Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a fee for a project licence under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and using the funds generated to (a) support the further development of non-animal methods and (b) improve enforcement of the regulatory framework.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Government charges fees for regulation under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 on a full cost recovery basis. The Government has no plans to introduce a fee for project licences. The Government will shortly increase the current fees to maintain high standards of regulation.
The Government recently announced that it will double investment, from £10m to £20m per annum, in research to achieve the three Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement) and develop non-animal alternatives. The Government will also publish a plan to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of technologies and methods to reduce reliance on the use of animals in science.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of applying the same exemptions as apply to the EU ETIAS scheme for airside transit visitors to the UK’s ETA scheme.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
One of the Government’s main priorities is to keep the UK safe. The Government is firmly committed to strengthening the UK’s border by ensuring that everyone wishing to travel to, or transit through, the UK (except British and Irish citizens) must seek permission in advance of travel.
The ETA scheme, once fully rolled out, will close the current gap in advance permissions for non-visa nationals, visiting or transiting the UK.
The information provided in an ETA application will be used to conduct checks and prevent anyone who poses a threat travelling to the UK.
Whilst the EU has taken a different approach to airside transit passengers in their ETIAS scheme, many of our international partners with similar schemes, such as the US, New Zealand and Canada, do apply the requirements of their respective scheme to transit passengers.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Office, with reference to the statistics by the Home Office entitled Statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain: 2022, published on 13 July 2023, what assessment she has made of the reasons for which the number of severe experiments on dogs rose from zero to 20 between 2021 and 2022.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals in Great Britain do not include data on the reasons for changes in the number of procedures carried out year to year.
The government is committed to the replacement, reduction, and refinement of the use of animals in science.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain 2022, published on 13 July 2023, for what reason the number of eye irritation tests in rabbits increased from 0 in 2021 to 3 in 2022; and whether she is taking steps to help reduce the number of such tests on rabbits in the future.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals in Great Britain do not include data on the reasons for changes in the number of procedures carried out year to year.
The Government is committed to the development of alternatives to using animals in scientific procedures and continues to actively support and fund the development and dissemination of the 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement) for the use of animals in scientific procedures. This is achieved through UK Research and Innovation’s funding of the National Centre for the 3Rs, which works nationally and internationally to drive the uptake of non-animal technologies, and through research into the development of alternatives by Innovate UK, the Medical Research Council, and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding her Department provided to the (a) Refuge National Domestic Abuse Helpline, (b) National Perpetrator Helpline run by Respect, (c) Men’s Advice Line, (d) Galop national LGBT+ victims' helpline, (e) National Stalking Helpline operated by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust and (f) Revenge Porn Helpline operated by SWGfL in the (i) 2022-23 and (ii) 2023-24 financial years.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Home Office has provided over £3.7m of funding to the following helplines to provide advice and support to victims of domestic abuse, perpetrators of domestic abuse as well as victims of stalking since financial year 2022/23.
The breakdown of allocation by financial year is as follows:
Financial Year 2022/2023
(a) National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge - £1,000,000
(b) National Perpetrator Helpline, run by Respect - £200,000
(c) Men’s Advice Line, run by Respect - £200,000
(d) National LGBT+ Victims' Helpline, run by Galop - £150,000
(e) National Stalking Helpline operated by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust - £150,000
(f) Revenge Porn Helpline operated by South West Grid for London - £160,430
Financial Year 2023/2024
(a) National Domestic Abuse Helpline, run by Refuge - £1,000,000
(b) National Perpetrator Helpline, run by Respect - £200,000
(c) Men’s Advice Line, run by Respect - £200,000
(d) National LGBT+ Victims' Helpline, run by Galop - £150,000
(e) National Stalking Helpline operated by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust - £150,000
(f) Revenge Porn Helpline operated by South West Grid for London - £160,430
In March 2022, we published the cross-Government Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan. The Plan will seek to transform the whole of society’s response in order to prevent offending, support victims and pursue perpetrators, as well as to strengthen the systems processes in place needed to deliver these goals.
As part of the investment of over £140 million for supporting victims and survivors in the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, and over £81 million for tackling perpetrators, the Home Office committed to double funding for National Domestic Abuse Helpline, and further increase funding for all the national helplines it supports.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on whether animal testing has taken place in the UK since 2019.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Information on animal testing regulated under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 that has taken place in the UK since 2019 can be found in the annual published statistics here: www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-of-scientific-procedures-on-living-animals.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential link between (a) animal abuse and (b) domestic violence; and if she will make a written statement.
Answered by Sarah Dines
Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) including domestic abuse is a government priority. VAWG is an unacceptable, preventable issue which blights the lives of millions.
Our Domestic Abuse Act became law in April 2021. This is a truly game changing piece of legislation which transforms our response to victims in every region in England and Wales and ensures perpetrators can be brought to justice. The Act also expands the definition of controlling or coercive behaviour to victims who do not live with their abuser. Domestic abuse can affect all parts of a victim’s life and relationships including, for example, through threats and harm to pets.
In July 2022 we published statutory guidance to accompany the legislation and to provide explanation of the different characteristics of domestic abuse, which includes reference to how pets may be used by perpetrators.
During the passage of the then Domestic Abuse Bill, Dogs Trust submitted written evidence highlighting that available research indicates a link between abuse to pets and abuse to people in the context of domestic abuse, for example they carried out a survey of domestic abuse professionals which found that 49% of them had been aware of cases where pets had been killed.
The Government is also committed to animal welfare. Whilst the Government has not made a formal assessment of existing research into the link between those who commit domestic abuse offences and those who commit animal welfare offences, as a reflection of the seriousness with which we take cruelty against our animals we supported the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act which received royal assent in April 2022.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of (a) scientists and (b) postgraduate students barred from working in the UK in 2023 on national security grounds are associated with BGI Group.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
We do not publicly comment on matters of national security.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the National Protective Security Authority is taking steps to provide guidance to (a) businesses and (b) universities on dealing with BGI Group.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The National Protective Security Authority, with the National Cyber Security Centre, have developed the Trusted Research campaign to help academia make the most of international collaborations, by informing them of the threat and helping them to make sensible decisions about research and research partners.
More recently they also developed the Secure Innovation campaign which is focused on helping new start-ups in the emerging and critical technology sectors to better protect themselves and, think carefully about their partners and investment.
We will continue to work with NPSA to support industry and academia.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Suella Braverman
We are committed to tackling ASB and the House will be aware that we are committed to recruiting 20,000 additional police officers which will take us to the highest number we have ever had.
We expanded the Safer Streets Fund to include the tackling of ASB as one of its primary aims.
We have also last year published the ASB Principles to establish a strong and effective partnership response to ASB.