Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department has taken to (a) reduce crime and (b) improve community safety in Birmingham.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is committed to cutting crime, keeping our streets safe, and restoring confidence in the criminal justice system.
Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), as the locally elected and democratically accountable individual, are responsible for the totality of policing in their area. They set local policing and crime objectives in partnership with their communities and key stakeholders and hold the Chief Constable to account for the delivery of efficient and effective policing.
The Government is funding a range of initiatives in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands police force area to reduce crime. Through the Safer Streets Fund, the West Midlands has received just over £3.7m of investment through five rounds of the Fund. As part of the current Round Five, the West Midlands PCC has been allocated £819k to deliver interventions aimed at targeting neighbourhood crime, anti-social behaviour, and violence against women and girls.
To tackle the drivers of serious violence, the Home Office has invested over £20m since 2019 to develop the West Midlands Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), including funding of over £4.38m in 2023/2024. The West Midlands VRU delivers a range of preventative interventions, cognitive behavioural therapy programmes, and sports-based diversionary programmes.
During the Police Uplift, West Midlands recruited 1,376 additional uplift officers against a total three-year allocation of 1,218 officers. As at 30 September 2023, there were 7,982 police officers in West Midlands, a total growth of 1,291 additional officers against the baseline (6,691) at the start of the Police Uplift.
Overall, the West Midlands will receive up to £790.4 million in 2024/2025 from the police funding settlement, an increase of up to £51.1 million when compared to 2023/2024.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to (a) assess and (b) improve the effectiveness of existing legal measures designed to protect (a) minority ethnic women and (b) all people from domestic abuse.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The government has taken a number of measures to strengthen legislation and protections for victims of domestic abuse.
This includes the measures set out in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, which is helping transform our response to victims and bring perpetrators to justice.
Controlling or Coercive Behaviour within an intimate or family relationship was made a criminal offence under the Serious Crime Act 2015. The Domestic Abuse Act 2021 removed the requirement for the parties to be ‘living together’ for the offence to occur, meaning it applies to intimate partners, ex-partners or family members, regardless of whether the victim and perpetrator live together.
The Domestic Abuse statutory guidance contains detailed sections setting out specifically how victims from ethnic minority backgrounds may experience additional barriers to identifying, disclosing, seeking help or reporting abuse.
The government continues to offer migrant victims in the UK who have, or last had, permission to be in the UK under the family Immigration Rules to apply for access to the Migrant Victims of Domestic Abuse Concession (MVDAC).
The government will continue to work with the police and criminal justice agencies to ensure the law is used to maximum effect to protect victims of domestic abuse.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to increase the number and proportion of (a) police officers and (b) other police staff who are female.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 20,000-officer uplift provided a once in a generation opportunity to support forces to become more representative of the communities they serve, and to create a foundation from which forces can continue to make further improvements in future.
As a result of the police uplift, the police officer workforce is now more representative than it has ever been. As at 31 March 2023, there are 53,080 female police officers (headcount) which represents the highest number on record, accounting for 35.5% of officers.
The learning generated during the Uplift has been captured and shared with forces via the online Uplift Hub. This is now being used by forces to support ongoing recruitment activity and strong evidence-led retention strategies to support officers in their careers. Dedicated learning is also available on the Uplift Hub on improving representation.
In order to support forces to recruit and retain officers from diverse backgrounds and promote inclusivity, the College of Policing has also created a toolkit for forces to support the development of flexible and/or part-time working pathways as well as a Workplace Adjustment Toolkit for forces.
Through the Police Covenant, we have also appointed the first Chief Medical Officer for policing who is developing a national health strategy for all staff and officers.
Whilst progress has been made, there remains more work to be done by forces to increase representation in policing. The Government also continues to work with forces to ensure that they put the right support in place to enable officers and staff with additional needs, disabilities or other health conditions to enable them to thrive in their careers and continue to serve the public.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to improve the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of female police officers.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 20,000-officer uplift provided a once in a generation opportunity to support forces to become more representative of the communities they serve, and to create a foundation from which forces can continue to make further improvements in future.
As a result of the police uplift, the police officer workforce is now more representative than it has ever been. As at 31 March 2023, there are 53,080 female police officers (headcount) which represents the highest number on record, accounting for 35.5% of officers.
The learning generated during the Uplift has been captured and shared with forces via the online Uplift Hub. This is now being used by forces to support ongoing recruitment activity and strong evidence-led retention strategies to support officers in their careers. Dedicated learning is also available on the Uplift Hub on improving representation.
