Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many seizures of captagon tablets there have been in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Home Office data records show one seizure of Fenethylline (street name Captagon) seized by police and zero seizures by Border Force over the last 5 years.
Home Office publish data on seizures made by police and Border Force for England and Wales annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/seizures-of-drugs-in-england-and-wales.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds on the number of biometric residence permits that were issued with the incorrect type of permit conditions stated on the permit in 2022; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The information is not available publicly and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Ukrainian refugees living in other European countries are able to take holidays in the UK to visit family and friends.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Ukrainian refugees living in other European countries can visit the UK for holidays and to visit family, subject to applying for and receiving the necessary entry clearance. Visitors are assessed on the balance of probabilities against a set of suitability and eligibility rules based on credibility.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what restrictions apply to Iranian citizens applying for tourists' visas to visit the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
There is no current policy of restricting applications from Iranian citizens looking to visit the UK on a tourist visa.
The rules applying to visitors can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-v-visitor and apply to both Visa Nationals including citizens of Iran (who must apply for a visa in advance of travel) and Non-Visa Nationals (who seek leave to enter at the UK border).
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to tackle retail crime in the West Midlands.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is working closely with retailers, trade organisations, police and enforcement partners across England and Wales via the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) to ensure the response to crimes affecting the retail sector is as robust as it can be. This group includes representation from West Midlands Police who are involved in a number of crime prevention initiatives, including the Offender to Rehab Programme which is helping to reduce crimes like shoplifting by supporting prolific offenders with substance misuse issues through rehabilitation.
On a national level, we continue to work closely with the police-led National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) to understand the crimes affecting businesses and help ensure businesses and police are working effectively together. The NBCC launched a week of action in October involving a number of police force areas, including West Midlands, holding targeted operations in towns and city centres and engaging with local businesses to raise awareness of the impact of business crime and how to prevent it. The week of action has encouraged more effective partnership working and highlighted the importance of reporting crimes when they occur.
The Government has also recently taken significant action to tackle violence and abuse by introducing a statutory aggravating factor for assault against all public facing workers. This legislative change ensures the courts treat the public-facing nature of a victim’s role as an aggravating factor when considering the sentence for an offence. Section 156 of the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 commenced in June and sends a very clear message that assaults of this kind are unacceptable.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 19 October to Question 61719 on Migrant Workers: Skilled Workers, how many skilled worker visa applications submitted in the UK have surpassed the service standard time.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on the number of skilled worker visas which have been processed outside target processing times in our Transparency data.
The Home Office Transparency data sets out how the department is performing against its service standard, which can be found on the GOV.UK webpage: Visas and Citizenship data: Q2 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she will take to increase community policing to help tackle levels of crime.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Decisions about frontline policing, and how resources are best deployed, are for Chief Constables and democratically accountable Police & Crime Commissioners. They are best placed to make decisions based on their local knowledge, enabling them to adapt and respond to the changing crime mix and priorities of their communities.
We are continuing work to increase the number of police officers in England and Wales. As at 30 September 2022, 15,343 additional officers have been recruited in England and Wales as part of the Police Uplift Programme. This amounts for 77% of the target of 20,000 additional officers by March 2023.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of crime during the cost of living crisis; and what steps she will take to tackle that crime.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
We monitor crime levels on a regular basis, both at a national level and police force area level and this monitoring feeds into our crime reduction efforts.
The Government is committed to reducing crime and is funding a range of evidence-led interventions to prevent crime happening in the first place.
For example, the Safer Streets Fund provides investment into innovative as well as traditional interventions to improve the safety of public places, Violence Reduction Units bring together local partners to tackle the drivers of violence in their area, and ‘Grip’ funding allows the police to carry out targeted and visible patrols in areas where there is greatest risk of serious violence.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will take steps to improve his Department's response times to enquiries from Rt hon. and hon. Members.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Department works to a target of responding to 95% of Hon. Member’s written correspondence within 20 working days.
Performance against target has been impacted by an unprecedented increase in MPs queries following the Afghan evacuation, Ukraine crisis and HM Passport Office application surge.
We now have an operational plan to fully recover our position and I will shortly be writing to all Members setting these plans in more detail including timescales for delivery.
Asked by: Steve McCabe (Labour - Birmingham, Selly Oak)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Whilst the UK Government keeps the list of proscribed organisations under review, we do not routinely comment on whether an organisation is or is not being considered for proscription.
The UK has over 200 sanctions designations in place against Iran, which aim to address Iran’s destabilising and unacceptable activities.
On the 10th October, the UK imposed sanctions on five leading political and security officials in Iran, including Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Basij force.