Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many illegal migrants his Department deported in 2023.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Home Office published provisional data on returns of migrants who do not have a legal right to stay in the UK in the ad-hoc ‘Statistics relating to Illegal Migration’ release. Total numbers of returns by month and return type (including enforced returns of which ‘deportations’ are a subset) are published in table IMB_05 of the accompanying data tables. The latest data relates to 27 December 2023.
The term ‘deportations’ refers to a legally defined subset of returns, which are enforced either following a criminal conviction, or when it is judged that a person’s removal from the UK is beneficial to the public good. 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.
Alongside the above ad-hoc statistical release, the Home Office publishes quarterly data on returns in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. The latest data go up to the end of September 2023. Data to end December will be published in the next release on 29 February.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many raids were carried out by Border Force in each local authority area in 2023.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
We do not routinely publish the information you have requested, and we are unable to provide this information, as it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether officials in his Department have had discussions with charter airlines on the possibility of providing flights between the UK and Rwanda for the purposes of transporting asylum seekers to that country in the last six months.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
The Department engages with commercial partners where required to deliver on its responsibilities. The details of any such discussions are commercially confidential.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour in Solihull constituency.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour (ASB) and arson. We know the serious impact that arson and persistent ASB can have on both individuals and the wider community.
On 27 March 2023, 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. West Midlands Police is one of the pilot forces for the hotspot response funding. 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 2023, 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.
Furthermore, the government is committed to ensuring fire services have the resources they need to do their vital work and to keep the public safe from fires, including those caused by arson. In 2023/24, fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.6 billion. Decisions on how their resources are best deployed to meet their core functions are a matter for each fire and rescue authority.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle arson in Solihull constituency.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour (ASB) and arson. We know the serious impact that arson and persistent ASB can have on both individuals and the wider community.
On 27 March 2023, 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. West Midlands Police is one of the pilot forces for the hotspot response funding. 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 2023, 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.
Furthermore, the government is committed to ensuring fire services have the resources they need to do their vital work and to keep the public safe from fires, including those caused by arson. In 2023/24, fire and rescue authorities will receive around £2.6 billion. Decisions on how their resources are best deployed to meet their core functions are a matter for each fire and rescue authority.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle knife crime in Solihull constituency.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling knife crime and violent assaults is a priority and the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.
As a result of the Government’s Police Uplift Programme (PUP) the West Midlands Force recruited 1,376 additional uplift officers against a total three-year allocation of 1,218 officers. On 31 March 2023, there were 8,067 police officers in West Midlands, a total growth of 1,376 additional officers against the baseline (6,691) at the start of the Police Uplift Programme.
The Government is proposing a total police funding settlement of up to £18.4 billion in 2024-25, an increase of up to £842.9 million when compared to 2023-24. Assuming full take up of precept flexibility, overall police funding available to PCCs will increase by up to £922.2 million (6.0% in cash terms). West Midlands funding will be up to £789.4 million for 2024/25, an increase of up to £50 million when compared to 2023/24.
West Midlands Police are delivering additional policing in their areas worst affected by serious violence via the Grip programme funding, including in Solihull City Centre. This is a combination of regular visible patrols in the streets and neighbourhoods (‘hotspot areas’) experiencing the highest volumes of serious violence to immediately suppress violence and provide community reassurance, and problem-oriented policing. Problem-oriented policing is bespoke to the local areas to tackle the local underlying drivers of crime, using a more comprehensive menu of policing interventions and enforcement. Interventions in the Force area have included targeted open space knife sweeps, knife crime education in schools, and conducting safeguarding referrals. Grip-funded analysts monitor operational police activity within the hotspots, as well as crime levels, to understand the effects of additional patrols on violent crime.
Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) bring together local partners to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area. They facilitate the sharing of data across organisational boundaries to build a shared understanding of the root causes of violence locally.
In the West Midlands its VRU delivers a range of preventative interventions, including Hospital and Custody Navigators (youth workers in settings steering young people away from violence at a ‘teachable moment’), cognitive behavioural therapy programmes and sports-based diversionary programmes.
Violence Reduction Units, in combination with Grip, have delivered a statistically significant reduction in hospital admissions for violent injuries since funding began in 2019 (an estimated 3,220 admissions have been prevented in areas where the programmes operate). VRUs have supported over 271,000 young people through funded initiatives in in their fourth year of operation alone.
We also recently consulted on new legislative proposals to tackle knife crime and as a result, in the Criminal Justice Bill, we have introduced provisions to provide more powers for police to seize knives held in private that could be used in crimes, increase the maximum penalty for the offences of selling prohibited weapons and selling knives to under 18s. When Parliamentary time allows, the Government intends to introduce a new ban on zombie-style machetes and knives.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle violent assaults in Solihull constituency.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling knife crime and violent assaults is a priority and the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.
As a result of the Government’s Police Uplift Programme (PUP) the West Midlands Force recruited 1,376 additional uplift officers against a total three-year allocation of 1,218 officers. On 31 March 2023, there were 8,067 police officers in West Midlands, a total growth of 1,376 additional officers against the baseline (6,691) at the start of the Police Uplift Programme.
The Government is proposing a total police funding settlement of up to £18.4 billion in 2024-25, an increase of up to £842.9 million when compared to 2023-24. Assuming full take up of precept flexibility, overall police funding available to PCCs will increase by up to £922.2 million (6.0% in cash terms). West Midlands funding will be up to £789.4 million for 2024/25, an increase of up to £50 million when compared to 2023/24.
