Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will update the passport office application process to replace the word gender and the options male and female with the word sex and the options male and female.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
British passports are issued to include the person’s sex marker indicating whether they are male or female, in accordance with standards set by International Civil Aviation Organisation.
HM Passport Office currently has no plans to replace use of the word gender, or the male and female options, as part of the passport application process
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether applications for passports to the Passport Office require additional documentation along with self-declared gender to clarify whether a person is (a) male or female or (b) in possession of a Gender Recognition Certificate.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Passport applicants are required to submit evidence to enable HMPO to identify them and to issue a passport containing all necessary biographical information. This includes the person’s sex marker indicating whether they are male or female, in accordance with international standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. This will often include production of the person’s birth certificate. Where a customer applies to change the sex marker in their passport or requests a sex marker which differs from their gender registered at birth, they are required to show they are using the new identity for all official purposes and will normally be required to submit a gender recognition certificate, a re-registered birth certificate or evidence from a medical practitioner that their gender change is likely to be permanent. HMPO guidance on handling gender recognition cases can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/gender-recognition.
HM Passport Office currently has no plans to replace use of the word gender, or the male and female options, as part of the passport application process.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to improve equality, diversity and inclusion training in police forces.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The College of Policing was set up in 2012 to set and improve standards for excellence in policing, including recruitment, leadership, professional development and assessment.
The College’s role is clear: setting high professional standards sharing what works best; acting as the national voice of policing; and ensuring professional development and police leadership are of the highest quality and that they uphold the highest ethics.
Training standards and the national policing curriculum are set by the College of Policing. The College regularly reviews the policing curriculum, including equality, diversity and inclusion training, to ensure that it is fit for purpose.
Forces provide local training and development at several different levels ranging from initial entry, leadership and ongoing development to reflect and reinforce organisational values, including diversity and equality.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full-time equivalent employees are employed in equality, diversity and inclusions roles by police forces in England.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Home Office does not hold information centrally on how many police employees are in equality, diversity and inclusion roles in police forces in England.
The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the number of full-time equivalent police officers and staff by function in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin. These functions are based on the framework set out by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) as part of the Police Objective Analysis (POA) estimates. The POA framework does not include a specific function on diversity and inclusion roles.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Independent report entitled IICSA: report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse published 14 December 2022, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of Recommendation 15 on victims of child sexual abuse.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Government is truly grateful to victims and survivors for bravely sharing their perspectives and experiences with the Inquiry and supporting its work over the past seven years.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse published its final Report on Thursday 20 October 2022. This is an important milestone in cross-sector efforts to tackle all forms of child sexual abuse.
Insight from victims and survivors is invaluable in understanding how we can continue to tackle this horrific crime and make sure appropriate supports are in place to help victims and survivors rebuild their lives. We will keep working across government and with a wide range of partners such as children’s charities, frontline professionals, law enforcement, and local authorities to ensure that the voices of victims and survivors are kept at the heart of our work to keep children safe from child sexual exploitation and abuse.
We will also work across Government at every level to address the issues raised by the Inquiry, and the Home Secretary will convene ministers across Whitehall to drive forward progress. This is in addition to the existing cross-departmental Governance that is already in place to monitor the implementation of the Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Strategy.
We owe it to the victims and survivors to give the Inquiry’s final recommendations proper time, consideration, and attention. That is why the Government will carefully consider all of the findings and each recommendation, including recommendation 15, before responding fully within the Inquiry’s six-month timeframe, by April 2023.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to prevent registered sex offenders changing their gender without the knowledge of the police.
Answered by Sarah Dines
Public protection is a priority for this Government. Qualifying offenders are required to notify certain personal details to the police in person annually or whenever the details change. This system is often referred to as the ‘sex offenders’ register’ and requires offenders to provide their local police station with a record of (amongst other things) their: name, address, date of birth, passport details and national insurance number. While there is no legal requirement to notify the police of change of sex or gender, registered sex offenders are required to notify any name changes or changes to passport details.
Failure to comply with the notification requirements is a criminal offence punishable by a maximum of five years’ imprisonment.
