Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase prosecution rates for fraud cases.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutes criminal cases that have been investigated by the police and other investigative organisations in England and Wales. The CPS is independent, and they make their decisions independently of the police and government.
The Government recognises that to increase prosecution rates, there needs to be an increased pipeline of cases under investigation. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service (HMICFRS) carried out an inspection of the police response to fraud last year. The review, published in April 2019, found that significant improvements are required to ensure the model works more effectively and efficiently, including the need for a much more co-ordinated national approach with clear roles and responsibilities.
The Home Office is working closely with law enforcement to ensure the recommendations set out in the HMICFRS report are implemented effectively in order to improve the response to fraud at the local, regional and national levels.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to support convenience retailers in Gillingham and Rainham from shop theft; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
All forms of retail crime are unacceptable, and everyone has the right to feel safe at work.
I chair the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) which brings together partners including the police, trade bodies – including the Association of Convenience Stores - and retailers and is overseeing a range of work to tackle retail crime. This includes the collation and dissemination of good practice and developing guidance on the use of Impact Statements for Business, which give victims of business crime the opportunity to set out the impact the crime has had on the business, including, for example, financial loss. The NRCSG also continues to work with retailers to improve the management and response to shop theft using a partnership approach according to local circumstances.
On 5 April Government launched a call for evidence on violence and abuse towards shop workers to strengthen our understanding of this issue, including how existing legislation is being applied.
In addition, the Sentencing Council is reviewing its guidelines on assault and a consultation on a revised guideline is anticipated to commence this Summer.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides the police and local authorities with a range of flexible powers that they can use to tackle and prevent anti-social behaviour. To support local agencies decide when and how to use these powers the Home Office refreshed its statutory guidance for frontline practitioners on the use of the statutory powers in December 2017.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much money from the public purse will be allocated for the establishment of the National County lines Co-ordination Centre.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The new National County Lines Co-ordination Centre, which was announced as part of the Serious Violence Strategy on 9 April will receive £3.6 million of funding from the Home Office over the next two years.
The Co-ordination Centre is expected to be fully operational later this year.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of police officers received mental health training in each of the last five years in (a) England and (b) Kent.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office does not centrally hold the information requested.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much money from the public purse will be allocated for the establishment of the National County lines Co-ordination Centre.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The new National County Lines Co-ordination Centre, which was announced as part of the Serious Violence Strategy on 9 April will receive £3.6 million of funding from the Home Office over the next two years.
The Co-ordination Centre is expected to be fully operational later this year.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many incidents of number plate fraud have been recorded in England and Wales each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office does not hold the information requested. The Home Office collects recorded fraud data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau including fraud classified as NFIB90 which is ‘Other fraud (not covered elsewhere)’. Number plate frauds will be recorded in this category, but we cannot separate out these offences from the data we hold.
The ONS publish recorded fraud data in the quarterly ‘Crime in England and Wales’ bulletin, which can be found in Table A5 of the Appendix Tables:
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential effectiveness of the regional approach adopted by Australia and Indonesia on tackling terrorist financing announced in August 2016.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The UK Government welcomes the Nusa Dua statement and considers the approach being taken by Australia, Indonesia and their regional partners to be a positive one.
The UK was a founding member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which sets the global standards to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. The UK continues to cooperate closely with our international partners to ensure that the FATF standards are implemented effectively and engages bilaterally and in other fora with partners on operational issues.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what annual change there has been in the number of BAME people serving in the police in each year since 2010.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Home Office publishes data on the number of individuals working for the police, broken down by worker type and ethnicity, as part of the ‘Police workforce in England and Wales’ statistical bulletin.
The attached table contains data on the number of police officers who were from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds as at 31 March in each year between 2010 and 2016. To provide the appropriate context, tables of total worker numbers and the proportion that were BAME are also provided.
These were published in the latest police workforce bulletin (for March 2016) and the tables can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-england-and-wales-31-march-2016
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support diversity champions in the police force.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Government is clear; increasing diversity in our police forces is not an optional extra. It goes right to the heart of this country’s historic principle of policing by consent. We must ensure that the public have trust and confidence in the police, and that the police reflect the communities they serve.
The Government has reformed policing to ensure that there is a sector-led approach to making improvements, including in the area of recruitment and representation.
The College of Policing as the professional body for policing is delivering a major piece of work -black, Asian and minority ethnic Progression 2018 - to address under-representation in policing. The Government looks forward to working with the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and individual Police and Crime Commissioners as democratically elected local leaders of policing, to place a greater emphasis on this agenda and urges PCCs to consider the opportunities provided through the Police Transformation Fund.
While the Government would expect senior commitment in all forces it is for local leaders to decide how they will deliver improvements.