Antisocial Behaviour
(Sedgefield) (Con)
1. What steps she is taking to reduce antisocial
behaviour.(905034)
(South Shields) (Lab)
2. What steps her Department is taking to help tackle antisocial
behaviour.(905035)
(Bootle) (Lab)
17. What steps her Department is taking to help tackle antisocial
behaviour.(905051)
(Stoke-on-Trent North)
(Con)
19. What steps she is taking to reduce antisocial
behaviour.(905053)
(Bosworth) (Con)
23. What steps she is taking to reduce antisocial
behaviour.(905057)
The Secretary of State for the Home Department ()
Antisocial behaviour brings misery and menace. On 27 March, the
Government launched the antisocial behaviour action plan, giving
the relevant agencies all the tools they need and communities
confidence that it will not be tolerated. The plan focuses on
making communities safer, building local pride, prevention and
early intervention. These proposals will ensure perpetrators are
punished and help to restore pride in our communities.
I compliment the Secretary of State on driving the increase in
police numbers on the streets. While Durham has 239 more police
officers since 2019, will she confirm that recruitment will
continue, as we have not yet returned to the 2010 level? Will she
advise me and my Sedgefield constituents how to ensure that the
emphasis is on frontline deployment to antisocial behaviour
hotspots?
I congratulate my hon. Friend on his doughty campaigning in his
constituency. Durham has received £3.4 million through four
rounds of the safer streets fund, including just under £1.5
million in the current round. This is funding projects such as
youth diversionary activity, ASB education programmes and target
hardening measures. This Government are putting more police on
the streets and engaging with communities to enable them to
prevent crime.
Mrs Lewell-Buck
Driving without care or consideration is described as one of the
worst forms of antisocial behaviour, as the consequences can be
fatal. If caught speeding, does the Home Secretary agree that no
one should be above the law?
As I said earlier, last summer I was speeding. I regret that. I
paid the fine and I took the penalty. At no point did I attempt
to evade sanction. What I am focused on is working for more
police officers, so I am proud that this Conservative Government
have secured a record number in the history of policing. This
side of the House is focused on the people’s priorities.
According to a joint letter I received from the Home Secretary
and the Levelling Up Secretary on 27 March 2023:
“Tackling antisocial behaviour is an absolute priority for this
Government.”
In the real world, how can 450 fewer police officers in
Merseyside since 2010, and 69p per person invested in the
immediate justice pilot, be classed as anything approaching
tackling antisocial behaviour?
I am pleased that, thanks to this Government’s commitment,
Merseyside has received millions of pounds of increased funding
compared with previous years, but, most importantly, there have
been seven rounds of safer streets fund projects in Merseyside,
with 2.9 million in total provided over four rounds. I am glad
that Merseyside has been chosen as one of our pilot areas for our
immediate justice scheme, which is one way we will kick
antisocial behaviour.
I thank my right hon. Friend for her earlier answer. In
Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke, we are delighted to
have seen more than 330 brand-new police officers recruited, new
CCTV in Kidsgrove parish and more than £2 million in safer
streets funding for Stoke-on-Trent. Sadly, however, in places
such as Cobridge, crime increased by 75% between January and
December 2022, which is why I launched the safer streets
petition, which has more than 430 signatures. Will my right hon.
Friend work to get the police and crime commissioner and the city
council to bid with me for the next safer streets pot, to keep
the streets safe in Tunstall, Cobridge and Smallthorne?
My hon. Friend does a great job of standing up for his
constituents on antisocial behaviour. In March, we launched the
action plan to crack down on precisely the behaviour he has been
talking about. The plan is backed by more than £160 million of
new funding. That includes funding for an increased police and
other uniformed presence in ASB hotspots. I am glad that his
force has also been chosen as one of the pilots.
Dr Evans
I am pleased to see the plan being brought forward, because only
last week I was speaking to parish councillors from Bagworth who
have had real problems with vandalism and graffiti in some of
their playgrounds —so much so that they are thinking of closing
them. I have heard of this happening in places such as Earl
Shilton and Barwell, too. Will the Home Secretary say how the
plan will support communities such as mine?
I was pleased to visit Leicestershire police force some months
ago. I am committed to supporting communities and the police. I
am pleased that Leicestershire police has received £2.8 million
through four rounds of the safer streets fund, including £800,000
in the current round, to fund projects such as youth diversion
activities, antisocial behaviour education programmes, and target
hardening. We have funded several initiatives, and that is how we
work together with other agencies to ensure that our streets are
safer, communities can restore pride, and ultimately that
criminals are put behind bars.
(Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)
In Kendal we are proud of the recently set up Youth Matters
project, which is about engaging young people with worthwhile
activities to do with their time. Does the Home Secretary agree
that as well as tackling antisocial behaviour by firm and
adequately resourced policing, it is important that she works
with her colleagues in the Department for Education to boost
youth work, in particular detached youth work, to help give young
people worthwhile things to do with their time? What is she doing
to improve funding for that part of our armoury against
antisocial behaviour?
Tackling antisocial behaviour is one of my priorities. That is
why I launched the plan with the Prime Minister. It requires a
multifaceted solution, and a lot of work must be focused on youth
diversion. I was pleased to visit a boxing project a few weeks
ago, in which money from the Home Office was diverted to
encourage young people off the streets to take up a sport, work
with mentors, and learn a new skill. It is a great way of
reducing crime.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Minister.
(Croydon Central) (Lab)
The Home Secretary rightly said that antisocial behaviour brings
misery and menace. As part of local antisocial behaviour plans,
neighbourhood and traffic police across the country will rightly
be cracking down on speeding and dangerous driving. Does the Home
Secretary think that people who speed should be given the option
to get private speeding awareness courses, rather than doing them
with everyone else, and in her own case, what exactly did she ask
her civil servants to help her with?
