Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what programmes his Department runs other than Prevent which aim to ensure that young people from minority ethnic communities understand their rights within UK law.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Department for Communities and Local Government funds a number of integration programmes that bring young people from different backgrounds together to promote social mixing and learn about their rights and responsibilities as UK citizens. For example, our £9.7 million funding for Near Neighbours since 2011 has supported the Catalyst leadership scheme which helps young people in diverse communities to develop leadership skills to help them play their part in building a strong civil society. The Anne Frank Trust works with young people from all backgrounds to help students understand the damage caused by prejudice and hatred. Similarly, Streetwise works with young people to tackle anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hate crime. We have also recently funded the Joseph Interfaith Foundation to support a project which helps young refugees to understand the social culture of Britain and integrate into British society.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing fines for social media companies which fail to remove hate material from their online platforms.
Answered by Marcus Jones
This Government has recognised the harm caused by hate on the internet and committed to take action to reduce this harm in the recently published Hate Crime Action Plan. Despite the challenges we face, we have made considerable progress in addressing hate on the internet. The Director of Public Prosecutions has published guidance to prosecutors on when it is in the public interest to take perpetrators to court. We also continue to support the police hate crime web-facility, True Vision to provide information to victims and professionals and to allow on-line reporting of hate crime. The College of Policing has included guidance to police and partners on responding to internet hate crime in their Hate Crime Strategy and Guidance. This guidance was downloaded over 4,700 times from True Vision in the first five months, in addition to the physical documents circulated to individual agencies.
We have supported the establishment of the UK No Hate Speech Movement which equips, trains and supports young volunteers to operate on the internet, supporting victims, reporting damaging material and challenging hate-fuelled perpetrators through ‘counter-narrative’ activity.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing fines for social media companies which fail to remove offensive and hate material from their platforms.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The Government has reached agreement through the European Commission's High-Level Group on Hate Crime with social media companies, that they should have robust processes in place to act promptly when online hate abuse is reported. This includes acting quickly to assess the report; removing content within twenty-four hours which does not comply with the acceptable use policies or terms and conditions; and, where appropriate, suspending or terminating the accounts of those breaching the rules that are in place. Collaborative efforts are ongoing to find and evaluate a range of solutions that balance free speech and protection from harm, with the potential to introduce fines if insufficient progress is made. The Government will continue to engage with social media companies and other interested parties to tackle online hate crime, as set out in our Hate Crime Action Plan.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to his answer of 25 January to question 61017, for what reasons offences committed online are not recorded and what the estimated cost of keeping such records is.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The College of Policing Hate Crime Operational Guidance, issued in 2014, makes clear that hate crimes committed online should be recorded in the same way as all others: http://www.report-it.org.uk/strategy_and_guidance.
The Home Office is responsible for the collection and publication of data on police recorded crime, including hate crime. Information on whether a crime was committed online (in full or in part) has been collected on a mandatory basis since April 2015. The Home Office plans to publish information on the proportion of police recorded hate crime that is identified as being online in their Hate Crime England and Wales 2016/17 bulletin which is due for publication in October 2017
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions his Department has had with EU officials on the implications for online hate crime regulation of the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Marcus Jones
The UK legislation on hate crime is not European legislation and the UK is not subject to the EU Framework Decision on Racism and Xenophobia. The Internet sub-group of the EU Commission's High Level Hate Crime Working Group has worked with industry to find collaborative solutions. Officials will continue to engage with the industry through this Working Group and other forums.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the (a) European Commission on whether social media companies should remove illegal hate speech online within 24 hours and (b) German government on its proposals to fine social media companies for failing to remove such speech within 24 hours.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Officials from the Department for Communities and Local Government sit on the Internet sub-group of the EU Commission's High-Level Hate Crime Group, which also includes civil society and industry representation. The Group oversees collaborative work including the agreed 'Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online':
http://ec.europa.eu/justice/fundamental-rights/files/hate_speech_code_of_conduct_en.pdf
This includes agreement by industry to remove illegal hate speech online within 24 hours.
This issue has also been discussed at the Ministerial meetings of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council. German officials and ministers have been involved in these discussions.
Asked by: Nusrat Ghani (Conservative - Sussex Weald)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what data his Department holds on the volume of anti-Semitic and other hate material available (a) online, (b) on Twitter and (c) on Facebook.
Answered by Marcus Jones
Incidences of illegal hate crime online should be reported to the police who are supported by third party organisations such as the Community Security Trust. National statistics on hate crime are published annually. In addition, figures produced by the National Police Chiefs’ Council provide a breakdown of police recorded religious hate crimes and show that in 2015/16, 786 anti-Semitic hate crimes were recorded by police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: http://www.report-it.org.uk/files/faith_hate_crime_true_vision_2015-16_v2.pdf Data is not available to show how many of these offences were committed online.
As part of the Government’s Hate Crime Action Plan, officials from across Whitehall are working with academics who are analysing social media platforms to better understand the nature and extent of the harm caused by online hate crime and the effectiveness of counter-narrative measures.