Tag: Home Office

The press release issued by the Home Office on 25 July 2023.

Up to £8.3 million of funding has been granted to 55 organisations providing support to victims of abuse, including counselling, training and community outreach.

More victims of crimes including domestic abuse, rape and other sexual offences will benefit from support designed to best meet their individual needs, the government has announced.

Up to £8.3 million will be provided to organisations across England and Wales to fund frontline and specialist support projects for victims and survivors over two years, including counselling, training and community outreach. This is part of the government’s commitment to quadruple funding for victim support services by 2025 compared to 2010.

Many of the organisations being funded are led, designed, and delivered by and for the communities they aim to serve, with organisations providing tailored support to victims such as those from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled, LGBT and elderly victims. There is also funding for specialist organisations working with male victims specifically.

A £1.2 million training programme has also launched for Independent Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Advisors who provide emotional and practical support to victims. The government is funding 1,000 of these posts and the training to make sure these vulnerable victims get better help and stay engaged with the criminal justice system.

Minister for Safeguarding at the Home Office, Sarah Dines said:

I have heard first-hand heart-breaking stories of trauma endured by survivors of abuse and I know how important bespoke support which meets victims’ individual needs and circumstances is.

We are proud that this funding will go to such a diverse range of organisations who really make a difference to the communities they serve.

Minister for Victims at the Ministry of Justice, Ed Argar said:

Victims and survivors have a range of different experiences and needs, so it’s vital we have a broad range of support services in place which can provide bespoke care.

By and for services are a vital part of the support available to victims and survivors of crime, and this additional government investment in these services will have a real impact.

In total, 55 organisations will benefit from the funding, enabling them to continue their vital work with victims of abuse.

Preston based Sahara will receive up to £250,000 in grant funding to provide a bilingual, comprehensive face-to-face support service for women from black and minority ethnic backgrounds who are victims of domestic abuse.

This will include one-to-one counselling, training designed to build confidence and develop self-esteem, and self-help groups where they can meet other women and build support networks.

SignHealth, a deaf health charity which has been granted more than £1.7 million in funding, provides specialist support to deaf survivors of domestic abuse. The funding will help them to deliver accessible educational materials, encouraging them to know their rights and seek support.

The charity will also translate key materials, such as the landmark Domestic Abuse Act 2021, into British Sign Language, and train experts in the deaf sector on issues relating to domestic abuse.

Many organisations have been able to bid as consortium groups, enabling charities with small footprints at the heart of diverse communities to access vital funding.

The Mankind UK consortium, made up of 5 organisations, have been awarded upwards of £500,000 to enable them to deliver specialist counselling for male victims of sexual violence. This aims to help survivors overcome the unique challenges faced by male victims and address and reduce symptoms of trauma and mental health issues.

There is also funding for organisations who tackle specific harms, such as so-called ‘honour-based’ abuse. The Police and Crime Commissioner for Cheshire is working with Savera UK to increase reporting of what can sometimes be hidden crimes such as forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). This is in addition to enhancing the ability of front-line professionals to identify and support victims of these crimes.

Zafar Coupland, Manager of Sahara Women’s Centre said:

Sahara is very grateful to the Ministry of Justice and Home Office for agreeing fund our Project over the next 2 years. This  will enable us to assist BME women who are the victims of domestic violence in all its forms. The grant will fund a comprehensive support service which will include, advocacy, counselling, confidence building and self-help groups and will be delivered with kindness, dedication and passion so that we make a difference to women whose lives have been blighted by abuse.

Marie Vickers, Head of Domestic Abuse Service at SignHealth said:

Our experience shows that it is essential that deaf survivors of domestic abuse receive local specialist support in their home area in addition to mainstream provision. It is vital that deaf BSL users have the option to communicate in their first language with specialist staff who have lived experience. We are grateful that the Home Office has awarded us this incredible opportunity to create greater impact for the deaf community.

Lucy Hughes, CEO at Mankind UK and 1in6.uk said:

Our sector previously came together to help male survivors online via www.1in6.uk. With this funding, we can take that collaboration further by offering male-centred counselling services across England and Wales and begin to address the geographical inequality in what is on offer for men.