Hopefully we are not going to be too repetitive today, Mr
Speaker. As I said earlier, last summer I was speeding. I regret
that. I paid the fine and I accepted the points, and at no point
did I seek to evade the sanction. But let us be honest about what
this is all about. The shadow Minister would rather distract from
the abject failure by the Labour party to offer any serious
proposals on crime or policing. Labour Members want to talk about
this because it distracts from the fact that they voted against
tougher sentences for paedophiles and murderers. They want us to
ignore the fact that Labour MPs would rather campaign to stop the
deportation of foreign criminals than back our Rwanda scheme.
They would rather the country does not notice their total
abandonment of the British people. This Government are focusing
on delivering a record—[Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. The Home Secretary said that she did not want to be
repetitive. That goes all around the Chamber.
Immigration Policies: Scotland
(North Ayrshire and Arran)
(SNP)
3. What assessment she has made of the effect of her Department's
immigration policies on labour shortages in Scotland.
(905036)
The Minister for Immigration ()
The points-based system serves the whole United Kingdom, and as
noted in the Migration Advisory Committee annual report,
immigration policy cannot be a complete solution to population
movements within the United Kingdom, or to labour shortages. The
Scottish Government have policy levers to address those issues
more effectively.
The Scottish Government have repeatedly raised the issue, I have
secured a debate on it, and my SNP colleagues have raised it over
and over again: labour shortages are posing huge challenges for
Scotland right now. The Scottish Government proposed a rural
immigration pilot—a proposal welcomed by one of the Home
Secretary’s predecessors, the right hon. Member for Bromsgrove
(). Why will the UK Government
not engage with the Scottish Government on that important issue,
given that the Scottish Government have no powers in that
area?
We believe strongly that the UK is better served by a single,
national immigration service, and there is no material difference
between unemployment or economic inactivity rates in Scotland
versus the rest of the United Kingdom. The first port of call for
vacancies should always be the domestic workforce. That is why my
right hon. Friend the Work and Pensions Secretary has brought
forward a wide package of measures across the whole country, to
help more people into the workforce. It is not right that we
always reach for the lever of immigration to solve those
challenges.
(Ipswich) (Con)
Does my right hon. Friend agree that, when thinking about the
level of net migration, we should consider not just GDP and
economic impact but the social and cultural impact of such rapid
change, including the pressure on public services and
housing?
It is right that we consider economic growth and the needs of our
economy, but my hon. Friend is absolutely right that these
decisions also require careful consideration of the impact of
large amounts of legal migration on housing, access to public
services and, as he said, community cohesion and integration.
That is absolutely the approach of the Government and the Home
Secretary, and I am considering the challenge.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Minister.
(Aberavon) (Lab)
Ending the small boat crossings is one way of reducing
immigration, and Labour has a five point plan to do just that,
but asylum seekers are only a fraction of the net migration
total. The reason net migration is so high in Scotland and across
the UK, and the reason businesses are over-reliant on migrant
labour, is that, for 13 years, the Conservative party has failed
to train up our home-grown talent. It has slashed the skills
budget, and failed to get people off record-high NHS waiting
lists and back to work. Labour has set out plans to do each of
those things, because we want and expect immigration to come
down, and yet the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary are
clearly at loggerheads on the issue—it appears that the right
hand does not know what the far-right hand is doing. Is the Home
Secretary still committed to the 2019 Conservative manifesto
pledge of bringing net migration below 226,000? If so, does she
think that the Prime Minister agrees with her?
Let us be absolutely clear: this party wants to bring net
migration down. I have no idea what Labour wants to do. In the
last few days we have heard a succession of shadow Ministers
confused on this issue. The Conservative Government believe in
controlled migration. We only have to look back to the legacy of
the last Labour Government to see that, under Labour, there is
always an open-door approach to migration. We will control
migration; the Labour party leaves an open-door migration
policy.
Illegal Immigration Bill: Devolved Administrations
(Midlothian) (SNP)
4. Whether she has had recent discussions with the devolved
Administrations on the Illegal Immigration Bill. (905037)
The Minister for Immigration ()
I am in regular correspondence with the devolved Administrations
about the Illegal Migration Bill. I recently met the Scottish
Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture,
, and last week I wrote to
the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice to propose a meeting,
which I hope will happen later this week.
Not only is the Bill being driven through Parliament at breakneck
speech, but the Scottish Government have been given no
opportunity yet to consider the proposals properly before their
introduction. Does the Minister therefore agree that any
regulations through the Bill that would amend, repeal or revoke
any Scottish legislation or any devolved matter cannot possibly
come into force without the consent of Scottish Ministers?
I think that I just made clear that I have reached out to
colleagues in the Scottish Government. But immigration is a
reserved matter, and it is a matter for this Parliament to
dictate our future borders policy. I hope that the hon. Gentleman
will support the Bill. From the figures that I have seen, his
constituency of Midlothian currently has no asylum seekers in
dispersal accommodation and no asylum seekers in contingency
accommodation such as hotels. Zero asylum seekers in his
constituency. He is, I am afraid, yet another example of
humanitarian nimbyism by the SNP.
(Witham) (Con)
In addition to the devolved Administrations, will the Minister
kindly share details of the discussions that he has had with
local authorities—local government and local councils in
particular—on the Bill’s provisions? How do those relate to the
Government’s plans to accommodate people in Wethersfield,
including those who would be covered by the Bill?
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend. When she was Home
Secretary, she set out the policy to create large sites on which
to house asylum seekers in a more focused and less expensive
manner, and she took forward a proposal for a site in the north
of England. My right hon. and learned Friend the Home Secretary
and I have continued that tradition and set forth plans for three
sites: one at Bexhill, one at Wethersfield and one at
Scampton.
