Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he has taken to support his Department's staff who act as whistleblowers.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has clear, well established Whistleblowing policy and process arrangements. Responsibility is shared between HR, which owns the policy, and HO Security & Investigations, who run the Nominated Officer network.
As the link between the individual raising the concern and the organisation, the Nominated Officers oversee the management of Whistleblowing cases and help the employees with raising their concern by providing advice independent from individual’s management chain.
In addition to Nominated Officers and the whistleblowing team, other internal channels of support available to individuals throughout the process include:
The department operates several routes for employees to raise concerns, including a hotline, an inbox for emails and online form which ensures that individuals can remain anonymous if required. To ensure anonymity, all concerns are recorded centrally with the identity of the individual raising the concern not recorded alongside their concern.
The Home Office Raising a Concern including Whistleblowing policy is regularly promoted and referenced on the staff intranet and internal communication channels reminding staff of the routes available to raise concerns and signposting the support available to those individuals who raise a concern.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle hate crime in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
Whilst the Government is pleased to see the overall reduction in police-recorded hate crime across forces in England and Wales in the year ending March 2023, we are clear that any instance is one too many and we remain committed to tackling these appalling offences. We are also committed to tackling the abhorrent crimes linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
The Government continues to fund True Vision, an online hate crime reporting portal, designed so that victims of all forms of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We also fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, a central capability designed to provide expert advice to support individual local police forces in dealing with online hate crime.
We are supporting the police by providing them with the resources they need. Part of this necessitates police recruitment and training – there are now over 149,000 officers in England and Wales, higher than the previous peak before the Police Uplift Programme, in March 2010. As of 30 September 2023, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has over 35,000 officers (35,006). This is higher than the pre-PUP peak in the MPS of 33,820 in March 2010. The MPS is working hard to attract and recruit new officers and replace officers that leave, for example through retirement or voluntary resignation. Ultimately, responsibility for recruiting and maintaining officers lies with the Mayor of London and the Commissioner who are accountable to the people of London. The MPS’s funding will be up to £3538.1million in 2024/25, an increase of up to £118.9million when compared to 2023/24.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle fraud-related crime in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
In May 2023, the Government published the Fraud Strategy which set out a national response to combat the threat. Fraud has since reduced 13% compared to last year (Sept 2022), including a 10% decrease in London. The rate has continued to decrease since the Fraud Strategy was launched in May 2023.
Through the new Online Safety Act and the Online Fraud Charter the Government is working to prevent the British public encountering fraud at source. The Fraud Strategy also committed £100m of investment in law enforcement, and created a new National Fraud Squad, to increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters. Furthermore, fraud will be made a priority for local police forces through the Strategic Policing Requirement.
We also launched the new national anti-fraud behaviour change campaign launched on 12th February, which will help people spot and take action to avoid fraud.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle cyber-related crime in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Tackling cyber crime is at the heart of the Government’s National Cyber Strategy 2022-25, which is supported by £2.6 billion of investment through the National Cyber Fund.
Key to delivery is ensuring that local policing has the resources needed to deal with the cyber threats we face. In 2023/24, the Home Office is receiving £18 million from the National Cyber Fund to provide a range of capabilities and resource to tackle and respond to cyber crime. This funding is supplemented by a further £16 million of Home Office funding through the Police Settlement Programme.
This funding continues to build law enforcement capabilities at the national, regional, and local levels to ensure they have the capacity and expertise to deal with the perpetrators and victims of cyber crime.
There are a wide range of law enforcement and community outreach programmes addressing cyber crime in Greater London and Enfield, which include:
We continue to work with all of society to tackle cyber crime as we recognise it is an issue that requires collaboration from citizens, businesses and the public sector, keenly working with communities in Enfield to educate and inform as to the harms cyber crime can cause.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to help increase retention levels of junior doctors in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield, and (c) London.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan sets out how to improve culture and leadership, to ensure that up to 130,000 fewer staff leave the National Health Service over the next 15 years. The plan includes: implementing actions from the NHS People Plan that have been shown to be successful; implementing plans to improve flexible opportunities for prospective retirees and delivering the actions needed to modernise the NHS pension scheme; and committing to ongoing national funding for continuing professional development for nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals, so NHS staff are supported to meet their full potential.
Additionally, for junior doctors, NHS England’s Enhancing Junior Doctors' Working Lives programme continues to implement a number of measures aimed at supporting junior doctors, encouraging them to stay in training and the NHS, and reducing overall attrition. This includes measures such as Less than Full Time training options, to allow trainees to continue to work in the service and progress with their training on a reduced working pattern, where this is beneficial for their personal circumstances. These measures apply across England, including in the Enfield North constituency and all London boroughs.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people receive tax free childcare in (a) Enfield North Constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield, and (c) London.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Statistics relating to Tax-Free Childcare account use are published quarterly in “Tax-Free Childcare Statistics” on the gov.uk website. The latest publication, containing information up to September 2023 is here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-free-childcare-quarterly-statistics
Number of Families and Children with Used Tax-Free Childcare accounts by local authority are published as tables 9 and 10. Number of Families and Children with Used Tax-Free Childcare accounts by Westminster parliamentary constituency are published as tables 11 and 12.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with rail service providers on tackling anti-social behaviour on railway services in (a) Enfield North Constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield, and (c) London.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) on the rail network in London and throughout the country is a top priority for the British Transport Police (BTP).
