Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to help ensure that police forces investigate every reported crime.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 28 August, the Home Secretary announced that, following discussions with Ministers, police forces across England and Wales have committed to pursuing all leads where there is a reasonable chance it could result in catching a perpetrator and solving a crime.
This commitment applies to all crime types, with new guidance from the College of Policing providing clear direction on applying a consistent standard of service to have the greatest chance of securing a positive outcome for a victim.
It also builds on wider work the government has delivered with policing to cut crime and build stronger communities, including recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish her Department's response to the consultation on the white paper on Reforming Our Fire and Rescue Service, CP 670, which was published in May 2022.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government remains committed to reform in the fire sector and will continue to push for meaningful change for the benefit of both the sector and the public. The response to the white paper will be published shortly.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to promote diversity in the fire service in England.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Action to promote diversity is being taken through funding the National Fire Chiefs Council’s People Programme. The Programme provides national good practice guidance and tools to support improvements in local services.
Proposals for further work in this area are outlined within the Government’s Fire Reform White Paper and our response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the prevalence of the use of drones in agricultural-based thefts.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes information on crime against business, including the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, as part of the Commercial Victimisation Survey. Such crimes will also form part of the published police recorded crime statistics. However, neither of these data sources provides detail on the specific items stolen from vehicles or the methods used in committing theft.
The Home Office has not made an assessment on the prevalence of the use of drones. However, we work closely with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) National Rural Crime unit and Opal, the national analysis unit for serious organised acquisitive crime, to understand the methods used by criminals to steal agricultural machinery.
The NPCC has established a new National Rural Crime Unit (NCRU) to support forces nationally in their responses to rural crime, such as the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, rural fly tipping, rural fuel theft and equine crime.
In June 2023 the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs launched the Unleashing Rural Opportunity, setting out four broad priorities that are key to rural communities being able to thrive. As part of this launch, it was announced that the Government will provide one-off funding for the NRCU. This funding will support work to cut crime and keep communities safe, by tackling anti-social behaviour and equipment theft.
DEFRA is also providing funding to the NRCU for a new role to tackle fly-tipping across Great Britain.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many fire incidents did fire and rescue services attend in each of the last five years in England.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office operates the online Incident Recording System (IRS) to collect data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs) in England. Subsequently, statistics on these are published quarterly here: Fire statistics - Quarterly Publication.
The table below provides the number of fire incidents attended by FRSs in England in each of the last 5 years.
Year ending March | Fire incidents attended |
2019 | 182,941 |
2020 | 154,186 |
2021 | 151,097 |
2022 | 152,639 |
2023 | 178,737 |
The data in this table are consistent with records that reached the IRS by 23 May 2023. The data was published on 27th July in table FIRE0102 (Fire statistics data tables - Incidents Attended).
For a variety of reasons, some records take longer than others for FRSs to upload to the IRS and, therefore, totals are subject to small revisions.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the level of theft of GPS technology from farm machinery in England in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes information on crime against business, including the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, as part of the Commercial Victimisation Survey. Such crimes will also form part of the published police recorded crime statistics. However, neither of these data sources provides detail on the specific items stolen from vehicles or the methods used in committing theft.
The Home Office has not made an assessment on the prevalence of the use of drones. However, we work closely with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) National Rural Crime unit and Opal, the national analysis unit for serious organised acquisitive crime, to understand the methods used by criminals to steal agricultural machinery.
The NPCC has established a new National Rural Crime Unit (NCRU) to support forces nationally in their responses to rural crime, such as the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, rural fly tipping, rural fuel theft and equine crime.
In June 2023 the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs launched the Unleashing Rural Opportunity, setting out four broad priorities that are key to rural communities being able to thrive. As part of this launch, it was announced that the Government will provide one-off funding for the NRCU. This funding will support work to cut crime and keep communities safe, by tackling anti-social behaviour and equipment theft.
DEFRA is also providing funding to the NRCU for a new role to tackle fly-tipping across Great Britain.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the objectives of the National Rural Crime Unit are.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes information on crime against business, including the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, as part of the Commercial Victimisation Survey. Such crimes will also form part of the published police recorded crime statistics. However, neither of these data sources provides detail on the specific items stolen from vehicles or the methods used in committing theft.
The Home Office has not made an assessment on the prevalence of the use of drones. However, we work closely with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) National Rural Crime unit and Opal, the national analysis unit for serious organised acquisitive crime, to understand the methods used by criminals to steal agricultural machinery.
The NPCC has established a new National Rural Crime Unit (NCRU) to support forces nationally in their responses to rural crime, such as the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, rural fly tipping, rural fuel theft and equine crime.
In June 2023 the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs launched the Unleashing Rural Opportunity, setting out four broad priorities that are key to rural communities being able to thrive. As part of this launch, it was announced that the Government will provide one-off funding for the NRCU. This funding will support work to cut crime and keep communities safe, by tackling anti-social behaviour and equipment theft.
DEFRA is also providing funding to the NRCU for a new role to tackle fly-tipping across Great Britain.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much compensation has been paid out by Police Services in England to settle legal claims made against serving officers in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Information on spend incurred by police forces to settle legal claims is not held centrally by the Home Office but may be held by individual forces.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the report by Mr Nick Timothy of his review of the effectiveness of her Department.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
There are no plans to publish an internal report of this nature.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress their Department have made on implementing Procurement Policy Note 06/21.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has implemented the requirements of PPN 06/21: Taking account of Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major government contracts, where it is relevant to the subject matter of the contract and proportionate to do so.
Home Office has applied the PPN to procurements in scope since the PPN came into effect on 30th September 2021.