Domestic Abuse Commissioner Nicole Jacobs said:

My office’s report ‘A Patchwork of Provision’ highlighted the significant gaps in provision of specialist ‘by and for’ domestic abuse services which support Black and minoritised, deaf and disabled, and LGBT+ survivors.

This fund will make some progress towards responding to these gaps and I look forward to working with the government on the Victims & Prisoners Bill to close this gap further.

This builds on government victim funding commitments set out in the Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, including over £10 million awarded under the Children Affected by Domestic Abuse Fund, over £7 million awarded under the What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls Fund and the recent Flexible Fund delivering emergency support to victims of domestic abuse.

As part of the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, the government has committed a total of over £230 million from 2022-2025, including the Ministry of Justice quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024/25.

The new funding is just one part of the extensive work across government to improve outcomes for victims of abuse.

Earlier this month, all 43 police forces across England and Wales, and all rape prosecutors across the country, began implementing a new approach to dealing with rape and other serious sexual offences, ensuring forces conduct thorough investigations which put the focus on the suspect and centre the rights and needs of victims.

Known as Operation Soteria and previously piloted in 19 police forces and 9 Crown Prosecution Areas, the programme brings together police forces with academics, using evidence and new insight to enable forces and prosecutors to transform their response to rape and serious sexual offences.

Total funding amounts allocated through the VAWG Specialist and Support Services Fund

Lead Organisation	Indicative Funding (FY 23-24 and 24-25)	Service Summary
Blackpool Teaching Hospital	£207,562	Ensuring victims of sexual violence who present at hospital and wish to make a disclosure are offered timely and appropriate trauma-informed support. Empowers hospital staff to identify possible victims, building on the success of the Independent Domestic Violence Advisor (IDVA) programme. Also aims to reduce the number of patients presenting to emergency departments repeatedly, as sexual violence is known to be the underlying cause of a significant number of mental health admissions.
Diversity Matters North West	£316,234	Addresses current gaps in domestic abuse support services which make them inaccessible to women from ethnic minority communities. Creates a forum for awareness through community engagements and national campaigns, establishes an advisory group to evaluate service provision.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority	£682,600	Provides a hub for services for ethnic minority women and girls across Greater Manchester, including migrant women with no recourse to public funds. The objective is to provide an all-encompassing hub where women can have their complex needs met by one team, including provision of advice, and access and signposting to specialist services.
Hourglass	£793,230	Strengthens and maintains telephone and text helplines and online services, to support older people and those concerned about domestic abuse of older people. Also enables provision of information and advice around abuse, ensuring people are informed of the indicators of domestic abuse and the support options available. Will also increase casework support and volunteer capacity, including specialist training.
London Community Foundation	£1,200,000	Capacity building for 22 organisations addressing VAWG among ethnic minority communities in London. Provides support to smaller specialist organisations, invests in training and organisational development, improves local network response and invests in partnerships.
Mankind UK	£552,184	Provides victims with access to specialist online male-centred sexual violence counselling. This will improve outcomes for more adult victims of sexual violence, reducing their trauma symptoms (including anxiety, depression and risk of suicide and self harm). Additionally, it will deliver high quality service user-created content and advice through www.1in6.uk and build the capacity of three smaller partner charities.
New Pathways	£298,508	Supporting people from the LGBTQ+ community who have been affected by sexual violence. Effecting changes within sexual violence organisations for LGBTQ+ victims through research informed service design to allow all aspects of client engagement: awareness raising, communications, initial engagement and assessment, service delivery and after-service needs.
Peterborough Women’s Aid	£284,740	Extends specialist services to support victims of VAWG from the Asian community in Peterborough. Increases professional awareness and improved response to this community.
Police and Crime Commissioner for Cheshire	£321,588	Enables effective support for victims of ‘honour’-based abuse/harmful practices, including forced marriage and female genital mutilation, across Cheshire. Supports expansion of victim support services, increasing the volume of reports made to front-line professionals and enhancing the ability of professionals to identify and provide support to victims, and reducing the scale of offending behaviour through educational and community awareness activity.
Rape Crisis England & Wales	£358,801	Building on Rape Crisis’s National Service Standards model, ensuring that victim-survivor voices are central, relevant services are accountable to victims, and they have access to the services they want and need. Delivers bespoke training across member centres based on emerging trends. Using service design methods to: better understand and map victim-survivors’ help-seeking journeys and needs; co-design/prototype/test potential new services to meet the needs of people on waiting lists.
Refuge	£550,569	Refuge work collaboratively with specialist by-and-for organisations to support them in responding effectively to the risks of technology facilitated abuse through training. The project will also support survivors representing disabled survivors, LGBTQI+ survivors, and those at risk of so-called honour-based violence, to understand how technology facilitated abuse impacts their service users and develop bespoke training.
RSVP (West Midlands) Ltd	£206,368	Delivery of pre-therapy support across the region, licensed to other providers and with training provided to the facilitators. The programme consists of a 5-week closed psycho-educational group, standalone workshops for specific trauma-related issues and individual sessions.
Sahara in Preston	£250,000	Provides a bilingual comprehensive support service to women from ethnic minorities who are the victims of domestic violence in all its forms. The project will provide counselling, advocacy support, confidence building training and facilitated self-help groups.
SignHealth	£1,720,564	Provides online support to Deaf survivors across England and supports education about healthy relationships (via social media and digital content). Also includes translation of new legislation into British Sign Language and supports engagement with professionals to design future services. Will deliver workshops, deaf awareness training for Deaf communities, domestic abuse professionals and other support services.
The Survivors Trust	£150,000	The Survivors Trust work with employers to raise awareness of domestic abuse and train their employees on how to identify domestic abuse, better understand the impact that domestic abuse has on victims and equip their staff with the right tools to respond appropriately, ensuring that victims receive the support they need.
Trevi Women	£378,811	Through existing women’s centres, providing trauma-informed support to women wishing to exit on-street prostitution and survivors of VAWG crimes; reducing the barriers for women seeking to exit sex working and helping ensure long-term support. Aims to reduce the likelihood of clients returning to sex work and reduce the prevalence of harm.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 22 July 2023.

