Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what Border Force’s staffing levels were in (a) the Port of Dover and (b) Manston Airport in each quarter since January 2019 to date.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not routinely publish information relating to the number of staff working in specific locations as this would publicise operational practises which, in the wrong hands, could be used to attempt to evade controls at the border and compromise border security.
However, resource and staffing requirements at every port are continually reviewed by Border Force and we work closely with all port operators to try and anticipate demand. Resources are deployed flexibly as and when they are required.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he has taken to review (a) guidance and training for teachers and school staff and (b) guidelines on child safeguarding in relation to strip and intimate searches undertaken by police officers on school grounds.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department is currently reviewing the ‘searching, screening and confiscation at school’ guidance. As part of this review, officials are engaging with teaching unions, the third sector and other government departments, including the Home Office, to gather views on changes for consideration, including the roles of parents, the police and teachers in these challenging situations.
The department will aim to publish revised guidance in the summer, alongside the recently consulted on ‘behaviour in schools’ guidance, and the ‘keeping children safe in education’ guidance. This will ensure that all schools are clear on their duties relating to safeguarding and protecting the welfare of all pupils. This co-ordinated approach will enable the department to take a comprehensive view of what improvements can be made across our school safeguarding advice and guidance, and whether changes are needed to the ‘working together to safeguard children’ statutory guidance.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to take specific steps to promote and encourage teachers to undertake training on racial bias, discrimination and anti-racism.
Answered by Robin Walker
Racism has no place in education and providers have a responsibility to ensure they take a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of racism towards staff and students. All educational institutions should be inclusive and welcoming for students and staff from all backgrounds.
To be awarded qualified teacher status, trainees must demonstrate all of the Teachers’ Standards at the appropriate level, including Teacher Standard One, which requires teachers to have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils and set goals that stretch and challenge young people of all backgrounds and abilities. Section 2 of the Teachers’ Standards’ is also clear that teachers must treat all pupils with dignity, building relationships rooted in mutual respect; and show tolerance and respect for the rights of others.
Once teachers pass initial teacher training, they enter into two years of funded support through the Early Career Framework, which requires early career teachers to be trained and supported to develop their understanding of maintaining fair and inclusive school environments. This is supplemented by a reformed suite of National Professional Qualifications (NPQs) to provide training and support for teachers and school leaders at all levels to improve outcomes for young people, including a specialist NPQ in Leading Behaviour and Culture that focuses upon the skills and knowledge required to have a positive impact on the wellbeing, motivation and behaviour of their pupils and create a school culture of high-expectations.
Beyond training, school leaders are responsible for ensuring their workforce has appropriate training to meet the needs of all pupils, which is in line with the department’s position on school autonomy and school leaders being best placed to assess the needs of their pupils and workforce.
The Public Sector Equality Duty also requires public bodies, including maintained schools and academies to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010; advance equality of opportunity for people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it; and foster good relations across all characteristics. The department has published guidance for schools on how to comply with their duties under the Equality Act 2010 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children are not strip-searched without a parent, guardian or appropriate adult present.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Strip search is one of the most intrusive powers available to the police and its use should not be a routine occurrence. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act Codes of Practice govern how the police should deploy this power. If the police judge it operationally necessary, then any strip search conducted on a child must be carried out by officers of the same sex, in private and with an appropriate adult present unless both the child and the appropriate adult agree otherwise and in line with safeguarding procedures.
Nobody should be stopped and searched because of their race or ethnicity and safeguards exist to ensure that this does not happen, including statutory codes of practice, use of body worn video to increase accountability and extensive data collection. It is critical that we maintain public confidence in policing and as part of this we will be looking carefully at strengthening the system of local community scrutiny and the value of body-worn video, because transparency is vital.
The MoJ are supporting a project with the National Police Chief’s Council with the aim of addressing the difference in experience of ethnic minority children and adults in police custody. A wide range of agencies and independent advisors have contributed to this work, which engages a number of police forces across the country and builds on existing initiatives in the workplace, including a dedicated Independent Strip Search Scrutiny Panel (ISSSP) in Norfolk & Suffolk Police.
