Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of nudification apps on boys and girls under 18.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is aware of concerns about the impacts of nudification apps on children and in facilitating violence against women and girls. AI-generated child sexual abuse material can have direct impact on real children. Offenders use AI to create photorealistic abuse imagery that often features real children, for example children known to the offender or existing victims. We also know that offenders are using AI imagery to groom and blackmail children.
We are taking action on non-consensual intimate image abuse, having criminalised the creation of intimate images without consent (or reasonable belief in consent) in the Data (Use and Access) Act. This built on the existing offences introduced by the Online Safety Act for sharing, or threatening to share intimate images, including deepfakes.
Furthermore, in the Crime and Policing Bill, this Government is protecting children from the growing threat of online predators, by becoming the first country in the world to criminalise AI tools which generate child sexual abuse images.
We are going even further in the Crime and Policing Bill by introducing offences of taking an intimate image without consent, and installing equipment with the intent of taking an intimate image without consent, or a reasonable belief in consent.
Regarding a prohibition of ‘nudification’ apps, the Government is actively considering what action is needed to ensure that any intervention in this area is effective, and will provide an update in due course.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Sikhs are employed in her Department; and whether they are recorded as (a) an ethnic or (b) a religious group.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Home Office workforce Diversity data is published annually: Home Office workforce diversity statistics - GOV.UK.
Home Office reporting captures Sikh as a religion in line with Cabinet Office guidance.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle domestic abuse.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This Government is committed to tackling domestic abuse in all its forms as part of our unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. We have already announced a series of bold measures designed to strengthen the police response to domestic abuse, protect victims and hold perpetrators to account.
In February, under a new approach named 'Raneem's Law', the first domestic abuse specialists were embedded in 999 control rooms in five police forces to advise on risk assessments, work with officers on the ground and ensure that victims are referred to appropriate support services swiftly.
To further strengthen protections for victims, in November 2024 we launched new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs) in selected police forces and courts - which is a huge step towards a new national approach. On 5 March, we expanded the use of DAPOs to Cleveland and we plan to onboard North Wales in the coming months - offering access to these new orders to a greater number of victims. The new DAPO brings together the strongest element of the existing protective order regime into a single comprehensive, flexible order.
On 28 November 2024, the Government announced a funding increase of £30 million, meaning a total investment of £160 million in the Domestic Abuse Safe Accommodation Grant in 2025-26. This will enable local authorities to invest in essential support in frontline safe accommodation services.
We are determined to deliver a cross-Government transformative approach to halving violence against women and girls, underpinned by a new VAWG strategy to be published this year.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with representatives of the mobile phone industry on (a) using technology to prevent stolen phones from being re-used and (b) the adequacy of security on banking phone apps.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 6 February the Home Secretary brought together police, the National Crime Agency, the Mayor of London and leading tech companies to drive greater collaboration in breaking the business model of mobile phone thieves.
As a result of the summit, representatives from policing and tech agreed to significantly boost the sharing of data and intelligence on mobile phone theft to build a comprehensive picture of the organised criminal networks driving this problem and to instigate new work to tackle the problem.
To aid police investigations and recovery of stolen goods, our Crime and Policing Bill includes a measure to give police the power to enter and search premises for stolen property which has been electronically geolocation tracked to those premises and it is not reasonably practicable to obtain a warrant without seriously prejudicing the entry and search purpose. We are also committed to strengthening neighbourhood policing and through our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, there will be thousands of additional police officers and police community support officers.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales provides national estimates of the number of victims of mobile phone theft in England and Wales; this data is not broken down to sub-national geographies.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help reduce phone theft in (a) east London and (b) Ilford South constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 6 February the Home Secretary brought together police, the National Crime Agency, the Mayor of London and leading tech companies to drive greater collaboration in breaking the business model of mobile phone thieves.
As a result of the summit, representatives from policing and tech agreed to significantly boost the sharing of data and intelligence on mobile phone theft to build a comprehensive picture of the organised criminal networks driving this problem and to instigate new work to tackle the problem.
To aid police investigations and recovery of stolen goods, our Crime and Policing Bill includes a measure to give police the power to enter and search premises for stolen property which has been electronically geolocation tracked to those premises and it is not reasonably practicable to obtain a warrant without seriously prejudicing the entry and search purpose. We are also committed to strengthening neighbourhood policing and through our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, there will be thousands of additional police officers and police community support officers.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales provides national estimates of the number of victims of mobile phone theft in England and Wales; this data is not broken down to sub-national geographies.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
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) Ilford South 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.
That’s why we are delivering on our commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing, putting 13,000 neighbourhood police and community support officers into local communities by the end of the Parliament .
We will also equip the police to crack down on those causing havoc on our high streets and in communities. Through the Crime and Policing Bill, we have introduced tougher powers to tackle repeat offending, including the new Respect Order to tackle the most persistent ASB offenders.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of enabling Ukrainian refugees who are living in the UK to obtain the right to remain.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme opened to applications on 4 February 2025, which enables Ukrainians in the UK under the Ukraine visa schemes to apply for a further 18 months’ temporary permission to remain in the UK.
We recognise the Ukrainian government’s desire for the future return of its citizens to Ukraine to assist in the rebuilding of the country. It is important our approach respects these wishes.
This is why the temporary sanctuary Ukraine visa Schemes do not lead to settlement in the UK. We continue to keep the Ukraine Schemes under consistent review in line with developments in the ongoing war.
There are other routes available for those who wish to settle in the UK permanently, if they meet the requirements.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help increase interagency working between (a) local authorities, (b) social services and the (c) police to help prevent crime.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises the vital role that interagency working plays in helping to prevent crime. We have committed to the creation of a new Young Futures Programme, which will embed partnership principles in a network of new Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships.
Prevention Partnerships will drive local multi-agency partnership working, and encourage police, local authorities and other agencies to work in partnership to reduce a young person’s likelihood of becoming involved in crime. This will include effective information sharing between agencies and improved consistency in joined up-working.
Driving down drug-related crime is another key prevention strand of our work. We ensure join-up at a local level through over 100 Combating Drugs Partnerships, which are multi-agency forums that bring together a range of partners at the local level including local authorities, health and police to address drug use and harms.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the average time taken for visa applications to be processed for (a) adults and (b) children.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Visa processing times are published on the UKVI website at Visa decision waiting times: applications outside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and Visa decision waiting times: applications inside the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
UKVI are currently processing applications on the overwhelming majority of its visa routes within their published customer service standards.
Asked by: Jas Athwal (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to designate misogyny as a hate crime.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for this Government and we have set out an unprecedented mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
The Government is carefully considering how best to tackle hate crime. We will set out next steps in due course.