Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the impact of online (a) scams and (b) fraud on vulnerable adults in the last 12 months.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
The scale of online fraud is alarming, and we are deeply concerned by the devastating impact it can have on victims both financially and emotionally. We are committed to tackling fraud and holding those who profit from it to account. We will be publishing our new fraud strategy early in 2023.
The Home Office does not collate statistics regarding costs to victims of online fraud. The most recent estimate of the total cost of fraud against individuals in England and Wales was estimated at £4.7 billion for 2016. As of March 2022, online fraud was estimated at 61% of fraud (CSEW). This data can be found in table 4 here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/natureofcrimefraudandcomputermisuse.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with the National Union of Journalists on the potential impact of the National Security Bill on members of that organisation.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
A significant number of representative bodies from industry, including the National Union of Journalists, have contributed to the development of the National Security Bill, including through the Home Office public consultation which was conducted in the summer of 2021.
They also participated in targeted roundtable engagement conducted by the Home Office in the Summer of 2022.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that refugees fleeing Ukraine and Afghanistan have access to appropriate (a) housing, (b) education and (c) employment opportunities.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Through our resettlement and relocation schemes we have already welcomed tens of thousands of vulnerable Afghans and Ukrainians.
Our cross-government approach is supporting families to rebuild their lives, find work, pursue education, and integrate with local communities.
We continue to explore options to unlock local authority capacity and identify appropriate housing for those resettling in the UK.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that women and children are protected from public sexual harassment.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Sexual harassment in public places is appalling, and this Government is committed to tackling it. Women and girls have the right to both be and feel safe on our streets.
In the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, published in July 2021, we committed to a series of non-legislative actions to help tackle this issue. As a result of those commitments:
- In September 2021 the Home Office and National Police Chiefs’ Council launched a pilot tool, StreetSafe, which enables the public to report anonymously areas where they feel unsafe, so that local authorities and the police can take practical steps in response, such as improved CCTV and street lighting, as well as deploying an increased police presence. As of 24 June, almost 18,000 people have submitted reports using the tool.
- In October 2021 the Home Office announced awards of £23.5 million to Police and Crime Commissioners and local authorities under Round 3 of the Safer Streets Fund, to make public spaces safer for everyone through projects to help women and girls feel safer on the streets. Most of the projects which were awarded funding involved activity to deter offending such as increased CCTV surveillance, as well as changing attitudes towards violence against women and girls.
- In December 2021 the College of Policing published a new advice product for police officers, advising them about the preventative strategies and criminal offences which they can use to respond to reports of various different types of public sexual harassment.
- In March 2022 we launched the ‘Enough’ communications campaign, which seeks to change public attitudes and tolerance towards crimes such as public sexual harassment and to help create an atmosphere in which women and girls can report such crimes to the police with confidence.
The Strategy also confirmed that we were looking carefully at where there may be gaps in existing law and how a specific offence for public sexual harassment could address those. As a result of this work, we will by the summer recess begin a consultation on whether there should be a new offence of public sexual harassment.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with the Road Collision Investigation Branch on trends in the level of investigations into road traffic fatalities.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government consulted from October to December 2021 on the potential to create a Road Collision Investigation Branch. The Government published its response to the consultation on 29 June, announcing our intention to create a Road Safety Investigation Branch. This Branch will operate independently of Government and the police to better understand the causes of road collisions, with the aim of reducing death and injury on our roads.
The Home Office have no plans to introduce a review into the conduct of road death investigations.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to introduce a review into the conduct of road death investigations by police forces.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government consulted from October to December 2021 on the potential to create a Road Collision Investigation Branch. The Government published its response to the consultation on 29 June, announcing our intention to create a Road Safety Investigation Branch. This Branch will operate independently of Government and the police to better understand the causes of road collisions, with the aim of reducing death and injury on our roads.
The Home Office have no plans to introduce a review into the conduct of road death investigations.