Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much his Department has spent on tackling knife crime in each year since 2010.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government does not keep disaggregated records of funding specifically dedicated to tackling knife crime and it is not possible to differentiate out funding on knife crime from funding allocated to police forces.
The Government’s Serious Violence Strategy, published in April 2018, set out a very significant programme of work with an ambitious programme including the following:
• An Early Intervention Youth Fund of £22 million
• £1.5 million for the anti-knife crime Community Fund
• £3.6 million we have provided for the establishment of the new
National County Lines Coordination Centre
• £1.4 million to support a new national police capability to tackle gang
related activity on social media
• Support to the #knifefree national knife crime media campaign
• The Offensive Weapons Bill currently passing through Parliament
In addition, we are allocating £200 million to a Youth Endowment Fund over the next 10 years, supporting police forces to tackle knife crime under Operation Sceptre, are soon to launch a consultation on anew legal duty to underpin a ‘public health’ approach to tackling serious violence, and have announced an Independent Review of Drug Misuse, to be conducted by Dame Carol Black.
On 13 March, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the Spring Statement that there will be £100 million additional funding in 2019/20 to tackle serious violence, including £80m of new funding from the Treasury. The majority of the investment will largely go towards supporting police forces, especially where violent crime is impacting the most. The funding will also support multi-agency Violence Reduction Units in violent crime hotspot areas, and elsewhere. We will prioritise investment in targeted police capacity to tackle serious violence and support for Violence Reduction Units in our Spending Review discussions.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when EU citizens living in the UK who have paid the £65 settled status fee will receive their refund.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
As the Prime Minister announced on 21 January, there will be no fee for applications under the EU Settlement Scheme when we roll out the scheme in full by 30 March. Anyone who has applied during the pilot phase, or who does so, will have their fee reimbursed. The Home Office will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what comparative assessment he has made of the the average waiting time for visa applicants in (a) the last six months and (b) 2010.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Information for the latest quarter available is published online.
Data on entry clearance visa processing times, including the percentage and number of visas that are processed within service standards, is published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-operations-transparency-data-august-2018
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the reasons are for the (a) £1.37 per minute charge for the public helpline and (b) £5.38 charge for email correspondence.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
UK Visas and Immigration in–country contact centres provide information about the Immigration Rules and the Points Based System requirements via a number of published customer enquiry line numbers. In 2014, in line with Cabinet Office guidance, UKVI changed all 0845 and 0870 prefix helpline numbers to lower call tariff rate 0300 prefix numbers. UKVI do not generate any income from these non-geographic numbers enquiry lines.
For overseas customers, UK Visas and Immigration have a chargeable call rates of £1.37 per minute and a £5.48 email charge which includes the initial e-mail enquiry plus any follow-up e-mails to and from the contact centre relating to the same enquiry.
The international charge (£5.48 per email enquiry) was introduced on 1st June 2017 as part of the UKVI Contact Centre operations contract awarded to SITEL UK Ltd
These charges are levied to fund the commercial contract as the UK government believes it is right that those who use and benefit directly from the UK immigration system make an appropriate contribution towards meeting the costs of the immigration system. Those who use the services from outside the UK are predominantly prospective customers and in many cases no application will be made and no application fee collected.
Our web site www.gov.uk is the main source of information and advice and is free of charge.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of people with Parkinson's disease who were held in custody by police forces in 2017.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The arrest and detention of all individuals suspected of committing an offence is an operational matter for the chief officer of each force area. However, all detainees must be treated appropriately and in accordance with Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) Codes of Practice C&H (detention and detention in terrorism cases, respectively).
In particular, section 9 of PACE Code C sets out detailed requirements concerning health care of all detainees. Amongst other things, the Code requires the custody officer to ensure that detainees receive appropriate clinical attention as soon as reasonably practicable if, for example, the person appears to be suffering from physical illness, or appears to need clinical attention. This applies even if the detainee makes no request for clinical attention and whether or not they have already received clinical attention elsewhere. If the need for attention appears urgent, the nearest available healthcare professional or an ambulance must be called immediately.
The Government does not hold information on the number of individuals with a Parkinson’s diagnosis that have been detained in police custody.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help police to support people with Parkinson's disease who are held in custody.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The arrest and detention of all individuals suspected of committing an offence is an operational matter for the chief officer of each force area. However, all detainees must be treated appropriately and in accordance with Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) Codes of Practice C&H (detention and detention in terrorism cases, respectively).
In particular, section 9 of PACE Code C sets out detailed requirements concerning health care of all detainees. Amongst other things, the Code requires the custody officer to ensure that detainees receive appropriate clinical attention as soon as reasonably practicable if, for example, the person appears to be suffering from physical illness, or appears to need clinical attention. This applies even if the detainee makes no request for clinical attention and whether or not they have already received clinical attention elsewhere. If the need for attention appears urgent, the nearest available healthcare professional or an ambulance must be called immediately.
The Government does not hold information on the number of individuals with a Parkinson’s diagnosis that have been detained in police custody.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending police pensions to life-long payments in the event of an officer's death.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Since 6 April 2006, all new police officers have had lifelong survivor benefits as part of their occupational pension scheme benefits.
On 18 January 2016, the Police Pensions Regulations 1987 and the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 were amended to allow widows, widowers and civil partners of police officers in England and Wales who have died on duty and who qualified for a survivor pension after 1 April 2015 to continue to receive their survivors’ benefits for life.
There are no plans to make any further changes to survivor benefits for police pension schemes.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to refund visa applicants who have paid for the online Premier Service and have not had their application processed within the quoted time-frame.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
UK Visas and Immigration consider all requests for refunds on a case by case basis. Whether a refund is issued will depend on the specific circumstances of each case
Requests should be made via the complaints process:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration/about/complaints-procedure#how-to-complain
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what his Department's current target is for the length of time for it to complete an application for citizenship; and what the current average waiting time is for an application for citizenship.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The target is to decide straightforward cases within six months. Performance against that target is recorded in published data here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/in-country-migration-data-november-2017 on the tab InC_02.
The latest data published shows that 100% of straightforward cases were decided within target. There is no published data on actual processing times.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what relationship the Government has with (a) Cifas and (b) other fraud prevention organisations; and what steps the Government has taken to regulate the operation of such organisations.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The Joint Fraud Taskforce is a collaboration between Government, the financial sector, law enforcement, and civil society, which is working collectively to tackle fraud. CIFAS, alongside other fraud prevention bodies, such as Financial Fraud Action UK, are key members of the Taskforce, sitting on both the Management Board and Home Secretary Chaired Oversight Board.
Membership of the Taskforce is non-compulsory, although at its launch, the most senior members committed to work in partnership to help protect the public from becoming victims of fraud and fraud scams, maximising opportunities to stop fraudsters from operating, and to catch and prosecute those who commit fraud
CIFAS is also listed as a Specified Anti Fraud Organisation (SAFO) under the Serious Crime Act 2007, and as such CIFAS’s policies and processes are audited by the Information Commissioners Office every two years.