Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her timeframe is for publishing the findings of the review into potential gaps in the law in respect of public sexual harassment, as set out in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy in July 2021.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Sexual harassment in public places is an appalling practice, which this Government is committed to tackling. Women and girls have the right to both be and feel safe on our streets.
As set out in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, published last July, we have been looking carefully at where there may be gaps in existing law and how a specific offence for public sexual harassment could address those.
As a result of this work, last month we announced that by the summer recess we would launch a public consultation on whether there should be a new offence of public sexual harassment.
In the VAWG Strategy we also committed to non-legislative actions to help tackle this issue. Following this, in December the College of Policing published a new advice product for police officers, advising them about the preventative strategies and criminal offences which they can use to respond to reports of various different types of public sexual harassment, and the Crown Prosecution Service will soon be publishing an updated version of its legal guidance on public order offences, to include specific material on public sexual harassment.
In addition, on 1 March the Home Office launched the ‘Enough’ communications campaign, which seeks to change public attitudes and tolerance towards crimes such as public sexual harassment and help create an atmosphere in which women and girls can report such crimes to the police with confidence.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the numbers of visas (a) applied for and (b) granted for (i) HGV and (ii) poultry workers given that the application windows for those worker visas closed on 2 December 2021 and 16 November 2021 respectively.
Answered by Kevin Foster
I refer the Honourable Member to the response given in another place to Lord Berkeley on 30 November, UIN HL3979.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of the 5,000 temporary visas for overseas heavy goods vehicle drivers made available in September 2021 have been issued to date.
Answered by Kevin Foster
I refer the Honourable Member to the response given in the other place to Lord Berkeley on 30 November 2021, UIN HL3979.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times police forces outside of London have responded to instances of dangerously parked vehicles since 22 November 2020.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of times police forces have responded to instances of dangerously parked vehicles.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many licences are in operation that use the forced swim test for the screening of antidepressant drugs; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of withdrawing licences for operations that use the test for that purpose.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Data are not collected on numbers of project licences that include the forced swim test.
No assessment has been made as to the potential merits of withdrawing licences for operations that use the test for the purpose of screening antidepressant drugs.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with the Animals in Science Regulation Unit and other stakeholders on granting licences for the use of the forced swim test for screening of antidepressant drugs or as a model of human depression in response to the recommendations of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research, published 29 July 2021.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Animals in Science Regulation Unit were involved in contributing to and reviewing the paper cited and it thus aligns to the regulatory approach taken by the Unit.
The Home Office through the Animals in Science Regulation Unit assures that, in every research proposal animals are replaced with non-animal alternatives wherever possible; the number of animals are reduced to the minimum necessary to achieve the result sought; and that, for those animals which must be used, procedures are refined as much as possible to minimise their suffering.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues and (b) representations she has received from businesses and trade organisations on the potential (i) merits of adding heavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers to the shortage occupation list and (ii) effect on HGV driver shortages of so adding HGV drivers to the shortage occupation list.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Heavy Goods Vehicle drivers do not qualify for Skilled Worker visas therefore cannot be added to the Shortage Occupation List.
There is no plan to introduce a new temporary visa for this sector to address recruitment problems. Some Trade Unions have recently agreed the issues affecting the haulage sector would not be solved by offering temporary visas and should focus on making pay and conditions more attractive for the domestic labour market.
While the Home Office regularly engages with other Government Departments and stakeholders on departmental business, the Department for Transport is leading the Government’s work on what can be done to support the sector.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of (a) adding heavy goods vehicle drivers to the shortage occupation list and (b) issuing increased numbers of temporary visas to heavy goods vehicle drivers.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Heavy Goods Vehicle drivers do not qualify for Skilled Worker visas therefore cannot be added to the Shortage Occupation List.
There is no plan to introduce a new temporary visa for this sector to address recruitment problems. Some Trade Unions have recently agreed the issues affecting the haulage sector would not be solved by offering temporary visas and should focus on making pay and conditions more attractive for the domestic labour market.
While the Home Office regularly engages with other Government Departments and stakeholders on departmental business, the Department for Transport is leading the Government’s work on what can be done to support the sector.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has for the continuation of refugee resettlement after the conclusion of the Vulnerable Person’s Resettlement Scheme.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK will continue to welcome refugees through resettlement following the completion of the VPRS. This commitment, alongside a future firm and fair asylum system, will ensure we continue to offer safe and legal routes to the UK for vulnerable refugees in need of protection. Our focus will remain on helping people directly from regions of conflict and instability.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) animals and (b) species of animals were used for the production of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies in research and testing under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 in (i) 2018 and (ii) 2019.
Answered by Kevin Foster
With reference to the reports entitled Annual Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals Great Britain 2018 and 2019, published in October 2019 and July 2020 respectively, data on the use of animals in the production of antibodies, whether monoclonal or polyclonal, is collected from establishments. However, the use of animals for antibody production falls within a range of purposes in the published data. Therefore, it is not possible to extract from the data (a) the number or (b) species of animals used for the production of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies in research and testing in 2018 or 2019.
All applications that include animals used for the production of monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies are subject to a harm-benefit analysis, undertaken by the Home Office Inspectorate, to ensure any harm which may be caused to the animals is justified by the expected benefits for humans, animals or the environment. The rigorous regulatory system in GB requires that no production of antibodies takes place if there is a validated non-animal alternative that would achieve the scientific outcomes sought. Project licence proposals for research on animals for which there is no non-animal alternative for the production of monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies must comply fully with the principles of the 3Rs: replacement, reduction and refinement.