The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many counter-terrorism personnel were employed in the West Midlands in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.
Mr John Hayes
For security reasons we do not publish a breakdown of counter-terrorism budget or staffing by region.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to expand the role of the National Crime Agency in (a) West Africa and (b) the Sahel region.
Mike Penning
The National Crime Agency (NCA) engages with a range of overseas partners in the both West Africa and the Sahel Region to tackle serious and organised crime threats to the UK, including drugs trafficking, money laundering, organised immigration crime and child sexual exploitation and abuse. This engagement is subject to continuous review by the NCA and is being expanded to enable the UK to respond to changing or emerging threats such as organised immigration crime. The Prime Minister announced the creation of a new multi-agency Organised Immigration Crime (OIC) Taskforce in June to tackle people smuggling in June and as part of this Taskforce the NCA has expanded its coverage in West Africa from where it also covers the Sahel.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with Brittany Ferries on the carriage of game birds on their ships.
James Brokenshire
Home Office Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of international partners, as well as organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial meetings are passed to the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis and are subsequently published on the Gov.uk website: http://data.gov.uk/dataset/ministerial-data-home-office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the proportion of crimes committed under the influence of alcohol in the last 12 months.
Mike Penning
The Crime Survey for England and Wales from 2013/14 shows that in around half (53%, 704,000 offences) of all violent incidents the victim believed the perpetrator to be under the influence of alcohol. While the volume of incidents has fallen, the proportion of violent incidents that were ‘alcohol-related’ has remained relatively steady over the last ten years.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were charged with drink-driving in each of the last three years.
Mike Penning
The below table provides the published figures on the number of people who were charged with drink driving in each of the last three years.
|
Offence |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
|
Driving with alcohol in the blood above the prescribed limit |
45,841 |
41,798 |
38,866 |
|
Other offences related to drink- or drug-driving |
7,915 |
9,421 |
9,421 |
This and other data on, for example, the number of prosecutions for drink driving offences is published by the Ministry of Justice and can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the efficiency of West Midlands Police.
Mike Penning
It is the responsibility of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) which is charged in statute with inspecting the efficiency and effectiveness of all police forces in England and Wales. In October 2015 HMIC, rated West Midlands Police as ‘outstanding’ as part of their PEEL Efficiency Inspections.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward proposals to introduce stricter UK border controls similar to those introduced by the French government following the recent Paris attacks.
James Brokenshire
The UK is not part of the Schengen border-free arrangements that France and other European counterparts take part in. We have always and will continue to operate our borders securely and enforce our immigration laws. This includes carrying out full checks on all arriving passengers in order to identify any criminal, security and immigration concerns. Following the tragic events on Friday 13 November in Paris, Border Force has intensified checks on people, goods and vehicles entering the UK from the near continent and elsewhere, undertaking additional and targeted security checks against passengers and vehicles travelling to France via both maritime and rail ports and a number of airports across the country. We will be maintaining increased levels of security at our borders and people will see an increased presence of police and Border Force at all ports.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of foreign nationals convicted of a crime in the UK were deported to their country of origin in each of the last three years.
James Brokenshire
The following table shows the number of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) who have been convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to a period of imprisonment and subsequently referred to Immigration Enforcement for consideration of removal action.
Whilst we aim to deport foreign national offenders at the earliest opportunity not all of those referred to the Home Office will meet the deportation threshold, some may later be confirmed as British or exempt from Immigration Control and some will be successful at appeal. Removal may also be delayed as some offenders will repeatedly refuse to comply with the deportation and documentation process, deliberately seek to flout the system to disrupt our efforts to deport them or attempt to lodge multiple appeals. Factors such as these can lead to deportation being delayed.
In May 2013, a new system was introduced for recording and monitoring all FNO referrals, even where an offender did not meet the deportation threshold. Prior to this, referrals of those who did not meet deportation criteria were not routed through a central system so this data was not centrally recorded. The introduction of this system therefore shows an increase in the referral numbers from 2012/13 onwards.
|
Financial year |
Number of referrals to Immigration Enforcement |
Number of removals |
|
2010/11 |
6,452 |
5,367 |
|
2011/12 |
7,326 |
4,539 |
|
2012/13 |
6,874 |
4,720 |
|
2013/14 |
10,786 |
5,118 |
|
2014/15 |
10,461 |
5,277 |
|
2015/16 (to Sept 2015) |
5,262 |
2,855 |
The National Offender Management Service operate on a nationality self declaration basis, which means that not all those referred for action will be in scope for removal. Some offenders may later be confirmed as British nationals or exempt from immigration control.
The removals shown are not a representative proportion of those referred in the same period. Those referred will not always be removable in the same year due to sentence length. The removals data will include those who have been referred prior to the period shown in the table.
Please note that figures prior to the 2011/12 financial year precede the implementation of a later reporting application and as such were not subject to the same level of data assurance for data recorded after 2011/12.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Lewis on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy not to levy telephone charges for enquirers to the International Enquiry Service in addition to the standard rate until such time as the free alternative methods of contacting the organisation are working reliably.
James Brokenshire
The Home Office will continue to charge for telephone calls to the International Enquiry Service. Customers can access a range of information on our application processes for free through our pages on gov.uk. The Home Office works closely with the Government Digital Service to review and improve our guidance on gov.uk.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Lewis on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason the webchat service offered by the International Enquiry Service has been unavailable when required by enquirers.
Karen Bradley
In July 2014 a decision was taken to cease the Web chat service provided by the International Enquiry Service. This allowed the provider to focus on the higher volumes of enquiries being received through the email and phone channels. These channels are currently delivering their services within published service standards. In addition, customers can access a range of information on our application processes for free through our pages on gov.uk.