Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had since 16 July 2017 with retailers on restriction of sales of acids and other corrosive substances.

Good progress is being made in delivering the Government’s action plan to tackle the use of acid and other corrosive substances in violent attacks.

The action plan published in July puts victims and survivors at the heart of our response. We are working closely with Department of Health in relation to support for victims of acid attacks, mapping out the current service provision to ensure that it is used effectively. NHS England has also just published new advice to the public on what to do in the event of being caught up in an acid or corrosive attack.

The police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in their guidance have highlighted the importance of victim personal statements and community impact statements. It is vital that such statements are made and put to the court so we can ensure the court is fully aware of the impact of these offences on individuals and communities. We have made clear that police and prosecutors should be actively considering the need for special measures in these cases to enable victims and survivors to give their best evidence in court. The CPS and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead have committed to highlighting this to police and prosecutors.

The NPCC lead has produced first responder advice for officers on how to respond to an acid attack and additional investigative guidance is currently being produced. The NPCC lead is also commissioning a further data collection with all police forces and is working with the Home Office to improve the data collection.

We are developing a set of voluntary commitments for retailers to restrict access to the most harmful corrosive products. We are currently discussing the commitments with the British Retail Consortium. We are also undertaking work to review the Poisons Act 1972.

We are also working with the Ministry of Justice to assess whether the sentencing powers available to the courts reflect the seriousness of these crimes. The Sentencing Council has recently issued a clarifying note which makes it clear that the use of a corrosive substance is a factor that shows high culpability on the part of the offender and would indicate a greater level of offence seriousness which should be reflected in sentencing. In addition the Sentencing Council are developing a new guideline on possession of dangerous weapons and threats to use them, which is likely to include the use of acid as a weapon.

The Home Office and NPCC lead will shortly be commissioning further research to look at the range of motivations for these attacks.

I will be writing to MPs very shortly with a comprehensive update on progress with the action plan.