Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to track foreign nationals who have defrauded UK citizens; and what role INTERPOL plays in identifying criminals and taking action in other states when a UK citizen has been defrauded.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Government take fraud very seriously and are committed to tackling it.
The Home Secretary regularly engages with her international counterparts to build collaboration against this and other crime types. International collaboration on fraud includes the work of the National Crime Agency, the Serious Fraud Office and City of London Police as the national lead force for fraud. Both partner with law enforcement and industry to combat fraud from overseas jurisdictions. Together they have recently implemented a new tasking and coordination process to ensure the most serious and organised fraudsters are targeted effectively.
UK authorities continue to work with their international counterparts on a case-by-case basis to target criminals responsible for defrauding members of the public and businesses. Law enforcement in the UK work closely with both INTERPOL and Europol to share information with international partners and facilitate collaborative work to tackle fraud where it exists across borders.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to (a) identify and (b) prevent Russian interference in the UK political system by funding (i) UK political parties and party members and (ii) extremists in the UK.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
There are rules in place to ensure that only those with a legitimate interest in UK elections can make political donations. All MPs and members of political parties are regulated donees and can only accept donations of more than £500 made to them in connection with their political activities if it is from a permissible donor. Donations from individuals not on the UK electoral register, such as foreign donors, are not allowed.
In addition, Members of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords must provide information on any financial or non-financial benefit which might reasonably be thought by others to influence their actions or words as Members of Parliament.
However, we know that in very rare instances, malign actors disguise their links to foreign Governments. It is, and always will be, an absolute priority to protect the UK against foreign interference. The Government has structures in place to identify foreign interference or any potential threats to democracy and, where necessary, take proportionate action to mitigate them.
The Government remains committed to tackling Right-Wing Extremism and extremist fundraising. We continue to consider all emerging evidence and analysis of financing for extremist causes.
As previously announced, the Home Office will be introducing new legislation to ensure our security services and law enforcement agencies have the tools they need to disrupt state threats as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to case reference NC24802, what recent steps her Department has taken to make support available to British citizens to be reunited with family who remain in Afghanistan.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Family members of British citizens and settled persons, including those with humanitarian protection in the UK, who were not called forward for evacuation as part of Op PITTING, or who have not been offered resettlement under the Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme, are able to apply to come to the UK under the existing economic or family migration and reunion rules.
The British Embassy in Kabul has currently suspended in country operations and all UK diplomatic and consular staff have been temporarily withdrawn.
The UK is working with international partners to secure safe routes out of Afghanistan as soon as they become available, but while the security situation remains extremely volatile, we recommend people in Afghanistan do not make applications and pay application fees at this time as they will not be considered until biometrics are provided. Those Afghans who are outside of Afghanistan and able to get to a Visa Application Centre to provide their biometrics can make an application in the usual way.
A full policy statement on this matter published on 13 September 2021 can be found here:
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the potential effect of improved healthcare support or earlier interventions for people with mental health conditions on demand on police resources.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Improved healthcare support together with early intervention for people with mental health conditions is hugely important. Many police forces have local joint initiatives with health partners to respond to people with mental health issues. Liaison and Diversion services operate at police stations to identify and assess people with vulnerabilities and refer them into appropriate services to get help and support and, where appropriate, away from the criminal justice system altogether.
Street triage initiatives have been shown to make an immediate impact on the lives of people when they are particularly vulnerable. They support appropriate decision making in individual cases, assist with access to crisis care, and provide more timely support to health and social care services.
The NHS Long Term Plan will help improve delivery of prevention and intervention by investing an additional £2.3 billion by 2023/24. This should help enable further service expansion and faster access to community and crisis mental health services for both adults and children and young people.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an estimate of the amount of police time that is spent dealing with cases involving someone with a mental health condition where other agencies may be better placed to assist that person.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Information on the average amount of police time spent dealing with cases involving mental health conditions is an operational matter for individual police forces and is not held centrally by the Home Office.
The best place for people suffering a mental health crisis is a healthcare setting, because the police cannot provide the specialist care they need. The Home Office continues to work closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and healthcare partners to address particular pressure points in demand on police relating to non-crime mental health related incidents.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an estimate of the amount of police time that is spent dealing with cases that involve taking someone to a mental health setting where other agencies may be better placed to do that.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Information on the average amount of police time spent dealing with cases involving mental health conditions is an operational matter for individual police forces and is not held centrally by the Home Office.
The best place for people suffering a mental health crisis is a healthcare setting, because the police cannot provide the specialist care they need. The Home Office continues to work closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and healthcare partners to address particular pressure points in demand on police relating to non-crime mental health related incidents.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is considering Group 2 refugees as part of its Public Funds Review as set out in the Government’s response to Recommendation 7 of the Windrush lessons learned review.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Nationality and Borders Bill, including Clause 11 relating to the differentiation policy of refugees, is not yet law. Consideration of Group 2 refugees does not, therefore, fall within the scope of the Home Office’s review of the compliant environment in response to recommendation 7 of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review.
Changes to the policies being delivered through the Nationality and Borders Bill will be subject to appropriate impact assessments. We have already published an Equality Impact Assessment on 16 September 2021, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nationality-and-borders-bill-equality-impact-assessment. We will also be undertaking New Burdens Assessments prior to the policy being implemented, as part of the work to operationalise the Nationality and Borders Bill and the wider New Plan for Immigration.
More information will be made available when we have concluded the remainder of the policy development.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what Ministerial directions were issues by her Department in relation to the evacuation of animals from Afghanistan from the Nowzad charity.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
No Ministerial directions were issued on the handling of animals connected with the Nowzad charity.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals and families did not receive Section 95 support but were granted refugee status in 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of asylum seekers on Asylum Support. These statistics can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support.
The Home Office does not publish a breakdown of these statistics which shows families who did not receive section 95 support and have been granted refugee status in 2021. These figures are not available in a reportable format and to provide the information could only be done at disproportionate cost.