Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to review the rules on Disclosure and Barring Service checks that cover the criminal convictions of children being carried over into adulthood.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Government keeps the framework governing the disclosure of criminal records under constant consideration in order to ensure the disclosure and barring arrangements continue to strike the right balance between safeguarding vulnerable groups and enabling offenders, including those who have received a conviction or caution aged under 18, to put their offending behind them.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's policy is on pre-adult criminal offences being carried over into adulthood when a Disclosure and Barring Service check is requested by a legal adult.
Answered by Sarah Newton
For standard criminal record checks and enhanced criminal record checks a conviction incurred by a person under the age of 18 is disclosable for five and a half years from the date of conviction. A caution, reprimand or warning incurred before the age of 18 is disclosable for two years from the date it was issued.
However, certain specified offences or a conviction receiving a custodial sentence will always be disclosed, and if someone has more than one conviction, then all their convictions will be disclosed. This is the case regardless of whether the convictions were incurred under the age of 18 or as an adult. The arrangements are set out in the Police Act 1997 as amended by the Police Act 1997 (Criminal Record Certificates: Relevant Matters) (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2013.
A basic certificate will disclose any unspent convictions and conditional cautions as provided for by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the current waiting time is for processing a Disclosure and Barring Service check for a British citizen.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The average process time for a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) application is 11.37 days (September 2017).
The application form for a DBS check includes a field for nationality, but it is not mandatory to complete, therefore information on nationality is not routinely captured.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for how long a conviction or criminal offence is required to be shown a Disclosure and Barring Service check; and whether children and young people under the age of 18 are required to carry forward convictions into adulthood on such a check.
Answered by Sarah Newton
For standard criminal record checks and enhanced criminal record checks, a conviction incurred as an adult is disclosable for 11 years from the date of conviction, and a caution incurred as an adult is disclosable for six years from the date it was issued. A conviction incurred by a person under the age of 18 is disclosable for five and a half years from the date of conviction. A caution, reprimand or warning incurred before the age of 18 is disclosable for two years from the date it was issued.
However, certain specified offences or a conviction receiving a custodial sentence will always be disclosed. If someone has more than one conviction, then all their convictions will be disclosed. The arrangements are set out in the Police Act 1997 as amended by the Police Act 1997 (Criminal Record Certificates: Relevant Matters) (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2013.
A basic certificate will disclose any unspent convictions and conditional cautions as provided for by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons her Department has blacklisted citizenship applications from applicants who took the TOEIC test through companies accused of fraudulent activities; when those applicants were defrauded by those companies; and what steps she is taking to ensure that those applicants can still apply with an alternative proof of their level of English being of the required standard to process their application fairly.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
It is open to any person to apply for citizenship if they meet the statutory requirements.
Those applying for naturalisation as a British citizen are required to demonstrate a knowledge of English at B1 level or above, and that they are of good character.
As a TOEIC test is no longer a recognised English test qualification, an alternative qualification must be presented to satisfy the knowledge of English requirement.
Where evidence is available which identifies individuals as having obtained an invalid test certificate, additional scrutiny is applied by caseworkers as part of the assessment of good character, as would be applied to any other potential indication of adverse character or deception. The decision reached is based on the facts of the case and the overall assessment of the applicant’s suitability for naturalisation in accordance with nationality law and published policy.
Further guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/nationality-policy-guidance
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the ruling by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal IPT/13/194/CH, that Amnesty International has been subjected to unlawful surveillance by the Government; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by John Hayes
As the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) said in its judgment of 22 June 2015, any interception that occurred in this case was lawful, necessary and proportionate.
While the IPT has found in favour of two Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), it has made clear that neither of the NGOs suffered material detriment, damage or prejudice as a result of the breaches.
Caution should be exercised against drawing conclusions from the IPT’s ruling about the target of any such interception that may have taken place. However I can neither confirm nor deny specifics relating to this or any other case.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to publish the evaluation being conducted by the Royal College of Policing of body-worn video camera pilots.
Answered by Mike Penning
The MPS launched its first large scale pilot project of BWV in May 2014, with 500 cameras distributed to officers across 10 London boroughs. The College are responsible for publication of their work. The evaluation, due by the autumn, will look at criminal justice, stop and search and complaints outcomes, as well as officer and public perceptions of the technology.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much her Department spent on (a) the Telegraph Modern Slavery in Britain site, (b) the Modern Slavery advertising campaign and (c) the website www.modernslavery.co.uk; and what assessment she has made of the effects of that expenditure on awareness-raising and prevention of modern slavery.
Answered by Karen Bradley
a) The Telegraph Modern Slavery webpages are part of a wider media partnership with the newspaper, which also includes print and online advertorials and digital advertising. The total cost of the partnership with The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph is £125,000. We are unable to give costs of constituent parts of the partnership, including the website, because of commercial confidentiality.
b) The Home Office has allocated a communications campaign budget of £2.3 million to raise awareness of Modern Slavery in the UK.
c) The Home Office has spent £44,000 on the Modern Slavery website. The campaign is being evaluated to ascertain its success in raising awareness of modern slavery in a number of ways including: reports of potential incidences of slavery via the new helpline and website; a pre and post campaign survey of 2,000 adults to measure shifts in awareness, attitudes and claimed behaviour; visits and activity on the website; evaluation of advertising reach and engagement.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to prevent agency workers becoming victims of trafficking for labour exploitation.
Answered by Karen Bradley
We are committed to stamping out modern slavery in all its forms including labour exploitation involving agency workers. Law enforcement agencies
including the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, the police and the National Crime Agency have made commitments as part of the Modern Slavery Strategy to ensure that they will work with the private sector and upstream to prevent workers being exploited and trafficked. The Strategy is expected to be published shortly.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide details of the methodology used to develop the annual National Crime Agency Strategic Assessment of the Nature and Scale of Human Trafficking in the UK.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Details of the methodology used to develop the annual National Crime Agency Strategic Assessment of the Nature and Scale of Human Trafficking in the UK are set out in the report for 2013, published on 30 September 2014. The report can be found at: www.nca.police.uk/publications.
If a person receives a negative Reasonable Grounds or negative Conclusive Decision, this means that they have been found not to be a victim of human trafficking for the purpose of the Council of Europe Convention Against Trafficking in Human Beings.