Mr Speaker
I call the SNP spokesperson.
(Glasgow Central)
(SNP)
The Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance, TARA, supported 156
women in its service in 2021 and 2020. Of those, 138 were seeking
asylum or were undocumented when they were referred to TARA.
Bronagh Andrew of TARA told the Scottish Parliament’s Equalities,
Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee that,
“had the Illegal Migration Bill been in place, those women would
not have been able to access our support.”
In the face of clear evidence of the harm that the Tories’
Illegal Migration Bill will cause, what possible justification
can the Minister give for removing support from trafficked women
in Scotland and strengthening the hand of those who would exploit
them?
The Bill is based on the simple principle that we want to break
the people smugglers’ and human traffickers’ business model. By
supporting the Bill—I know the hon. Lady opposes it—we will do
that. We will stop people making these dangerous, unnecessary
crossings and there will be fewer cases such as those that she
raises. But I go back to the point that I made to her colleague,
the hon. Member for Midlothian (). If the SNP feels so
strongly about this issue, why does it do so little to support
asylum seekers in Scotland? Currently, there are 11 contingency
hotels in the whole of Scotland, housing 600 migrants. That is 1%
of all the asylum seekers in the country. She never matches her
words with deeds.
Fraud
(Amber Valley) (Con)
5. What steps her Department is taking to tackle fraud.
(905038)
Mr (South West Hertfordshire)
(Con)
8. What steps her Department is taking to tackle fraud.
(905041)
(Cleethorpes) (Con)
13. What steps her Department is taking to tackle fraud.
(905047)
The Minister for Security ()
We recently launched our strategy to tackle fraud, alongside
measures in the Online Safety Bill that will require companies to
prevent fraud and measures in the Economic Crime and Corporate
Transparency Bill to hold companies to account for fraud
committed by their employees. We are also working with tech
companies to agree other measures and improving the support we
give to victims.
We know that 80% of fraud starts online, and 18% comes from the
tech companies that the Minister talked about, yet they do not
contribute anything to reimbursing the victims of fraud, despite
effectively profiting from causing it. Is it not time that we
considered asking them to contribute towards reimbursing some of
the losses that they are introducing into the system?
My hon. Friend is raising questions that we have looked at
closely in the fraud strategy, and he is absolutely right to
highlight the disparity between those who are causing and those
who are paying. This is a conversation that we have been having,
and I look forward to identifying some areas soon for further
discussion. Action Fraud has not always helped as well as it
might, which is why we are looking at making the system more
efficient.
At my surgery in Sarratt last month I met Catherine, whose father
was defrauded out of thousands after taking a call from a man who
he thought worked for Virgin Media. Catherine only found out
after her father unfortunately passed away and she found all the
emails he had sent attempting to get his money back—a battle that
Catherine has now taken on. Can the Minister tell the House what
he is doing to stop vulnerable people being targeted by
fraudsters?
May I offer absolute sympathy to Catherine? Sadly, although my
hon. Friend is citing the case of an older man who was the target
of crime, this is a crime that affects many people of all ages
across our society. It is not specifically connected to the most
vulnerable; rather, it predominantly affects people who are
online more often, which, as one can imagine, includes many
people across society. We are rolling out the nationwide economic
crime victim care unit across England and Wales, for victims
whose cases are not investigated by the police. This group will
help victims to recover from fraud and cyber-crime, and will
significantly reduce the likelihood of repeat victimisation.
I welcome Minister’s proposal that Action Fraud should have
greater capacity. I have experienced a number of constituency
cases where elderly people were robbed of their life savings and
there was a feeling that insufficient priority was being given to
this issue. Will the Minister give an assurance that there will
be a renewed focus on dealing with these scams, which destroy
people’s lives?
I can absolutely give that commitment. These scams, which to some
people appear victimless, are sadly anything but. The connection
to serious mental health issues that follow is sadly all too
clear, and many of us in our constituency work have come across
individuals for whom these events have resulted in extreme
suffering and sometimes even worse.
(Feltham and Heston)
(Lab/Co-op)
It is staggering that fraud now accounts for almost half of
crime, yet barely any of those crimes are investigated, and less
than 0.1% of them make it to court. Hardly anything seems to be
being done to upgrade police technology and practice to help deal
with that. Seriously, what are the Government doing that will
make any sort of difference?
The hon. Lady will have heard only a few weeks ago that we
launched our new fraud strategy, which includes 400 officers in
the national fraud squad and increased resources of some £400
million to help police forces across the country. A lot of that
work has already started, and a lot of it still has to be done.
We are making sure that that focus is there because, as she
correctly says, 40% of crime is fraud. The UK, sadly, has
received too many attempts to defraud our people, for several
reasons. One reason is the way our banking system works and the
speed of banking in the UK, and another is the English language,
which I am afraid makes it significantly easier for fraudsters
overseas to act against our people. It is true that a significant
amount of that crime is not here in the UK but abroad, so working
with partners around the world is important.
(Eltham) (Lab)
There were 3.7 million instances of fraud last year. Will the
Minister say why only 0.1% of cases make it to court?
We are working on that challenge with the Ministry of Justice,
and the hon. Gentleman is right to highlight it. Often, the
reason is that many of those crimes are committed abroad or are
not followed up. Sometimes, that is because people are
embarrassed to report them, which is a great shame because they
should not be embarrassed—they are crimes like any other. Often,
it is because it is very difficult to collect evidence. That is
exactly why we have launched the new national fraud squad to help
police forces across the country, working with the regional and
organised crime units to bring not just the evidence but
eventually the prosecution through the Crown Prosecution Service,
to make sure that we have not just reports of fraud but
prosecutions and convictions.