From Monday 24 July, children aged 10 or over will be able to enter the UK using eGates across 15 air and rail ports, helping families travel more easily.

This summer more families arriving into the UK will benefit from quicker entry to the UK using eGates, thanks to an expansion of the service to 10 and 11 year olds.

Following successful trials across major ports including Gatwick, Stansted and Heathrow Airports this spring, from Monday 24 July 2023, more families returning and eligible visitors to the UK over the school summer holiday will now benefit from the use of eGates as a faster way to travel through the UK border, with a recent YouGov poll showing that 42% of the UK public plan to jet abroad over the summer.

With passenger volumes expected to return to 2019 levels this summer – and some ports exceeding those volumes – Border Force expects to see over 34 million air arrivals coming through UK passport control over the coming months.

This new eGate change is expected to benefit thousands of families this summer, with over 400,000 children aged 10 and 11 years old projected to use eGates this year.

Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said:

From next week, families with children over the age of 10 will be able to benefit from quicker entry into the UK using eGates.

This national rollout will make travelling easier for passengers and strengthens the security of the UK border.

The UK processes more passengers through eGates than any other country – and today’s announcement ensures we remain at the forefront of technology.

The UK processes more passengers through eGates than any other country in the world and is recognised as a global leader in the use of automation at the border. Alongside increasing eGate capacity, we’re introducing an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme later this year and continuing to expand eVisas which will improve the customer experience at the border.

The national rollout of the expansion of eGates to this age group will come into effect across 15 air and rail ports that currently have 293 eGates.

Border Force continues to work closely with port operators and airlines to make sure all passengers can have a safe and hassle-free journey this summer.

Miguel Leitmann, Vision Box CEO said:

Vision Box is very proud to have supplied the technology that has enabled the UK Home Office and Border Force to lead the market, in what is widely regarded as the global reference for Automated Border Control.

With more passengers using ePassport gates in the UK than in any country in the world, we have been delighted to see the passenger usage rise year-on-year over the last 10 years.

We have worked together with Border Force to facilitate the secure and seamless entry into the UK, reducing queues for more than 70 million passengers per year.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 21 July 2023.

