Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, what proportion of apprentices employed by the House of Commons are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Tom Brake
The House launched the first apprenticeship scheme in 2012. Since then 10 apprentices have been employed per year. We have extended this to 12 apprentices for 2019.
Apprentices are asked to submit diversity data. This does not include if they consider themselves to be from a disadvantaged background. Therefore, the House does not hold this information. We work closely with both our providers and the House of Commons recruitment team to ensure vacancies are published to as broad an audience as possible.
As it would be possible to identify the ethnicity of some of the apprentices – the intake comprising too few individuals to ensure confidentiality – we are unable to answer the question as to what proportion of apprentices currently employed by the House of Commons are from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, which external organisations the House of Commons is working with to provide apprenticeship opportunities.
Answered by Tom Brake
The House of Commons is participating in National Apprenticeship Week. This will include the production of a short film of former and current apprentices in conjunction with Amazing Apprenticeships. The film will be shown nationally in schools and Further Education colleges to promote apprenticeships in general and at Parliament.
Lifetime Training have been appointed as our Lead provider, together with Newham College. We also use Kaplan training who are managed by Lifetime.
In addition, we work alongside Amazing Apprenticeships who work with over 3,500 schools and colleges nationally.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that police and crime commissioners are accountable to the public.
Answered by Mike Penning
Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are held accountable by the most effective check on any politician: the ballot box. This democratic power did not exist before 2012, when we replaced invisible, unaccountable police
authorities with directly elected PCCs. Under the old system, the public had no say in who served as a police authority chairman or member and more than 5.8 million votes have been cast for PCCs since their introduction.
The rules on the dismissal of a PCC are stronger than those for similar directly elected roles, such as MPs. Police and Crime Panels hold the power to suspend a PCC charged with an offence which carries a maximum sentence above
two years imprisonment. Any PCC found guilty of an imprisonable offence (whether or not a custodial sentence is handed down) is immediately disqualified from holding office.
The Home Secretary has said that there is a debate to be had on the issue of PCC recall, and the Government will listen carefully to the views of the Home Affairs Select Committee, of Parliament, and of the public more generally, and
will reflect upon these views.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of crime levels in Harlow; and what steps she is taking to reduce such levels.
Answered by Mike Penning
Police recorded crime in Harlow Community Safety Partnership has fallen by 11% since June 2010.
The Government’s police reforms, including cutting unnecessary targets and red tape and giving officers the discretion to use their professional judgment, mean that forces can focus on cutting crime. We have also introduced direct democratic accountability through Police and Crime Commissioners, ensuring that the police focus on tackling the crimes that matter to local people.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many crimes of each type have been committed in Harlow constituency in each of the last 15 years.
Answered by Norman Baker
The data requested are given in the table. Data for Harlow are available from 2002/03.
The Office for National Statistics publishes quarterly statistics on crime. As part of this, a set of open data tables are published, showing crime at Police Force Area and Community Safety Partnership level. These contain the data requested, and can be found using this link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what contingency plans are in place to handle electronic failures at e-passport gates at Stansted Airport.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Electronic failures of e-passport gates at Stansted Airport are addressed by officers at the port, who have access to twenty four hour technical support. At Stansted, each bank of 5 e-Passport gates is on a different power circuit in order to mitigate the risk of power failure affecting all 15 gates at once.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much UK Border Force has spent at Stansted Airport in the last five years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
UK Border Force has spent £47 million at Stansted Airport in the last five years. This includes fixed team pay and non pay related costs for Border Force operations at Stansted. It does not include infrastructure costs.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the UK Border Force is taking to reduce queuing and improve the passenger experience at Stansted Airport.
Answered by James Brokenshire
This year, Border Force increased the number of e-passport gates at Stansted from 5 to 15 which allows for a more efficient flow of passengers through the primary arrivals control. Alongside this, Border Force is working closely with Stansted Airport to reduce queues and improve the passenger experience. It has increased the number of Border Force officers at the port, including seasonal workforce to deal with the large volumes of passengers through the summer; introduced a new resourcing tool using live arrivals data and transit times to schedule the right number of officers at passport control for each flight; improved signage; and introduced a new style queuing system which feeds to multiple desks and allows for a continuous movement of passengers.
According to Border Force data, the performance at Stansted has been consistently above service level agreements throughout the summer, and has shown significant further improvement since the introduction of the new eGates on 15 August in time for the August Bank Holiday weekend (the busiest weekend of the year). The targets are to clear 95% of passengers within 25 minutes for EU/EEA nationals, and 45 minutes for non EU/EEA nationals.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK Border Force personnel have been deployed at (a) Gatwick, (b) Heathrow, (c) Luton, (d) Stansted and (e) Southend airport in each year since 2008.
Answered by James Brokenshire
To ensure the integrity and security of the UK border, Her Majesty’s Government cannot provide details of the number of staff deployed at specific ports.
Asked by: Robert Halfon (Conservative - Harlow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many apprentices have been employed by contractors and sub-contractors to her Department in each year since 2010-11; and what proportion of the total workforce of such contractors is made up by apprentices.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Information is not held centrally and to obtain the data would incur
disproportionate cost.