Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the compliance of her Department's staff working from home with the Working Time Regulations 1998.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department’s assessment is that those employees working from home continue to comply with working time regulations just as they would if they were working in Home Office buildings / workplaces. Working from home also offers employees greater flexibility over their working times and their ability to manage their work / life balance.
As a department, we will continue to remind employees of their obligation to comply with the regulations for example by taking regular breaks, using annual leave etc, and not accessing work mobile devices once they have stopped working.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
What steps her Department is taking to protect vulnerable children from county lines drugs networks.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We are determined to roll up county lines and protect vulnerable children from this harmful form of exploitation.
Through our £25m county lines programme we have already seen 3,400 people arrested, more than 550 lines closed and more than 770 vulnerable people safeguarded.
We have also increased investment in dedicated one-to-one support for county lines victims and their families.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average working days lost was for civil servants who (a) have declared themselves as having a disability, and (b) have not declared themselves to have a disability in her Department in (i) 2019 and (ii) 2020.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The average working days lost was for Home Office members of staff who (a) have declared themselves as having a disability, and (b) have not declared themselves to have a disability
| AWDL | |
Disability | Mar-19 | Mar-20 |
Disabled | 13.39 | 12.86 |
Not Disabled | 6.35 | 6.98 |
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average working days lost was for civil servants (a) from BAME backgrounds and (b) recording themselves as White in her Department in (i) 2019 and (ii) 2020.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The average working days lost was for Home Office members of staff (a) from BAME backgrounds and (b) recording themselves as White for 2019 and 2020 is provided in the table below.
| AWDL | |
Ethnicity | Mar-19 | Mar-20 |
BAME | 8.70 | 8.97 |
White | 6.60 | 7.18 |
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average working days lost was for (a) female and (b) male civil servants in her Department in (i) 2019 and (ii) 2020.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The average working days lost was for (a) female and (b) male Home Office staff for 2019 and 2020 is provided in the table below
| AWDL | |
Gender | Mar-19 | Mar-20 |
Female | 8.38 | 8.86 |
Male | 5.70 | 6.21 |
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average working days lost was for civil servants aged (a) 30 and younger, (b) 31 to 50, (c) 51 to 60, and (d) over 60 in her Department in (i) 2019 and (ii) 2020.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The average working days lost was for Home Office members of staff aged (a) 30 and younger, (b) 31 to 50, (c) 51 to 60, and (d) over 60 for 2019 and 2020 is provided in the table below.
AWDL | ||
Age Band | Mar-19 | Mar-20 |
16-24 | 3.95 | 5.19 |
25-29 | 5.08 | 6.31 |
30-34 | 7.04 | 7.25 |
35-39 | 6.35 | 7.58 |
40-44 | 6.94 | 6.90 |
45-49 | 7.19 | 7.71 |
50-54 | 7.44 | 7.43 |
55-59 | 8.33 | 8.65 |
60-64 | 9.82 | 10.01 |
65+ | 11.03 | 13.70 |
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 29 June 2020 to Question 63563 on travel: coronavirus, what support is available for incoming travellers who cannot afford or do not have the funds to pay for quarantine accommodation after travelling to the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Border Force is able to assist in sourcing accommodation for people requiring a place to quarantine through contractors, at the person’s expense.? In limited circumstances, the Home Office will fund quarantine accommodation should an individual be unable to.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to verify that people travelling to the UK comply with quarantine measures by staying at a specified address.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Unless they fall into an exempt category, anyone travelling to the UK should complete a Passenger Locator Form that specifies where they will be self-isolating. Border Force officers carry out spot checks at the border to ensure this form is completed
Public Health England undertake assurance calls against those not exempt from quarantine arrangements. In cases of concern or where they haven’t been able to reach a passenger, the details are passed to Border Force, who undertake further scrutiny of the data before passing the details to the police for enforcement action. The devolved administrations have their own individual arrangements for enforcement and access to the data captured by the Passenger Locator Form.
Anyone found failing to comply with the quarantine measures may be liable to a fixed penalty notice of £1000 in England.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour in Luton.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We recognise the impact that anti-social behaviour can have on victims, which is why we reformed the powers available to tackle it through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. The Act provides police and local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to anti-social behaviour.
The powers are deliberately local in nature, and it is for local agencies to determine whether their use is appropriate in the circumstances. We keep anti-social behaviour policy under review through the Anti-social Behaviour Strategic Board which brings together key partners.
It is for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners, as operational leaders and elected local representatives, to decide how best to respond to individual crimes and local crime priorities but to help ensure that the police have the resources they need to do so, we are recruiting 20,000 officers over the next three years.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department is providing to people travelling to the UK without access to quarantine accommodation.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Guidance for traveling to the UK and how to self-isolate when you travel to the UK can be found on the.gov.uk website at the link below: