Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help prevent people under 19 years old who are convicted of knife crime from reoffending.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
On 9 April 2018, the Government published the Serious Violence Strategy that set out action being taken to address serious violence and in particular the recent increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicide. The Strategy emphasises the importance of early intervention to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime among young people and to encourage them to take up positive activities.
This includes working with those who have previously offended through both the voluntary sector and statutory services. For example, youth offending teams provide supervision to young people who have been convicted of carrying or using an offensive weapon and this can include the young person participating in a knife crime intervention programme with the aim of reducing reoffending.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how he plans to determine the level of compensation payable to Windrush migrants.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Government has launched a Call for Evidence to hear about the experiences of those that might have been affected, which closes on 8 June.The information gathered through the Call for Evidence will be used to inform the decisions on the design of the scheme, and Martin Forde QC has been appointed as an Independent Person to oversee that design.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has been made on the settled status system for EU nationals after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Work is well underway to develop the settled status scheme for EU citizens which we plan to open by the end of this year. Recruitment is underway to bring existing UKVI European casework staffing levels to around 1,500 ahead of the scheme launch and we are also establishing a new customer resolution centre.
We have been discussing the design of the new streamlined, user-friendly application process with stakeholders, including through our monthly user groups, and user testing has already begun.
We will be providing further detail on the scheme in due course.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to enable Commonwealth migrants to work in the UK after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
We are considering the options for our future immigration system very carefully and will outline further details in due course. We will control immigration so that we continue to attract the brightest and the best to work or study in the UK, but will manage the process properly so that our immigration system serves the national interest and works for all.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the recorded number of (a) attackers and (b) victims of an incident involving a corrosive substance was by gender in (i) 2015, (ii) 2016 and (iii) 2017.
Answered by Nick Hurd
Acid and other corrosive attacks resulting in injury are included in Office for National Statistics published statistics within the relevant offence, such as assault with injury or assault with intent to cause serious harm.
Indicative figures from the National Police Chiefs’ Council suggest that 408 acid or corrosive attacks were carried out in the six months up to April 2017, based on returns from 39 police forces in England and Wales. These figures must be treated with caution, as they are not official statistics. We have also announced a cross Government action plan to tackle the use of acid and other corrosives in violent attacks which includes improving police recording and reporting of offences.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many attacks involving a corrosive substance were treated as a hate crime in (a) 2015, (b) 2016 and (c) 2017.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Home Office collects information on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police. Information is not held on how many of these hate crimes involved a corrosive substance.
Information on the number of hate crimes recorded by the police is published on an annual basis in the statistical bulletin Hate Crime, England and Wales, 2015/16, available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hate-crime-england-and-wales-2015-to-2016
This Government is committed to tackling hate crime. The UK has a strong legislative framework to tackle hate crime. We are working across Government with police, (including National Community Tensions Team), the Crown Prosecution Service and community partners to send out a clear message that hate crime will not be tolerated and we will vigorously pursue and prosecute those who commit these crimes.
We have also announced a cross Government action plan to tackle the use of acid and other corrosives in violent attacks which includes improving police recording and reporting of offences.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people under the age of 18 have been found in possession of a knife in (a) London and (b) Bethnal Green and Bow constituency in each year since 2010.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The information requested is not centrally held by the Home Office.
The Office for National Statistics publish data collected by the Home Office on the number of recorded crimes of ‘possession of article with blade or point’ but this is not broken down by age. Additionally, the Home Office publishes data at the police force and Community Safety Partnership area in Open Data Tables, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
The Home Office publishes arrests by each police force in England and Wales at offence group level only. It is not possible to tell from these data how many arrests related to knife crimes.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many arrests for knife crimes have taken place in (a) London and (b) Bethnal Green and Bow in each year since 2005.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The information requested is not centrally held by the Home Office.
The Office for National Statistics publish data collected by the Home Office on the number of recorded crimes of ‘possession of article with blade or point’ but this is not broken down by age. Additionally, the Home Office publishes data at the police force and Community Safety Partnership area in Open Data Tables, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
The Home Office publishes arrests by each police force in England and Wales at offence group level only. It is not possible to tell from these data how many arrests related to knife crimes.
Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many gun-related homicides have taken place in (a) London and (b) Bethnal Green and Bow in each year since 2005.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The Home Office Homicide Index contains information on homicides recorded by the police at the police force area level. Data on the number of homicides recorded by the police in London where the method of killing was by shooting are given in the Table.
The data refer to the position as at 13 November 2015, when the Homicide Index was frozen for the purpose of analysis.
Information on homicides recorded in 2015/16 will be published by the Office for National Statistics in February 2017.
Table: Homicide offences1 recorded by the police in London2 where the method of killing was by shooting | |
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Year | Number of offences |
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2005/06 | 23 |
2006/07 | 29 |
2007/08 | 23 |
2008/09 | 20 |
2009/10 | 16 |
2010/11 | 25 |
2011/12 | 15 |
2012/13 | 5 |
2013/14 | 10 |
2014/15 | 5 |
1. Source: Homicide Index, Home Office |
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2. London includes City of London and Metropolitan Police | |
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Asked by: Rushanara Ali (Labour - Bethnal Green and Bow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to counter threats of rape and sexual violence made through (a) social media networks, (b) Whatsapp and (c) Twitter.
Answered by Sarah Newton
We expect social media companies, and internet platforms, to have robust processes in place and to act promptly when abuse, including threats of rape and sexual violence, is reported. The Government continues to work closely with social media companies and other relevant actors and experts to make sure they are committed to protecting those who use their platforms.
The Criminal Justice Act 2015 strengthened two existing communications offences: section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, and section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 which can now be used to prosecute misuse of social media. The police now have longer to investigate either offence, and the maximum penalty for the former has been increased to two years imprisonment.
The Crown Prosecution Service has published guidance to prosecutors this month on crimes involving social media, with a specific focus on Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) offences. This includes guidance that communications that contain images or videos of women with very serious injuries, or of women being raped, or of women being subjected to sadistic acts of violence, accompanied by text that suggests that such assaults / rape / acts are acceptable or desirable may well be considered grossly offensive and prosecuted either under section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 or under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.
The Home Office has allocated £4.6m of the Police Transformation Fund specifically to begin the critical work of setting up a comprehensive and joined up programme of digital transformation across policing. This money will help provide a step-change in digital capability, including a Digital Investigation and Intelligence (DII) programme, which will build police capability in relation to the skills and technology required to respond to the full range of digital crime types.