We are committed to ensuring that the system and the monitoring that underpins the management of these offenders is as robust as it can be, and that the relevant safeguards are in place. In March 2022 former chief constable Mick Creedon was appointed to conduct an independent review into the police management of registered sex offenders. The findings have been delivered to the Government, and we are carefully considering them.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Domestic Homicides and Suspected Victim Suicides report 2021-2022, published 25 August 2021, what methods her Department used to collect that report's data on gender reassignment; and whether the gender reassignment data (a) reflects self-declared gender and (b) requires an individual to have a Gender Recognition Certificate to be counted.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Domestic Homicide Project is led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the Vulnerability Knowledge Practice Programme (VKPP) and funded by the Home Office. The data collection and methodology are managed by the project, not the Home Office. The project team have outlined their methodology below.
The options on the submission form for ‘gender reassignment’ are: ‘Yes, No, Not Known’. This information is collected from those officers who are submitting the form and is based on their records. The definition provided in the guidance reads, “please indicate if the individual has, or is going through, gender reassignment. This is defined as a person whose gender identity is different to the gender assigned at birth. This does not require specific treatment or surgery as it is a personal process rather than a medical one. If not known, please select Not Known.” This definition had been drafted in relation to the Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance (Gender reassignment discrimination | Equality and Human Rights Commission (equalityhumanrights.com)).
Therefore, any response of ‘yes’ to this question may or may not involve the victim or suspect having a Gender Recognition Certificate. However, we have not received a ‘yes’ to that question on any of the submissions within our database from Year 1 (the August 2021 report) up to the present date. It is possible that there may be some individuals who have undergone gender reassignment (in a personal and/or medical capacity) but this was not known / recorded by the police and available to the submitter, and we do not have any evidence to suggest this in what we have been provided.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to ensure all police forces use Domestic Abuse Matters training programmes.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Domestic Abuse Matters training, which was developed by the College of Policing, and in collaboration with SafeLives, with input from Women’s Aid and Welsh Women’s Aid, aims to improve the police response to domestic abuse, including the investigation of controlling or coercive behaviour offences and to achieve national consistency in the service police forces provide to people experiencing domestic abuse.
We expect police to treat all victims of domestic abuse with the sensitivity and compassion they deserve. Therefore, to strengthen the police response to domestic abuse and as part of our commitment in the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan to support the development and further rollout of the Domestic Abuse Matters training, we have committed up to £3.3 million up to 2025 to bolster and encourage the uptake of this training in forces. We will be prioritising funding for those forces who have yet to undertake the training yet. Forces in receipt of a funding contribution from the Home Office will be expected to update on progress through the quarterly monitoring requirements of grant agreements and an end of year assessment.
As part of this commitment, we are also funding the development of a new module of the training that is targeted at officers investigating domestic abuse offences to enable further improvement in police responses to domestic abuse incidents.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to prevent people claiming asylum in the UK if they could have claimed asylum elsewhere.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Individuals should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach – that is the fastest route to safety.
Our policies reflect this, including the process whereby an asylum claim may be declared inadmissible to the UK asylum system if the claimant was previously present in, or has a connection to, a safe third country where it would have been reasonable to expect them to claim asylum.
The differentiation policy, which differentiates the entitlements afforded to refugees, is intended to dissuade migrants from making dangerous journeys to the UK and instead claim asylum in the first safe country they reach.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment of the consequences for her policies she has made of the recommendation of the Domestic Abuse Commissioner of a flexible national funding pot, to help enable survivors of domestic abuse to escape abuse.
Answered by Sarah Dines
Tackling domestic abuse is a priority for this Government. A central part of this is making sure victims and survivors get the support they need.
The Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, which we published in March, invests over £230 million, including over £140 million specifically for supporting victims and survivors.
This included a commitment to establish trials of a ‘flexible fund’. In the Plan, we committed to making funds available to charities, who would have discretion on how they could be used to support victims and survivors.
Delivery of the ‘flexible fund’ by charities could involve cash payments being made to victims and survivors, in the same way proposed by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner. These payments could help victims and survivors to leave an abuser.
The Government has also noted the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s report mapping provision of support services for domestic abuse victims and survivors. across England and Wales. A full response will be provided in due course.