Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in the UK have been prosecuted for belonging or professing to belong to Hezbollah since it was fully proscribed.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Government takes proscription offences seriously. On 1 March 2019, the proscription was extended to cover the Hizballah group in its entirety.
Data on arrests, charges and convictions for the section 11 Terrorism Act 2000 offence of belonging or professing to belong to a proscribed organisation is grouped with other proscription offences (sections 12 and 13 of the Act) in the quarterly Home Office publication ‘Operation of Police Powers under the Terrorism Act 2000’. Data is not published on the specific proscribed organisation that the arrest, charge or conviction relates to.
The most recent publication up to year ending June 2022, was published on 8 September 2022: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/operation-of-police-powers-under-the-terrorism-act-2000-quarterly-update-to-june-2022
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in the UK have been prosecuted for inviting support for Hezbollah since that organisation was fully proscribed.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Government takes proscription offences seriously. On 1 March 2019, the proscription was extended to cover the Hizballah group in its entirety.
Data on arrests, charges and convictions for the section 12 Terrorism Act 2000 offence of inviting or expressing support for a proscribed organisation is grouped with other proscription offences (sections 11 and 13 of the Act) in the quarterly Home Office publication ‘Operation of Police Powers under the Terrorism Act 2000’. Data is not published on the specific proscribed organisation that the arrest, charge or conviction relates to. The most recent publication up to year ending June 2022, was published on 8 September 2022: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/operation-of-police-powers-under-the-terrorism-act-2000-quarterly-update-to-june-2022
The quarterly publications establish transparency by ensuring that data is publicly available on the use of police powers in a consistently categorised way. As with all crime statistics published by the Home Office, the data published in the Terrorism statistics are offence based, where police provide a count of the number of offences recorded. Data providers are not required to provide further detail on events leading to the arrest, as to do so would place a disproportionate burden on the organisations responsible.
This includes the National Counter-Terrorism Police Operations Centre, the Crown Prosecution Service’s Counter-Terrorism Division, the Metropolitan Police Service and the National Counter-Terrorism Policing Headquarters. As with all Official Statistics, we continually review outputs taking account of user needs.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in the UK have been prosecuted for expressing support for Hezbollah since that group was fully proscribed.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Government takes proscription offences seriously. On 1 March 2019, the proscription was extended to cover the Hizballah group in its entirety.
Data on arrests, charges and convictions for the section 12 Terrorism Act 2000 offence of inviting or expressing support for a proscribed organisation is grouped with other proscription offences (sections 11 and 13 of the Act) in the quarterly Home Office publication ‘Operation of Police Powers under the Terrorism Act 2000’. Data is not published on the specific proscribed organisation that the arrest, charge or conviction relates to. The most recent publication up to year ending June 2022, was published on 8 September 2022: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/operation-of-police-powers-under-the-terrorism-act-2000-quarterly-update-to-june-2022
The quarterly publications establish transparency by ensuring that data is publicly available on the use of police powers in a consistently categorised way. As with all crime statistics published by the Home Office, the data published in the Terrorism statistics are offence based, where police provide a count of the number of offences recorded. Data providers are not required to provide further detail on events leading to the arrest, as to do so would place a disproportionate burden on the organisations responsible.
This includes the National Counter-Terrorism Police Operations Centre, the Crown Prosecution Service’s Counter-Terrorism Division, the Metropolitan Police Service and the National Counter-Terrorism Policing Headquarters. As with all Official Statistics, we continually review outputs taking account of user needs.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers are waiting to receive an Asylum Registration Card.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not hold this information.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what is the average waiting time for an asylum seeker to receive an Asylum Registration Card if it is not issued at the point of making an asylum claim.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not hold this information.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of asylum seekers did not receive an Asylum Registration Card when they made their asylum claim in (a) 2020 and (b) 2021.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office does not hold this information.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers in England are awaiting an asylum interview.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office is unable to state what the average waiting time is for an asylum interview, or how many asylum claimants were awaiting their asylum interview because this information is not held in a reportable format, not routinely published and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
However, the Home Office does publish data on the number of asylum claims awaiting an initial decision by duration, for main claimant only. This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics:
List of tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it, in accordance with our international obligations. All asylum claims are considered on a case by case basis and in line with published policy, without unnecessary delay so that individuals who need protection and are granted asylum can start to integrate and rebuild their lives.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, in England, what is the average waiting time for an asylum interview.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office is unable to state what the average waiting time is for an asylum interview, or how many asylum claimants were awaiting their asylum interview because this information is not held in a reportable format, not routinely published and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
However, the Home Office does publish data on the number of asylum claims awaiting an initial decision by duration, for main claimant only. This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics:
List of tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The UK has a proud history of providing protection to those who need it, in accordance with our international obligations. All asylum claims are considered on a case by case basis and in line with published policy, without unnecessary delay so that individuals who need protection and are granted asylum can start to integrate and rebuild their lives.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of enabling fire services personnel to detect mental health problems among older people during home fire safety visits.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Home Office is working with the National Fire Chiefs Council to improve Home Fire Safety Visits and ensure a nationally consistent approach across fire and rescue services. This will include tailoring each intervention to the individuals within a particular home, while still allowing for local adaptation in line with local priorities. Where fire and rescue services identify particular issues or concerns during home fire safety visits, they can signpost people to local agencies such as NHS partners or local authorities.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to make public sexual harassment a criminal offence.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
This Government is committed to taking action to tackle public sexual harassment, that is why in March we announced we will launch a public consultation by the summer recess on whether there should be a new offence of public sexual harassment.
We are also taking several non-legislative actions to address this issue. In September 2021 we launched the pilot of the new StreetSafe tool, which allows people to show on a map places where they have felt unsafe, enabling the police to take action to improve safety. More than 15,000 reports have been submitted through this.
Last December, the College of Policing published new guidance for police showing what they can do when they receive a report of public sexual harassment: the criminal offences available and other protective tools which can be used. Furthermore, the Home Office launched the ‘Enough’ communications campaign in March, which challenges public attitudes and tolerance towards crimes such as public sexual harassment and aims to ensure victims know how and where to report it.