Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 19 June 2019 to Question 266773 on France: Refugees, whether his Department has made representations to the French Government on protecting the human rights of refugees based in (a) Calais and (b) Dunkirk.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The UK and France continue to maintain a strong bilateral cooperation on illegal migration. Central to this relationship is the Sandhurst Treaty, signed in January 2018. Articles 2-4 of the Treaty outline our commitment to (i) continued implementation of the Dublin process (ii) facilitating the transfer of unaccompanied minors under national relocation schemes, and (iii) improving access to French domestic asylum procedures.
A portion of the Sandhurst funding package has been used to implement these Treaty obligations. £3.6 million was specifically allocated to funding the development of the Dublin and Dubs process to support transfers of eligible children to the UK, including training for those working with unaccompanied children, family tracing and targeted information campaigns. We continue to work with France to transfer eligible children under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 and the Dublin regulation and transfers are ongoing. These projects are overseen by the UK-France Migration Committee, which is comprised of policy experts and senior officials from the UK and France.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of underage people in the North West of England purchasing knifes from (a) supermarkets, (b) home stores and (c) online.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
It is illegal to sell a knife to anyone under 18 in England and Wales and the Government is tackling the illegal sale to under-18s on a number of fronts. Firstly, as part of the Serious Violence Strategy, we are enabling Trading Standards to take forward prosecutions where retailers fail test purchase operations involving sales to under-18s through a specific prosecution fund. In the North West of England, Liverpool and Preston are two local authorities receiving this funding. In 2018/19, 1019 face to face test purchases had been attempted by the local authorities funded across England and Wales, with 121 sellers (around 13 per cent) failing the test and selling to a person under 18. In the same period, 128 online test purchases had been attempted, with 32% (41) failing and selling to a person under 18.
The Government also continues to encourage police forces to undertake a series of co-ordinated national weeks of action to tackle knife crime under Operation Sceptre. The operation includes targeted stop and searches, weapon sweeps of hotspot areas, test purchases of knives from retailers, and educational events. The latest phase of the operation took place from 11-18 March, and overall 689 test purchase operations were carried out in retail premises. Of these, there were 559 passes. 130 (around 19%) resulted in the retail outlet failing the test purchase.
To go further in preventing the sale of knives to under-18s, the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 includes a provision that will stop knives from 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.
The Government has also agreed a set of commitments with major retailers to prevent the underage sales of knives more generally in their stores and online. The agreement also covers staff training and displays and packaging. Tesco, eBay UK, Lidl UK, Amazon UK, Wilko, Argos, Asda, Poundland, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, John Lewis and Waitrose have all signed up to the principles. They have since been joined by Boots, the Co-op, B&Q, Aldi, TKMaxx and Debenhams. We are working with retailers to strengthen the agreement in relation to displays and that work is continuing. Following on from this, Asda has stopped selling single knives in its stores from the end of April, a move supported by the Government.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to regulate the production of firearms and offensive weapons using 3D printers.
Answered by Nick Hurd
It is already an offence to manufacture, possess, purchase or sell firearms without a licence, and this applies equally to 3D printed guns as to other firearms. It is also an offence to manufacture, import and supply offensive weapons, including any produced using 3D printing.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what activities he (a) has taken and (b) will take part in to highlight Refugee Week 2019.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The UK government is committed to humanitarian efforts to support refugees at home and abroad.
On Monday 17 June, at the start of Refugee Week, the Home Secretary announced that the UK will continue to resettle thousands of refugees under a new scheme to start in 2020. Details can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-global-resettlement-scheme-for-the-most-vulnerable-refugees-announced
On the same day, the Home Secretary chaired a roundtable with faith leaders to discuss refugee resettlement and asylum matters; and the Minister of State for Immigration met with refugees, community sponsor groups and representatives from Lambeth Council to hear their experiences of resettlement.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much Lancashire Constabulary spent on providing policing resources to sporting events throughout Lancashire in (a) 2018 and (b) 2014.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Spending information of this nature is not held centrally by the Home Office.
It is for elected Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables to decide how their force’s resources are deployed, including those to provide public order support to sporting events.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police horses have died as a result of injuries sustained whilst on active duty in (a) England and (b) Lancashire in each of the in the last five years.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office does not hold centrally any information on the number of police horses injured whilst on duty in service of police forces.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much money Lancashire Constabulary was allowed to retain under section 298 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in (a) 2017-18 and (b) 2018-19; what that money was used for; and to which organisations that money was donated.
Answered by Ben Wallace
Under the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS), police forces and other agencies that seize and obtain the forfeiture of cash under s298 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 receive 50% of the amount forfeited. Lanca-shire Constabulary received the following amounts
2017/18 = £77,500
2018/19 = £142,500
The use of ARIS allocations/payments is a matter for each agency but in-centive payments should be used to further drive up performance on asset recovery and, where appropriate, to fund local crime fighting priorities for the benefit of the community.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) reports of child sexual exploitation have been received and (b) successful prosecutions have taken place for child sexual abuse-related offences including imagery offences in (i) Preston constituency and (ii) the UK in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The number of police recorded offences relating to child sexual exploitation in the Preston Community Safety Partnership (CSP) Area and in England and Wales, is shown in the table below in each of the last 3 years:
Year to Sep 2016 | Year to Sep 2017 | Year to Sep 2018 | |
Preston CSP Area | 120 | 130 | 248 |
England & Wales | 43,896 | 53,733 | 60,659 |
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of such offences recorded by the police elsewhere in the UK. Information on the number of prosecutions for such offences is the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the reasons behind the high level of Excess Winter Deaths (EWDs) in 2017-2018; what plans he put in place to reduce the number of EWDs in 2018-2019 and what plans he will put in place for 2019-2020.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Office has no specific remit in respect of Excess Winter Deaths and has not made any such assessment.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the trends in the level of (a) knife crime, (b) gun crime, (c) homicides and (d) gang-related crime in (i) Preston constituency and (ii) Lancashire.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
On 9 April 2018, the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy to set out the action it is taking to address serious violence, and in particular the recent increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicide.
We have reviewed the evidence and the strategy sets out the trends and drivers of serious violence. The evidence shows that homicide, knife crime and gun crime have increased since 2014 across virtually all police force areas in England and Wales, including Lancashire. The increases have been accompanied by a shift towards younger victims and perpetrators. The analysis in the Serious Violence Strategy shows that changes in the drugs market is a major factor in the recent increases.
The attached table shows the statistics for offences involving knives or sharp instruments, firearms, robbery and homicide in England and Wales at police force level. Data is not collected for areas below police force level.