Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2019 to Question 433, on Hate Crime, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the increase in hate crimes recorded by the police on the grounds of (a) race, (b) religion, (c) sexual orientation, (d) disability and (e) transgender identity from 2011-12 to 2018-19; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Police recorded hate crime has increased since these figures were first collected by the Home Office in 2011-12. This is largely due to improvements in police recording practices and more victims coming forward to report, but also recognising spikes following incidents like terrorist attacks. Increased reporting is a key theme of the Hate Crime Action Plan, to help ensure that victims receive the support they need, and offenders are brought to justice.
Information on hate crime offences recorded by the police forces in England and Wales can be found in Appendix Table 1 of the Hate Crime, England and Wales, 2018/19 statistical bulletin available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2018-to-2019
In contrast, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (published last year) shows a downward trend in hate crime, which has fallen by 40% over the past decade.
We do however recognise that this might not be the experience within some communities, and that is why this Government remains committed to tackling all forms of hate crime.
The cross-Government Hate Crime Action Plan (Action Against Hate: The UK Government’s plan for tackling hate crime) was published in 2016 and refreshed in October last year. This plan has improved the response to all forms of hate crime and the refreshed publication ensures a renewed commitment that victims remain at the heart of our work.
Some commitments within the Action Plan include just over £1.5 million for projects to tackle racially and religiously motivated hatred, launch of a public awareness campaign and asking the Law Commission to review hate crime legislation, among other important initiatives.
Following the attacks in Christchurch, the former Home Secretary increased the funding for the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme to £1.6m for 2019/20, double the amount awarded last year, announced a new £5m security training scheme for places of worship and committed to a public consultation to understand what more could be done to protect faith institutions. In September, the Chancellor announced a further £3.2m for the fifth year of the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme for 2020/21.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce hate crime.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Police recorded hate crime has increased since these figures were first collected by the Home Office in 2011-12. This is largely due to improvements in police recording practices and more victims coming forward to report, but also recognising spikes following incidents like terrorist attacks. Increased reporting is a key theme of the Hate Crime Action Plan, to help ensure that victims receive the support they need, and offenders are brought to justice.
Information on hate crime offences recorded by the police forces in England and Wales can be found in Appendix Table 1 of the Hate Crime, England and Wales, 2018/19 statistical bulletin available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2018-to-2019
In contrast, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (published last year) shows a downward trend in hate crime, which has fallen by 40% over the past decade.
We do however recognise that this might not be the experience within some communities, and that is why this Government remains committed to tackling all forms of hate crime.
The cross-Government Hate Crime Action Plan (Action Against Hate: The UK Government’s plan for tackling hate crime) was published in 2016 and refreshed in October last year. This plan has improved the response to all forms of hate crime and the refreshed publication ensures a renewed commitment that victims remain at the heart of our work.
Some commitments within the Action Plan include just over £1.5 million for projects to tackle racially and religiously motivated hatred, launch of a public awareness campaign and asking the Law Commission to review hate crime legislation, among other important initiatives.