West Midlands Police are delivering additional policing in their areas worst affected by serious violence via the Grip programme funding, including in Solihull City Centre. This is a combination of regular visible patrols in the streets and neighbourhoods (‘hotspot areas’) experiencing the highest volumes of serious violence to immediately suppress violence and provide community reassurance, and problem-oriented policing. Problem-oriented policing is bespoke to the local areas to tackle the local underlying drivers of crime, using a more comprehensive menu of policing interventions and enforcement. Interventions in the Force area have included targeted open space knife sweeps, knife crime education in schools, and conducting safeguarding referrals. Grip-funded analysts monitor operational police activity within the hotspots, as well as crime levels, to understand the effects of additional patrols on violent crime.
Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) bring together local partners to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area. They facilitate the sharing of data across organisational boundaries to build a shared understanding of the root causes of violence locally.
In the West Midlands its VRU delivers a range of preventative interventions, including Hospital and Custody Navigators (youth workers in settings steering young people away from violence at a ‘teachable moment’), cognitive behavioural therapy programmes and sports-based diversionary programmes.
Violence Reduction Units, in combination with Grip, have delivered a statistically significant reduction in hospital admissions for violent injuries since funding began in 2019 (an estimated 3,220 admissions have been prevented in areas where the programmes operate). VRUs have supported over 271,000 young people through funded initiatives in in their fourth year of operation alone.
We also recently consulted on new legislative proposals to tackle knife crime and as a result, in the Criminal Justice Bill, we have introduced provisions to provide more powers for police to seize knives held in private that could be used in crimes, increase the maximum penalty for the offences of selling prohibited weapons and selling knives to under 18s. When Parliamentary time allows, the Government intends to introduce a new ban on zombie-style machetes and knives.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle burglaries in Solihull constituency.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Crime Survey for England and Wales data shows a 57% per cent fall in domestic burglaries when comparing the year ending June 2023 with year ending March 2010 Crime Surveys; representing a fall from 917,000 to 394,000 incidents. This is clearly good news; however, we recognise the significant impact invasive crimes such as domestic burglary can have on individuals and the wider community, and we are committed to tackling and preventing these crimes.
The public want to know 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 on the 8 June that all 43 police forces in England and Wales have been implementing this policy since March last year. We are working with police leaders to ensure forces are making their attendance data available to the public. 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 Setting the standard in respect of the initial response and the subsequent investigation, the guidance sits alongside the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice on Investigations.
As part of this back-to-basics approach, police forces across England and Wales have committed to pursue all lines of enquiry where there is a reasonable chance it could lead them to catching a perpetrator and solving a crime. This commitment, announced on 28 August, has been worked up and agreed by the Home Office, in tandem with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pursuing-all-reasonable-lines-of-enquiry-letter-to-police-leaders/pursuing-all-reasonable-lines-of-enquiry-letter-to-police-leaders
To help ensure the police have the resources they need to fight crime and tackle anti-social behaviour, we have delivered on our commitment to recruit 20,000 additional police officers by the end of March 2023.As of 31 March, a total of 20,947 additional officers had been recruited across England and Wales through the Police Uplift Programme (PUP), raising the number of police officers in England and Wales to 149,566, the highest number on record since comparable records began.
As a result of the PUP, on 31 March 2023 West Midlands Police Force had a headcount of 8,067 police officers, an increase of 1,376 additional officers against the baseline (6,691) at the start of the PUP.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle modern slavery in Solihull constituency.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Government is committed to tackling the heinous crime of modern slavery; ensuring that victims are provided with the support they need to begin rebuilding their lives and that those responsible are prosecuted.
We work closely with law enforcement, the criminal justice system, business, civil society and local government. The UK response is underpinned by the Modern Slavery Strategy 2014 and the Modern Slavery Act 2015; this legislation gives law enforcement agencies the tools to tackle modern slavery offences, including a maximum life sentence for perpetrators and enhanced protection for victims.
Since 2016, in addition to core police funding, we have invested £17.8 million in the Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Unit, a specialist police unit which supports all police forces in England and Wales, including West Midlands Police, to improve their response to modern slavery.
The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) is the framework for identifying and referring potential victims of modern slavery and ensuring they receive the appropriate support. If a First Responder thinks that modern slavery has taken place, the case should be referred to the NRM so that the relevant competent authority can fully consider the case. This process operates across all of England and Wales.
The Home Office also funds the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC) to provide specialist support to adult victims of modern slavery in England and Wales. A total of 10,704 adults in England and Wales received support through the MSVCC during the year ending June 2023, the largest number supported for any year since the contract began.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle hate crime in Solihull constituency.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Government is clear that all forms of hate crime are completely unacceptable. We have a robust legislative framework in place to respond to hate crimes which target race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and transgender identity and expect the police to fully investigate these abhorrent offences and ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.
Our absolute priority is to get more police onto our streets, cut crime, protect the public and bring more criminals to justice. We are supporting the police by providing them with the resources they need. Part of this necessitates police recruitment and training – that is why we have the highest number of police officers on record in England and Wales. Funding for West Midlands Police will be up to £789.4 million for 2024/25, an increase of up to £50 million when compared to 2023/24. As of 31 March 2023, West Midlands Force recruited 1,376 additional uplift officers against a total three-year allocation of 1,218 officers. The deployment of all officers is an operational decision for Chief Constables.
The Government continues to fund True Vision, an online hate crime reporting portal, designed so that victims of all forms of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We also continue to fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, a central capability designed to support individual local police forces in dealing with online hate crime. The Hub provides expert advice to police forces to support them in investigating these despicable offences.