(Kingston upon Hull West and
Hessle) (Lab)
Just over a year ago, the anti-fraud Minister resigned in anger at the
billions being lost and written off in covid fraud payments. He
said to the Treasury Committee on which I sit:
“There is not anybody who would condone a weak system that allows
money to fall into the laps of crooks, and that is what I saw
happening.”
was a Conservative Minister.
Can the Minister tell us what has changed, if anything, such as
the amount of money in covid fraud payments recovered or the
attitude of the Treasury?
As the hon. Lady knows well, this Government take fraud very
seriously in these matters. I say that with absolute confidence
because we have just worked up a national fraud strategy for the
first time in many years. We have the money and the commitment,
and now we have the officers behind it. This is an extremely
important area of crime that we have been taking seriously in
order to ensure that it reduces alongside other areas of crime.
That is exactly what this Government will do.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Minister.
(Bradford West) (Lab)
According to the Government, fraud is now the most common crime
in the UK, costing almost £7 billion a year, with one in 15
people falling victim. The number of victims has skyrocketed amid
the cost of living crisis, and victims are left without hope.
Police forces up and down the country are crying out for
resources to tackle the ever growing and advancing ways in which
criminals exploit people to commit fraud. If the Government care
and are serious about fraud and its victims, why do Ministers
persistently exclude fraud from crime statistics?
That is a slightly strange question, because fraud is in the
Crime Survey of England and Wales, so I simply do not understand
which surveys the hon. Lady is looking at. She may be thinking of
the crime surveys before 2010, which are hard to compare because
Labour did not count fraud—but we do.
Visa Applications from Afghanistan: Women and Girls
(Twickenham) (LD)
6. What steps her Department is taking to support women and girls
applying for UK visas from Afghanistan.(905039)
The Minister for Immigration ()
More than 24,000 people have arrived in the UK from Afghanistan
under or since Operation Pitting, of whom 21,000 have been
resettled under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy or
the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme. There is not a visa
application centre in Afghanistan for security reasons, but those
who have left the country can make a visa application in the
normal way. The ACRS is designed to support vulnerable people
such as women and girls at risk.
For the fourth time in recent weeks, I feel compelled to raise on
the Floor of the House the case of five British children who have
been in hiding in Kabul for the past 18 months. Four of those
British passport holders are girls and only one of them is
allowed to attend school. I and my team have not been able to
bring them to safety, to be with their family in the UK, because
their Afghan mother cannot secure a visa. I am grateful that the
Minister has looked at this case personally, but it has stalled
again, because his officials are insisting she travels to
Pakistan to do her biometrics. He will be aware that it is
totally unsafe for a woman to risk her life to travel on her own,
without a chaperone, to Pakistan to get a visa, even if Pakistan
grants her a visa to travel there. So please, will the Minister
waive the requirement for biometrics in this case and those of
other women and girls who face mortal danger, as this family
does?
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for the tenacious way in which she
has represented her constituents. She knows that I intervened
personally to seek a swift resolution to this case. I am told
that UK Visas and Immigration has the application under
consideration and is speaking with the hon. Lady’s office to help
progress the application, and I hope we can resolve it very
soon.
Sir (New Forest East) (Con)
Does the Minister accept that the female population of
Afghanistan is enslaved at present? Has he seen the amazing film
by the courageous Sky correspondent, Alex Crawford, called “Women
at War: Afghanistan”, which spells that out? Will he spare a
moment to look at early-day motion 1188, marking the 90th
anniversary today of the founding of the Academic Assistance
Council, now the Council for At-Risk Academics? I came across
that organisation while it was trying to rescue female academics
from potential enslavement and bring them to this country so that
they could join the faculties of the University of Southampton,
among others.
I would be pleased to look at the material that my right hon.
Friend recommends to me, in particular the early-day motion. The
treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan by the Taliban is
abhorrent—we all condemn that. That is one of the reasons we have
created the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme, to support as
many as we possibly can.
(Edinburgh South West)
(SNP)
I recently had a meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss the
plight of female judges and prosecutors who were encouraged by
the United Kingdom to take up those roles, when they were trying
to produce a democracy under the rule of law in Afghanistan. I
would like to see humanitarian visas for some of those women, so
that they can come to the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister
seemed quite sympathetic and said he would take the proposal away
and look at it. Will the Minister assure me that the Home Office
would also be sympathetic to that request?
I would be very happy to look into that. I remember that the hon.
and learned Lady has campaigned on this issue for some time,
since the fall of Kabul, so perhaps a useful way forward would be
for she and I to meet to discuss this further.
(Chatham and Aylesford)
(Con)
As part of the Government’s resettlement scheme for Afghan
citizens facing threats of persecution from the Taliban, the Home
Office granted visas to the Afghan women’s junior development
football team. The women’s parliamentary football team played a
match against them and, despite the studded tackle that left me
wincing in agony, I was struck by their gratitude for and
appreciation of our generous and lifesaving hospitality. However,
there are many sportswomen left in Afghanistan, banned from
participating in their sport by the Taliban and under threat of
severe recriminations if they even dare to kick a ball, ride a
bike or wield a cricket bat. What is the Minister doing to
support those women and girls, particularly if they wish to come
to the UK to play their sports?
As my hon. Friend has said, the Taliban have banned Afghan women
and girls from competing in sports and exercising in gyms. Afghan
women who competed in sports, ranging from football to cycling,
are now forced to stay home, amid the kind of intimidation to
which she refers. I think particularly of the bravery of those
Afghan women who recently posed for photos with the Associated
Press, alongside the equipment that they used to be able to use,
now covering their faces with burqas. These are the reasons why
we have made our important and generous offer through the ACRS,
which is a scheme we want to take forward to help more women and
girls out of Afghanistan to a place of safety and a new life in
the UK.