Following the attacks in Christchurch, the former Home Secretary increased the funding for the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme to £1.6m for 2019/20, double the amount awarded last year, announced a new £5m security training scheme for places of worship and committed to a public consultation to understand what more could be done to protect faith institutions. In September, the Chancellor announced a further £3.2m for the fifth year of the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme for 2020/21.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Answer of 14 September 2018 to Question 171303, what progress her Department has made in its Ageing Society Mission.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The Aging Society Mission is a cross-government priority with the aim of delivering an additional five years of independent living by 2035. DHSC’s ‘Prevention is better that cure’ vision sets out the steps to deliver this mission. So far we have announced £98 million of investment through the Healthy Ageing Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to stimulate well-designed innovations that support people to enjoy active and independent lives for longer. We have announced plans to launch a ‘Home of 2030’ design and innovation competition later this year – which will seek to prototype the homes of the future that are built to a standard suitable for the changing needs across a lifetime. We have part-funded the new National Innovation Centre for Ageing in Newcastle, which is due to open later this year. In addition, we have announced over £130 million of investment to support healthcare innovation, including £69.5 million through UKRI’s Strategic Priorities Fund to unlock new treatments that allow people to lead healthier and longer lives. We have launched a joint UK–Japan competition to support British and Japanese businesses to harness AI and robotics to develop and showcase a new generation of assisted living products to help create safe, ethical and intelligent home environments.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of knife crime in each territorial police force in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Police recorded crime statistics published on 17 October by the Office for National Statistics show that across England and Wales, there has been a 7 per cent increase in offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in the year to June 2019, and a 44 per cent increase since 2010/11. These increases are thought to be partly due to improvements in the police recording of these offences. The latest force data are contained in the Open Data Tables to be found at the following link:
We are taking determined action to tackle knife crime and other serious violence. This includes giving the police the resources and tools they need to keep families, communities and our country safe. We have recently launched a national campaign to begin to recruit 20,000 new police officers over the next three years, and we are making it easier for the police to use stop and search powers.
Police funding is increasing by more than £1 billion this year, including council tax and additional funding through the £100 million Serious Violence Fund. This Fund includes £63.4 million for surge operational activity, £35 million to support Violence Reduction Units, and £1.6 million to help improve the quality of data on serious violence. Thames Valley Police are receiving £1.94 million from the Fund for surge activity and a further £1.16 million for their Violence Reduction Unit.
In addition, through the Offensive Weapons Act 2019, we are providing the police with more powers, and making it more difficult for young people to get hold of knives in the first place. The Act includes Knife Crime Prevention Orders which will give the police an important new tool to help them to work with people to steer them away from serious violence and knife crime.
We continue to encourage all police forces to undertake a series of coordinated national weeks of action to tackle knife crime under Operation Sceptre. The operation includes targeted stop and searches, weapon sweeps, surrender of knives, including through amnesty bins, test purchases of knives from retailers, and educational events. The latest phase of the operation took place from 17 to 22 September.
We are also addressing the root causes of crime by investing over £220 million in early intervention projects and in the Queens Speech on 14 October, it was announced that we would be bringing forward a new Serious Violence Bill to introduce a new legal duty on public bodies to prevent and tackle serious violence.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2019 to Question 69 on Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services, how many calls were (a) received and (b) made by the imports and exports helpline by (i) nation, (ii) region and (iii) sector.
Answered by Jesse Norman
By the 17th October HMRC have made a total of 4421 Inbound calls and 36,732 Outbound calls. HMRC do not collect data on nation, region or sector.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of victims of trafficking or slavery who have been subject to immigration detention in each year since 2010.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Office record the number of all individuals referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and this information is published quarterly and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-referral-mechanism-statistics-quarter-2-2019-april-to-june
This information does not distinguish between those detained under immigration powers and those living in the community. The reason for this is two-fold, firstly because the NRM referral is not an immigration route by which individuals should regularise their stay in the United Kingdom and secondly, because a person’s status in immigration detention is not permanent and can change.
The use of immigration detention in all cases is subject to regular reviews and consequently, a change in circumstance may result in a different consideration. It is quite possible that an immigration detainee is referred to the National Referral Mechanism during a detention period and is released into the community at any point during that process.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department uses Office for National Statistics estimates of personal well-being in formulating policy; and what policies his Department has introduced to improve personal well-being in the last 12 months.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In developing policy, the Department draws on a range of analytical sources, as well as published and unpublished evidence. The Government is committed to improving the health of the population through all its policies. The Green Paper ‘Advancing Our Health: prevention in the 2020s’, published in July 2019, announced that the Government will develop a new composite health index to provide an indicator of health that can be tracked alongside gross domestic product. The index will measure changes in health over time and, along with other indicators, will be able to be used to assess the health impact of wider Government policies.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether her Department uses Office for National Statistics estimates of personal well-being in formulating policy; and what policies her Department has introduced to improve personal well-being in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Further to the answer to Question 171303, the department continues to use a range of surveys and data when formulating and evaluating its policies. Estimates of personal well-being show that average life satisfaction, happiness and worthwhile ratings are high, and all have increased year-on-year since 2015. Average anxiety is low and has decreased since 2012.
