Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce knife crime in London.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Whilst the Mayor of London has operational responsibility for policing in the capital, this Government is committed to providing additional resources to the police and their partners to tackle violent crime and make our streets safer.
To support the prevention of violence in London, we have allocated the London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) c.£33.7m since 2019, including a
c.£12.6m allocation for this financial year (2022/23). The VRU also received an additional investment of £5.5m in 2021/22 to deliver specific, highly targeted interventions to vulnerable young people. The London VRU delivers multiple initiatives that are projected to support over 5,300 young people in the capital next year.
We are also providing additional funding to enable the Metropolitan Police to increase enforcement activity where most violence occurs, through our Grip programme (previously known as Surge). The Metropolitan Police have been allocated approximately £50.9m over the last three years, including £7.9m for this financial year (2022/23) for Grip. Through this programme, the Metropolitan Police are delivering data-driven, targeted visible patrols to suppress violence where it is most concentrated.
Whilst the Mayor of London has operational responsibility for policing in the capital, the Government continues to encourage police forces to undertake a series of coordinated national weeks of action to tackle knife crime under Operation Sceptre. The latest phase of the operation took place between 16 to 22 May 2022. In the Metropolitan and City Police areas 126 knives were seized during enforcement action with a further 90 being surrendered or seized during sweeps.
The Home Office has invested £200m over 10 years in early intervention and prevention initiatives to help children and young people at risk of exploitation and involvement in serious violence, through the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). This will support how the Government responds to serious violence by identifying what works in diverting children and young people away from involvement in serious violence. Currently the YEF has invested around £50m on interventions and evaluations around London.
Grip, VRU & YEF funding are provided in addition to the commitment to increase the number of police officers in England and Wales by 20,000 by March 2023. As of 30 June 2022, the MPS has recruited an additional 2,952 uplift officers against a total three-year allocation of 4,557 officers.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent further wildfires.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office works across Government with a wide range of stakeholders including the National Fire Chiefs Council, England and Wales Wildfire Forum and other Departments and Agencies including Defra and the Met Office to promote planning and prevention for wildfire incidents in England.
At a local level, each Fire and Rescue Authority is required to plan for the foreseeable risks in their area (including wildfires) through their Integrated Risk Management Plan. This will include plans to prevent and respond to incidents and Fire and Rescue Services will have regard in their planning to other key local responders including landowners and other emergency services.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to stop cyber criminals.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Tackling cyber crime is at the heart of the Government’s new National Cyber Strategy which is supported by £2.6bn of new investment over the three year Spending Review period. The National Cyber Strategy (2022-2025) has set the direction and ambition for investment and efforts in UK Cyber. Delivery of the Strategy is being supported by the National Cyber Fund. This programme has allocated investment to lead government departments to support delivery of the objectives set out in the strategy.
We are continuing to invest in law enforcement capabilities at the national, regional and local levels to ensure they have the capacity to deal with the increasing volume and sophistication of cyber crime, which includes ensuring officers are being trained and upskilled.
The Cyber Aware campaign is a major national advertising campaign that aims to help businesses (as well as individuals) to protect themselves online. The campaign empowers and enables the public and micro businesses to understand the best ways to stay secure online and take the necessary protective actions; and supports wider efforts to combat the threat at source via the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERs), and through partnership interventions. This year’s campaign was launched on 18 March and is focusing on empowering citizens, microbusinesses and sole traders to keep their email accounts secure. Cyber Aware - NCSC.GOV.UK
The Governments’ Cyber Essentials Scheme provides the basic controls all businesses should implement to protect themselves. About Cyber Essentials - NCSC.GOV.UK
Cyber Prevent is an important part of our response to tackling cyber crime. This is an early intervention programme aimed at deterring individuals from getting involved in cyber crime in the first place, moving deeper into cyber crime or reoffending and diverting them towards positive directions. Since 2019, all local forces now have a Cyber Prevent capability.
Further good advice and helpful products from Government include the 10 Steps to Cyber Security and the Cyber Information Sharing Partnership (CISP). 10 Steps to Cyber Security - NCSC.GOV.UK
We have also rolled out Regional Cyber Resilience Centres in each of the nine policing regions, and London. These are a collaboration between police, public, private sector and academic partners to provide subsidised or free products and cyber security consultancy services to help Small and Medium Sized Enterprise and micro businesses protect themselves better in a digital age.
