Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to (a) provide support for groups for victims of domestic abuse and (b) increase the availability of those groups.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Tackling domestic abuse and ensuring victims receive the support they need is a priority for this Government. Our landmark Domestic Abuse Act 2021 will strengthen our protection to victims and ensure perpetrators feel the full force of the law. It includes the first legal definition of domestic abuse, improved support for victims in the courts, new offences, including on non-fatal strangulation, and strengthened legislation around cruel acts of controlling or coercive behaviour.
The Act also places a duty on local authorities in England to provide support to victims of domestic abuse and their children in refuges and other safe accommodation, backed by £125 million of Government funding to ensure that these vital services are available to anyone who needs them, wherever they live. This will be supported by a new £6 million Domestic Abuse Capacity Building Fund to help Local Authorities prepare for the upcoming duty.
In March 2022, we published the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan which will seek to transform the whole of society’s response in order to prevent offending, support victims and pursue perpetrators, as well as to strengthen the systems processes in place needed to deliver these goals.
The Plan invests over £230 million into tackling domestic abuse. This includes over £140 million to support victims, much of which is multi-year funding, part over £47 million of which is ringfenced for community-based support services.
As committed to in the cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy published on 21 July last year, the Home Office has also provided an additional £1.5 million funding this year for ‘by and for’ service provision and to further increase funding for valuable specialist services for victims of violence against women and girls.
The Home Office is also planning to double funding for survivors of sexual violence and the National Domestic Abuse Helpline by 2024-25, and further increase funding for all the national helplines it supports.
The VAWG National Statement of Expectations, and Commissioning Toolkit, which we have published alongside the Plan, will also provide support to commissioners to help them increase provision of ‘by and for’ and specialist services.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2014 at tackling anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
It is important that local authorities have the powers they need to tackle all local issues quickly and effectively. That is why we introduced a range of flexible tools and powers to tackle anti-social behaviour through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
The powers in the 2014 Act are deliberately local in nature and it is for local authorities to determine how best to respond to each individual case. The powers support appropriate action to resolve anti-social behaviour, including through setting restrictions or positive requirements on individuals.
The Home Office published statutory guidance to support local areas to make effective use of these powers to emphasise the importance of focusing on the impact of anti-social behaviour on victims and further to support local authorities to make effective use of these powers. This guidance was updated in June 2022 to ensure a victim-centered approach to tackling ASB.
Last year the Beating Crime Plan laid out the Government’s plan for tackling crime and ASB and committed to working with local agencies and partners to drive down ASB using the full range of powers and tools in the 2014 Act.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to ensure all enquiries to UK Visa and Immigration are actioned and dealt with in a timely manner.
Answered by Kevin Foster
For all visa application queries the public should call the Home Office customer helpline. The Home Office service standard is to answer 80% of calls within 30seconds.
Last week we answered 77% within 30 seconds with an average wait time of 1 minutes 9 seconds.
We continue to work with our service provider to regularly review their performance to ensure service standards are maintained. We are working with our service provider to increase the number of staff operating the customer helpline. It is envisaged this will enable the service standard to be met in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) support groups for victims of domestic abuse and (b) increase the availability of such groups.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of Action Fraud.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Based out of the City of London Police, Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime and works alongside the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau who are responsible for the assessment of the reports.
In light of advances in technology and growing demand on the service, as well as reports such as Sir Craig Mackey’s independent review of Action Fraud (https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/assets/About-us/action-fraud-report.pdf), we are working with the City of London Police on plans to refresh and upgrade the current Action Fraud service. We are working to make continuous improvements to the service to make it easier for victims to report fraud, including increasing the number of staff in the call centre.
At the same time City of London Police have launched a competitive procurement for a new service, to be operational by 2024. This will improve the service to victims, provide greater intelligence and insight to policing on fraud and cybercrime affecting communities, and allow for greater prevention and disruption at scale.
We are spending an additional £400 million over the next three years to tackle economic crime including fraud, which follows the extra £63m investment prioritised in 2021. Some of this funding will be used in the programme to refresh and upgrade the Action Fraud service.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of (a) street lighting and (b) CCTV cameras in areas with a high level of crime.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government recognises that improved street lighting and CCTV can make a real difference in cutting crime and helping to deliver the safer streets the public wants.
That is why we established the Safer Streets Fund (SSF) to support local initiatives designed to reduce crime in areas disproportionately and persistently impacted and prevent it from happening in the first place. We have run three rounds of the SSF, investing £70 million across England and Wales, and have announced there will be £50 million of Government funding for the SSF for each of the next three years.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that local authorities have adequate resources to effectively respond to local anti-social behaviour issues.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides a range of flexible tools and powers to local agencies to tackle anti-social behaviour. Local areas decide how best to deploy these powers depending on the specific circumstances of each individual case.
The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2022-23 makes available an additional £3.5 billion to councils, including funding for adult social care reform. This is an increase of over 4% in real terms, which will ensure councils across the country have the resources they need to deliver key services. In total, we expect Core Spending Power to rise to £53.9 billion in 2022-23, against £50.4 billion in 2021-22.
The Government is also providing around £1.6 billion additional grant in 2022-23. This includes additional funding for Supporting Families and Cyber Resilience, which will be distributed outside of this Settlement. We are allocating most of that funding through the provisional Settlement, including through a one-off 2022/23 Services Grant to councils to spend on vital frontline services, worth £822 million.
This funding will be given to councils to spend as they see fit, recognising that councils are placed to deal with local issues. The Government aims to publish a final settlement confirming allocations to individual local authorities in February 2022.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the public consultation on the revised national police funding formula will open.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The government recognises that the current police funding formula is out of date and no longer accurately reflects demand on policing.
A review of the funding formula is now underway, and we are working closely with the policing sector and relevant experts to develop proposals for new funding arrangements. A full public consultation will take place before any new funding arrangements are put in place.
We have previously confirmed our intention to complete this work before the next General Election.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to efficiently provide conclusions to asylum cases in response to submissions of further evidence.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office has taken several measures to increase decision outputs and reduce decision waiting times for Asylum Further Submissions.
This includes increasing the number of decision makers, with significant further recruitment planned, improvements to training and streamlining of processes, including digitalisation and development of an enhanced electronic casework system.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to promote awareness among, and increase the number of, licensed premises that accept the PASS CitizenCard as a suitable form of identification when alternatives such as provisional driving licence cannot be presented.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government and Police fully support the Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) and encourages all shops and licensed premises to accept PASS accredited cards as proof of age.
Home Office officials continue to work closely with the PASS Board and Age Verification Providers Association in the development of technical standards for digital proof of age PASS accredited cards that would expand their use through technology such as smart phones.