Yarl’s Wood: Serco
(North East Bedfordshire)
(Con)
7. What discussions she has had with representatives of Serco on
improvements to security at the Yarl’s Wood immigration removal
centre.(905040)
The Minister for Immigration ()
The Government take the protection of the public and security
incidents at immigration detention centres extremely seriously. I
met senior Serco executives on 4 May to discuss their response to
the incident at Yarl’s Wood in my hon. Friend’s constituency. An
independent investigation into the incident is now under way; we
will consider its findings in detail.
Will my right hon. Friend join me in thanking the chief constable
of Bedfordshire, Trevor Rodenhurst, for working with other police
forces across the country? I understand that all but one of those
who absconded have been rearrested, and that arrests have been
made of others who have facilitated people being out of
detention. However, there remain serious questions to be
answered, both about the comparative ease with which people were
able to abscond from the facility and about the interaction
between Serco and the police. Will my right hon. Friend please
look at those issues?
I join my hon. Friend in thanking Bedfordshire police for leading
the national response to the incident. He is correct that of the
eight men who escaped, only one now remains at large and we are
determined to find him as quickly as possible. There are robust
security measures in IRCs, but they are now being reviewed again
in the light of this incident. I have met senior Serco executives
to hold them to account for their conduct and to ensure that they
take the incident extremely seriously. I know that my hon. Friend
will be visiting Yarl’s Wood soon; I would be very happy to speak
to him and understand his reflections.
Small Boat Crossings
(Stourbridge) (Con)
10. What steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of
small boat crossings of the English channel. (905044)
(Gedling) (Con)
21. What steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of
small boat crossings of the English channel. (905055)
The Secretary of State for the Home Department ()
Our Illegal Migration Bill will end illegal entry as a route to
asylum in the United Kingdom, breaking the business model of the
people-smuggling gangs and restoring fairness to our asylum
system.
Tackling illegal immigration, like small boats, is a hot topic
for many of my constituents; I hear about it time and again on
the doorstep, and I see it in my inbox. Can my right hon. Friend
assure the people of Stourbridge that it is this Government who
can be trusted to make every possible effort to address this
complex problem and ensure we stop the illegal boats?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Prime Minister and I are
determined to stop the boats—we are doubling the number of
UK-funded personnel in France, and for the first time specialist
UK officers are embedded with their French counterparts—whereas I
am afraid the Labour party has consistently voted against our
measures, not just in the Illegal Migration Bill but in the
Nationality and Borders Act 2022. We know that Labour Members
would scrap Rwanda. The truth is that they do not want to stop
the boats; they want to open our borders.
In a recent interview, the Leader of the Opposition was unable to
say whether he would repeal the Public Order Act 2023, which
protects the public against seriously disruptive protests. Given
this flip-flopping on key legislation, does my right hon. Friend
agree that it is only this Conservative Government who can be
trusted to stop the boats, and that it is entirely possible that
the Opposition, having tried to vote down the Illegal Migration
Bill several times, will change their mind on that as well?
My hon. Friend makes a very good point. The British people would
be forgiven for failing to keep up with changing Labour policy.
On the one hand, Labour Members opposed our Public Order Bill; on
the other hand, they said that they would not repeal it. They are
in favour of campaigning to keep foreign criminals in the
country, yet they want to scrap our Rwanda plan. This Government,
this Conservative Prime Minister and this side of the House are
focused on stopping the boats, taking the fight to the militant
protesters and standing up for the British people.
(Denton and Reddish)
(Lab)
Last December, the Prime Minister promised that the Home Office
would recruit another 700 new staff to the small boats
operational command. How many of those 700 staff are now in
post?
Last year, the Prime Minister set out a detailed plan on how we
are stopping the boats. The hon. Gentleman is right to refer to
our increased personnel on our small boats operational command. I
am pleased to say that we are making very good progress on
increasing the personnel working on the channel. We have
increased the number of caseworkers, we are making progress on
our asylum backlog and we are increasingly bearing down on this
issue.
(Barnsley Central) (Lab)
Afghans make up one of the largest cohorts of small boat
migrants, in part because the legal routes are not working. Let
me give the Home Secretary a quick example. Families who have
been approved under the Afghan relocations and assistance policy
are stuck in Islamabad and are now being told that they need to
source their own accommodation to get here, but there is no
published guidance on how they should go about doing that. Given
the obvious challenges of securing accommodation, not least if
they are stuck in a hotel room in Pakistan, can the Home
Secretary say precisely what support her Department is providing
to this cohort of people who are stuck in Pakistan?
Both the Afghan relocations and assistance policy and the Afghan
citizens resettlement scheme make clear the criteria by which
people will be assessed when they are applying to come to the
United Kingdom. I am proud that this country and this Government
have welcomed over 20,000 people under those schemes. Of course
there will be individual cases and we are happy to consider them,
but overall the scheme has worked well and thousands of people
have benefited from it.
(Gainsborough) (Con)
One of the justifications for using former military bases rather
than hotels was that they would be a deterrent. We now learn from
the Home Office that RAF Scampton will not take people from
hotels, but that it might be a detention centre or it might take
migrants from Manston. The whole policy is in chaos. Is that why
the Home Secretary’s own civil servant, on 6 February,
recommended to her that the Home Office should agree to stop work
on proposals for RAF Scampton and agree that it should
immediately notify the local authority that it was no longer
developing proposals for the site? Why has the Home Secretary
ignored her own civil servants?
I very much appreciate the efforts of my right hon. Friend in
standing up for his constituents; he is doing a fantastic job.
What I would gently say to him is that we have over 40,000 people
accommodated in hotels today and we are spending over £6 million
a day on that accommodation. It is an unacceptable situation, and
that is why the Prime Minister and I have made it a priority to
bring on and deliver alternative, appropriate and more
cost-effective accommodation.
