Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking help tackle nitrous oxide use among young people.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government has published guidance on gov.uk for retailers to satisfy themselves that they comply with the law. The guidance recommends that retailers, including those operating online, should pay particular attention to the potential for abuse of nitrous oxide, especially where customers seek to buy in bulk or large volumes, and suggests that retailers may wish to carry out age checks to prevent those at highest risk from gaining access to psychoactive substances. The online resource, Talk to FRANK, provides information to the public about nitrous oxide and outlines the risks and dangers of inhaling the gas. We are aware of the role that online sale of nitrous oxide can play in causing harm to young people. We have published the draft Online Safety Bill, which gives effect to the regulatory framework outlined in the Full Government Response to the Online Harms White Paper, published in December 2020. We want the internet to be a safe space for all users and are clear that what is unacceptable offline should be unacceptable online. For the first time, tech companies are going to be accountable to an independent regulator to keep their users safe. Under a new legal duty of care, in-scope companies will need to remove and limit the spread of illegal content and activity online. The draft Online Safety Bill will be subject to pre-legislative scrutiny in this session. |
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Government's commitment to providing an additional 20,000 police officers by 2023, what recent estimate she has made of the total number of police officers in (a) Durham and (b) the police service nationally.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of officers recruited as part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme. The latest data are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-officer-uplift-statistics
The latest data show that as at 31 March 2021, Durham Constabulary employed a total of 1,226 police officers and 137,704 across England and Wales. This represents an additional 86 officers recruited by Durham Constabulary as part of the Uplift Programme, and an additional 8,771 across England and Wales as part of the Programme.
These data are collected by Police Force Area. Lower levels of geography are not collected.