Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle domestic abuse against men.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Domestic abuse is a devastating crime and the Government is committed to doing everything we can to tackle it. Domestic abuse affects men as well as women and last year we published a dedicated male victims position statement to recognise the needs of male victims and to clarify and strengthen our response.
The Home Office funds the Men’s Advice Line which provides support and advice to male victims of domestic abuse. This helpline received additional funding from the £2m announced by the Home Secretary on April 11 to bolster domestic abuse helplines during COVID-19. On 19 May the Home Office announced £2m of funding to charities with a national or regional presence which will provide further support for male and female victims of domestic abuse.
We have also provided £500,000 to improve support to male victims of domestic abuse and provided funding to Galop which provides advice and support to LGBT+ populations affected by domestic abuse, including for the National LGBT+ Domestic Abuse Helpline. This helpline also received additional funding from the £2m announced by the Home Secretary.
The Government domestic abuse awareness raising campaign under the hashtag #YouAreNotAlone, signposts victims to sources of advice and support. Details of these services can be found at www.gov.uk/domestic-abuse
The Home Office regularly engages with police forces on a wide range of domestic abuse issues.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police on domestic violence against men.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Domestic abuse is a devastating crime and the Government is committed to doing everything we can to tackle it. Domestic abuse affects men as well as women and last year we published a dedicated male victims position statement to recognise the needs of male victims and to clarify and strengthen our response.
The Home Office funds the Men’s Advice Line which provides support and advice to male victims of domestic abuse. This helpline received additional funding from the £2m announced by the Home Secretary on April 11 to bolster domestic abuse helplines during COVID-19. On 19 May the Home Office announced £2m of funding to charities with a national or regional presence which will provide further support for male and female victims of domestic abuse.
We have also provided £500,000 to improve support to male victims of domestic abuse and provided funding to Galop which provides advice and support to LGBT+ populations affected by domestic abuse, including for the National LGBT+ Domestic Abuse Helpline. This helpline also received additional funding from the £2m announced by the Home Secretary.
The Government domestic abuse awareness raising campaign under the hashtag #YouAreNotAlone, signposts victims to sources of advice and support. Details of these services can be found at www.gov.uk/domestic-abuse
The Home Office regularly engages with police forces on a wide range of domestic abuse issues.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the accuracy of reports that Hezbollah's Foreign Relations Department is raising funds and operating within the EU.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We do not provide comment on our intelligence assessment of terrorist organisations.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Syrian refugees have been admitted to the UK under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is committed to publishing data in an orderly way as part of the regular quarterly Immigration Statistics, in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. These can be found at www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics
Latest statistics published on 27 February 2020 show that as of December 2019, a total of 19,353 people had been resettled in the UK across 327 local authorities under the Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme since it began.
The next set of figures will be in the quarterly release on 21 May 2020 and will cover the period January to March 2020.
We have committed to resettle 20,000 vulnerable refugees who have fled Syria and are on track to deliver the full commitment in 2020.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which places of worship have received funding from the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Office does not disclose details or confirm individual grants for individual places of worship that have received funding through the Places of Worship Security Funding Scheme, as disclosing the identities of the places of worship may put their security at risk.
For the first three years of the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme, £800,000 was allocated each year. Over those three years, the Home Office awarded 134 grants worth approximately £1.5 million – with 63 to churches, 49 to mosques, 5 to Hindu temples, and 17 to gurdwaras.
For the fourth year of the scheme, the then Home Secretary announced last year an uplift of funding to £1.6 million for 2019-20. The Home Office is currently finalising applications with a view to informing applicants in the near future.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding has been (a) allocated and (b) disbursed from the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Office does not disclose details or confirm individual grants for individual places of worship that have received funding through the Places of Worship Security Funding Scheme, as disclosing the identities of the places of worship may put their security at risk.
For the first three years of the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme, £800,000 was allocated each year. Over those three years, the Home Office awarded 134 grants worth approximately £1.5 million – with 63 to churches, 49 to mosques, 5 to Hindu temples, and 17 to gurdwaras.
For the fourth year of the scheme, the then Home Secretary announced last year an uplift of funding to £1.6 million for 2019-20. The Home Office is currently finalising applications with a view to informing applicants in the near future.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to encourage the installation of alley gates to restrict access to private driveways behind terraced housing to reduce the risk of fly-tipping and burglary.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides the police and local authorities with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to tackle anti-social behaviour.
The powers include Public Spaces Protection Orders which local authorities can issue to stop people committing anti-social behaviour in a public space including restricting access to a public right of way and Community Protection Notices which can be used by the police or the local authority to deal with ongoing problems or nuisances which are having a persistent or continuing and detrimental effect on the quality of life of those in the locality.
The powers are designed to enable local agencies to tailor their response according to the particular circumstances.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the arrest and release of Oluwole Ilesanmi in Enfield, what steps he is taking to ensure that church groups can preach on the street.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Government does not prevent individuals from following their religious beliefs or cultural traditions provided they do so within the law. The diversity of modern Britain is one of our strengths and many British people of different faiths follow religious codes and practices.
The right to freedom of expression is a vital part of a democratic society. It is a long-standing tradition in this country that people are free to share their views with others.
Decisions on arrests are an operational matter for the police working within the provisions of the legal framework set by Parliament.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance he has provided to the police on street preachers; and what lessons have been learned from the arrest and subsequent release of Oluwole Ilesanmi in Enfield.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Government does not prevent individuals from following their religious beliefs or cultural traditions provided they do so within the law. The diversity of modern Britain is one of our strengths and many British people of different faiths follow religious codes and practices.
The right to freedom of expression is a vital part of a democratic society. It is a long-standing tradition in this country that people are free to share their views with others.
Decisions on arrests are an operational matter for the police working within the provisions of the legal framework set by Parliament.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how long it is taking on average to process applications made by EU nationals to the pilot EU settled status scheme.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Applications under the pilot phases of EU Settlement Scheme have been processed very quickly. Some applicants have needed to provide additional information and we have worked with them to ensure they know what information they need to provide. For these cases decisions could take longer as we will rely on the applicant providing that information in order to progress their application.
Further details will be provided in the second private beta report which will be published in due course.