Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department will publish its expanded fraud strategy.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government’s Manifesto set a clear commitment to deliver a new Fraud Strategy. This commitment will be delivered in early 2026.
The Strategy has been developed in close collaboration with stakeholders from industry, law enforcement and non profit organisations. It will set out how we will disrupt fraud, safeguard individuals and businesses and respond to fraud with support and justice for victims.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will list by police force area the (a) number of officers of superintendent rank or above in each local force and (b) proportion of each local police force's warranted strength that is of superintendent rank or above.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office collects and publishes statistics on the number of police officers employed by each police force in England and Wales on a bi-annual basis. These data are published in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletins, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-england-and-wales-31-march-2017
Data on the number of police officers by rank and by police force area, as at 31 March each year, can be found in the Open Data Tables accompanying the main release: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/629362/open-data-table-police-workforce.ods
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions Ministers of her Department have had with Leicestershire County Council on the level of central government grant funding required per unaccompanied asylum seeking child to fully cover all costs incurred by that council since the inception of the unaccompanied asylum seeking children scheme.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government is committed to a fairer distribution of caring responsibilities across the country in a way that protects the best interests of all children and provides appropriate funding to local authorities for the care of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. We have consulted widely and extensively with local authorities across the UK in order to assess their spending and capacity to care for additional unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children. In light of information provided by local authorities, in July the Home Office significantly increased the national rates of funding to local authorities taking responsibility for unaccompanied asylum seeking children and have offered additional funding to bolster regional structures for the National Transfer Scheme. We will keep these arrangements under review, and we encourage all local authorities, including Leicestershire, to continue to work through their respective Regional Strategic Migration Partnerships on participation in the scheme.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions Ministers of her Department have had with Leicestershire County Council on its participation in the unaccompanied asylum seeking children scheme since that council announced its intention to withdraw from that scheme in October 2016.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government is committed to a fairer distribution of caring responsibilities across the country in a way that protects the best interests of all children and provides appropriate funding to local authorities for the care of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. We have consulted widely and extensively with local authorities across the UK in order to assess their spending and capacity to care for additional unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children. In light of information provided by local authorities, in July the Home Office significantly increased the national rates of funding to local authorities taking responsibility for unaccompanied asylum seeking children and have offered additional funding to bolster regional structures for the National Transfer Scheme. We will keep these arrangements under review, and we encourage all local authorities, including Leicestershire, to continue to work through their respective Regional Strategic Migration Partnerships on participation in the scheme.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to increase the effectiveness of the UK Border Force as a law enforcement organisation since it was established as an independent operational command within her Department in 2012.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Since it was established as an operational command of the Home Office in 2012, a number of positive changes have been made to Border Force's working practices in order to make it a more effective law enforcement organisation. In 2012, Border Force was, for the first time, provided with an operating mandate which set out parameters for operational decision-making, including the need to maintain 100% checks on all passengers arriving at passport control at all times. Border Force has also become more intelligence-led - adept at utilising increasing volumes of advance data to make targeted interventions against potentially dangerous passengers and consignments of goods upon arrival in the UK.
Other important changes include: an improvement in command and control arrangements so that Border Force can rapidly respond and adjust to evolving security threats across different locations; employing new leadership in headquarters and ports across the country to install a more security-focussed culture in the organisation and plan effective operations with partner organisations at both a national and international level. Border Force has also increased the capability of its officers to respond to security threats, by equipping all permanently employed staff working at passport control with powers and training to detain individuals that pose a threat to the public who are subject to an arrest warrant or otherwise liable to arrest.
These reforms have had a transformative effect on Border Force. As well as undertaking its traditional immigration and customs roles more effectively and efficiently, it has also proved capable of meeting a range of new strategic priorities, including rapidly implementing a screening regime in response to the global ebola outbreak and being a international leader in its work to identify victims of trafficking and slavery. Furthermore, in the past year Border Force has seized nearly 8 tonnes of Class A Drugs, more than two and half times as much as in 2009/10.