From December 2022 we will be including more detailed custody data in the annual Police Powers and Procedures statistical bulletin which will include data on whether an appropriate adult was called out for a detained child and the number of strip searches & Intimate searches carried out, broken down by age, gender, ethnicity, and offence type.
Further work is underway for the collection of data during stop & searches on the use of strip search. Currently, the Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating this incident and it is vital we await their findings. However, we will consider all recommendations made for the Home Office as a result of these investigations very carefully.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to tackle race disproportionality in the use of strip searches on children.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Strip search is one of the most intrusive powers available to the police and its use should not be a routine occurrence. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act Codes of Practice govern how the police should deploy this power. If the police judge it operationally necessary, then any strip search conducted on a child must be carried out by officers of the same sex, in private and with an appropriate adult present unless both the child and the appropriate adult agree otherwise and in line with safeguarding procedures.
Nobody should be stopped and searched because of their race or ethnicity and safeguards exist to ensure that this does not happen, including statutory codes of practice, use of body worn video to increase accountability and extensive data collection. It is critical that we maintain public confidence in policing and as part of this we will be looking carefully at strengthening the system of local community scrutiny and the value of body-worn video, because transparency is vital.
The MoJ are supporting a project with the National Police Chief’s Council with the aim of addressing the difference in experience of ethnic minority children and adults in police custody. A wide range of agencies and independent advisors have contributed to this work, which engages a number of police forces across the country and builds on existing initiatives in the workplace, including a dedicated Independent Strip Search Scrutiny Panel (ISSSP) in Norfolk & Suffolk Police.
From December 2022 we will be including more detailed custody data in the annual Police Powers and Procedures statistical bulletin which will include data on whether an appropriate adult was called out for a detained child and the number of strip searches & Intimate searches carried out, broken down by age, gender, ethnicity, and offence type.
Further work is underway for the collection of data during stop & searches on the use of strip search. Currently, the Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating this incident and it is vital we await their findings. However, we will consider all recommendations made for the Home Office as a result of these investigations very carefully.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review into the search of Child Q, what steps she has taken to help ensure that race and ethnicity do not influence the decision to strip search (a) a child and (b) and adult.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Strip search is one of the most intrusive powers available to the police and its use should not be a routine occurrence. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act Codes of Practice govern how the police should deploy this power. If the police judge it operationally necessary, then any strip search conducted on a child must be carried out by officers of the same sex, in private and with an appropriate adult present unless both the child and the appropriate adult agree otherwise and in line with safeguarding procedures.
Nobody should be stopped and searched because of their race or ethnicity and safeguards exist to ensure that this does not happen, including statutory codes of practice, use of body worn video to increase accountability and extensive data collection. It is critical that we maintain public confidence in policing and as part of this we will be looking carefully at strengthening the system of local community scrutiny and the value of body-worn video, because transparency is vital.
The MoJ are supporting a project with the National Police Chief’s Council with the aim of addressing the difference in experience of ethnic minority children and adults in police custody. A wide range of agencies and independent advisors have contributed to this work, which engages a number of police forces across the country and builds on existing initiatives in the workplace, including a dedicated Independent Strip Search Scrutiny Panel (ISSSP) in Norfolk & Suffolk Police.
From December 2022 we will be including more detailed custody data in the annual Police Powers and Procedures statistical bulletin which will include data on whether an appropriate adult was called out for a detained child and the number of strip searches & Intimate searches carried out, broken down by age, gender, ethnicity, and offence type.
Further work is underway for the collection of data during stop & searches on the use of strip search. Currently, the Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating this incident and it is vital we await their findings. However, we will consider all recommendations made for the Home Office as a result of these investigations very carefully.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has plans to take steps to speed up the time it takes for the IOPC to publish its reports.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The publication of investigation reports usually follows the conclusion of all relevant proceedings and the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s publication policy states that “reports and investigation summaries should normally be published as soon as possible following the conclusion of all related external proceedings.”
