Tag: Jack Dromey

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the contribution of the Minister for Policing, Fire and Criminal Justice and Victims of 24 March 2016, Official Report, column 221, on the Policing and Crime Bill, in which types of situations her Department anticipates that police volunteers will have the need of CS spray for self-protection.

Mike Penning

Currently, volunteers already have all the powers of a police constable as a Special Constable and have done so for over a century.

Chapter 1 of Part 3 of the Bill will enable chief officers to designate police staff with a wider range of police powers. They will also be able to confer police powers – other than the core powers reserved for warranted officers set out in Schedule 9 to the Bill – on volunteers. The intention is that the powers that can be conferred on employed staff and designated volunteers are the same. This includes the power to carry and use defensive sprays, such as CS or PAVA, in situations where the chief officer considers there to be an operational case for this. It is already the case that chief officers can equip police community support officers with defensive sprays; accordingly, the Bill simply codifies the existing position for staff. Chief officers must ensure appropriate training before conferring a power.

Since opening the recruitment for Volunteer Police Community Support Officers (VPCSOs) in the autumn of 2013, Lincolnshire Police have recruited 80 volunteers, who have been trained to the same standard as paid PCSOs. The College of Policing guidance in respect of VPCSOs has not yet been written.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many tenants in (a) Birmingham, Erdington constituency and (b) the West Midlands live in supported housing owned by social landlords.

Gavin Barwell

The department does not centrally hold information on the numbers on tenants in supported housing. The Homes and Communities Agency does publish information on the total stock of supported housing units in its statistical data return which is publically available online: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistical-data-return-statistical-releases

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has been made of potential changes in local council tax required to maintain overall police spending in real terms.

Mike Penning

The Home Office worked closely with policing partners and other Government Departments as part of Spending Review preparations to ensure flexibility on council tax is a key part of the Spending Review settlement for the police.

The Spending Review makes provision for overall police spending to be protected in real terms, when council tax income is taken into account. The ten Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England with the lowest precept levels in each year will be able to raise their police precept level by up to £5 per year over the Spending Review period, compared to the usual two per cent. These provisions are an integral part of the overall Spending Review settlement for the police.

It is right that PCCs, in consultation with local taxpayers, should decide the level of police precept in their area each year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many requests have been made by police forces for mutual aid in each year since 2010.

Mike Penning

The deployment of officers by police forces in England and Wales under mutual aid arrangements is an operational matter for those forces.

The Home Office does not routinely collect the requested information.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the (a) extra cost to police forces and (b) extra staff hours in police forces resulting from the change in the level of reported cases of contact child sex offences in the last two years.

Mike Penning

Resourcing is an operational matter for individual Chief Constables. We have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat in the Strategic Policing Requirement to empower police forces to maximise specialist skills and expertise to prevent offending and resolve cases. This means that police forces must have in place the capabilities they need to protect children from sexual abuse.

In 2015/16 the Government provided an additional £10 million to the National Crime Agency to create specialist teams to tackle online child sexual exploitation. We have also made available £1.7 million to fund Operation Hydrant, which coordinates the handling of multiple non-recent child sexual abuse investigations specifically concerning institutions or persons of public prominence, and up to £1.5 million to support regional coordinators and analysts to oversee the implementation of the National Policing Plan for tackling child sexual exploitation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the ability of maintained nursery schools and children’s centres to remain financially viable following recent changes to their funding.

Caroline Dinenage

There have been no changes to the funding of maintained nursery schools and children centres. We are currently consulting on the introduction of an Early Years National Funding Formula to ensure a fairer allocation of early years funding to local authorities. The consultation document sets out our intention to provide supplementary funding for maintained nursery schools for at least two years in order to provide stability to the nursery school sector while they explore how to become more sustainable in the longer term, including exploiting the scope for efficiencies.

