Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much has been spent on the development of the LEDS database in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
In the last 12 months (January 2019 – December 2019), the National Law Enforcement Data Programme has spent £42,056,745 which equates to an average monthly spend of £3.5m.
The figures provided are within the allocated budget for the NLEDP programme. The programme remains on track to spend against its forecast for the remainder of this financial year.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were wrongly (a) detained and (b) deported by her Department in each of the last six months.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office publishes data from 2012 onwards in its Annual Report and Accounts for the number of claimants who have been compensated following legal challenge of the lawfulness of their detention.
Whilst providing a clear sense of overall scale, the numbers are subject to caveats: (i) 'number of cases' is drawn from records of unique names of people, solicitors acting for them and Government Legal Department reference numbers; (ii) amounts paid are the amounts paid in each year (individual cases might see payments in more than one year, for example, if there are staged payments that fall across financial year boundaries).
Providing the information requested in relation to deportations or returns, would require a manual check of individual records and I am therefore not able to provide this to you. In a small number of cases each year individuals are brought back to the UK either by the Home Office or a Court for further consideration of their case. When this occurs, we review all circumstances with the Courts as appropriate.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much additional funding has been allocated to South Wales Police for tackling knife crime and serious violence in the last 12 months.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
This Government is committed to tackling knife crime and serious violence and making our streets safer.
South Wales Police will benefit from being able to recruit 136 officers by the end of March 2021. This is in addition to the £290.3m in funding South Wales Police are receiving in 2019/20 an increase of £19.3m on 2018/19.
In the last 12 months South Wales Police has been provided with £2,080,000 from the Serious Violence Fund; £1,200,00 for surge operational funding and £880,000 to develop their Violence Prevention Unit. £1,211,542 has also been awarded to support projects across all of Wales from the Early Intervention Youth Fund.
Additionally, funding has been awarded from the Anti-knife Community Fund and the Youth Endowment Fund to projects covering South Wales. For more information see:
https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/grantees-and-programmes/
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much compensation her Department paid to people wrongly (a) detained and (b) deported by her Department in each of the last six months.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Compensation data for people wrongly detained is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts but is not published on a month by month basis.
Published information for financial year 2018-19, for wrongful detention, can be found in the Home Office’s 2018-19 Annual Report and Accounts on page 105.
Compensation data is published in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts but is not published separately for wrongful deportation
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers have been put on standby for redeployment for mutual aid from (a) South Wales Police, (b) Greater Manchester Police, (c) Thames Valley Police, (d) Northumbria Police, (e) West Midlands Police and (f) British Transport Police for the period identified by Operation Snow Bunting.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, by what date his Department plans for the 20,000 new police officers to have completed training at the National College of Policing at Hendon.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has committed to increasing the number of police officers by an additional 20,000 over the next three years.
Chief Constables are responsible for providing training for every recruit. We are working with the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to ensure all forces are supported in recruitment and training needs.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers from (a) England and Wales, (b) Scotland and (c) non-geographic forces were deployed to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not centrally hold the information requested.
However, on 4 September 2019, the Deputy Chief Constable for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) stated, in evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee, that PSNI have not had recourse to request mutual aid from other police forces in the UK since 2013.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what mitigating methods he has planned to provide continuous access to the (a) SIS II database and (b) ECRIS for UK law enforcement and border force agencies in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
My Department continues to work closely with operational partners and engage with EU Member States to prepare for our departure from the EU in October. If necessary, we will be ready to transition our cooperation with EU Member States to alternative, non-EU arrangements where available. Broadly speaking, this would mean making more use of Interpol, Council of Europe instruments and other forms of co-operation with European partners, such as bilateral channels. In a no deal scenario requests for criminal records information would be facilitated under the 1959 Council of Europe Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance. The 1959 Convention is already used as the basis for exchange with a number of other countries.
As regards SIS II, we will be able to continue to cooperate through pre-existing bilateral channels or Interpol, as was the case before 2015 when the UK connected to SIS II.Whilst these alternative arrangements are not like-for-like replacements, they are tried and tested mechanisms that we already use for cooperating with many non-EU countries. The UK will continue to be one of the safest countries in the world in the event of no deal.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which police forces have been requested to provide contingency resourcing for Operation Yellowhammer.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
It is the duty of any responsible Government to prepare for every eventuality including the scenario that we leave the EU without agreeing a deal.
With that in mind, we are working closely with operational partners - including the police - on contingency planning so we can ensure the safety and security of our citizens in all scenarios.
The police have tried and tested strategic mobilisation plans for responding to a wide range of emergency scenarios, including widespread disorder. This includes consideration of any requirements for mutual aid or other support. We are working closely with the National Police Chiefs Council and National Police Coordination Centre to ensure the plans are appropriate for a No Deal EU Exit.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his oral contribution of 24 July 2018 on detention, Official Report column 909, what extra data on immigration detention he plans to publish; and what the timetable is for the publication of that data.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
In November 2018, the Home Office published data on the number of deaths in the detention estate and absconds from the detention estate for the first time in its official Immigration Statistics. This data will continue to be published on an annual basis each August.
At the same time, the Home Office published data on pregnant women in detention and further breakdowns of data on reports made by a medical practitioner under Rule 35 for the first time in the Immigration Enforcement Transparency data. This data will continue to be published on a quarterly basis.
In February 2019, the Home Office also announced its intention to undertake a more extensive review of the published enforcement data and has invited initial user feedback on the current and future publication of enforcement data. The review will include a formal consultation, which will be launched this summer and will be used to inform any future publication plans.