Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Education on ensuring that the families of asylum seekers are located in areas with services supporting vulnerable children and families.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The government is working to ensure the needs of asylum seekers on asylum support, including those with dependant family members, are met. We engage with Local Authorities to ensure asylum seekers have access to healthcare and social care services as well as education.
We work closely with the Department for Education. The latest published statistics from the Department for Education, for the year ending 31 March 2022, show there were 5,540 UASC being cared for in England alone, an increase of 34% from the previous reporting year and not reflecting the high intake seen last summer.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential (a) merits of ensuring families seeking asylum are placed in local authorities rated outstanding for children's service and (b) impact of an inadequate rating on the quality of support given to (i) asylum seekers and (ii) to local children.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Wherever the Home Office explores accommodation, Multi-Agency Forums are held with the Local Authority and other key stakeholders before implementation. Any concerns relating to the Local Authority’s ability to meet statutory requirements can be raised and discussed in that forum.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that her Department holds discussions with Sefton Council on (a) accommodation and (b) support for children's services for asylum seekers ahead of any decisions being made.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We are committed to engaging with local authorities and local partners to understand and mitigate identified risks and the concerns of the wider community. The Home Office would work closely with the Subject Matter Experts to understand how best to support any proposed accommodation or services for asylum seekers prior to any decision being made to use stand up accommodation.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether local authorities can refuse a new asylum accommodation site in their area.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office, and wider government, continue to work closely with Local Authorities to discuss proposed accommodation sites in their area.
We recognise the vital role Local Authorities play in this work which is why we have regular engagement with them, seeking their views and addressing issues they face.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda fulfils its objectives.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We continue to work closely with the Government of Rwanda to progress our ground-breaking Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP). Our focus remains on moving ahead with this arrangement as soon as possible in order to tackle the global migration crisis and disrupt the business model of criminal gangs who are putting lives at risk. We continue to defend the MEDP against further legal challenges.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the report of His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service entitled an inspection of vetting, misconduct, and misogyny in the police service, published on 2 November 2022, what assessment she has made of the implications for his Department’s policies of that report's finding that people with criminal convictions have been accepted into the police force.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The framework for police vetting is set out by the College of Policing through its statutory vetting code of practice and vetting authorised professional practice (APP) guidance. The guidance is reviewed on an ongoing basis and will consider the relevant recommendations from the inspectorate as part of that.
The code of practice recognises the importance of public confidence and states that applications to join the police should be rejected in all cases where the applicant has served a custodial sentence or is on the sex offenders register.
There is also a rebuttable presumption that a person will not be suitable for appointment if they have a previous conviction or caution for a criminal offence. Factors such as the nature and severity of the offence and age of the person when the offence was committed can be taken into account as each case must be considered on its own merits.
We expect Chief Officers to address all of its recommendations in full.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure domestic violence victims have access to support with the rising costs of living.
Answered by Sarah Dines
Tackling domestic abuse is a priority for this Government. A key part of this is making sure victims and survivors get the support they need.
The Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, which we published in March, invests over £230 million, including over £140 million specifically for supporting victims and survivors.
In the Plan, my department has also doubled funding for the National Domestic Abuse Helpline. And alongside the Ministry of Justice, a commitment was made to provide multi-year funding for support services. This will offer more stability and consistency for service users, as services will not be dependent on yearly grants. This will help ensure high-quality support is available throughout any increases in the cost of living.
And through the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, economic abuse is now recognised in law as being part of the statutory definition of domestic abuse. Between 2018-2022, the Government has provided £567,000 to Surviving Economic Abuse, an organisation that raises awareness of economic abuse and which supports victims and survivors of this pernicious form of domestic abuse.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many additional police officers have been recruited by Merseyside Police since December 2019.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
As part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme, the Home Office publishes a quarterly update on the number of officers in England and Wales, broken down by Police Force Area. Data are available here: Police Officer uplift statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Table U2 of the data tables accompanying this quarterly publication provides a breakdown of these additional officers by month since October 2019. In addition to these data tables, information on the number of police officers (headcount) and new joiners for each month since April 2020 are published in an open data format.
As at 30 June 2022, Merseyside Police have recruited 611 additional police officers attributable to the Police Uplift Programme. This is against an allocation to recruit 665 additional police officers by March 2023.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support domestic abuse victims during the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Government is committed to ensuring that all victims of domestic abuse receive the support they need, when they need it. In March 2022, we published the cross-Government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan which invests over £230 million into tackling domestic abuse, including over £140 million for supporting victims.
To help to ensure victims do not remain with an abuser for fear of not having a roof over their head, the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities introduced a new legal duty within the Act on local authorities to provide support for victims of domestic abuse and their children within safe accommodation, including refuges. This is backed by £125 million of Government funding to ensure that these vital services are available to anyone who needs them, wherever they live.
Ensuring victims and survivors have the funds to move forward with their lives is crucial. That is why in the Domestic Abuse Plan, the Home Office committed to running a further trial of the flexible funding model. The funds will be made available to charities in selected local authorities, and they will have wide-ranging discretion on what these funds can be used to acquire, based on their first-hand understanding of individual’s needs.
We also know that economic abuse can often leave victims economically dependent on abusers, creating financial insecurity that makes it harder for them to access safety. The Government is committed to tackling this form of abuse which is why for the first time in history, economic abuse is now recognised in law as part of the statutory definition of domestic abuse, included in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 (the Act). In the Domestic Abuse Plan, we have committed £200,000 of funding to further support improving the response to economic abuse.
Asked by: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the case of former soldier Joram Nechironga.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
We do not routinely comment on individual cases. Under the UK Borders Act 2007, the Home Secretary is required by law to issue a deportation order for any foreign national who has received a custodial sentence in the UK of at least 12 months, unless an exception applies.
All foreign national offenders are provided with the opportunity to raise claims against their deportation. Any representations received are carefully considered on an individual basis and determined before a person is returned.
We only ever return individuals to their country of origin when the Home Office and, where applicable, the Courts, considers they have no legal right to remain in the UK and where it is safe to do so.