In order to support forces to recruit and retain officers from diverse backgrounds and promote inclusivity, the College of Policing has also created a toolkit for forces to support the development of flexible and/or part-time working pathways as well as a Workplace Adjustment Toolkit for forces.
Through the Police Covenant, we have also appointed the first Chief Medical Officer for policing who is developing a national health strategy for all staff and officers.
Whilst progress has been made, there remains more work to be done by forces to increase representation in policing. The Government also continues to work with forces to ensure that they put the right support in place to enable officers and staff with additional needs, disabilities or other health conditions to enable them to thrive in their careers and continue to serve the public.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of lowering the State Pension age to 60.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has no plans to make such an assessment.
Changes to State Pension age were made over a series of Acts by successive governments from 1995 onwards, following public consultations and extensive debates in both Houses of Parliament.
Further changes were introduced through the Pensions Acts 2011 and 2014 in order to protect public finances and maintain the sustainability of the State Pension over the long term. Under the 2011 Pensions Act the State Pension age for women and men rose to 66.
The rise in State Pension age to 67 has been planned since 2014. Since then, the Government has undertaken two statutory State Pension age reviews, one in 2017 and one in 2023. These reviews both considered whether the existing rules about the timetable for State Pension age rising to 67 remained appropriate.
Both reviews, including the Independent Reports that supported them, concluded that the rules concerning the increase in State Pension age from 66 to 67 should continue as planned.
Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has had discussions with NHS England on ensuring that (a) reviews, (b) investigations and (c) complaints processes relating to maternity services include consideration of the (i) impact of ethnicity on the care received and (ii) potential role of (A) racism and (B) discrimination.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
NHS England, along with the devolved administrations and the Crown Dependencies, funds Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries to collate ethnicity data, in relation to all perinatal and maternal deaths across the United Kingdom. They publish annual surveillance reports which provide comparators of rates of mortality for women and babies from different ethnic groups. They also publish confidential enquiries, assessing care provision along the whole care pathway, to identify areas requiring improvement.
The Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations programme provides independent, standardised, and family focused investigations to provide learning to the health system. This includes analysis of data to identify key trends, and collaboration with system partners to escalate safety concerns.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to undertake a review into the potential merits of issuing compensation to all women impacted by changes to the State Pension age.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
In laying the report before Parliament at the end of March, the Ombudsman has brought matters to the attention of this House, and a further update to the House will be provided once the report's findings have been fully considered.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he (a) is taking and (b) plans to take steps to assess the efficacy of restraining orders in preventing repeat incidents of domestic violence (i) in minority ethnic communities and (ii) generally.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Restraining orders play an important role in ensuring that victims are appropriately protected, and feel safer, particularly within the context of repeated and/or escalating behaviour that disproportionately impacts women and girls, such as domestic abuse.
They are one of several existing protective orders that can be used in cases of domestic abuse to protect a victim, such as Non-Molestation Orders, Stalking Protection Orders, and Domestic Violence Protection Orders.
Abusers who breach restraining orders face tough penalties including jail time. Where a restraining order is breached, CPS guidance encourages prosecutors to consider whether a new course of conduct is present and, if so, to ensure that it is prosecuted in addition to the breach in question.
Safeguarding victims of all crimes, and particularly from those such as domestic abuse is a priority for this Government. That is why we are going further to protect victims of domestic abuse by piloting a new Domestic Abuse Protection Order from Spring 2024 which will give courts the power to impose exclusion zones, curfews, and electronic monitoring tags on abusers. The order will be independently evaluated to understand its effectiveness in protecting all victims.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, how many enquiries the Equality Advisory and Support Service has responded to in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We do not routinely collect this information. The member may wish to ask EASS for it directly. However, it may be of interest for the Member to note that the EASS receives around 3,000 calls per month and has a stringent Key Performance Indicator that requires operators to answer 85% of all calls within 30 seconds. That target is routinely met. In a recent customer satisfaction survey nearly 90% of respondents were ‘Satisfied’ or higher with the service that they received.
Asked by: Tahir Ali (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to promote businesses owned by women.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government promotes women-led businesses through partnerships with the private sector. With the Council for Investing in Female Entrepreneurs we have created the Invest in Women Hub (iiwhub.com) which provides information and free access to expert mentors.
We are working with the Invest in Women Taskforce towards their goal of making the UK the best place in the world to be a female entrepreneur, including by raising private sector capital to invest in women-led businesses.
The Women’s International Networking Programme aims to increase the participation of women-led businesses in international trade through access to networks, role models and DBT intelligence.