Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle knife crime.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Tackling knife crime is a priority and the Government is determined to crack down on the scourge of violence devastating our communities.
We identified a clear need for new primary legislation to respond to public concerns and provide the police with the powers they need. As such, under the provisions of the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 we have prohibited the possession of a range of particularly dangerous knives and offensive weapons, and we are introducing further measures to tackle crime involving bladed items. These include stopping bladed items being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online, unless the seller has arrangements in place with the delivery company to ensure that the product would not be delivered into the hands of a person under 18.
Under the same Act we introduced Knife Crime Prevention Orders (KCPO). These preventative orders enable the courts to place positive requirements as well as restrictive measures on individuals to help the police steer those most at risk away from serious violence.
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 power to stop and search known knife and offensive weapons carriers.
We have also committed £130.5m to tackle serious violence including knife crime and homicide in 21/22. This includes funding for targeted policing in serious violence hotspots, as well as our network of Violence Reduction Units, which draw together partners in 18 areas worst affected by serious violence in England and Wales to deliver coordinated action to tackle violence at its root.
In addition, we have invested £200m over 10 years for the Youth Endowment Fund, which is funding projects to support children and young people at risk of violence and exploitation and to steer them away from crime.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle fraud and economic crime.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The recently published Economic Crime Plan Statement of Progress sets out a Forward Delivery Plan with commitments on tackling fraud and economic crime for 2021-22. This includes the development of a Fraud Action Plan, the relaunching of the Joint Fraud Taskforce and the piloting of dedicated fraud investigation teams.
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 has already led to extremely positive results. It has already seen high levels of success and, as of the end of February, the total number of reports received stand at more than 5,000,000 with the removal of more than 36,000 scams and 71,000 URLs.
We are encouraging the public to forward suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and to forward suspicious text messages to 7726 (which is free of charge). Any reports of fraud, including coronavirus related, should be made to Action Fraud. This information is being used by law enforcement partners, alongside crime reports to identify, disrupt and stop fraudsters.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with the Secretary of State for Justice to support victims of domestic abuse.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
This government is committed to tackling domestic abuse, which is why we recently passed the landmark Domestic Abuse Act, to support and protect all victims of domestic abuse. Alongside this, this year we will publish a domestic abuse strategy that will go beyond the implementation of the Act to help transform our response to domestic abuse; to prevent offending, protect victims and ensure they have the support they need.
We know that victims of domestic abuse may feel particularly vulnerable at this time, which is why last year the Government launched our #YouAreNotAlone awareness raising campaign to signpost support available. The campaign has reached over 30 million UK adults and has been seen by over 130 million followers on social media.
In January, we also launched the ‘Ask for ANI’ Codeword scheme to enable domestic abuse victims to seek victim focussed support, including engagement with specialist victim support services and the police as necessary. Over 5,000 pharmacies across the nation are now participating in the scheme, and the scheme has been used by over 60 victims and survivors.
We have provided unprecedented new funding to victim support services to ensure that they have the capacity to provide support to victims and adapt their operational capacity in light of the impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic. To that end we have awarded £27 million in additional funds to support domestic abuse services last financial year alone, comprising £25 million from the government’s £76 million in emergency funding for the most vulnerable in society, and an extra £2 million from the Home Office in April 2021 to bolster the capacity of domestic abuse organisations affected by the pandemic.
In November 2020 the Ministry of Justice announced a further £11 million towards a range of services offering practical and emotional help – allowing domestic abuse and specialist rape organisations to recruit more staff, adapt to remote counselling methods during the pandemic and keep helplines open for longer.
In 2021-22, the Ministry of Justice will provide just under £151m for victim and witness support services. This includes an extra £51m to increase support for rape and domestic abuse victims, building on the emergency funding from this financial year to help domestic abuse and sexual violence services meet Covid-driven demand. Of this funding, £27 million will go to creating more than 700 new posts for Independent Sexual Violence and Independent Domestic Abuse Advisers helping us to meet demand for support from victims.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle violence against women and girls.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
This government is committed to tackling domestic abuse, which is why we recently passed the landmark Domestic Abuse Act, to support and protect all victims of domestic abuse. Alongside this, this year we will publish a domestic abuse strategy that will go beyond the implementation of the Act to help transform our response to domestic abuse; to prevent offending, protect victims and ensure they have the support they need.
We know that victims of domestic abuse may feel particularly vulnerable at this time, which is why last year the Government launched our #YouAreNotAlone awareness raising campaign to signpost support available. The campaign has reached over 30 million UK adults and has been seen by over 130 million followers on social media.
In January, we also launched the ‘Ask for ANI’ Codeword scheme to enable domestic abuse victims to seek victim focussed support, including engagement with specialist victim support services and the police as necessary. Over 5,000 pharmacies across the nation are now participating in the scheme, and the scheme has been used by over 60 victims and survivors.
We have provided unprecedented new funding to victim support services to ensure that they have the capacity to provide support to victims and adapt their operational capacity in light of the impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic. To that end we have awarded £27 million in additional funds to support domestic abuse services last financial year alone, comprising £25 million from the government’s £76 million in emergency funding for the most vulnerable in society, and an extra £2 million from the Home Office in April 2021 to bolster the capacity of domestic abuse organisations affected by the pandemic.
In November 2020 the Ministry of Justice announced a further £11 million towards a range of services offering practical and emotional help – allowing domestic abuse and specialist rape organisations to recruit more staff, adapt to remote counselling methods during the pandemic and keep helplines open for longer.
In 2021-22, the Ministry of Justice will provide just under £151m for victim and witness support services. This includes an extra £51m to increase support for rape and domestic abuse victims, building on the emergency funding from this financial year to help domestic abuse and sexual violence services meet Covid-driven demand. Of this funding, £27 million will go to creating more than 700 new posts for Independent Sexual Violence and Independent Domestic Abuse Advisers helping us to meet demand for support from victims.