(York Central)
(Lab/Co-op)
The problem is that there are no safe and legal routes. I have
children in my constituency who are separated from their parents
because they were brought to the UK under the UNHCR scheme and
their parents cannot now come and join them. They have moved from
Afghanistan to Pakistan, but they have no means of coming here to
be with their children. Why is the Home Secretary keeping
families apart as opposed to reuniting them?
I just do not agree with the hon. Lady’s characterisation. I am
incredibly proud—[Interruption.] I am incredibly proud of the
immense generosity that the Conservative Government and, more
importantly, the British people have demonstrated over recent
years. We have welcomed over half a million people seeking
humanitarian protection to these shores through safe and legal
routes. On top of the country-specific routes, there are
non-country-specific routes through which people can apply. The
reality is that we have millions of people seeking to come here
and we have to take a balanced approach, but overall we have
extended the hand of generosity and we have a track record of
which we can be proud.
Vagrancy Act: Repeal
(Harrow East) (Con)
11. What progress she has made on repealing the Vagrancy Act
1824. (905045)
The Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire ()
My hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East () is a tireless campaigner on this issue and I know
that the whole House is grateful to him for championing and
introducing the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017. As we made clear
at the time of the passage of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and
Courts Act 2022, the Government are committed to the repeal of
the Vagrancy Act 1824, and as soon as suitable replacement
legislation is ready—which we hope will be fairly soon—we will
introduce it as soon as parliamentary time allows. At the same
time, we will repeal the Vagrancy Act.
I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. More than a year
ago in a vote in both this House and the other place, we agreed
to repeal the 1824 Vagrancy Act, yet it seems as if the Home
Office is trying to reintroduce it to deal with aggressive
begging. I think the whole House would agree that people who are
street homeless need to be helped and assisted, not arrested.
When will we see the enactment of that legislation so that the
police can be given the powers to help people who are street
homeless rather than threaten them?
My hon. Friend is right. The people who are homeless and need
assistance should receive that help. I know that our colleagues
in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are
working hard to make sure that that happens, but we also need to
make sure that members of the public are protected from
aggressive or nuisance begging, so where the repeal of the
Vagrancy Act leaves lacunae in the law, we need to ensure that
they are filled. That is why we will repeal the Vagrancy Act once
the replacement legislation is ready and, as I have said, we will
do that as soon as parliamentary time allows.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I thank the Minister for his response to the hon. Member for
Harrow East (). Homelessness is a scourge and a problem across the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The
Minister is known to be a compassionate man, and he understands
the issue very well. What discussions have taken place with the
Northern Ireland Executive on the Vagrancy Act to make sure that
what happens here also happens in Northern Ireland so that it
benefits our people, too?
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question, which he asks with
his customary courtesy and compassion. We want to have
discussions with the Northern Ireland Executive as soon as it is
reformed, which we hope will be soon. I am pleased to tell the
House that rough sleeping levels in England, where the Government
have direct responsibility, are about 35% lower than in 2017, and
we look forward to working with our friends and colleagues to
bring about the same results in Northern Ireland.
Foreign Disinformation
(Bury South) (Lab)
12. What discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on
countering foreign disinformation in the UK.(905046)
The Secretary of State for the Home Department ()
Countering foreign disinformation that seeks to subvert and
undermine the UK’s democracy, prosperity and security is vital.
The National Security Bill, which is currently making its way
through Parliament, will further strengthen our ability to
counter hostile state threats.
It is now more than two years since The Times reported that
Iranian cyber specialists were peddling disinformation in an
attempt to influence the result of the 2021 Scottish Parliament
elections. In the same year, the US Department of Justice shut
down 36 Iranian-linked websites in a disinformation crackdown.
How do the Government intend to combat and disrupt the threat of
disinformation spread here in the UK by the murderous Iranian
regime?
Disinformation is the concerted effort to create and deliberately
spread false or manipulative information, and the hon. Gentleman
is right to say that hostile states such as Iran use
disinformation as a hostile act against the United Kingdom’s
interests. We are constantly reviewing our position on Iran, and
this is something we take very seriously at the top of
Government.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Minister.
(Halifax) (Lab)
Microsoft’s digital defence report outlines how nations including
Russia, China and Iran are deploying social media-powered
propaganda operations to shape opinion, discredit adversaries and
incite fear, with harrowing examples of Russia’s use of hybrid
warfare in Ukraine. During the passage of the National Security
Bill, the Labour party called for an annual report on the extent
of disinformation originating from foreign powers, which this
Government rejected. Does the Home Secretary accept that the
Government have been far too slow in responding to the scale of
this threat, and that such an annual report represents the bare
minimum that the Government should be doing to protect the UK
from foreign hostile and sustained cyber-interference?
I disagree with the hon. Lady’s characterisation that the
Government have been too slow to act on Russian state threats.
Following the invasion of Ukraine last year, the UK introduced
trade sanctions in relation to internet and online media
services, preventing designated entities from using platforms to
connect with UK audiences online. The Government designated
TV-Novosti and Rossiya Segodnya on 4 May 2023, choking off the
Russian Federation’s ability to disseminate misinformation across
the internet through its state-sponsored RT and Sputnik brands.
There has been a lot of effort and a lot of work to counter
Russian state disinformation.
Topical Questions
(Mitcham and Morden)
(Lab)
T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental
responsibilities.(905059)
The Secretary of State for the Home Department ()
Fraud is a despicable crime that accounts for more than 40% of
all crime in England and Wales. The Government’s fraud strategy
will do far more to block fraud at source by working closely with
the private sector and law enforcement. The Online Safety Bill
obligates tech platforms to protect users from fraud, and we will
consult on banning cold calling for financial products and clamp
down on number spoofing. We will ban devices that let criminals
send mass scam texts or disguise their number when making scam
calls. New powers will take down fraudulent websites.