We have developed and we continue to innovate on a series of Active Cyber Defence measures. Active Cyber Defence is the principle of implementing security measures to strengthen the security of a network or system to make it more robust against attack. The National Cyber Security Centre’s Active Cyber Defence programme provides tools that are free at the point of use which help organisations to tackle, in a relatively automated way, a significant proportion of the cyber attacks that hit the UK.
There were 28,886 computer misuse offences referred to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) by Action Fraud in the year ending March 2022, an overall decrease of 5% from the year ending March 2021 (30,467). All computer misuse offence types saw a decrease, apart from ‘Hacking – social media and email’ which increased by 6% (from 13,576 to 14,357)
The number of computer misuse offences disseminated to forces rose by 9%, from 3,991 in the year ending March 2021 to 4,335 in the year ending March 2022.The total number of computer misuse offences assigned an outcome decreased by 5% from 7,900 in the year ending March 2021 to 7,556 in the year ending March 2022. Of those outcomes, the number resulting in a ‘Charged/Summonsed’ outcome increased from 74 to 97.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent environmental protests that endanger the lives of others.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Peaceful protest is a vital part of a democratic society. However, there is a balance to be struck and rights to peaceful protest do not extend to highly disruptive and dangerous acts, such as tunnelling, which places not only the lives of the protesters at risk, but also those who rescue them.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act has already increased the maximum penalty for those who obstruct the highway, putting their lives and those of road users at risk. The Public Order Bill further improves the police’s ability to respond to dangerous protest acts by criminalising tunnelling which causes serious disruption and creating serious disruption prevention orders; a new court order that targets the most prolific protesters.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide advance notice for the 2023 allocation of seasonal worker visas.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
On the 24 December 2021, the Government announced the continuation of the Seasonal Worker route until 2024, including how quotas will be set throughout this period.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to give EU aviation workers special visas.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Our immigration system is based on judging people by their skills and talents, not where there passport is from, such a proposal would be in conflict with this so will not be considered. We note similar issues with recruitment are being reported at Airports within the EU, which indicate this would also be an ineffective approach compared to focusing on other issues affecting recruitment in the sector, including pay and conditions.
Operational matters relating to airport operations should be referred to the Department for Transport.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide local authorities with funding for Ukrainians arriving under the Ukraine Family Scheme.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
Nationals of Ukraine coming to the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme will be given access to work, benefits and public services as laid down in the Immigration Rules Appendix Ukraine, details of which can be found at:
Immigration Rules Appendix Ukraine Scheme - Immigration Rules - Guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide special visas to people in war zones who have strong technology skills.
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’s response to people fleeing war zones is to bring into place humanitarian schemes which are more simple to administer and assist as many people in need as possible. These include the Homes for Ukraine and Ukraine Family Schemes and our resettlement programmes such as the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme. People who enter the UK under these schemes have full work rights and it is therefore unnecessary to only support those with specific skills.
Outside of these schemes we have a broad range of safe and legal routes which cater to those with specific tech skills including our Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Innovator and the new High Potential Individual and Scale-up routes which are open to all nationalities, including those who are refugees.
A pilot in partnership with Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB) to explore how we might support highly skilled displaced people to access a Skilled Worker visa to the UK is already underway.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to waive visa requirements for Ukrainian nationals for up to three years.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government keeps its approach on visas and biometrics under review, informed by the latest security advice.
We are aware of cases where individuals who could pose a national security threat have attempted to enter the UK during crisis situations and checks which are part of the visa process have enabled us to identify these individuals as potential threats. Similarly checks undertaken as part of the visa application process can help safeguard vulnerable applicants such as those aged under 18.
The Government therefore has no plans to waive visa requirements for Ukrainian nationals.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to extend the Ukrainian refugee visa schemes to include temporary places for (1) students, and (2) academics.
Answered by Lord Harrington of Watford
The Government has no plans to extend its Ukraine humanitarian visas to include temporary places for students or academics.
For Ukrainians wishing to come to the UK to escape the Russian invasion, the Government has opened the Ukraine Family Scheme for those with existing family ties to the UK, and the Homes for Ukraine Scheme for those who do not. The Government has also announced the Ukraine Extension Scheme to allow Ukrainians here on temporary visas to obtain three years’ leave to remain and the ability to work and access public services, in line with the other two Ukraine Schemes.
Ukrainian students and academics who do not wish to apply for one of these Schemes can choose to apply for visas under the existing points based system, provided they meet existing eligibility criteria.