Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government plans to take to ensure that all police forces in England contain a dedicated rape and serious sexual offences unit; and what estimate he has made of how quickly those units could be established in all forces.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
We recognise that having police officers with the right skills is critical in ensuring rape and sexual offences cases are managed appropriately and effectively. We are supporting the police to ensure this is the case through:
The deployment of officers and structure of forces is ultimately an operational matter for Chief Constables as there will be different considerations in different force areas.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many allegations of rape were recorded in the first three quarters of the financial year 2020-21; and how many of those cases resulted in a (a) referral to the CPS, (b) charge or summons, (c) completed prosecution and (d) conviction, including guilty pleas, within one year of recording.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
In June 2021 the Government published its End to End Rape Review Report and Action Plan. During that review, we took a hard and honest look at how the entire criminal justice system deals with rape and in too many instances it simply had not been good enough.
The Action Plan outlined a robust programme of work to achieve a significant improvement, and we are committed to delivering on the actions in order to bring this about.
This includes the publication on a quarterly basis of scorecards to shine a light on the performance of the criminal justice system and give greater transparency.
Further information on recorded rape offences, including time to charge and measures from the CPS and Ministry of Justice, can be found in the Criminal Justice Scorecard for recorded adult rape offences:
CJS scorecard - recorded adult rape offences - Justice data
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of the initial 5,000 places on the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme will be allocated to people already in the UK.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) commenced on 6th January. The ACRS will provide up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK.
Due to the success of our emergency evacuation and the larger than anticipated number of people brought over to the UK, we plan to exceed our initial aim of 5,000 people in the first year of the ACRS.
There are around 6,500 people in the UK who have been brought to safety during and after the evacuation who are eligible for the ACRS. They include women’s rights activists, journalists, and prosecutors, as well as the Afghan families of British Nationals. This also includes some of those most at risk, such as members of the LGBT community.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 10 September 2020 to Question 85969 and 14 October 2020 to Question 100312, if she will take steps with knife (a) manufacturers and (b) retailers to change the design of kitchen knives to replace pointed ends with rounded ends.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We know that knives are used for legitimate purposes by the vast majority of people. Bladed articles with pointed ends have legitimate uses and are often needed for a wide range of purposes, including as tools for work for instance in farming or fishing and in private such as in the household for use during cooking. While we are always ready to engage with manufacturers and retailers to help ensure public safety, it is important that the government strikes the right balance between allowing access to knives for legitimate reasons, with the need to protect the public from dangerous weapons. We believe the current legislation strikes the right balance. We will, however, continue to do everything we can to ensure that people do not carry dangerous weapons and commit violent crime in the first place.
This is why we have invested £176.5 million over two years in preventing serious violence in local communities and bolstering police capacity to respond to serios violent crimes when they do occur.
It is also why we have launched a consultation on new powers for the police to target those who have been convicted of knife related offences. We will also be piloting new Knife Crime Prevention Orders, introduced through the Offensive Weapons Act 2019. These new preventative orders will provide an additional tool for police to steer people away from serious violence.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 10 September 2020 to Question 85969 on Knives, what steps the Government is taking to work with retailers to promote the responsible sales of knives.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has agreed a set of voluntary commitments with major retailers to promote the responsible sale of knives and to prevent the sale of knives to under-18s, both in stores and online. The agreement commits retailers to having robust measures in place to ensure age verification and both appropriate display and access to knives in stores.
Retailers also act to ensure customers and staff are reminded that knives are age restricted products and that all staff receive regular training. Since March 2016, 19 major retailed have joined the agreement, with some stopping the sale of single knives in their stores altogether. We are continuing to work with retailers to strengthen the agreement further in relation to the display of knives.
The Offensive Weapons Act 2019 strengthens the law in relation to the preventing the online sale of knives to under 18s by requiring age verification and stopping knives being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements in place with the delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered into the hands of a person under 18.
We have paused commencement of some of the Act’s provisions due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing measures that have been in place to avoid placing significant additional burdens on businesses and delivery companies to modify their sales and delivery systems and train staff over this period. We are keeping the position under review and we expect to be able to commence the provisions at the earliest opportunity.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in prison have been identified (a) provisionally and (b) conclusively by her Department as victims of modern slavery through the National Referral Mechanism.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Single Competent Authority (SCA) operates the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which is a civil process for the identification and support of victims of modern slavery. The SCA does not hold real-time or reportable data on the number of individuals that have been identified as potential or confirmed victims of modern slavery whilst in prison.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will (a) make an assessment of the validity of September 2020 research on knives from De Montfort University and (b) bring forward legislative proposals on replacing pointed knives with rounded knives for domestic use.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We continue to work with retailers to promote the responsible sales of knives. It is important to strike the right balance between allowing access to knives, for instance as tools, with the need to protect the public from dangerous weapons.
We are doing everything in our power to make our streets safer, including recruiting 20,000 additional police officers over the next three years and providing the most substantial increase in police funding in a decade. Additionally, the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 introduced new knife crime prevention orders which were requested by the police and will provide them with a vital means to steer those most at risk away from serious violence.
£70 million of the Serious Violence Fund was invested in 18 areas to develop multi-agency Violence Reduction Units which bring together police, local government, health and education professionals, community leaders and other key partners to identify the drivers of serious violence and agree a multi-agency response to them. In addition to the Serious Violence Fund, we have invested £200 million in early intervention and prevention support initiatives to support young people at risk of exploitation and involvement in serious violence, through the Youth Endowment Fund.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the independent review of drugs led by Professor Dame Carol Black will make an assessment of drug use and access to treatment for marginalised groups, including people sleeping rough.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The independent review of drugs will be undertaken in two parts. In its first part it will look at who drug users are, what they are taking, and how often in order to build the most in-depth and comprehensive picture of this issue to date. This will include consideration of vulnerable or marginalised groups.
The review will be able to draw on this evidence base to examine the harms that drugs cause and the best ways to prevent drug-taking, taking into account the system of support and enforcement around drug misuse. Further information on the scope of the review and the terms of reference can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-drugs-terms-of-reference
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average queuing time at London Heathrow Airport is.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Table 1 - the average sampled passenger wait time for Heathrow (Terminal 2, 3, 4 and 5) from 1 July 2016 until 30 June 2017.
Date | EEA | Non EEA |
Total | 00:03:46 | 00:17:38 |
Notes
No data for Heathrow Terminal 1 as terminal closed in 2015.
The information provided relates to passenger queuing times – defined as when a passenger arrives at the UK Border control desk - and as such excludes transaction times for clearance. Performance is assessed over a 12 month period.
The performance against service levels is assessed over a month period. If 95% or above of passenger wait times sampled are recorded as within the 25 minute (EEA) and 45 minute (non EEA) service standard, the service level is assessed as met, if less than 95%, then this is considered a breach of the service level.
This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average queuing time at Gatwick Airport is.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Table 1 - average sampled passenger wait time for Gatwick (North and South) from 1 July 2016 until 30 June 2017.
Date | EEA | Non EEA |
Total | 00:05:40 | 00:12:07 |
|
The information provided relates to passenger queuing times – defined as when a passenger arrives at the UK Border control desk - and as such excludes transaction times for clearance. Performance is assessed over a 12 month period.
The performance against service levels is assessed over a month period. If 95% or above of passenger wait times sampled are recorded as within the 25 minute (EEA) and 45 minute (non EEA) service standard, the service level is assessed as met, if less than 95%, then this is considered a breach of the service level.
This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.