Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she to plans to compensate people whose Biometric Residence Permits were delayed as a result of the identified IT system error.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
In pursuant to the answer 6 February 2023 to question 139256 the Home Office is aware of a previous question related to an IT issue involving the enrolment of a biometric residence permit (BRP) for an individual who lodged a further submission claim (117811). The error was linked to the repeated capture of biometric information earlier in the process, but corrective action has now been taken.
As part of transforming the asylum system, we are focused on streamlining, simplifying and digitalising processes to ensure system issues do not occur in the future.
If a customer finds their Biometric Residence Permit has been delayed as a result of IT errors or for other reasons, they can make a complaint to the Home Office via Complaints procedure - Home Office - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Any complaint made to the Home Office will be handled on a case by case basis.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to correct the IT issue which impacted the production of Biometric Residence Permits.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
In pursuant to the answer 6 February 2023 to question 139256 the Home Office is aware of a previous question related to an IT issue involving the enrolment of a biometric residence permit (BRP) for an individual who lodged a further submission claim (117811). The error was linked to the repeated capture of biometric information earlier in the process, but corrective action has now been taken.
As part of transforming the asylum system, we are focused on streamlining, simplifying and digitalising processes to ensure system issues do not occur in the future.
If a customer finds their Biometric Residence Permit has been delayed as a result of IT errors or for other reasons, they can make a complaint to the Home Office via Complaints procedure - Home Office - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Any complaint made to the Home Office will be handled on a case by case basis.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of the number of (a) internet users in the UK accessing violent misogynistic content online and (b) posts online promoting violent misogyny.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Home Office invests in research and analysis to better understand the scale and challenge of violent online misogyny. However, it is difficult to provide a reliable estimate of the number of users accessing violent misogynistic content or the number of posts online promoting violent misogyny as this content is found across a broad range of platforms, including mainstream and closed spaces, and is often the subject of moderation by the platforms, or attempts by users to circumvent detection.
The Online Safety Bill will mean that alongside removing illegal content, companies must be clear and transparent in their terms and conditions on which types of legal content they will allow on their platforms and uphold this consistently. If a platform does not allow hateful or abusive speech, they must remove this content when they become aware of it. Companies will be held to account by Ofcom and could face significant fines if they fail to fulfil their duties to protect users.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many civil servants in her Department are responsible for supporting work on deterring the radicalisation of young people with incel ideology; and what budget is allocated for that purpose.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
Prevent aims to protect people from radicalisation and provides appropriate support to people regardless of ideology. This can include individuals who have shown an interest in incel narratives. People who are referred to Prevent for incel-related concerns will receive tailored support just as they would for any other ideological issue.
Prevent is threat agnostic and is designed to tackle radicalisation across all ideologies, and so staff resource and budget are not specifically allocated against any particular type of ideology or threat.
Statistics related to individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent programme between April 2021 to March 2022 are due to be published on Thursday 26th January 2023. For the first time these statistics will include a separate category for Incel related referrals. The statistics will be available at the following link:
Prevent continues to monitor emerging radicalisation trends and ideologies that may pose a threat, and establishing whether or not they pose a terrorism risk.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to introduce a national strategy on incel culture to tackle the radicalisation of young people.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
Prevent aims to protect people from radicalisation and provides appropriate support to people regardless of ideology. This can include individuals who have shown an interest in incel narratives. People who are referred to Prevent for incel-related concerns will receive tailored support just as they would for any other ideological issue.
Prevent is threat agnostic and is designed to tackle radicalisation across all ideologies, and so staff resource and budget are not specifically allocated against any particular type of ideology or threat.
Statistics related to individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent programme between April 2021 to March 2022 are due to be published on Thursday 26th January 2023. For the first time these statistics will include a separate category for Incel related referrals. The statistics will be available at the following link:
Prevent continues to monitor emerging radicalisation trends and ideologies that may pose a threat, and establishing whether or not they pose a terrorism risk.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to take steps to help tackle the production of 3D-printed guns.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Government is committed to tackling the threat posed by 3D printed firearms. The UK has some of the toughest firearms controls in the world. To protect public safety, we keep these controls under constant review to ensure that they are fit for purpose to safeguard against abuse by criminals and terrorists.
3D printed firearms fall within the scope of the Firearms Act 1968 and are subject to the same controls and licensing requirements as any other firearm.
We are working closely with law enforcement, which includes the National Crime Agency, as part of Project Interknow which is the multi-agency response to the threat posed by 3D printed firearms.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average wait time was for a person who has had their biometric residence permit lost or stolen to receive a replacement in the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The information is not available publicly and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the amount of time taken for a replacement biometric residence permit to be issued.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The information is not available publicly and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the decision to accept people at risk of developing Huntington's disease to serve in police armed response units was made; and by whom.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Decisions about police recruitment, are a matter for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners.
Chief Officers have a statutory duty of care to their officers and staff, and the public, and they must ensure candidates can be deployed safely in a role and fulfil the duties of a police officer.
Whether or not to recruit, and whether reasonable adjustments are possible, is ultimately the decision of individual Chief Officers, supported by the advice of occupational health professionals.
National guidance set by the College of Policing is clear that applicants seeking to join the police in England and Wales should be judged on their individual merits and circumstances. This includes consideration of their medical suitability.
All firearms officers must meet medical and fitness standards before initial training, and annually thereafter.
Information on the number of applicants received from those at risk of developing Huntington’s disease is not held by the department.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people at risk of Huntington's disease (a) applied to serve in police armed response units and (b) were rejected because of that risk in the last five years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Decisions about police recruitment, are a matter for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners.
Chief Officers have a statutory duty of care to their officers and staff, and the public, and they must ensure candidates can be deployed safely in a role and fulfil the duties of a police officer.
Whether or not to recruit, and whether reasonable adjustments are possible, is ultimately the decision of individual Chief Officers, supported by the advice of occupational health professionals.
National guidance set by the College of Policing is clear that applicants seeking to join the police in England and Wales should be judged on their individual merits and circumstances. This includes consideration of their medical suitability.
All firearms officers must meet medical and fitness standards before initial training, and annually thereafter.
Information on the number of applicants received from those at risk of developing Huntington’s disease is not held by the department.