Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2017 to Question 3762, on public buildings: fire prevention, whether her Department collects information on the number of fire and rescue service officers deployed to inspect and audit buildings under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Answered by Nick Hurd
It is the responsibility of individual fire and rescue authorities (FRAs) to assess and plan for potential risks at sites in their local area, as part of the process of the Integrated Risk Management Plan for their area. The government provides guidance to local resilience forums, which include the fire and rescue services, on how to interpret the risks in the National Risk Assessment and National Risk Register to help with their local assessment of risk. This ensures that risk assessment at all levels of government is integrated, so it can underpin coherent emergency planning throughout the country.
FRAs are required to have a risk based inspection programme and management strategy in place to ensure compliance with the Fire Safety Order within their area.
It is the responsibility of each FRA to manage its prevention, protection and operational resources to effectively address risks within their communities. This includes determining which premises to audit to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Fire Safety Order . There is no target for the number of fire safety audits that fire and rescue services must carry out each year.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with fire service representatives to ensure that aerial ladders are readily available when responding to large-scale fires.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Decisions on how the police enforce the law and deploy their available resources, including collaboration arrangements, are the responsibility of individual Chief Officers, taking into account the specific local problems and demands with which they are faced.
Home Office also supports specialist National Resilience capabilities to respond to multiple scale incidents. These capabilities are discussed quarterly at the National Fire Chief Council’s National Resilience Board and the Home Office Strategic Resilience Board to ensure that the agreed capabilities are in place, well maintained and remain fit for purpose.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with fire service representatives on the adequacy of firefighters' equipment when responding to large-scale fires.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Decisions on how the police enforce the law and deploy their available resources, including collaboration arrangements, are the responsibility of individual Chief Officers, taking into account the specific local problems and demands with which they are faced.
Home Office also supports specialist National Resilience capabilities to respond to multiple scale incidents. These capabilities are discussed quarterly at the National Fire Chief Council’s National Resilience Board and the Home Office Strategic Resilience Board to ensure that the agreed capabilities are in place, well maintained and remain fit for purpose.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish the Government response to the Consultation on the review of section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, published in May 2014; and if it remains her intention for any amendments to the legislation arising from the consultation to be made before the dissolution of Parliament.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
The consultation on revising Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 has now concluded. Draft proposals are with other Government departments for consideration and I intend to make an announcement in due course.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which department has lead responsibility for international counter-narcotics policy.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
The Home Office has lead responsibility for international counter-narcotics policy, working closely with a range of other departments and agencies including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the National Crime Agency and the Department for International Development.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what research her Department has commissioned on the contribution of testing households products and their ingredients on animals to the UK economy; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
The Home Office has not commissioned research on the contribution of testing household products and their ingredients on animals to the UK economy.
We have made a commitment to ban the testing of household products on animals. Although superficially straightforward, this issue has not been easy to resolve. Any solution has to be legally viable since we cannot ban testing
which may be required under UK or EU law.
We also need to be cautious that we do not develop a solution that precludes research that is essential or drives necessary research overseas. The key issue is around ingredients. My officials are currently engaging with stakeholders
to develop a solution that is workable and sensible, but does not have a chain of unforeseen circumstances.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with the National Farmers' union on the details of the injunction relating to protestor activities around the badger culls scheduled to take place in Gloucestershire and Somerset in 2014.
Answered by Damian Green
Home Office officials have had discussions with officials from the Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the National Farmers' Union
about the use of civil injunctions, in the context of a broader engagement with
both organisations, on the badger culling activity for 2014.
Asked by: Chris Williamson (Independent - Derby North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which responsibilities for tackling animal welfare crimes are managed by (a) her Department and (b) non-governmental organisations.
Answered by Norman Baker
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is the lead Government department for policy and legislation in relation to animal welfare, including offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. The police and local authorities have powers to enforce that Act, but any person or organisation (such as the RSPCA) can initiate criminal proceedings under it.
In addition to the Government's funding for individual police forces to tackle all types of crime, including wildlife crime, the Home Office and DEFRA both contribute funding to support the work of the National Wildlife Crime Unit, the national police unit dedicated to tackling wildlife crime. And where wildlife crimes are sufficiently serious, organised or complex, the National Crime Agency will ensure that partners across the law enforcement community benefit from its coordination, tasking and intelligence arrangements, as well as being able to access its specialist capabilities. Furthermore, the Home Office plays a key role in the Government's efforts to tackle the illegal wildlife trade, which is a serious transnational criminal industry worth billions of pounds each year. I was therefore pleased that, at the recent London Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference which I attended, world leaders from over forty countries made a commitment to eradicate the trade.
The Home Office also regulates the use of living animals in scientific procedures in England, Scotland and Wales under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.