Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of when the Change Request to the Emergency Services Network necessary to activate 4G masts in Rackwick and Stronsay in Orkney as part of the Scottish 4G Infill Programme will be completed.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The sites referred to on Orkney are EAS0171 Rackwick and EAS0543 Stronsay, they are planned to be activated by March 2023. Both sites are passive build complete with mains power delivered, awaiting transmission and active equipment installation.
They are part of the wider 17 Scottish Futures Trust sites (S4Gi Project sites) that the HO have prioritised with EE, our Transmission (TX) delivery partner. EE are actively working on confirming the TX solutions to the 17 S4Gi sites. The TX contract was awarded to EE in August 22 and have started their prework on providing a full activation plan to the Home Office.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on photography (a) in 2019, (b) in 2020, (c) in 2021 and (d) to date in 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In 2020 there were two occasions external photographers were employed by communications directorate with a total cost of £695 (excluding VAT).
In 2022 £5,520 (excluding VAT) was spent on photography for a Home Office recruitment campaign.
Spend for photography as part of social media, marketing and internal communications is not recorded separately.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on ministerial travel (a) in 2019, (b) in 2020, (c) in 2021 and (d) to date in 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We can report on how much the Home Office has spent on official business travel in total but identifying all Ministerial travel expenditure specifically can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The Home Office publishes details of Ministerial overseas travel on a quarterly basis, in line with transparency requirements, and this is available until March 2022.
Home Office: ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on stationery (a) in 2019, (b) in 2020, (c) in 2021 and (d) to date in 2022.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not publish the information sought to the level of granularity required. Identifying stationery spending specifically can only be obtained at disproportionate cost. However, the Home Office does publish some cost information in relation to stationery and this is grouped together with publications and printing expenditure.
The Home Office records and publishes information on a financial year basis, April to March.
Refer to the links and pages below for the available published information that relates to spending on publications, stationery, and printing:
Page 171 of the 2021-22 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts
Home_Office_ARA_21-22_Final_-_Gov.uk.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Page 159 of the 2020-21 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts
HO annual report and accounts 2020-21 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Page 150 of the 2019-20 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts
Home Office annual report and accounts 2019 - 2020 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Page 135 of the 2018-19 Home Office Annual Report and Accounts
Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2018-19 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what level of resources her Department plans to allocate to tackling cybercrime in each of the next five years.
Answered by Stephen McPartland
Tackling cyber crime is at the heart of the Government’s new National Cyber Strategy which is supported by £2.6bn of new investment over the three year Spending Review period. We are continuing to build law enforcement capabilities at the national, regional and local levels to ensure they have the capacity to deal with the increasing volume and sophistication of cyber crime, which includes ensuring officers are being trained and upskilled.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much the Home Office has spent on communications and public relations agencies in (a) 2019, (b) 2020, (c) 2021 and (d) 2022.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Home Office does not publish the information sought to the level of granularity required and identifying spending on communications and public relations specifically from our management systems can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many meetings the Home Secretary has had on tackling domestic burglaries in each of the past 12 months.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Secretary considers domestic burglary, alongside other neighbourhood crimes, on a regular basis.
This Government recognises the devastating impact domestic burglary has on communities. That is why we are recruiting 20,000 extra police officers and why we established the Safer Streets Fund to prevent these crimes from happening in the first place, supporting the deployment of solutions such as home security, increased streetlighting and CCTV in high crime areas.
We are also taking a range of measures to tackle reoffending, including the tagging scheme for neighbourhood crime offenders released on licence, and work driven by the Residential Burglary Taskforce, driving forward the sharing of best practice about police effective investigations.
The importance of tackling neighbourhood crime was discussed at the most recent meeting of the Home Secretary’s National Policing Board. This was attended by key senior police leaders, representing all forces and Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department has spent on away days for Ministers and staff in each of the last four calendar years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not publish the information sought to the level of granularity required and identifying spending on away days specifically from our management systems can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many members of Home Office staff have roles dedicated to tackling (a) fraud and (b) cybercrime.
Answered by Stephen McPartland
The Home Office has a total of (a) 31 FTE to tackle fraud against businesses and individuals and (b) 31 FTE to tackle cyber-crime.
Tackling crime, including fraud, is a top government priority and the Home Secretary meets victims of all crimes regularly.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many meetings she has had with (a) victims of fraud or (b) their representatives in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Stephen McPartland
The Home Office has a total of (a) 31 FTE to tackle fraud against businesses and individuals and (b) 31 FTE to tackle cyber-crime.
Tackling crime, including fraud, is a top government priority and the Home Secretary meets victims of all crimes regularly.