Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people are employed in the National Crime Agency in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The National Crime Agency (NCA) currently employs around 4,500 Officers, all of whom can be deployed across the United Kingdom.
Serious and organised criminals are not deterred by geographical boundaries. As such, this level of flexibility enables the NCA to respond to serious andorganised crime wherever it occurs, whilst respecting the devolution of powers and recognising the primacy of those in whose territories it operates.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what alternative support the Government has offered the Women's Aid SOS Campaign on countering domestic violence following funding reductions.
Answered by Norman Baker
We are supporting local commissioners to ensure they have all the information they need to make informed decisions about commissioning sexual violence and domestic violence services in their area by holding a series of regional commissioning events on tackling violence against women and girls.
Local authorities have to make some tough spending decisions, but we made sure protecting vulnerable people, including victims of domestic and sexual violence, was a priority in the spending review. For the first time, the Government has ring-fenced nearly £40 million of stable funding up to 2015 for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services, rape crisis centres, the national domestic violence helplines and stalking helpline.
We will continue to work with the women’s sector to support this work on the commissioning of services.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the introduction of plain packaging of tobacco products on the work of the (a) police and (b) UK Border Force in combating the trade in illicit tobacco.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The introduction of plain packaging is likely to have a limited impact. Border
Force does not target on the basis of brand, rather by identifying goods and
people that are known to, or may, represent a risk to the UK using analysis and
intelligence based risk indicators to inform intervention at the earliest and
most appropriate opportunity.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations her Department has received from (a) police and crime commissioners and (b) the UK Border Force on the potential effect of the introduction of plain packaging of tobacco products on combating the trade in illicit tobacco.
Answered by James Brokenshire
To date our records show no representations have been made by Border Force and
Police and Crime Commissioners.