The department’s mission is to build a stronger, greener future. This means preparing businesses for Brexit and the opportunities that lie ahead, leading the world in tackling climate change, solving the Grand Challenges facing our society and making the UK the best place to work and grow a business. We are mindful of the impact these priorities have for people across the UK and all these policies can have a positive impact on wellbeing.
Almost nothing has as great an impact on personal wellbeing as employment. The UK currently has high employment rates and increased participation amongst historically under-represented groups. The What Works Centre for Wellbeing has found that being in a job is good for wellbeing, when measured by life satisfaction, but being in a good quality job is even better. We are creating fairer, inclusive and flexible workplaces so everyone has the chance to succeed as well as balance work and home life. We have made good progress to implement the Good Work Plan in the past year, including passing a raft of secondary legislation to boost workers’ rights and consulting on policies to enhance flexibility whilst reducing opportunities for the deliberate misuse of flexibility by employers.
We are improving lives by tackling our Grand Challenges, in the context of an ageing society, we need to ensure that people can live and work well for longer. So far, we have announced £98 million of investment through the Healthy Ageing Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to stimulate well-designed innovations that support people to enjoy active and independent lives for longer.
This summer we also committed to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions and end our contribution to global warming by 2050, recognising the importance of our environment to our wellbeing today and into the future. We will drive economic growth through the race to cut carbon and accelerate climate action through strong global leadership.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department uses Office for National Statistics estimates of personal well-being in formulating policy; and what policies his Department has introduced to improve personal well-being in the past 12 months.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The department uses the Office for National Statistics (ONS) wellbeing statistics to inform health and wellbeing policy within the Civil Service. The department also measures personal wellbeing through the annual Civil Service People Survey using the same national statistics that the ONS use for the UK population as a whole.
The four personal well-being questions are: Life Satisfaction, Worthwhile, Happiness, and Anxiety. Further details can be found at the following link: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/measuringnationalwellbeing/july2017tojune2018.
Over the past 12 months, the department has:
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department uses Office for National Statistics estimates of personal well-being in formulating policy; and what policies her department has introduced to improve personal well-being in the past 12 months.
Answered by George Eustice
We use Office for National Statistics (ONS) wellbeing statistics to inform Health and Wellbeing policy within the Civil Service. Defra also measures personal wellbeing through the annual Civil Service People Survey using the same national statistics that the ONS use for the UK population as a whole. The four personal well-being questions are: Life Satisfaction, Worthwhile, Happiness, and Anxiety. Further details can be found here.
Defra has an established work-related health and wellbeing programme, as part of our Health & Safety Policy, incorporated into the overall health and safety management system. Defra recognises its legal duty to identify both physical and psychological risks to harm and put measures into place to minimise work-related ill health and injury. The Health & Safety Policy is supported by our agreed safety, health and wellbeing standards, risk assessments, guidance and training which are reviewed and updated regularly to meet our aspirations around continuous improvement.
In the last 12 months specifically Defra has reviewed, refreshed and reinforced various services and support mechanisms in place to support employee health and wellbeing. This has included benchmarking against the core and enhanced standards in the ‘Thriving at Work Report’. For example Defra has implemented Mental Health First Aiders to support individuals in crisis, an internal employee-led mental health ‘buddy’ network. These improvements supplement our standard offer where employees have access to an external provider Employee Assistance Programme, and Occupational Health Service. Staff and Line Managers are encouraged to notify work-related stress via internal reporting procedures; follow up conversations help to identify areas to address and ensure individuals are signposted to appropriate support. A programme of regular wellbeing related webinars are available and we consult with areas of the business to provide bespoke health and wellbeing services as needed.