Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of hate crime laws for protecting LGBTQ+ people from hate crime; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Government takes all forms of hate crime seriously, and we have a robust legislative framework in place to respond to hate crimes which target sexual orientation, transgender identity, disability, race and religion. The Government expects the perpetrators of these abhorrent offences to be brought to justice.
We are aware of stakeholder concerns relating to the effectiveness of existing legislation. That is why the Government asked the Law Commission to undertake a review of hate crime legislation in 2018. The Law Commission published its final report in December 2021, and we are grateful for the detailed consideration it has given to its review of hate crime laws. The Government will respond in full shortly.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to permit Ukrainian nationals to stay in the UK beyond the three-year limit of existing visas.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We firmly believe that Ukraine will be safe again and we will continue to support the Ukrainian Government for as long as is necessary in their efforts against Putin.
Therefore, our approach has been to provide Ukrainians with access to a three-year visa for temporary sanctuary in the UK. This has given them the certainty and stability they need whilst they are here to settle into jobs, and find schooling and accommodation.
Of course, we keep any future need for an extension of leave in the UK under review, in line with developments of the situation in Ukraine.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average waiting time is for applications for the five year route to settlement to receive an outcome; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The information requested could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.
The published service standard is that straightforward applications should be processed within six months.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to revoke existing licenses which allow companies to test exclusive-use cosmetics ingredients on animals.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Government is engaging with the relevant companies to urgently determine a way forward on legacy licences.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to protect shopworkers from violence and abuse by customers in their place of work.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is clear that violence and abuse towards any worker is not acceptable.
Last year we introduced a statutory aggravating factor for assault against any public facing workers via section 156 of the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This applies in cases of assault where an offence is committed against those performing a public duty or providing a service to the public. This legislative change ensures the courts treat the public-facing nature of a victim’s role as an aggravating factor when considering the sentence for an offence.
The Home Office continues to work closely with retailers, trade associations and the police through the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) to encourage retailers to work with police so that crimes are effectively dealt with at a local level. The NRCSG has produced practical resources to assist retailers to report crimes when they occur. These are available here.
The Home Office-funded #ShopKind campaign is also key to getting the message across that violence and abuse towards retail workers across the country will not be tolerated. The campaign asks the public to consider their behaviour and shop with kindness.
Police recorded offences in England and Wales (excluding Devon and Cornwall) for shoplifting and all theft offences for year ending December 2022 are showing a fall of 12% and 13% respectively compared with the pre-pandemic period of March 2020.
Volumes data for shoplifting from police recorded crime (PRC) data should be interpreted with caution due to under reporting of shoplifting. Therefore, the volumes presented here are likely to underestimate the true level of shoplifting.
Across England and Wales we now have the highest number of police officers on record with over 149,500 officers.
As a result of the unprecedented police recruitment drive we have recruited over 20,000 additional officers. That means that there are now over 3,500 more officers in England and Wales than the previous peak in 2010.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the (a) implications for her policies of and (b) the potential impact of increases in the cost of living on trends in the level of shoplifting incidents.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office works closely with retailers and trade organisations such as the British Retail Consortium (BRC), Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) and the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), and police partners via the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) to understand the crime trends retailers are experiencing. Recent discussions at the NRCSG have included the impact of the cost of living on crime such as shoplifting, and we continue to keep this under review.
The NRCSG has produced practical resources to provide guidance on partnership working and encourage engagement with Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRPs) to help ensure businesses and police can work effectively together to identify the trends and types of crimes that affect businesses and to ensure incidents are dealt with appropriately.
We also work closely with the police-led National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) to help prevent crime against businesses. The NBCC has undertaken a number of Safer Action Business Days (SABA) across the country, where police, BCRPs and retailers work in partnership to carry out days of action to deliver a focussed operation with joint patrols, targeted intervention
of offenders and a range of crime prevention activities.
Police recorded offences in England and Wales (excluding Devon and Cornwall) for shoplifting and all theft offences for year ending December 2022 are showing a fall of 12% and 13% respectively compared with the pre-pandemic period of March 2020.
Volumes data for shoplifting from police recorded crime (PRC) data should be interpreted with caution due to under reporting of shoplifting. Therefore, the volumes presented here are likely to underestimate the true level of shoplifting.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help prevent young people from engaging in anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 27 March, the Government launched the Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan giving the police, local authorities and other relevant agencies the tools they need to tackle anti-social behaviour.
This plan is backed by £160m of funding and focuses on stronger punishment, making communities safer, building local pride, and prevention and early intervention. Under the plan, one million extra hours of youth support will be made available in anti-social behaviour hotspots and we will invest more to intervene early with at risk young people via one-to-one support.
The volume of anti-social behaviour incidents recorded by Hampshire police fell by 22% in the latest year (to March 2022). The latest available data covering year to March 2022 can be found here:
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of reported incidents of anti-social behaviour in Portsmouth.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 27 March, the Government launched the Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan giving the police, local authorities and other relevant agencies the tools they need to tackle anti-social behaviour.
This plan is backed by £160m of funding and focuses on stronger punishment, making communities safer, building local pride, and prevention and early intervention. Under the plan, one million extra hours of youth support will be made available in anti-social behaviour hotspots and we will invest more to intervene early with at risk young people via one-to-one support.
The volume of anti-social behaviour incidents recorded by Hampshire police fell by 22% in the latest year (to March 2022). The latest available data covering year to March 2022 can be found here:
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help support local authorities to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 27 March, the Government launched the Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan giving the police, local authorities and other relevant agencies the tools they need to tackle anti-social behaviour.
This plan is backed by £160m of funding and focuses on stronger punishment, making communities safer, building local pride, and prevention and early intervention. Under the plan, one million extra hours of youth support will be made available in anti-social behaviour hotspots and we will invest more to intervene early with at risk young people via one-to-one support.
The volume of anti-social behaviour incidents recorded by Hampshire police fell by 22% in the latest year (to March 2022). The latest available data covering year to March 2022 can be found here:
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help tackle the root causes of anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 27 March, the Government launched the Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan giving the police, local authorities and other relevant agencies the tools they need to tackle anti-social behaviour.
This plan is backed by £160m of funding and focuses on stronger punishment, making communities safer, building local pride, and prevention and early intervention. Under the plan, one million extra hours of youth support will be made available in anti-social behaviour hotspots and we will invest more to intervene early with at risk young people via one-to-one support.
The volume of anti-social behaviour incidents recorded by Hampshire police fell by 22% in the latest year (to March 2022). The latest available data covering year to March 2022 can be found here: