Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had recent discussions with police forces on the effectiveness of the commitment that the police attend the scene of every home burglary.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Crime Survey for England and Wales data shows a 56% fall in domestic burglaries when comparing the year ending September 2023 with year ending March 2010. This is clearly good news; however, we recognise the impact domestic burglary can have on individuals and communities and we are committed to tackling and preventing this crime.
The public rightly expects that the police will visit them when a home burglary has been committed, which is why we welcome the announcement made by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) on 8 June 2023 that all 43 police forces in England and Wales have been implementing this attendance policy since March 2023: https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/police-now-attending-scene-of-every-home-burglary.
The police commitment to attend home burglaries is supported by specific College of Policing good practice guidance on conducting residential burglary investigations: https://www.college.police.uk/guidance/residential-burglary.
We are continuing to regularly engage with the NPCC and the police on tackling burglary through an array of forums, including the Residential Burglary Taskforce and the National Policing Board, as well as working with police leaders to ensure forces are making their attendance data available to the public.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had recent discussions with the police on the potential merits of incorporating wildlife crime into the Policing Education Qualification Framework.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government recognises the importance of tackling wildlife crime, which is why, along with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Home Office directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) to help tackle these crimes.
The NWCU provides intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to the police and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime. This includes supporting cases referred by Border Force to the National Crime Agency or to individual forces.
The NWCU is also the UK policing focal point for EUROPOL and INTERPOL wildlife crime activity. In addition, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025 provides a framework through which policing, and its partners, can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues which predominantly affect rural communities.
Training standards and the national policing curriculum (covering initial training for all officers) are set by the College of Policing to ensure all officers benefit from the same high standard of initial training, regardless of which force they join. Officers undertake further training and development during their career, which may be tailored to their specific role.
We have not recently held discussions with policing on the potential merit to incorporate wildlife crime into the Policing Education Qualification Framework and there are currently no plans to undertake an assessment of the impact of crime on the economy in rural areas.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment with the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the potential impact of crime on the economy in rural areas.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government recognises the importance of tackling wildlife crime, which is why, along with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Home Office directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) to help tackle these crimes.
The NWCU provides intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to the police and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime. This includes supporting cases referred by Border Force to the National Crime Agency or to individual forces.
The NWCU is also the UK policing focal point for EUROPOL and INTERPOL wildlife crime activity. In addition, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025 provides a framework through which policing, and its partners, can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues which predominantly affect rural communities.
Training standards and the national policing curriculum (covering initial training for all officers) are set by the College of Policing to ensure all officers benefit from the same high standard of initial training, regardless of which force they join. Officers undertake further training and development during their career, which may be tailored to their specific role.
We have not recently held discussions with policing on the potential merit to incorporate wildlife crime into the Policing Education Qualification Framework and there are currently no plans to undertake an assessment of the impact of crime on the economy in rural areas.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an estimate of the number of asylum seekers presenting as homeless.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Asylum seekers are not eligible for statutory homelessness assistance. The Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide accommodation to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute while their application for asylum is being considered.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many properties in Lincolnshire other than hotels Serco have operated for housing asylum seekers since 2020.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation (including in contingency hotels and other contingency accommodation) is published in table Asy_D11 here: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had recent discussions with the police on taking steps to help tackle shoplifting in rural areas.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the significant impact shoplifting has on businesses, communities, and consumers. The Crime Survey for England and Wales shows neighbourhood crime is down 48% compared to findings from the year ending March 2010.
However, Police Recorded Crime figures show shoplifting offences increased by 32% in the 12 months to September 2023. Statistics also show the number of people charged with shoplifting offences has risen by 34% in the year ending September 2023, showing that police are taking action.
We have recently taken significant steps to improve the police response to retail crime, including shoplifting.
In October 2023, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published the Retail Crime Action Plan. Through this Plan, all forces across England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will run this through the Police National Database to aid efforts to identify prolific offenders or potentially dangerous individuals.
This builds on the NPCC commitment that police forces across England and Wales will follow up all crimes where there is actionable evidence and the chance of identifying an offender, including shoplifting.
October also saw the launch of Pegasus, a unique private-public partnership, which involves retailers providing data, intelligence and evidence to Opal, the national police intelligence unit on organised acquisitive crime, to develop a better strategic picture and help forces crack down on serious offenders.
The Government’s plan – "Fighting retail crime: more action" was launched on 10 April, which highlights five areas of work this Government will drive forward to tackle retail crime:
This builds on the police-led Retail Crime Action Plan.
We are continuing to work closely with retail businesses, security representatives, trade associations and policing through the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG), which meets on a quarterly basis, to ensure the response to retail crime, including shoplifting, is as robust as it can be.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of young asylum seekers have been identified as being over the age of 18 following (a) age verification and (b) identity checks in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications by age is published in table Asy_D01 of the ‘Asylum applications, decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. The latest data relates to 2023.
Data on age disputes is published in table Asy_D05 of the ‘Age disputes detailed dataset’. The latest data relates to the year ending September 2023.
Information on how to use these datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of each workbook. Additionally, the Home Office publishes a high-level overview of the data in the ‘summary tables’. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on asylum applications by age and age disputes.
Please note that an age dispute could, for example, be resolved following: a Merton compliant age assessment; receipt of credible and clear documentary evidence of age; a judicial finding on age; following a determination by two Home Office officers that the person’s physical appearance and demeanour very strongly suggests they are significantly over the age of 18; or, where the reasons for raising an age dispute no longer apply.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers were deported after having been found to have committed a criminal offence (a) in the UK since entering the country and (b) in a foreign country prior to entering the UK since 2010.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Home Office does publish statistics on enforced returns for those who have claimed asylum since 2010. These returns are published in table RET_05 of the returns summary table which can be found at Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asylum-related returns in this summary relate to cases where there has been an asylum claim at some stage prior to the return. This will include asylum seekers whose asylum claims have been withdrawn, refused, and who have exhausted any rights of appeal, those returned under third country provisions, as well as those granted asylum/protection, but removed for other reasons (such as criminality). Asylum-related returns broken down by status is not available from published statistics.
Additionally, the published statistics refer to enforced returns which include deportations, as well as cases where a person has breached UK immigration laws, and those removed under other administrative and illegal entry powers that have declined to leave voluntarily. Figures on deportations, which are a subset of enforced returns, are not separately available.
Furthermore, information on someone that has been deported after having been found to have committed a criminal offence in a foreign country prior to entering the UK since 2010 is not separately available from published statistics.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers were charged with a criminal offence since entering the UK in each year since 2015.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
After further conversation with MOJ colleagues, please see amended response to your written question;
The number of people charged with a criminal offence will be data held by the Police, the number of asylum seekers within that total will be a subset. It’s not information we hold.
All asylum claimants are subject to mandatory security checks to confirm their identity and to link it to their biometric details for the purpose of immigration, security and criminality checks. These checks are critical to the delivery of a safe and secure immigration system.
If the asylum claimant is aged 16 years or over, their fingerprints will be checked against those fingerprints held on the police biometric database, IDENT1. An asylum decision-maker will be able to confirm the presence of a criminal offence charge. However, this information is not held in a reportable format and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as it would require a manual trawl of case records to retrieve.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many outstanding asylum claims there are.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum claims awaiting an initial decision is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relate to December 2023. Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.