Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when she plans to publish the Government’s response to the consultation on a new pro-competition regime for digital markets.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The consultation closed in October. We are carefully considering the responses we received and will publish our response in due course.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what recent assessment she has made of the CPS’s ability to request and receive data from social media platforms in (a) general and (b) cases involving a deceased child.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Requesting data from social media platforms for use in criminal investigations – which may of course lead to the CPS bringing charges – is an investigative matter for the police, who will have to decide if that’s an appropriate line of inquiry.
Where investigators are unable to obtain data held overseas themselves, CPS prosecutors may draft and issue requests for Mutual Legal Assistance from international counterparts. That capability is further enhanced by powers created by the Government in the Crime (Overseas Production Order) Act 2019.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle online fraud.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Frauds that are committed online are pernicious crimes. They can cause terrible financial and emotional harm to victims. The Government has been working with partners in the public and private sectors to keep the public safe and bring these fraudsters to justice.
DCMS are leading ground-breaking work on the Online Safety Bill. The Bill will require regulated companies to take action to tackle user-generated fraud on their platforms. This will impact some of the most harmful online fraud types such as investment and romance scams. DCMS are also leading work through the Online Advertising Programme that will consider, amongst other things, the role online advertising plays in enabling online fraud.
We have also been working closely alongside the National Cyber Security Centre who launched their Suspicious Email Reporting Service last year. This has already led to over 8.1 million reports received and the removal of over 67,000 scams and 124,000 harmful websites, since its inception in April 2020.
However, Government and the public sector cannot tackle online fraud alone. That is why, on the 21 October 2021, the Joint Fraud Taskforce was relaunched under my [Security Minister] chairmanship. The JFT brings together leaders from across the Government, private sector, regulators, law enforcement and victim groups to encourage collaboration to keep the public safe from these crimes. Alongside the relaunch, we published voluntary agreement with the retail banking, telecommunications and accountancy sectors outlining innovative measures to reduce fraud facilitated through these industries (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/joint-fraud-taskforce). We are also engaging the tech sector specifically through the Online Fraud Steering Group.
We continue to encourage the public to report fraud to Action fraud and to forward any suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and suspicious texts to 7726, free of charge.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report by the Law Commission, Modernising Communications Offences, published in July 2021, which recommendations in that report he plans to accept.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Law Commission’s Report – Modernising Communications Offences – was sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Recommendations on new offences that fall to the MoJ are being carefully considered. We will set out our position on these matters in due course.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the Inspecting Engineers recommendations relating to vegetation management on the Mill Leese embankment, made in the section 10 report, and section 12 statement, as set out in the Reservoirs Act 1975, following their most recent inspection of the Mill Leese Flood Storage Area at Saltwood in Kent.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In accordance with Reservoirs Act 1975 (Capacity, Registration, Prescribed Forms, etc) (England) Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/1677) and subsequent guidance produced by the UK Reservoir Safety Liaison Group (the National Protocol for the Handling, Transmission and Storage of Reservoir Information and Flood Maps), we are unable to publish the full content of the section 10 report and section 12 statement. I recognise the level of local interest in this matter, and the Environment Agency (EA) will disclose information regarding the planned works that it considers will be of benefit to interested members of the public.
The EA has heard from the community that redacted documents are unhelpful and do not contribute to building trust and cooperation. The EA will be visiting the site in mid-September and intends to openly communicate the legally required work proposed for the site.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
What assessment the Government has made of the effectiveness of the Defending Democracy programme as part of its plans to bring forward legislative proposals on online harms.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Defending Democracy programme coordinates work and expertise across government work to safeguard the integrity and security of our democratic processes.
Through the Online Harms legislative proposals, the programme is making good progress against two of its strategic objectives: to encourage respect for open, fair and safe democratic participation; and to promote fact-based discourse.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much in total is owed by football clubs playing in the English Football League to HMRC in overdue unpaid taxes.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Across the English Football League, including the Championship, League 1 and League 2, the total debt is £110,437,964 excluding VAT which was deferred from spring 2020 and is not due until 31 March 2021. The breakdown by league is:
Championship | £88,897,407 |
League 1 | £16,601,127 |
League 2 | £4,939,428 |
total debt | £110,437,964 |
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what grounds EU member states are able to refuse an extradition request from the UK; and what provisions are in place to prevent people with UK convictions who have fled the UK to the EU escaping justice.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Under the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement a requested person cannot be surrendered if their fundamental rights are at risk, if extradition would be disproportionate or if they are likely to face long periods of pre-trial detention.
Some EU Member States operate on the fundamental principle that they cannot extradite their citizens outside of the EU. In this context the provisions of the agreement provide for a path to justice in each case.
For example, where someone has been convicted in the UK, if they are arrested in their state of nationality, the authorities there can decide to enforce the sentence at home.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has received from Public Health England on policies for mitigating the spread of covid-19 amongst people living and working at the asylum seeker accommodation centre at Napier Barracks in Folkestone.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We are working closely with our providers, and with Public Health England, to ensure that all individuals who have to self-isolate can do so and are following all medical advice closely.
We take the welfare of those in our care extremely seriously and asylum seekers can contact the 24/7 helpline run by Migrant Help if they have any issues.
We do not publish the information requested, although the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support
At present the Home Office will continue to regularly move small numbers of people out of Napier barracks into Dispersal Accommodation in line with business as usual processes and will continue to route new people into Napier in line with public health guidance.
Those asylum seekers being moved to Dispersal Accommodation will not be moved to the other Ministry of Defence site currently in use (Penally Training Camp). This site is also providing temporary contingency accommodation for asylum seekers.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who have applied for asylum in the UK (a) have been accommodated at Napier Barracks in Folkestone, (b) are currently being accommodated there; what the average length of stay has been; and whether asylum seekers who have not previously stayed at the Barracks will be accommodated there in the future.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We are working closely with our providers, and with Public Health England, to ensure that all individuals who have to self-isolate can do so and are following all medical advice closely.
We take the welfare of those in our care extremely seriously and asylum seekers can contact the 24/7 helpline run by Migrant Help if they have any issues.
We do not publish the information requested, although the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support
At present the Home Office will continue to regularly move small numbers of people out of Napier barracks into Dispersal Accommodation in line with business as usual processes and will continue to route new people into Napier in line with public health guidance.
Those asylum seekers being moved to Dispersal Accommodation will not be moved to the other Ministry of Defence site currently in use (Penally Training Camp). This site is also providing temporary contingency accommodation for asylum seekers.