Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many officers from Norfolk Constabulary have provided mutual aid to the Metropolitan Police for policing protests since 7 October 2023.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not record this information. However, we know that mutual aid has been provided to the Metropolitan Police from all other forces to support the policing efforts linked to wider protest activity since October 2023.
Mutual aid is a daily occurrence across UK policing and operates at regional and national level.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her oral statement of 17 January on Police Conduct and David Carrick, Official Report, column 179, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring that an outside police force investigates the cases involving Metropolitan officers and staff accused of domestic violence or sexual abuse.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Domestic abuse and sexual violence are devastating crimes and victims should have confidence that all reports are taken seriously and cases handled effectively.
Any allegation of serious assault or sexual offences must, by law, be referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) under the mandatory referral criteria.
In July 2022, HMICFRS, the IOPC and the College of Policing published their report into a super-complaint about the police response to police-perpetrated domestic abuse (PPDA). The report recommends that all forces ensure PPDA allegations are investigated by someone with no prior connection to any of those involved in the allegations. The NPCC has since confirmed that all forces have accepted relevant recommendations in the report.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will make available data on individuals arriving in the UK under the Ukraine Family Visa sponsorship route to local authorities to enable them to provide advice on accessing public services.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Ukraine Family Scheme is for those Ukraine nationals who have family members in the UK and wish to join them here.
Whilst there is an expectation they will be looked after by their family sponsor, there is no requirement in the scheme for the sponsor to accommodate and support their family member once in the UK. Those who are issued visas under the Ukraine Family Scheme are issued with access to public funds and services.
The Home Office does not collect specific data on where Ukraine nationals arriving under this scheme will be living, as this is not part of the requirements for the visa to be issued. Yet we continue to liaise with our colleagues in the Department for Levelling Up Homes and Communities about what information we can supply to local authorities to assist them in their work supporting those who arrive under the Ukraine Family Scheme.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers there (a) were in Norfolk in each year since 2018 and (b) are projected to be in (i) 2022, (ii) 2023, (iii) 2024 and (i) 2025.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size of the police workforce in England and Wales, broken down by Police Force Area (PFA), on a biannual basis in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin.
Information on the number of police officers broken down by PFA, back to 2007, can be found in the accompanying Open Data Tables here:
While the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin remains the key measure of the size of the police workforce, as part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme, the Home Office also publishes a quarterly update on the number of officers (headcount terms only) in England and Wales, also broken down by PFA. Data are available here: Police Officer uplift statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The latest data from the ‘Police officer uplift’ statistics show that as at 31 December 2021 there were 1,857 officers in Norfolk Police (Table U1). Norfolk Police has recruited 180 additional officers out of an allocated total of 134 additional officers for years one and two of the uplift combined (Table U2). Norfolk Police has been allocated 90 additional officers for year 3 (Table B1).
On 2 February 2022, the Government published a total police funding settlement of up to £16.9 billion in 2022/23, an increase of up to £1.1 billion when compared to 2021/22. Of this, forces will receive an extra £550 million in government grants, which includes funding to deliver the final 8,000 additional officers as part of the Police Uplift Programme, enabling forces to recruit and maintain the full 20,000 officer uplift.
We are committed not only to recruiting 20,000 additional officers by March 2023, but also to retaining these officers and ensuring it is a career where all recruits can thrive.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many senior care worker roles have been recruited through the skilled worker route in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The most recent published data can be found here:
Visas and Citizenship data: Q2 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Information relating to Skilled workers (Tier 2) can be found on worksheet VC_01a. However, such information is not broken down further into specific occupations, such as senior care workers.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has issued guidance to police forces on the suspension of driver awareness courses during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The management of driver awareness courses is an operational matter for individual police forces and course providers. Due to the current coronavirus situation, all classroom courses have been cancelled until Monday 3rd August 2020 and have been replaced by Digital Classroom Courses.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to introduce a new official au pair status within the Youth Mobility Visa (Tier 5) for EU members states after the end of the transition period.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We have indicated our desire to negotiate a youth mobility arrangement with the EU, or with individual countries within it, ensuring young people can continue to enjoy the social, cultural and educational benefits of living in the EU and the UK.
The Government has no plans to introduce an immigration route specifically for au-pairs.