The funding will help protect faith communities from the threat of hate crime and terror attacks.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 18 July 2023.

The government has today (18 July) launched CONTEST 2023, a refreshed approach to the evolving and enduring threat from terrorism.

For more than twenty years, the CONTEST strategy has sought to reduce the threat of terrorism in the UK and to its interests overseas.

CONTEST 2023 sets out the UK’s bolstered approach to a domestic terrorist risk that is once again rising and becoming increasingly less predictable. The updated strategy also addresses a persistent and evolving overseas threat from Islamist groups, and exploitation of technology by terrorists.

CONTEST 2023 will continue to counter the threat at every stage across Prevent, Pursue, Protect, and Prepare – from protecting against and mitigating the impact of terrorist attacks, to stopping people from becoming terrorists by curtailing radicalising influences.

Islamist terrorism is currently the largest terrorist threat faced by the UK in volume making up around three quarters of MI5’s caseload. Extreme right-wing terrorism almost exclusively represents the remaining threat.

Across ideologies, the threat is dominated by individuals or small groups acting outside of organised terrorist groups, making it harder to detect and investigate.

Building upon existing partnerships across government, policing and the intelligence agencies, as well as with the private sector, the public and international partners, CONTEST 2023 sets out a clear vision for an agile, integrated and aligned approach. A collective and coordinated response will ensure we have all levers at our disposal against modern threats.

Together, we are:

• Fully operationalising the Counter Terrorism Operations Centre (CTOC), bringing together teams, data and technology to more efficiently and effectively identify, investigate and disrupt terrorists.
• Delivering William Shawcross’ Independent Review of Prevent and implementing the recommendations to help stop people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. This includes improvements to our ability to detect and counter radicalising influences which spread extremist ideology.
• Better connecting the counter-terrorism system with expertise in healthcare, education, social services and the criminal justice system, ensuring a broader range of interventions to divert people away from terrorism or mitigate the threat posed by a potential terrorist.
• Acting upon the findings of the Manchester Arena Inquiry to close vulnerabilities in our response to terrorist attacks.
• Implementing Martyn’s Law to ensure better protection for people in public places.
• Tackling terrorist exploitation of the internet through engagement with tech companies and delivering the Online Safety Bill.
• Deepening our international counter-terrorism partnerships, including the US, other Five Eyes members and our European partners, aligning our strategic approaches so that we can maximise the effectiveness of our capabilities and develop new ones to keep our people safe.
• Strengthening our border through the Future Border and Immigration System Programme, making our border a critical line of defence against terrorism.
• Continuing to place victims and survivors at the heart of counter-terrorism policy by fully understanding their lived experiences and by reviewing and reforming the support we give them.

Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, said:

Any death or injury resulting from terrorism is a tragedy, and the impact on survivors, witnesses and wider society is immeasurable.

The terrorism risk we face today is rising and becoming harder to detect. This is why the transformational changes and vital partnerships set out in CONTEST 2023 will modernise our approach and make us all safer.

The safety and security of our people is the leading duty of government; terrorism will not prevail.

Head of Counter Terrorism Policing, Matt Jukes said:

The Counter Terrorism Operations Centre is a clear marker of the continued collective commitment to tackle the enduring terrorist threat.

Our mission to keep the public safe cannot be achieved by one organisation alone and we are pleased that CONTEST underlines the importance of collaboration.

Together with our partners, counter-terrorism policing will always strive to enhance our response, keeping the safety of the public at the very heart of our efforts.

Whilst sustained counter-terrorism pressure from the UK and its allies has suppressed the most serious terrorist threats, Islamist terrorist groups based abroad are persistent and evolving.

Their capabilities remain far below earlier peaks, but there are signs of resurgence by groups such as Daesh and al-Qa’ida, which continue to seek to plan and enable attacks in western countries, including the UK.

Our global relationships provide a foundation which can jointly address the risks we face from international terrorism.

Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, said:

Our approach to countering terrorist threats is having an impact. Alongside our allies, we have suppressed a great number of the most serious threats in the last five years.

We continue to adapt our approach to tackling the evolving and enduring threats.

