Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons her Department has not reached a decision on the application for naturalisation of constituent Ali Bam (B1308051) within the published six-month service standard.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
I have written to the Hon. Member on this individual case.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the stop and search powers available to Merseyside Police officers who suspect an individual of carrying a knife.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Stop and search is a vital policing tool when used correctly and officers have the Government's full support to use these powers in a way that is fair, lawful and effective.
Under Section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, the police in England and Wales have the power to stop and search someone if they have reasonable grounds to suspect they are in possession of an offensive weapon, including a bladed article - such as a knife.
Under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, the police in England and Wales have the power to put in place temporary “no-suspicion” stop and search zones – if they reasonably believe that incidents involving serious violence may take place in that locality during that time period. When this power is authorised, police can search anyone within that area without requiring reasonable grounds to search each person.
In March 2019, the Government announced that it would roll back additional controls on the use of Section 60 powers to make it easier for officers in seven forces, including Merseyside Police, to authorise this power – to help forces further target the recent increases in serious violence.
Whilst it is important for the police to have the right powers, they also need the resources to use them. This is why we are also supporting police with additional funding. On 13 March 2019 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a £100 million fund to tackle serious violence. £63.4 million of this funding has already been allocated to 18 police forces, including Merseyside Police which received £4.2 million, to support surge operational activity, such as increased patrols.
This money is already being put to good use. The BBC recently reported that Merseyside had recovered 14 knives in a single week following stop and searches.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the outcome was of her Department's review into different responses provided to FOI requests 53533 and 52979 in relation to the immigration outcomes of victims of trafficking.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
An internal review was conducted on request 53533 and a response sent to the requester on 12 July. This found that the outcome of the original response (refusal under the cost limit) was correct. The two requests (53533 and 52979) asked for distinct information, hence the difference in responses: in one case the information could be provided within the cost limit, in the other it could not.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary-Under-Secretary of State for Health of 19 June 2019, Official Report, column 145WH, what steps his Department has taken since it sent a letter to the CEOs of 17,000 businesses regarding the audit of compliance with the requirement to produce modern slavery supply chain statements.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Office has written twice to approximately 17,000 organisations identified as being required to prepare a Modern Slavery Statement under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. As a result almost 4,000 organisations have registered to receive tools and guidance from the Home Office to support effective reporting under the Act.
The Home Office is commencing an audit of compliance and organisations which persist in flouting their obligations risk being publicly named. The Home Office is also developing a central registry for modern slavery statements published under the Act to enable the Government to continually monitor compliance.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the timeframe is for his receiving a report from the University of Bristol on prostitution in the UK.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As part of the Government’s response to the Home Affairs Select Committee report into prostitution, the Home Office provided £150,000 to fund research specifically into the nature and prevalence of prostitution in England and Wales. This independent research is being led by the University of Bristol and will enable us to inform an objective evidence base before we consider any changes to policy and legislation in respect of prostitution.
We have now received the report, and this will be published in due course.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Prime Minister's oral contribution of 19 June 2019, Official Report, column 241, what the timescale is for the Government's consultation on strengthening transparency in supply chains with regards to modern slavery.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
On 11 June 2019, the Prime Minister announced at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) centenary that the Government is looking at ways of strengthening and improving the transparency statements required of big businesses and expanding the law to cover the public sector. The Home Office will launch a public consultation ahead of potential changes to section 54 (transparency in supply chains requirements) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The Government will provide further details on the scope and time frame of the consultation in its response to the Independent Review of the Modern Slavery Act, which will be published in summer 2019.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people held in a immigration detention centre (a) are recognised as victims of modern slavery and/or human trafficking and (b) claim to be victims of modern slavery and/or human trafficking.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
(a) The Home Office records the number of individuals that have received a positive Conclusive Grounds decision and this information is published quarterly by the National Crime Agency, found at http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/national-referral-mechanism-statistics.
As NRM referrals, Reasonable Grounds and Conclusive Grounds decisions are considered separately from immigration enforcement action, there is no central record of those who have received a positive Conclusive Grounds decision and are detained under immigration powers. The Home Office therefore does not collate or publish the data requested
(b) The Home Office record the number of all individuals referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and this information is published Quarterly by the National Crime Agency, found at http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/national-referral-mechanism-statistics.
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: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 6 June 2019 to Question 259015, what steps he is taking to ensure that relevant bodies in local government areas publish their data on ASB Case Reviews.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We introduced the anti-social behaviour (ASB) Case Review, also known as the ‘Community Trigger’, through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 (“the 2014 Act”) to ensure victims’ voices are heard.
The 2014 Act requires the relevant bodies in a local government area to publish, at least annually, information about the review applications they receive. We have published statutory guidance on the 2014 Act which makes these requirements clear and highlights that agencies may wish to publish data more frequently or publish additional details.
It is for the relevant bodies to ensure that they comply with the requirements in the 2014 Act.
We keep the use of the powers in the 2014 Act under review through a National Anti-social Behaviour Strategic Board which brings together a range of partners and representatives from key agencies.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) police officers and (b) full-time equivalent police officers there were in each local authority area in the Liverpool City Region in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the number of police officers, by Police Force Area, as part of the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletins.
Data on the number of officers, by headcount and by full-time equivalents, in Merseyside, and in England and Wales, going back to March 2007, can be found in the Open Data Tables published alongside the release:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/629362/open-data-table-police-workforce.ods
Data at lower levels of geography are not held centrally.
The next release of ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ is scheduled on Thursday 18 July 2019, and will cover the situation as at 31 March 2019.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many stop and searches were carried out in each local authority area within the Liverpool City Region in each year since 2010.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office collects and publishes statistics on the number of stop and searches conducted by each police force in England and Wales. The Home Office collects these data at Police Force Area level only and does not hold this information at the level of the Liverpool City Region.
Data on stop and searches are published in the ‘Police Powers and Proce-dures, England and Wales’ statistical bulletins, and data for the year ending March 2018 can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-england-and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2018
Data for the year ending March 2019 are due to be published in October 2019.