Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle hare coursing.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to driving down rural crime, which is why we are providing funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit and the National Rural Crime Unit (NRCU).
The Home Office committed to provide one-off funding of £200,000 to the NRCU this year to assist with set up costs of the new unit. The NRCU will provide support to forces nationally in their responses to rural crime, such as the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, rural fly tipping, rural fuel theft and equine crime.
New measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act came into force on 1st August 2022, which empower and equip the police and courts with the powers they need to combat hare coursing. These powers included creating two new criminal offences; trespass with the intention of using a dog to search for or pursue a hare; and being equipped to trespass with the intention of using a dog to search for or pursue a hare.
The Government supported the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 will help to prevent the theft of agricultural equipment such as quad bikes, by requiring immobilisers and forensic markings to be fitted before new equipment is sold to customers, and equipment to be registered on a database. The Act gained Royal Assent on 20 July.
Police Uplift Programme (PUP) funding has been used to tackle rural crime by forces and led to the formation of new teams and to bolster capabilities. For example, the Uplift enabled Cumbria constabulary to place officers back out 'on the beat' in rural communities.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle rural crime.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to driving down rural crime, which is why we are providing funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit and the National Rural Crime Unit (NRCU).
The Home Office committed to provide one-off funding of £200,000 to the NRCU this year to assist with set up costs of the new unit. The NRCU will provide support to forces nationally in their responses to rural crime, such as the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, rural fly tipping, rural fuel theft and equine crime.
New measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act came into force on 1st August 2022, which empower and equip the police and courts with the powers they need to combat hare coursing. These powers included creating two new criminal offences; trespass with the intention of using a dog to search for or pursue a hare; and being equipped to trespass with the intention of using a dog to search for or pursue a hare.
The Government supported the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 will help to prevent the theft of agricultural equipment such as quad bikes, by requiring immobilisers and forensic markings to be fitted before new equipment is sold to customers, and equipment to be registered on a database. The Act gained Royal Assent on 20 July.
Police Uplift Programme (PUP) funding has been used to tackle rural crime by forces and led to the formation of new teams and to bolster capabilities. For example, the Uplift enabled Cumbria constabulary to place officers back out 'on the beat' in rural communities.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 3 July to Question 191415 on Buildings: Fires, if her Department will record the number of fires potentially caused by disposable vapes.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has just completed a competitive process to award a £2.4m contract to replace the existing Incident Recording System (IRS). We are reviewing the existing system as a part of this replacement programme, and considering what additional categories should be recorded in the future.
Adding disposable vapes to the data collection will be considered as part of this workstream as the replacement system to be delivered is seeking to implement a more modern, secure, and flexible system. This programme is expected to conclude in June 2025.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information the Government holds on the number of fires in buildings potentially caused by disposable vapes.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Data collected through the Fire and Rescue Service Incident RecordingSystem (IRS) does not include data on whether fire incidents attended were caused by or involved disposable vapes.
The Home Office collects data on incidents attended by Fire and Rescue Services (FRSs), with this data including the cause of the fire and the source of ignition but disposable vapes are not currently an option for source of ignition, the lowest level of granularity is smoking materials. This data is published in a variety of publications, available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fire-statistics-data-tables
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
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 illegal vaping products seized at UK ports.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Border Force does not hold the data in an easily accessible format.
The latest transparency returns can be found at the link here Border Force transparency data: Q1 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to support current and former police officers with their mental health.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government and police leaders recognise that policing by its very nature is challenging for the mental health and wellbeing of the workforce and we are doing all we can to support our police. This includes providing ongoing funding to the National Police Wellbeing Service (NPWS) in England and Wales. The NPWS is helping forces to identify the impacts of the role on mental health, developing work around building resilience, as well as supporting those who need it in response to traumatic events.
On 28 April, the Police Covenant for England Wales was enshrined in law as part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. The Covenant will focus on health and wellbeing, physical protection and support for families, with a real emphasis on mental health support. This applies to current and former members of the police workforce. The first annual report on the covenant, outlining work undertaken on the key priorities, is expected to be laid before Parliament in Spring 2023.
We have already ensured pre-deployment mental health support is embedded across all training providers as well as the inclusion of wellbeing in HMICFRS Peel inspections and the appointment of a new Chief Medical Officer for policing in England and Wales.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle rural crime (a) in Cumbria and (b) across England.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Our manifesto committed us to use police resources to tackle rural crime. As well as recruiting 20,000 additional police officers, we are also taking steps to address issues that we know affect rural communities. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act empowers and equips the police and courts with the powers they need to combat hare coursing. The Government is also providing funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit. As at 31 March 2022, Cumbria Police has recruited 117 additional uplift officers against a combined year 1 and 2 allocation of 101 officers. The force has been allocated 68 additional uplift officers in the final year of Uplift. The deployment of these officers is an operational decision for Chief Constables.