Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle shoplifting.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Shop theft continues to increase at an unacceptable level. We will not stand for this.
Our approach is clear – we want to see more officers on the streets and those officers to be armed with new powers.
That is why we’re giving officers the powers they need through this government’s Crime and Policing Bill, which is introducing a new specific offence of assaulting a retail worker and ending the effective immunity that currently applies for theft of goods of and under £200. We want to remove the perception that those committing shop theft will escape punishment by ensuring there are visible and meaningful consequences for those caught breaking the law.
We are also providing over £7 million over the next three years to support the police and retailers tackle retail crime, including continuing to fund a specialist policing team to disrupt organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.
We are committed to harnessing the collective power of Government, law enforcement and businesses to bear down on retail crime. That is why we are backing the Tackling Retail Crime Together strategy, jointly developed by the police and the private sector. This collaborative approach brings together industry knowledge and experience with policing powers, fostering the local and national partnerships that will make a real difference in local areas.
But we want to go further and faster, which is why the Home Secretary recently declared a “Winter of Action”, building on the success of our Safer Streets Summer campaign to tackle town centre crime including shop theft and anti-social behaviour.
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) adult and (b) child passports have been revoked since 1 January 2024.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested is not centrally held, and could only be collected and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Obtaining the specific information requested would involve collating and verifying information from multiple systems owned by multiple teams across the Home Office and, therefore, could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's White Paper entitled Restoring control over the immigration system, published on 12 May 2025, whether the proposed extension of the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain to ten years will apply retrospectively for Skilled Worker Visa holders residing in the UK.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We will be consulting on the earned settlement scheme later this year and further details on the proposed scheme will be provided at that time.
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of protections for overseas (a) health and (b) social care workers on a visa sponsorship arrangement.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government condemns the exploitation of international care workers by rogue employers in the adult social care sector and continues to take robust action against this unscrupulous behaviour.
We have recently implemented a prohibition on Skilled Worker sponsors recouping sponsorship costs from those they sponsor, and those doing so now risk losing their licence. We are also working to ensure sponsorship and employment systems are more strongly aligned.
On 9 April we further clarified our Skilled Worker salary assessment rules to make clear that sponsors cannot inflate wages by including loans for the worker’s immigration application.
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour in (a) England, (b) London, and (c) West Ham & Beckton constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.
The Government’s Plan for Change, announced by the Prime Minister on 5 December, committed to a zero-tolerance approach to ASB. This will include a dedicated lead officer in every force working with communities to develop a local anti-social behaviour action plan. We will also put 13,000 neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities so that residents have a named officer they can turn to when things go wrong.
This Government will strengthen the powers available to relevant agencies to tackle ASB. We recently announced Respect Orders, which will be introduced in the forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill. Respect Orders can be applied for by police and local councils and are issued by the courts. They will enable courts to place wide-ranging restrictions on the behaviour of the most persistent and disruptive ASB offenders. Breach will be a criminal offence meaning officers can arrest and take action quickly to disrupt ongoing ASB. Breaches will be heard in the criminal courts who will have a wide range of sentencing options, including community orders, unlimited fines and, for the most severe cases, up to two years’ imprisonment.