Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the average waiting time for passport renewals.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
People are receiving their passports in good time. Between January and August 2023, 99.3% of customers using the standard UK service received their passport within the published processing timeframe of ten weeks.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase funding for the police.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 31 January, the Government confirmed a total police funding settlement of up to £17.2 billion in 2023/24, an increase of up to £313.8 million when compared to 2022/23.
Since then, the Home Office have announced a further £330 million of in year funding to support forces in managing the costs associated to the 2023/24 pay award. This is in addition to grant increases announced previously at the 2023/24 settlement.
This investment in the policing system continues to support policing, delivering resources to the front line and delivering the high-end capabilities needed in modern policing.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on reducing anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 27 March, the Government launched the Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/anti-social-behaviour-action-plan) ensuring the police, local authorities and other relevant agencies have the powers and tools they need to tackle the blight of anti-social behaviour facing communities across England and Wales.
The plan is backed by £160m of funding. This includes up to £60m to fund an increased police and other uniformed presence to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, targeting hotspots. Initially we are working with 10 police force areas, but from 2024 we will support a hotspot approach across every police force area in England and Wales. We are also providing up to £50m to support the provision of Immediate Justice, by issuing out of court disposals with conditions to swiftly repair any damage – the aim being for them to start within 48 hours of referral. This will start in 10 initial trailblazer police force areas and be rolled out across England and Wales from 2024.
On 6 July, we launched the fifth round of the Safer Streets Fund. Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) across England and Wales will receive a total of £43 million on top of the £120 million already awarded for the previous four rounds of the Safer Streets Fund to continue to deliver crime and anti-social behaviour prevention measures.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to remove foreign national offenders.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is clear foreign nationals who abuse our hospitality by committing crimes should be in no doubt of our determination to deport them.
Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity and since January 2019 we have removed 7,985.
For non-European Economic Area (EEA) nationals, deportation will be pursued where it is conducive to the public good including where a person receives a custodial sentence of 12 months or more, commits an offence that caused serious harm or is a persistent offender. European Economic Area (EEA) and Swiss citizens, and their family members, who are protected by the EU Withdrawal Agreement Act 2020 are considered for deportation on public policy and public security grounds where it concerns conduct (including any criminal convictions relating to it) committed on or before 31 December 2020.
Our New Plan for Immigration and provisions in the Nationality and Borders Bill will make it easier to deport foreign criminals with no right to be in the UK and keep our citizens safe. Further information can be found in New Plan for Immigration: policy statement (accessible) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle people smuggling.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government stands resolute in its commitment to tackle Organised Immigration Crime (OIC). We continue to pursue the Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) who facilitate illegal travel to the UK and who exploit vulnerable migrants, knowingly putting people in life-threatening situations.
In March 2021, the Government published the New Plan for Immigration containing provisions to establish legislation to deter illegal entry into the UK, thereby breaking the business model of criminal people smuggling networks and protecting the lives of those they endanger. In July 2021, the Government introduced this legislation through the Nationality and Borders Bill.
We continue to take action against the highly dangerous and illegal entry methods facilitated by these gangss. Police patrols on French beaches and enhanced intelligence sharing between our security and law enforcement agencies has helped to prevent around 8,000 people from making the Channel crossing to the UK so far this year
The Government has taken steps to tackle organised crime on social media platforms, reducing the space in which gangss operate. In March 2021, I met with the National Crime Agency and senior representatives from social media companies to discuss how they can more effectively tackle oraganised crime online and a planned approach is being finalised.
Reinforcing this commitment, in June 2021 the Home Secretary wrote to CEOs of key social media companies urging them to do substantially more to proactively identify and remove posts promoting organised crime , particularly illegal Channel crossings.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to stop young people becoming involved in crime and violence.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
It is vitally important that we prevent young people from being drawn into violent crime. The Government understands the importance of tackling this issue from all angles – whether that is providing support to prevent young people from getting involved in crime, or providing the police with the tools they need to bring knife offenders to justice.
Since 2018, we have invested £105.5m into multi-agency Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in 18 areas most affected by serious violence. The VRUs bring together local partners to deliver an effective, joined up approach to tackling violent crime and its drivers – and they have reached over 100,000 young people in their first year.
We are investing up to £23m this year in new early intervention programmes that will help stop young people from being drawn into violence, and our Creating Opportunities Forum will provide meaningful employment-related opportunities and raise the aspirations of young people at risk of being drawn into serious violence and knife crime.
In addition, our £200m 10 year Youth Endowment Fund is testing what works to divert young people away from serious violence.
This year, we have provided an extra £30m this year for the police forces with the highest rates of serious violence in England and Wales. This funding is supporting the police to deter and disrupt knife crime in areas that need it most.
However, we know there is still more to do. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill includes a duty on public sector bodies to take a joined-up approach to addressing serious violence; the requirement for local agencies to review the circumstances when an adult homicide takes place involving an offensive weapon; and Serious Violence Reduction Orders, which give the police the authority to stop and search known knife and weapons carriers.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to tackle fraud and economic crime.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
This Government is committed to protecting people from all types of fraud and pursuing those who perpetuate these crimes wherever possible. It is for this reason that as part of the 2020 Spending Review, the Government committed a further £63m to the Home Office to tackle economic crime, including fraud. In May, we published a Statement of Progress on the Economic Crime Plan which committed to developing a comprehensive Fraud Action Plan. This will outline how we plan to further strengthen how we combat fraud and will be published after the 2021 Spending Review.
As part of the Police Uplift Programme to recruit an additional 20,000 officers by 2023, we have prioritised more investigators in the City of London Police to fulfil their role as a world class fraud specialist force. We have also channelled additional officer resource into the Regional Organised Crime Unit network to work on a host of serious and organised crime threats including fraud.
We have also been working closely alongside the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) who launched their Suspicious Email Reporting Service last year. This system has proved an instant success with the public, with over 6.5 million reports received and the removal of over 50,500 scams and 97,500 websites taken down since its inception in April 2020.
We also continue to encourage anyone who has been a targeted by fraud to report it. Action Fraud is the central police reporting point for all victims of fraud and can be contacted by phone on 0300 123 2040 or through their website: http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud. This information is being used by law enforcement partners, alongside crime reports to identify, disrupt and stop fraudsters.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on improving fire safety in buildings.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Government is making significant progress in improving fire safety. The Fire Safety Bill, which clarifies that external walls and flat entrance doors are within scope of the Fire Safety Order, has progressed through the majority of its stages in Parliament.
The Government has also published a fire safety consultation. We will soon publish a formal response and look to introduce Regulations as soon as practicable.
Alongside this the Government has progressed work on the Building Safety Bill, which recently completed its pre-legislative scrutiny. The Government will introduce this Bill before Parliament shortly.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking is taking to prevent hate crimes against places of worship.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government is committed to protecting places of worship from hate crime through the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme. The 2020-21 round launched on 16 June with an uplift to £3.2 million- double the amount awarded last year. Over the last four years we have awarded approximately £3.4 million to 183 places of worship across England and Wales.
Our public consultation on providing greater protection from hate crime for places of worship closed on 28 June. Responses are currently being reviewed, and the Government will respond in due course.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Government's plans to recruit 20,000 new police officers, how many new officers will be will be deployed in (a) Surrey and (b) the South East.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The allocation of new officers between forces is yet to be confirmed.
The Government’s commitment to recruiting 20,000 additional officers over three years will provide every force in England and Wales with an uplift in resource to address the demand pressures they face.
The Chancellor has announced that the Home Office will receive £750 million for investment in policing in 2020/21, this funding will support recruitment of the first wave of up to 6,000 additional officers across the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales.