Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce 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 are supporting the police every step of the way in this effort. We have given them more powers and resources to go after criminals and take knives and other dangerous weapons off our streets, including through the recruitment of 20,000 additional officers and increasing police funding.
The Government has made £130.5m available this year to tackle serious violence, including murder and knife crime. This includes: £35.5m for Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) which bring together local partners to deliver a range of early intervention and prevention programmes and tackle the drivers of violence in the 18 areas worst affected by serious violence; £30m to support the police to take targeted action in parts of England and Wales most affected by serious violence through the Grip programme, which uses data to identify violence hotspots and target operational activity in those areas; and £20m for new early intervention programmes that will help stop young people from being drawn into violence, including cognitive behavioural therapy, family therapy, as well as specialist support in crisis moments such as when a person is admitted to A&E with a knife injury.
We have also 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.
We acknowledge there is more to do which is why we are bringing forward the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill so the law-abiding majority can be confident they are safe. The Bill includes: Serious Violence Reduction Orders, which will give the police the power to stop and search adults already convicted of knife or offensive weapons offences; the Serious Violence Duty, which will require authorities and bodies delivering public services to collaborate to prevent and reduce serious violence in their areas; and offensive weapons homicide reviews which will be introduced to improve the national and local understanding of causes, patterns, victims and perpetrators of violence and homicide.
We have also prohibited certain particularly dangerous types of knife through the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 and have introduced the offence of possessing specified offensive weapons in private. The Act also introduced Knife Crime Prevention Orders which will provide the police with a vital means to steer those most at risk away from serious violence. On 5 July 2021 we introduced a pilot for KCPOs across the Metropolitan Police area.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle online fraud.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Frauds that are committed online are pernicious crimes. They can cause terrible financial and emotional harm to victims. The Government has been working with partners in the public and private sectors to keep the public safe and bring these fraudsters to justice.
DCMS are leading ground-breaking work on the Online Safety Bill. The Bill will require regulated companies to take action to tackle user-generated fraud on their platforms. This will impact some of the most harmful online fraud types such as investment and romance scams. The Joint Committee recently published their report on the Bill and we are scrutinising this closely to make sure we comprehensively address their recommendations. DCMS are also leading work through the Online Advertising Programme that will consider, amongst other things, the role online advertising plays in enabling online fraud.
We have also been working closely alongside the National Cyber Security Centre who launched their Suspicious Email Reporting Service last year. This has already led to over 8.1 million reports received and the removal of over 67,000 scams and 124,000 harmful websites, since its inception in April 2020.
However, Government and the public sector cannot tackle online fraud alone. That is why, on the 21 October 2021, the Joint Fraud Taskforce was relaunched under my [Security Minister] chairmanship. The JFT brings together leaders from across the Government, private sector, regulators, law enforcement and victim groups to encourage collaboration to keep the public safe from these crimes. Alongside the relaunch, we published voluntary agreement with the retail banking, telecommunications and accountancy sectors outlining innovative measures to reduce fraud facilitated through these industries (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/joint-fraud-taskforce). The Online Fraud Steering Group (OFSG) is a public-private group focused on reducing the threat from online fraud in the UK. It reports into the Joint Fraud Taskforce and is co-chaired by the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), UK Finance and techUK.
We continue to encourage the public to report fraud to Action fraud and to forward any suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk and suspicious texts to 7726, free of charge.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to attract international workers with science, technology, maths, and engineering qualifications to the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Attracting international talent is a key component of our global points-based immigration system. We have a very generous immigration offer, which enables talented scientists, academics and creatives to come to the UK through several different routes, including Global Talent, Skilled Worker, Creative and Temporary Worker Government Authorised Exchange (GAE) routes.
The new Points-Based System is working well, attracting skills the UK needs, as demonstrated by the latest Immigration Statistics for yearend September 2021 with issuance of work visas across all routes is up on both 2020 and 2019 (pre-pandemic).
Since its launch in 2020 the Global Talent route has seen a significant increase in applicants compared to the predecessor route, despite the impact on international travel caused by the pandemic. The number of visas granted on this route has continued to grow from 422 between its launch in February 2020 to year end September 2020, to 1,709 applicants for the year ending September 2021.
A new High Potential route will launch later this year, to further enhance our excellent offer to talented individuals with qualifications in sectors such as science, technology, maths and engineering.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support applicants to the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The EU Settlement Scheme opened to the public on 30 March 2019 and the deadline for the scheme for those resident in the UK by the end of the transition period was 30 June 2021. However, there is scope to make a late application based on reasonable grounds for missing the deadline. The scheme also remains open to applications for those wishing to apply as Joining Family Members or who want to apply for settled status after having been granted pre-settled status.
The Home Office remains committed to ensuring those who are eligible for the EU Settlement Scheme can apply, including those who are vulnerable or need extra support. £25 million of funding has been awarded to a network of now 72 charities and local authorities across the UK, to ensure important information and assistance gets through to those who are hardest to reach, and no one is left behind. These organisations have helped more than 405k vulnerable people to apply to the EUSS already.
The Home Office has delivered a comprehensive range of communications activity, at a cost of £8m, to increase awareness of the EUSS, engaging extensively with a wide range of stakeholder organisations and other government departments, to provide the materials they need to communicate about the Settlement Scheme.
This includes toolkits, assets and information translated into 26 EEA languages, and Welsh, for local authorities, community groups, employers, and the Grant Funded Network, who work closely with vulnerable, hard to reach audiences to provide application support.
Guidance on how to apply and details of the support available to applicants (as it has been throughout the pandemic), is available through the EU Settlement Resolution Centre (SRC), which is open seven days a week to provide assistance over the telephone and by email. The SRC also provides a direct line for organisations working with vulnerable groups. In specific cases the SRC has the capacity to transfer customers to Assisted Digital for more bespoke support.
Further information can also be found at www.gov.uk/help-eu-settlement-scheme.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Crewe and Nantwich)
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 - Crewe and Nantwich)
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.