The UK will continue to work in close collaboration with key allies to tackle these new threats and keep our people safe.

CONTEST 2023 has been developed by the Home Office, working with a range of government departments, police and the intelligence agencies.

Terrorism experts, academics, public organisations, the private sector and the public were consulted to provide insight and challenge, to ensure that CONTEST continues to robustly defend the public from the terrorist threat.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 17 July 2023.

From September 2023 people with pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme will automatically have their status extended by 2 years before it expires if they have not obtained settled status.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 14 July 2023.

The governments of Canada and the United Kingdom are committed to providing Canadian and British youth with work opportunities that will empower them to achieve their full potential.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 14 July 2023.

The men were sentenced to over six years in prison for smuggling seven Indian migrants into the UK.

Two British men were sentenced yesterday (13 July 2023) to over six years in prison for smuggling seven Indian migrants – including women and children – into the UK, in the boots of two cars.

Palvinder Singh Phull, 48, from Hounslow, received three and half years for assisting unlawful immigration. On 8 July 2018, Mr Phull was stopped at the UK border in Dover, and three Indian nationals claiming to be Afghan Sikhs were found in the boot of his hire car.

His co-accused, Harjit Singh Dhaliwal, 45, from Middlesex, was jailed for three years and two months, also for assisting unlawful immigration. Four days after Mr Phull was arrested, on 12 July 2018, Mr Dhaliwal was stopped at the UK border and four Indian nationals also claiming to be Afghan Sikhs were found hiding in the boot of his car.

Following an investigation by the Home Office Criminal and Financial Investigations (CFI) unit, the suspects were found to be linked via mobile phone records.

The sentencing took place at Canterbury Crown Court, where the defendants both pleaded guilty to assisting unlawful immigration.

Chris Foster, Deputy Director of Criminal and Financial Investigations at the Home Office, said:

Today’s sentencing sends a clear message to those abusing our laws and borders: we will stop at nothing to bring to justice anyone attempting to smuggle people into the UK.

I would like to pay tribute to the hard work of my team, and their tireless efforts to tackle this type of crime. We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to disrupt people smuggling gangs and make sure those who break our laws face the consequences.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 13 July 2023.

Asylum seekers have moved to the first large-scale asylum accommodation site in the UK as part of the government’s pledge to reduce the use of expensive hotels.

The press release issued by the Home Office on 11 July 2023.

The Security Minister convened a meeting of the Joint Fraud Taskforce to discuss measures to tackle fraud including an online fraud charter.

Representatives from across the private sector met at 10 Downing Street to update government on progress made to tackle fraud and protect the public from scams.

The Security Minister, Tom Tugendhat, convened a meeting of the Joint Fraud Taskforce (JFT) to drive forward delivery of the commitments made in the Fraud Strategy, published earlier this year. With several actions already implemented, members of the group agreed to use the forum to continue to monitor progress.

Representatives discussed the development of an online fraud charter with the tech sector to respond to the growing volume of fraud originating on social media platforms. The charter will ensure that tech firms take action to block scams, make it easier to report frauds and ensure that fraudulent content is removed swiftly. The Security Minister has also called on tech firms to implement stronger measures to tackle fraud on their platforms ahead of the introduction of the Online Safety Bill.

Anti-Fraud Champion Anthony Browne said:

Collaboration with industry is key to blocking fraud at source.

Since stepping into my role, I’ve worked at pace with industry to ensure we are delivering on our commitment to cut off the channels fraudsters use to target us and protect people’s hard earned money.

I will continue this conversation with tech sector bosses to ensure they are doing everything in their power to disrupt the callous fraudsters operating online and better protect their users.

Previous Joint Fraud Taskforce meetings have overseen the development and agreement of charters covering sectors such as retail banking and telecoms. The telecommunications charter has already resulted in massive action by the operators, with over 600 million scam texts blocked and vast numbers of scam calls filtered out before they can reach the public.

Representatives also discussed the development of a cross-government anti-fraud public awareness campaign to streamline and simplify messaging to the public. The Security Minister encouraged partners to collaborate with government on the preparation and delivery of the campaign.

