Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle organised immigration crime.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Since entering office, we have already launched the Border Security Command (BSC), led by Martin Hewitt CBE QPM, with £150m invested over this financial year and next.
The Border Security Command will act as the system leader across HMG leveraging functions across policy, operations, international engagement and uplifted capabilities to tackle organised immigration crime, driven by outcome focussed, system-wide plans.
Since the establishment of the Border Security Command, successes against organised immigration crime include:
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of Serious Crime Prevention Orders.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Serious Crime Prevention Orders are a powerful tool for preventing and disrupting the activities of the highest-harm criminals involved in serious crime. However, the orders are not currently being used to maximum effect. Between 2011 and 2021, only two applications were made to the High Court for an SCPO in the absence of a conviction, of which only one was successful, compared to a total of 1,057 SCPOs being made in the Crown Court on conviction in the same period. This is significantly lower than Parliament anticipated when it introduced SCPOs in the Serious Crime Act 2007.
As announced on 2nd January, the Government is seeking to improve the SCPO regime by introducing new interim SCPOs. Currently, securing an SCPO on suspects, including people smugglers, can be a complex and lengthy process. Interim orders will speed up the process for placing restrictions on people under investigation so as to prevent, deter and disrupt serious and organised crime, including people smuggling. These new interim orders will allow the National Crime Agency, the police and other law enforcement agencies to apply directly to the High Court to impose immediate restrictions whilst a full order is considered. The Government will bring forward further measures to improve the functioning of SCPOs in due course.
These figures are experimental, based on HMCTS management information and are not equivalent to official statistics published by the Ministry of Justice.
The Explanatory Notes to the 2007 Act state that “the main route for making an order will be an application to the High Court”. In addition, at Lords Committee Stage of the Serious Crime Bill, Baroness Scotland of Asthal stated that operational partners had indicated that there may be 25 or 30 such orders – see Hansard, Volume 690, 7 March 2007: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2007-03-07/debates/07030790000002/SeriousCrimeBill(HL)
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to designate misogyny as a hate crime.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for this Government and we are committed to halving violence against women and girls in a decade.
The Government is carefully considering how best to tackle hate crime. We will set out next steps in due course.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce food waste in her Department.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In line with the Greening Government Commitments the Home Office has committed to measure and report on food waste.
Over the period 2017 to 2024, Home Office food waste arisings increased from 183 to 207 tonnes (13% increase) an increase primarily driven by an increase in food waste collection across the estate, from 7 facilities in 2017 to up to 20 facilities in 2023/24.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of reported hate crimes in Staffordshire.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Home Office collects and publishes statistics on hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales at the Police Force Area level.
Data for Staffordshire police can be found in Appendix Table 1 here: Hate crime, England and Wales, year ending March 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help improve standards of policing in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency and b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government committed to rebuilding confidence in policing as part of its safe streets mission and has been clear on its determination to raise standards in policing.
This will include introducing mandatory professional standards on vetting and improving police suspension provisions. Further detail will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the time taken for visa applications to be processed for (a) adults and (b) children.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are seeking to ensure visa applications are processes as quickly as possible. Customer service standards exist for all types of visa applications, however the time taken to process a visa application may take longer under certain circumstances such as if the information provided is not accurate or further evidence is required.
If there is a delay, the applicant will be notified of this within the current processing times.
Data relating to the performance against visa service standards for all types of applications are produced as part of the Migration Transparency publication.
These can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration(opens in a new tab)(opens in a new tab).
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times she has (a) met and (b) spoken to the Police, Crime and Fire Commissioner of Staffordshire since her appointment.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Meetings are regularly published in a quarterly transparency returns.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the police response to violence against women and girls in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency and (b) Staffordshire.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The scale of violence against women and girls in our country is intolerable and this government will treat it as the national emergency that it is. The police are a crucial partner to deliver our ambition to halve VAWG in the next decade.
We must drastically improve the police and wider criminal justice response, in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire and across the country.
We expect to see sustained work across policing to drive up standards and to ensure there is always a swift and specialist response to these appalling crimes. We know that these crimes are underreported, and we will take action to ensure victims coming forward get the response they deserve.
The most recent statistics show that in the year ending March 2024:
In Newcastle under Lyme, police recorded:
Staffordshire Police recorded:
In the year ending March 2023 there were 23,697 domestic-abuse related crimes recorded by the police in Staffordshire, a 33% increase from the year ending March 2022 (17,870).
Data on DA flagged offences are not published for Newcastle-under-Lyme specifically.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she plans to take to help tackle (a) anti-social behaviour and (b) drug use in Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission to take back our streets.
We will put thousands of neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities so that residents have a named officer they can turn to when things go wrong.
We will crack down on those causing havoc on our high streets by introducing tougher powers via a Crime and Policing Bill, including a new Respect Order to tackle repeat offending.
We know that drugs drive crime and cause harm to individuals and society. We will take action as part of our Safer Streets Mission to drive down crime and anti-social behaviour across the country, drawing on evidence for what works in identifying drug users and intervening effectively to change patterns of behaviour including, where appropriate, treatment and recovery services for those dependent on drugs. We will also give detailed consideration to the findings of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs’ forthcoming review of synthetic cathinones, sometimes referred to as ‘monkey dust’, which are a significant cause of anti-social behaviour and drug harms.