Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to not build new asylum accommodation in Bromsgrove constituency.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has no plans to build new asylum accommodation at the current time.
Home Office relies on pre-existing accommodation to house asylum seekers.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people with a high potential individual visa lived in Bromsgrove constituency on (a) 5 July 2024 and (b) 10 February 2025.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The information requested is not centrally held and could only be collected and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
The Home Office publishes statistics relating to the applications and outcomes of High Potential Individual visas in the immigration system statistics. This does not provide a breakdown by residence of the visa holder.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of recent trends in the level of crime committed by illegal migrants on residents in Wythall.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is determined to tackle crime irrespective of who has committed it. As part of the Plan for Change, our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will put officers and PCSOs back on the beat in every corner of the country, ensuring the police are visible, accessible and responsive to the communities they serve.
Our forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill will give the police the powers they need to crack down on the criminals who cause misery in our communities, and to tackle the scourge of serious violence on our streets.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of policing in Rubery in Bromsgrove constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
John Campion, as the directly elected Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for West Mercia, is responsible for holding the Chief Constable to account for the performance of West Mercia Police. To drive up performance and standards across forces, ensuring communities can have confidence in their local police force, the Home Secretary has announced the creation of a new Performance Unit in the Home Office. This will harness national data from a Performance Framework to monitor performance and direct improvements, working with sector partners such as the College of Policing, HMICFRS, National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), IOPC and PCCs.
It is the responsibility of His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to assess the operational performance of forces in England and Wales. HMICFRS last published a Police Effectiveness Efficiency and Legitimacy inspection (PEEL) report for West Mercia police on 13 April 2022. We welcome this report, which shines a light on the performance of West Mercia Police and makes recommendations on areas for improvement. Their next PEEL inspection report is expected to be published later this year.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of street racing on the A435 at Wythall; and what steps her Department plans to take to help increase prosecutions for these offences.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.
The Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee sets out our ambition to have a dedicated lead officer for ASB in every police force, working alongside communities on developing a bespoke ASB action plans for their area, in order to address the issues that matter most in local communities.
As part of that Guarantee, we will also put 13,000 additional neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities up and down the country by the end of the Parliament.
We are bringing forward new powers in the forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill to ensure police and other agencies have the powers they need to tackle ASB, such as allowing the police to more swiftly seize vehicles being used antisocially, with officers no longer required to issue a warning before seizing them. This will allow them to better deal with vehicles involved in street racing and car cruising.
We will also introduce Respect Orders, which can be applied for by the police and local councils and are issued by the courts. They will enable courts to place wide-ranging restrictions on the behaviour of the most persistent and disruptive ASB offenders. Breaching a Respect Order will be a criminal offence, allowing police officers to immediately arrest offenders and disrupt ongoing ASB.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with her French counterpart on reducing illegal migration from France.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Home Secretary is in regular contact with her French counterpart, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, to discuss ongoing cooperation on reducing irregular migration via France to the UK.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle crime that crosses police force boundaries.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to ensuring that law enforcement has the resources it needs to tackle crime effectively, including when crime crosses police force boundaries.
When it does, the National Crime Agency (NCA), which leads the UK's fight to cut serious and organised crime, and policing’s Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) network, have specialised intelligence and investigative teams that are deployed across the full range of threats to bring offenders to justice. This includes tackling ‘borderless’ serious crimes including fraud, cyber-enabled criminality, online child sexual exploitation and abuse and County Lines.
Both the NCA and ROCU network have been allocated significant resources to enhance their capacity and capability to continue tackling serious crime at both national and regional levels.
The Home Office is also funding the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre to monitor the intelligence picture and co-ordinate the national law enforcement response to County Lines. This is vital in strengthening the law enforcement response and enabling police forces to work together to tackle this complex issue.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of capping annual net-migration into the United Kingdom.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the Answer provided on 05 December to Question UIN 16705.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of excluding China from the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme on UK national security.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is currently working at pace to implement the scheme, which is expected to commence in 2025. The proposed foreign entities to be included in the scheme will be subject to formal debate and agreement by both Houses of Parliament in due course.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the waiting time for firearms license applications.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 15 January, the Government laid a statutory instrument before Parliament that will increase fees charged by police forces to provide full-cost recovery for firearms licensing applications, giving effect to a commitment in the Government’s manifesto. The new fees will come into force on 5 February 2025.
The fees were last increased in 2015 and they no longer meet the cost of the service provided. It is essential for both public safety and police efficiency that full cost recovery fees are introduced so that service improvements can be made. The need to increase firearms licensing fees to help address shortcomings in firearms licensing was highlighted by the Senior Coroner in his Preventing Future Deaths reports into the fatal shootings in Plymouth in August 2021.
The NPCC Lead on Firearms Licensing is developing a new performance framework for firearms licensing teams. In addition, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services will later this year be undertaking a thematic inspection of police forces’ arrangements in respect of firearms licensing.
A full impact assessment, which covers the impact of increased fees on the shooting community, was published alongside the statutory instrument.