In 2020 the Home Office legislated for significant changes to the police disciplinary system, in part to facilitate quicker disciplinary proceedings. Later this year we will publish misconduct data collected since the introduction of the reforms, including on timeliness of proceedings following investigations.
In June 2021 the Home Secretary announced that she would bring forward the next periodic review of the efficiency and effectiveness of the IOPC. This work will begin shortly.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to introduce a legal requirement for schools to inform the parents or guardians of children before a police officer initiates a strip search or intimate search of a child.
Answered by Robin Walker
The department is clear that any use of strip searching must be carried out in accordance with the law and with full regard for the dignity and welfare of the individual being searched, particularly if the individual being searched is a child.
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) Code C, Annex A, paragraph 11 (c) is clear in stating that an ‘appropriate adult’ must be present in circumstances where a child is to be strip searched. Code C, paragraph 1.7 (a) (i) of the act is equally clear that in the case of a juvenile, an ‘appropriate adult’ means the parent or guardian of the child in the first instance. Other options are available if attendance by the parent or guardian is not possible.
The department is urgently reviewing the ‘searching, screening and confiscation at school’ guidance. This will include consideration of when it is appropriate to inform parents before a search takes place. The review is taking place alongside the ongoing consultation on the ‘behaviour in schools’ guidance. The department will decide its next steps based on the results of this review and the consultation.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans the Government has to improve support to children who have been strip searched or intimately searched.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) Codes of Practice govern how the police should undertake a strip search. The College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on Stop and Search provides further guidance for the police on the use of strip search. We expect officers to follow the law and the best practice guidance set by the College of Policing in its APP.
Her Majesty’s inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) inspect police forces’ compliance with the legislation and APP through their programme of PEEL assessments, national thematic inspections and commissions from the Home Secretary and local policing bodies. We expect forces to respond to these recommendations and address failures of compliance with legislation and APP.
Searches involving exposure of intimate parts of the body must be conducted in accordance with the safeguards in paragraph 11 of Annex A of PACE Code C. If a child is strip searched, an appropriate adult must be present to support the child during this process. It is essential that the police and frontline professionals recognise vulnerability in children and young people, regardless of the circumstances around any interaction. To support this the Home Office have funded the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice programme, which shares the very best practice across forces. We also fund the College of Policing’s Public Protection and Safeguarding Leadership programme which ensures senior leaders in policing have a strong understanding of vulnerability.
Any concerns about the use of strip searches should be raised with the relevant force or the Independent Office of Police Complaints (IOPC), who investigate serious matters involving the police. As part of its work, the IOPC is required to consider if there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing or if police officers have a case to answer for misconduct or gross misconduct.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure that the Authorised Professional Practice (APP) is complied with by serving Officers, specifically with reference to stop and search.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) Codes of Practice govern how the police should undertake a strip search. The College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on Stop and Search provides further guidance for the police on the use of strip search. We expect officers to follow the law and the best practice guidance set by the College of Policing in its APP.
Her Majesty’s inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) inspect police forces’ compliance with the legislation and APP through their programme of PEEL assessments, national thematic inspections and commissions from the Home Secretary and local policing bodies. We expect forces to respond to these recommendations and address failures of compliance with legislation and APP.
Searches involving exposure of intimate parts of the body must be conducted in accordance with the safeguards in paragraph 11 of Annex A of PACE Code C. If a child is strip searched, an appropriate adult must be present to support the child during this process. It is essential that the police and frontline professionals recognise vulnerability in children and young people, regardless of the circumstances around any interaction. To support this the Home Office have funded the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice programme, which shares the very best practice across forces. We also fund the College of Policing’s Public Protection and Safeguarding Leadership programme which ensures senior leaders in policing have a strong understanding of vulnerability.
Any concerns about the use of strip searches should be raised with the relevant force or the Independent Office of Police Complaints (IOPC), who investigate serious matters involving the police. As part of its work, the IOPC is required to consider if there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing or if police officers have a case to answer for misconduct or gross misconduct.