/2015. Any allegations of serious misconduct made by a detainee against staff at an IRC are also referred to the Home Office Professional Standards Unit for investigation. Where a detainee, or someone on behalf of a detainee, alleges that a member of staff has committed a sexual offence against them the police will automatically be notified, even if the detainee does not wish the matter to be reported or to make a formal complaint.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to protect British girls in the Dawoodi Bohra community from female genital mutilation, in the light of the sermon by Supreme Leader Mufaddal Saifuddin on 25 April urging that all girls must undergo that procedure.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
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.
We will not stop FGM until we have changed attitudes within communities. The Government works closely with a range of community and faith groups, including Muslim women's groups, to tackle FGM. Over 350 faith leaders from all the major faiths have signed a declaration condemning FGM. They have declared that it is not required by their religions and is a form of child abuse. The declaration makes clear that all religions will work together to end FGM for good. We continue to work with community organisations and survivors through the Governments FGM Unit's stakeholder group and outreach programme to drive this work forward.
In 2014 the Government ran a national communications campaign to raise awareness. We also funded 29 community engagement projects, including a network of community champions, who are reaching thousands of women and girls affected by FGM, and, importantly, their families. The work of these projects has included training for teachers, awareness sessions in local mosques, and the establishment of a new national website for, and by, young people giving information about how to prevent FGM. The Department for Communities and Local Government has established a network of community champions which is operating in London, Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham. Champions are working with local people to address the myths that sustain FGM and to help keep girls safe.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have evaluated the possible risks to national security and social cohesion of the spread of the Wahhabi ideology.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
HM Governement’s Counter Extremism Strategy and Counter – Terrorism strategy, CONTEST, set out approach to tackling the full range of factors that allow extremist and terrorist groups to grow and flourish. These include directly challenging ideologies, including those which have a theological basis.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take, if any, in response to the Court of Appeal's declaration, in relation to the case of David Miranda and the safeguarding of journalistic material, that Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000 is incompatible with Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Court of Appeal’s judgment in the Miranda litigation dealt with Schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000 as in force at the time of David Miranda’s examination, which took place in August 2013. In March 2015, the Home Office updated the Code of Practice for Schedule 7 Examining and Review Officers to direct that examining officers may not examine material they reasonably believe to be journalistic using Schedule 7. Given this amendment, the government considers that Schedule 7 as currently in force is compatible with Article 10 of the Convention.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 25 January (HL5200), whether they have had regard to the preaching and teaching of Wahhabism in mosques and Muslim education bodies in Britain as part of their work on their Counter-Extremism Strategy.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
We published our Counter Extremism Strategy in October 2015 which sets out a range of measures to deal with the broad challenge of extremism. We have placed a duty on specified authorities to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being radicalised.
We consider vocal or active opposition to our fundamental values as extremist, whatever guise these are expressed under. This includes when religions are hijacked by those wishing to promote extremism. As my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister said in July last year “extremist ideology is not true Islam”.
HM Government’s Counter Extremism Strategy and counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, set out our approach to tackling the full range of factors that allow extremist and terrorist groups to grow and flourish. These include directly challenging ideologies, including those which have a theological basis.
The Prime Minister recently commissioned a review into the funding of extremism in the UK. This will include an assessment funding that comes from overseas. The review is due to report in spring 2016.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 11 January (HL4752 and HL4753) and 18 January (HL4957), whether they regard as matters of concern in countering extremist ideologies the preaching and teaching of Wahhabism in mosques and Muslim education bodies in Britain, and funding from overseas for that teaching.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
We consider any vocal or active opposition to our fundamental values as extremist, whatever guise these are expressed under. This includes when religions are hijacked by those wishing to promote extremism. As my rt. hon. Friend the Prime Minister said in July last year “extremist ideology is not true Islam”.
Because of these concerns our Government has taken significant steps to counter extremism. We published our Counter Extremism Strategy in October 2015 which sets out a range of measures to deal with the broad challenge of extremism. We have placed a duty on specified authorities to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being radicalised. This includes schools, colleges and universities. It is also why the Prime Minister recently commissioned a review into the funding of extremism in the UK, including funding from overseas.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 11 January (HL4752 and HL4753), whether they regard the preaching and teaching of Wahhabism in mosques and Muslim education bodies in Britain, and its funding from overseas, as creating a risk of extremism threatening national security.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
As noted in the recent National Security Strategy, extremism divides communities and weakens the social fabric of our country, and extremist ideas are often used to try to justify terrorism.
Anyone promoting the use of violence to promote any ideology, or using any ideology to incite violence and terrorism will have the full force of our laws brought against them. Countering extremist ideologies that create division in our country is the fundamental aim behind the new Counter Extremism Strategy.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of any correlation between Wahhabism and extremism and terrorism in the UK.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
HM Government’s Counter Extremism Strategy and counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, set out our approach to tackling the full range of factors that allow extremist and terrorist groups to grow and flourish. These include directly challenging ideologies, including those which have a theological basis. The review into funding of extremism in the UK will include funding that comes from overseas.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 17 December (HL4279), whether they plan to collect information about overseas funding of the preaching and teaching of Wahhabism in mosques and Muslim education bodies.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
HM Government’s Counter Extremism Strategy and counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, set out our approach to tackling the full range of factors that allow extremist and terrorist groups to grow and flourish. These include directly challenging ideologies, including those which have a theological basis. The review into funding of extremism in the UK will include funding that comes from overseas.