I have told police forces that I want tackling fraud to be a
priority, and a new national fraud squad with 400 new
investigators will go after the worst fraudsters. We will change
the law so that more victims of fraud get their money back, and
Action Fraud will be replaced with a state-of-the-art system.
My constituents Mrs L and Mr M, from Hong Kong, came to the UK on
a British national overseas passport. They came to see me because
they had been paying into a pension for the whole of their
careers and sold their home before coming to the UK, but because
of their BNO visa status, their bank account was frozen at the
direction of the Chinese state, in contradiction to Hong Kong
law. They are not alone; the Home Office has issued BNO visas to
more than 160,000 Hongkongers who have moved to the UK. Does the
Home Secretary think it is right that at the behest of the
Chinese communist party, BNO passport holders are being denied
access to their own money, from their own bank accounts—
Mr Speaker
Order. Topical questions have to be short. People cannot have
full questions on topicals, please. I am sure you have come to
the end and that the Home Secretary will have a grip of the
answer.
I am very concerned by the issue the hon. Lady raises. We have
welcomed more than 100,000 people from Hong Kong via our BNO
scheme. We have also had similar reports and we have heard from a
group of BNOs who have raised concerns of a similar nature. My
right hon. Friend the Immigration Minister, and potentially the
Security Minister, will get back to her on the details, but I
share the concern she is raising.
(Tewkesbury) (Con)
T2. For a long time, businesspeople in Africa have sometimes
found it difficult to get visas for short visits to this country,
because the system has been centralised and there are sometimes
small errors on their application. Not only they but we lose
business because of that situation, so will the Minister examine
it to see what can be done to improve the system?(905060)
The Minister for Immigration ()
I would be happy to take a further look and to learn from my hon.
Friend’s experience. I am pleased to say that UK Visas and
Immigration is now processing all new visit visa applications
within the service standard of 15 days, with 323,000 applications
from those with African nationalities last year.
Mr Speaker
I call the shadow Home Secretary.
(Normanton, Pontefract and
Castleford) (Lab)
On a difficult anniversary, I pay tribute to the brave soldier
Lee Rigby and to the innocent children, women and men who lost
their lives, and the many more who were injured, at the
Manchester Arena, as well as to their families, who remind us of
the commitment to never let hatred win.
At the heart of the Home Secretary’s responsibility is to ensure
that laws are fairly enforced for all. But when she got a
speeding penalty, it seems that she sought special treatment—a
private course—and asked civil servants to help. She has refused
to say what she asked civil servants to do, so I ask her that
again. Will she also tell us whether she authorised her special
adviser to tell journalists that there was not a speeding penalty
when there was?
As I said earlier, in the summer of last year I was speeding. I
regret that. I paid the fine and I accepted the points. At no
time did I seek to avoid the sanction. What is serious here is
the priorities of the British people. I am getting on with the
job of delivering for the British people, with a record number of
police officers and a plan to stop the boats, and by standing up
to crime and for policing. I only wish the Labour party would
focus on the priorities too.
The trouble is that the Home Secretary is failing to deliver for
the British people too, and everyone can see that she is not
answering the basic factual questions on what she said to the
civil service and to her special adviser. It matters because it
is her job to show that she is abiding by the ministerial code,
which she has broken before, on private and public interests, and
to enforce rules fairly for everyone else. Time and again, she
seems to think that she is above the normal rules: breaching
security even though she is responsible for it; trying to avoid
penalties even though she sets them; reappointed even after
breaking the ministerial code; and criticising Home Office
policies even though she is in charge of them and is failing on
knife crime, on channel crossings, on immigration and more. The
Prime Minister is clearly too weak to sort this out. If the Home
Secretary cannot get a grip of her own rule-breaking behaviour,
how can she get a grip on anything else?
I have some gentle advice for the right hon. Lady. The person who
needs to get a grip here is the shadow Home Secretary and the
Labour party, as they have wholly failed to represent the
priorities of the British people. When, Mr Speaker, will the
Labour party apologise for campaigning to block the deportation
of foreign national offenders? When, Mr Speaker, will the Labour
party apologise for leaving this country with a lower number of
police officers—
Mr Speaker
Order. May I just say that I have no responsibility for the
Labour party?
(West Dorset) (Con)
T4. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Immigration will know
that Portland port, although in the constituency of my hon.
Friend the Member for South Dorset (), is very close to the
constituency border of West Dorset. My constituents in Chickerell
and wider West Dorset are becoming increasingly concerned about
the absence of information on the risk assessment and on the
additional resources that will be made available to Dorset
Council and Dorset police. Has he any further information that he
can share with the House today?(905062)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the manner in which he has
defended his constituents on this difficult issue. Although
housing asylum seekers in more rudimentary accommodation such as
barges is undoubtedly in the national interest, we are acutely
aware of the challenges faced by the local communities in which
they will be moored. That is why we are working closely with
Dorset Council, with the hon. Gentleman and with my hon. Friend
the Member for South Dorset ().
Mr Speaker
I call the SNP spokesperson.
(Glasgow Central)
(SNP)
My heart and the hearts of all those on the SNP Benches go out to
those affected on the anniversary of the Manchester Arena
tragedy, particularly the family and friends of Eilidh Macleod
whose memorial trust stands as a legacy to her love of music.
Speeding can affect a person’s eligibility for leave to remain in
the UK, so should not the same motoring offence and, indeed, the
further breaches of the ministerial code by attempting to get
special treatment affect the Home Secretary’s right to remain in
her job?