Where ASB hotspots have been identified, BTP implements Problem-solving Plans (PSPs) in partnership with its policing and non-policing partners which target their resources and activity to deal with local issues of concern.
Problem Solving Plans are a structured method used to understand the nature and causes of problems that affect communities and take preventative action in collaboration with partners and stakeholders. The focus is on getting to the root of the problem, identifying who can help (both within and outside of policing) and working together from the outset, along with thinking creatively on how to solve a problem.
Problem-solving Plans currently in place in London include (but are not limited to) Finsbury Park, Croydon, and Victoria.
Enfield is not in BTP’s top crime locations for ASB so there is no bespoke Problem-solving Plan in place, but BTP’s high visibility officers conduct on-board and station patrols in the local area to reassure passengers and staff, while deterring those who would engage in criminal behaviour.
If passengers see or experience ASB on the rail network, in Enfield, London or across the country they should report this to BTP using their text 61016 service or via the Railway Guardian app. In an emergency, they should always call 999.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Household Support Fund on levels of child poverty in (a) Enfield North Constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London since October 2021.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Over £2 billion has been allocated to date to Local Authorities in England via the Household Support Fund to help those most in need, including £14,239,973 in the London Borough of Enfield, and £339,357,037 in the Local Authorities that make up Greater London.
The HSF is an intentionally flexible scheme designed to enable Local Authorities to respond to local need. Local Authorities are encouraged through our scheme guidance to consider the needs of households including families with children of all ages.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle knife crime in (a) Enfield North Constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2019, the Home Office has provided over £43m of funding for a London Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) (including £9.5m this year) which is providing a multi-agency, preventative response designed to tackle the drivers of serious violence and knife crime. In addition, we have invested over £60m (including c.£8.9m this year) in ‘hotspot policing’ to boost the policing response to serious violence in London and provide high-visibility police patrols and problem-solving tactics in the streets and neighbourhoods most affected.
VRUs are tasked with investing in evidence-based approaches designed to steer vulnerable young people away from involvement in violence. As part of this approach, the London VRU is funding local interventions in Enfield including an outreach and detached youth team which delivers after school activities and creative sessions, 1-1 holistic support for young people, mentoring sessions and sports sessions for children and young people. Alongside this, the policing hot spot response programme is targeting key locations in Enfield Town and Fore Street. In addition to additional visible police patrols, policing interventions delivered through this programme in Enfield have included work to prevent robberies of school pupils and work to target males who were assaulting sex workers.
The government is also taking forward a programme of national activity to drive down knife crime. This includes recent consultation on new legislative proposals, including a ban of zombie-style knives and machetes. The government response was published on 30 August 2023. Following careful consideration of the responses to the consultation, a Statutory Instrument was laid in Parliament on 25 January 2024. Once the legislation has been approved by Parliament, a surrender scheme will be launched this summer to remove these items from our streets and once this has been completed, the manufacture, supply, sale and possession of zombie-style knives and machetes will be outlawed from 24 September 2024. This will cover face to face and online sales.
Additionally, through the Criminal Justice Bill 2023, which is currently progressing through parliament, we are providing more powers for police to seize knives held in private that they believe will be used for unlawful violence, increasing the maximum penalty for the offences of selling prohibited weapons and selling knives to under 18s and creating a new offence of possessing an article with blade or point or an offensive weapon with intent to commit unlawful violence.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help tackle burglaries in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) the London Borough of Enfield and (c) London.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Crime Survey for England and Wales data shows a 56% fall in domestic burglaries when comparing the year ending September 2023 with the year ending March 2010. This is clearly good news; however, we recognise the impact domestic burglary can have on individuals and communities, and we are committed to tackling and preventing this crime.
The public rightly expects that the police will visit them when a home burglary has been committed, which is why we welcome the announcement made by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) on 8 June, that all 43 police forces in England and Wales have been implementing this attendance policy since March 2023. We are working with police leaders to ensure forces are making their attendance data available to the public. https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/police-now-attending-scene-of-every-home-burglary.
The police commitment to attend home burglaries is supported by specific College of Policing good practice guidance on conducting residential burglary investigations: https://www.college.police.uk/guidance/residential-burglary.
Police forces across England and Wales have also committed to pursue all lines of enquiry where there is a reasonable chance it could lead to catching a perpetrator and solving a crime. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pursuing-all-reasonable-lines-of-enquiry-letter-to-police-leaders/pursuing-all-reasonable-lines-of-enquiry-letter-to-police-leaders
To help ensure the police have the resources they need to fight crime and tackle anti-social behaviour, we have delivered on our commitment to recruit 20,000 additional police officers by the end of March 2023. There are now over 149,000 officers in England and Wales, higher than the previous peak in March 2010, and as of 30 September, the MPS has over 35,000 officers.