Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs plans to (a) conclude its inquiry and (b) produce its recommendations on Image and Performance Enhancing Drugs.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
As the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is independent from Government, the timings concerning its report on image and performance enhancing drugs is a matter for the ACMD.
The ACMD publishes its advice concurrent to its presentation to ministers.
I expect to receive an update from the ACMD on its priorities and ongoing commitments later this year.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of establishing a national (a) task force and (b) strategy to tackle pet theft.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Further to the reply I provided to my Hon. Friend’s question on 22 March, I can assure him the Government is working with the police and others and will consider the evidence and what more could be done to prevent pet theft.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
What steps her Department is taking to reduce pet theft.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government recognises the distress pet theft causes.
It is for Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables to determine how to tackle this crime. The Government’s role is ensuring police forces have sufficient resources to respond to the challenges they face.
We have committed to recruit an extra 20,000 police officers by March 2023, with over 6,000 already in place.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of aligning the time limit for professional investigations of police officers with the time limit for police investigations of suspected criminals.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
In February 2020, the Government introduced a package of reforms to strengthen the police discipline system and help speed up proceedings, including the introduction of a 12-month trigger on police discipline investigations which requires the investigating body - whether the IOPC or a Professional Standards Department in a police force - to provide a written explanation for the delays, the planned steps to bring the investigation to a conclusion and the estimated completion date. This is sent to the local policing body.
There are no plans to align the time limits for investigations into police officers with investigations of suspected criminals.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to promote the Settled Status scheme to EU workers in the social care sector.
Answered by Kevin Foster
As of 11 February 2021, over five million applications had been received to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS), and 4.5 million grants of status have been made, delivering on the government’s promise to secure the rights of millions of Europeans in UK law for years to come
A comprehensive range of communications activity has been delivered to date to increase awareness of the EUSS across sectors and audience demographics including EEA and Swiss national key workers including those working in the social care sector.
Communications activity includes extensive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, a refresh of EUSS promotional materials, and an extensive new wave of targeted UK advertising on social media, website banners, catch up TV and radio, launched earlier this month, to ensure EEA and Swiss citizens are aware of the scheme and supported to apply.
The Home Office has also provided up to £17million in grant funding to a current network of 72 organisations that provide bespoke support to vulnerable and hard to reach EU citizens and their family members eligible to apply to EUSS. The Home Office recently announced a further £4.5 million of funding to the 72 organisations to continue these support services well beyond the 30 June 2021 deadline.
Communications to reach eligible workers via their employer have been ongoing since the scheme’s launch with hundreds of engagement events delivered alongside the provision of an employer toolkit, equipping organisations with the information required to support their staff.
This has included a bespoke event for NHS employers, and with several regional strategic migration and enterprise partnerships. NHS employers, Scottish Social services and Wales Social care also sit on EUSS advisory groups.
Workers in the social care sector were given early access under the pilot phases of the scheme and we have provided extensive outreach and support to the sector. We continue to work closely with the Department for Health and Social Care, and Local Authorities to provide support and materials to eligible individuals in the sector.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of covid-19 related fraud; and what steps she is taking to prevent those offences.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Government is aware that criminals are exploiting the pandemic to commit opportunistic crimes such as fraud. Although Covid-19 related fraud represents a small proportion of overall fraud reporting, we understand the devastating impact it can have on individuals. Along with partners, we have been implementing measures to ensure the public has the protection and advice needed to shield themselves from these crimes. We have published guidance for the public to spot potential frauds and the steps they can take to avoid them. This advice can accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-fraud-and-cyber-crime
Our efforts include working alongside the National Cyber Security Centre to establish a new Suspicious Email Reporting Service. This service allows the public to report potential scams safely and effectively. To date, this has led to the removal of over 22000 scams. Members of the public can forward suspicious emails to the dedicated email address: report@phishing.gov.uk
We are also working with the Cabinet Office, who lead on the response to public sector fraud, around tracking and mitigating the risk of fraud against the unprecedented levels of stimulus funding including the bounce back loan scheme.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the time limit on entertainment licences from 28 days to 56 days in 2021.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
A premises licence which gives permission for licensable activities defined as entertainment can allow those activities to take place on every day of the year. Temporary event notices (TENs) permit licensable activities to take place on unlicensed premises. TENs can also be given for licensed premises where the proposed event would not be permitted under the terms of the licence.
The maximum total duration of the events authorised by TENs in relation to individual premises is 21 days in a calendar year. The TENs system is intended as a light touch process. In the light of this, it is right that the numbers and duration of temporary events in each year are limited as they are.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support her Department is providing to police officers to enforce covid-19 lockdown restrictions in Bosworth.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has been clear that it will provide police forces with the support they need to continue protecting the public and keeping communities safe through the coronavirus pandemic.
On 8 October, the Government announced an additional £30m funding for police forces in England and Wales to step up their enforcement of coronavirus rules. Leicestershire Police has received £446,094 from this additional funding.
In addition to this, we have provided the police the powers and guidance they need to support compliance with covid-19 social distancing and lockdown restrictions.
The department continues to work closely with the policing sector to monitor and make decisions on their current and future needs.