Local authorities have a duty under the Childcare Act 2006 to ensure sufficient children’s centres to meet the needs of local families. Local authorities must meet their statutory duties on children’s centres from funding that forms part of the Department for Communities and Local Government Business Rates Retention Scheme. In addition, other Government funding, including that for public health, adult skills training and troubled families may also be used locally to support services delivered wholly, or in part, through children’s centres. Local authorities must consult fully before any significant changes are made to children’s centre services.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has been made of the cost to police forces of (a) the apprenticeship levy and (b) a single tier pension.

Mike Penning

Home Office officials have written to the National Policing Lead for Workforce Development to ensure that chief constables, who are the employers in each local force, are aware of the opportunity that apprenticeships present as they strive to develop greater workforce flexibility. A number of forces have already taken steps to develop apprentice models and a cross-force working group has been established by forces to consider the matter.

We worked closely with policing partners, as part of Spending Review preparations, to understand the impacts on forces of transition to the single-tier state pension. We continue to keep this under review.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders in category (a) 1, (b) 2, and (c) 3 are being managed by multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) in England and Wales; and how many MAPPA-managed offenders there have been in each year since 2010.

Andrew Selous

This information is available in table 1 of the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements Annual Reports. These can be found at the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/multi-agency-public-protection-arrangements-mappa-annual-report-2014-to-2015

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/multi-agency-public-protection-arrangements-mappa-annual-report-2013-14

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/multi-agency-public-protection-arrangements-mappa-annual-report-2012-13

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/multi-agency-public-protection-arrangements-annual-report-2011-12

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mappa-annual-report-20010-11

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/multi-agency-public-protection-arrangements-annual-report-2009-10

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many traffic police officers were employed in each police force area in each of the last five years.

Mike Penning

The number of full time equivalent police officers employed in traffic policing roles as at 31 March in each of the last 5 years is provided in the tables. Officers with multiple responsibilities are recorded under their primary function or role. Data for 31 March 2015 (the latest period for which figures are available) can also be found in the supplementary tables of the July 2015 police workforce statistics publication:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/444537/police-workforce-supptabs-mar15.ods

Reclassification of roles within a force can lead to fluctuations in the number of officers in a particular role.

As HMIC has made clear, there is no simple link between police numbers and crime levels, between numbers and the visibility of police in the community, or between numbers and the quality of service provided.

Decisions on the size and composition of the police workforce are operational matters for Chief Officers working with their Police and Crime Commissioners and taking into account local priorities. What matters is how officers are deployed, not how many of them there are.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jack Dromey on 2016-09-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) nursery schools, (b) day-care facilities and (c) children’s centres in (i) Birmingham, Erdington constituency, (ii) the West Midlands and (iii) the UK have (A) declared insolvency and (B) closed due to funding shortages in each of the last three years.

Caroline Dinenage

Nursery Schools

The Department for Education’s register of educational establishments in England and Wales indicates that from the 31 August 2013 to 31 August 2016 eight maintained nursery schools closed, and 10 amalgamated or merged with another school. No closures were recorded in Birmingham, Erdington or the West Midlands.

The Department does not collect information on the reasons for the closure of nursery schools. Local authorities have a duty to secure sufficient childcare in their local area. In consultation with their Schools Forum, they are responsible for deciding how best to distribute early years funding across their locality.

There is a presumption against the closure of any nursery school. The local authority must consult on any proposed closures, clearly demonstrating the rationale for so doing.

Day-care facilities

The Department does not collect data on the number of childcare businesses that have closed. The Childcare and Early Years Provider Survey shows that the childcare market continues to expand.

• The number of registered places in full day care settings rose by ten per cent between 2011 and 2013.

• The long term increase in the number of full day care providers continued in 2013. In total there were 17,900 full day care settings in 2013 (compared to 17,600 in 2011).

Children’s centres

Local authorities have a duty under the Childcare Act 2006 to ensure sufficient children’s centres to meet the needs of local families. The Department does not collect information on the reasons for the closure of children’s centres.

According to data supplied by local authorities, a total of 259 children’s centres closed in the calendar years, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Forty nine of these closures were in the West Midlands. None of these were in Birmingham.