As I said earlier, in the summer I was speeding. I regret that I
was speeding. I accepted the points and I paid the fine. At no
point did I seek to avoid the sanction. What I find regrettable,
however, is the SNP’s wholesale failure to deliver for asylum
seekers, to deliver for justice and to deliver for vulnerable
people. Its Members are opposing our Bill to stop the boats, they
are opposing support to break the people smuggling gangs and they
are opposing a pragmatic approach.
(Kettering) (Con)
T5. Will the Home Office ensure that the contracts for the use as
asylum hotels of the Rothwell House Hotel and the Royal Hotel
Kettering are terminated as soon as possible?(905063)
I know how strongly my hon. Friend feels about this issue. I will
of course look into those contracts, but the enduring solution to
this issue is to stop the boats in the first place. That is why
we brought forward the Illegal Migration Bill.
(Lewisham, Deptford)
(Lab)
T3. Members of Turning Point UK have protested three times in my
constituency in recent months, attempting without success to
spread hatred and division in our community. Does the Home
Secretary have any concerns about this organisation and how it
receives its funding?(905061)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home
Department ( )
I thank the hon. Member for her question. Full details should be
coming to us to look into that. However, the Government take hate
crime of any sort extremely seriously, which is why we have done
basic policing and increased the number of police officers to
more than ever before—over 200,000.
(Dartford) (Con)
T8. The right to protest is a fundamental right in this country,
but that right does not extend to deliberately blocking roads and
stopping people going about their daily lives. Therefore, will
the Minister support the police if they choose to use their full
range of powers to stop those who abuse the right to
protest?(905066)
The Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire ()
I completely agree with my hon. Friend. The right to protest
emphatically does not extend to trying to ruin or disrupt the
lives of fellow citizens who are trying to get to hospital for
treatment, to get their children to school or to get to their
place of work. That is why this House recently legislated with
the Public Order Act 2023. It is a great shame that the
Opposition voted against it. This Government stand on the side of
law-abiding citizens, and we fully support the police in using
those powers.
(Slough) (Lab)
T6. The more the Home Secretary tries to evade the question, the
more the British public will conclude that something underhand
and fishy is going on. Will she answer a simple question? Did the
Home Secretary ask civil servants to arrange a private speed
awareness course?(905064)
As I have made clear, last summer I was speeding, and I regret
that I was speeding. I was notified of the matter, I paid the
fine and I took the points. At no point did anything untoward
happen and at no point did I try to avoid the sanction.
(Aylesbury) (Con)
T9. Antisocial behaviour is a blight on the lives of too many of
my constituents, and their frustration is often exacerbated
because it is not always clear whether it is the local council or
the police who can resolve their problem, despite the best
intentions of both to help. How can my right hon. Friend ensure
that people are not passed from pillar to post, and that when
they make complaints about bad behaviour it is tackled
swiftly?(905067)
My hon. Friend raises an important issue. The Government recently
published our antisocial behaviour action plan. My right hon. and
learned Friend the Home Secretary and her colleague the Secretary
of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities are jointly
chairing a taskforce to ensure that action is taken. We are
setting up a number of hotspot patrols around the country to
ensure that the blight of antisocial behaviour is heavily policed
against and that, where it occurs, it is dealt with quickly and
thoroughly and no one is left behind.
(Brentford and Isleworth)
(Lab)
T7. If the Home Secretary insists on exempting private
landlords from minimum housing standards for asylum seekers,
local councils and fire authorities will not be able to enforce
basic safety and overcrowding standards. Does that not mean that
the worst landlords, instead of improving their properties, will
make a fortune from Government funding while exploiting
vulnerable families and young children who are waiting years for
a decision on their asylum application?(905065)
I can assure the hon. Lady that our intention is that there will
be no diminution in accommodation standards, whether for asylum
seekers or anybody else, but it is critical that we get those
people out of hotels, saving the taxpayer hundreds of millions of
pounds per year, and house them in the most appropriate forms of
accommodation.
(Newcastle-under-Lyme)
(Con)
My constituents are rightly appalled by the organised nature of
so much immigration crime. Can my right hon. and learned Friend
set out what work is being done to tackle those organised groups’
operations at source, and what impact that is having in reducing
the numbers of arrivals of illegal immigrants?
Part of our plan to stop the boats focuses on causal factors such
as serious organised immigration crime gangs, which are networked
and highly resourced. We have had some success in arresting
hundreds of people involved in those gangs and disabling several
such gangs, but we are employing more resource in
our National Crime
Agency and increasing the numbers of officers working with
the French so that we can clamp down on the problem at cause.
(Motherwell and Wishaw)
(SNP)
T10. In her previous resignation letter, the current Home
Secretary wrote:“Pretending we haven’t made mistakes, carrying on
as if everyone can’t see that we have made them, and hoping that
things will magically come right is not serious politics.”Was she
right? Has she made a mistake? Will she accept responsibility?
Will she resign?(905068)
As I said earlier, in the summer of last year I was speeding. I
regret that I was speeding. I paid the penalty and I accepted the
points. At no time did I seek to avoid any sanction or
consequence.
(Reigate) (Con)
Given the 56% rise in transphobic hate crime between 2021 and
2022, are the Government concerned, and what strategies will they
put in place to get that horrifying number down?
Miss Dines
Transphobic crimes are hateful and, although people do not
realise it, they represent as much as 3% of all hate crimes
recorded. The Government are determined to stamp it out, which is
why we are funding groups such as True Vision that are working
hard in this area—I know my hon. Friend is working hard too—and
funding initiatives such as the national online hate crime hub,
an essential capability designed to allow individuals to have
specialist intervention and work. We are also working on
education, with £3 million of funding going to five anti-bullying
organisations between August 2021 and March 2024. It is only with
better education and the work of my hon. Friend that we will make
progress in this area.