Today’s meeting is the first since the publication of the government’s Fraud Strategy which set out a whole system response to tackling these crimes in the light of how they have evolved through modern technology.

This included the creation of a new National Fraud Squad to overhaul how these crimes are investigated by taking a proactive, intelligence-led approach, backed by 400 new specialist investigators, working with local forces, international partners and the UK intelligence community to shut down fraud cells.

Other measures in the strategy include:

• banning cold calls on all financial products such as types of insurance or sham crypto currency schemes
• working with Ofcom to use new technology to further clamp down on number ‘spoofing’, so fraudsters cannot impersonate legitimate UK phone numbers
• banning the use of so-called ‘SIM farms’ commonly harnessed by scammers to reach thousands of people at once
• reviewing the use of mass texting services
• rolling out tailored support to victims at a local level across the whole of England and Wales through the National Economic Crime Victim Care Unit
• launching an independent review of the challenges in investigating and prosecuting fraud to speed up the justice process, punishing more scammers and ensuring sentences match the severity of the impact on victims
• deploying the UK intelligence community to identify and disrupt more fraudsters overseas
• publishing regular data on the volume of fraudulent content hosted on different websites and platforms to incentivise companies to root these out and better protect users.

Organisations in attendance at the JFT included:

• HM Treasury
• National Cyber Security Centre
• National Economic Crime Centre (NECC)
• City of London Police
• National Trading Standards
• UK Finance
• Cifas
• OFCOM
• Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
• Victim Support
• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• Law Society of England and Wales
• Association of British Insurers (ABI)
• TechUK
• Google
• Communications Crime Strategy Group (CCSG)
• Serious Fraud Office
• Welsh Government
• Department of Justice Northern Ireland

The press release issued by the Home Office on 11 July 2023.

On 11 July, the National Security Bill became law after being passed by both Houses of Parliament and securing Royal Assent.

This new act brings together vital new measures to protect the British public, modernise counter-espionage laws and address the evolving threat to our national security.

With this new legislation, the UK is now a harder target for those states who seek to conduct hostile acts against the UK, which include espionage, foreign interference (including in our political system), sabotage, and acts that endanger life, such as assassination.

The new powers will help ensure that the UK remains the hardest operating environment for malign activity undertaken by foreign actors.

Russia remains the most acute threat to the UK’s security, though we have seen interference from China including to communities here in the UK, and Iran has made concerted efforts to kill or kidnap British or UK-based individuals.

Security Minister Tom Tugendhat said:

We are facing growing threats from foreign states. Over the past years we’ve seen attempts to harm our people, damage our economy and undermine our democracy.

Iran’s recent attempts to kidnap or kill people living in the UK are beyond contempt, and a fundamental violation of our sovereignty.

The National Security Act provides the tools to expose this type of activity and hold those responsible to account.

The National Security Act overhauls our outdated espionage laws and will provide our law enforcement and intelligence agencies with new and updated tools to deter, detect and disrupt modern-day state threats. For the first time there is an offence of foreign interference, meaning it will now be illegal to engage in conduct that interferes with fundamental rights, such as voting and freedom of speech, that are essential to the UK’s democracy.

These powers will apply to an individual acting on behalf of any state, which means the UK will be better equipped to tackle the full spectrum of malign activity, whether in the form of disinformation, cyber-attacks, electoral interference or even physical attacks, including the barbaric use of chemical weapons.

Director General of MI5, Ken McCallum said:

We face state adversaries who operate at scale and who are not squeamish about the tactics they deploy to target people and businesses in the UK.

The National Security Act is a game changing update to our powers.  We now have a modern set of laws to tackle today’s threats.

The act also introduces a new Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), which criminalises those acting covertly for states which pose the greatest threat to our national security and strengthens the resilience of UK democracy by bringing transparency to foreign political influence.

The scheme has been created to tackle covert influence in the UK, it is split into two parts: the political tier of FIRS makes any political influence activity undertaken at the direction of a foreign power registerable; and the enhanced tier – which is designed to target those countries that pose a risk to the safety or interests of the UK – will require registration of arrangements that are entered into with a specified foreign power, or entity controlled by a foreign power. Failure to register when required will be a criminal offence.