Monday Volume 537 12 December 2011 No. 239 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Monday 12 December 2011 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2011 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through The National Archives website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/parliamentary-licence-information.htm Enquiries to The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 499 12 DECEMBER 2011 500 domestic violence. Let me also offer Home Office Ministers House of Commons our support if they wish to challenge the actions of their colleagues in the Ministry of Justice, who are Monday 12 December 2011 seeking to restrict access to legal aid for victims of domestic violence. Does the Home Secretary agree that that should happen, so that we send a strong message to The House met at half-past Two o’clock victims that they should not have to wait until the first punch is thrown before they get help? PRAYERS Mrs May: The hon. Lady is right that we need to ensure that we have the right definition of domestic [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] violence. That is why the Government are consulting on the appropriate definition and ensuring that we have a cross-Government definition, which, sadly, the previous Oral Answers to Questions Labour Government did not have. Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): I thank my right hon. Friend for her answer to the excellent opening question and urge her to look at the Home Affairs Committee HOME DEPARTMENT report on domestic violence from the previous Parliament. If she implements its recommendations, a lot of the The Secretary of State was asked— issues will be resolved. Violence against Women Mrs May: I thank my hon. Friend for his reference to the work previously done by the Home Affairs Committee 1. Claire Perry (Devizes) (Con): What steps she is on this important issue. The Government are looking taking to tackle violence against women. [85716] across the board at sources of proposals for dealing with this problem. As I have said, our cross-Government The Secretary of State for the Home Department action plan included 12 Departments and made a significant (Mrs Theresa May): A comprehensive cross-Government number of commitments to ensure that we do what all action plan on tackling violence against women and in the House would want: end violence against women girls was published on 8 March this year. It includes and girls. 88 commitments from 12 Departments to improve the provision of services for victims of violence and to Target Sports Clubs prevent violence from happening in the first place. We have already delivered 22 of those commitments. 2. Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con): What her policy is on the designation of (a) target sports clubs Claire Perry: I thank the Home Secretary for that where historical pistols are studied and shot and reply. Also part of this Government’s work is a pilot (b) other target sports clubs. [85717] scheme running in Swindon and Wiltshire in which perpetrators of domestic violence are effectively banned The Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice (Nick from the family home, rather than the family and the Herbert): Clubs that wish to keep and use historical women being forced to move out, as happened previously. pistols and weapons must have Home Office authorisation. My right hon. Friend will be pleased to know that, since There are strict criteria governing the designation of July, under the terms of the scheme, 82 abusive perpetrators sites under the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997, which have been removed from family homes. The head of are set out in the guidance issued by the Home Office. Wiltshire victim support unit said that the programme is reaching women who have never been helped before. Chris Heaton-Harris: Northampton target sports club Will my right hon. Friend please tell us when the pilot is based in my constituency. A number of members wish might be rolled out nationally? to study and shoot historic pistols of some worth but are struggling with the licensing regime because they Mrs May: I thank my hon. Friend for that question. are within 30 miles of another licensed club. Will the She is absolutely right that domestic violence protection Minister help us with that query and help to sort this orders do what hon. Members across the House have out? always felt is right: ensure that when a domestic violence incident takes place it is the perpetrator who is not able Nick Herbert: I understand my hon. Friend’s concern. to stay in the home, rather than the victim being forced I am aware that the Northampton target sports club out, as has happened so often in the past. We commenced was refused designated-site status last month because a pilot in Greater Manchester, West Mercia and Wiltshire, there were other suitable sites within a reachable distance. and a second wave of pilot areas started in October in I also understand that circumstances may have changed Grater Manchester and West Mercia, which we are because another site is full. Therefore, a new application looking to run for at least a year before we assess them will be looked at properly. properly. Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab): Will the Minister give as Stella Creasy (Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op): The much support as possible to the wonderful Olympic Opposition welcome press reports this weekend that the sport of pistol shooting, which suffers terribly from Deputy Prime Minister wants to widen the definition of some of the rather knee-jerk legislation that went through 501 Oral Answers12 DECEMBER 2011 Oral Answers 502 this place some time ago? Will he ensure that pistol waiting for a reply from the Home Office. Will the shooters are given every support possible to train in this Home Secretary look again at the whole system and country so that they do not have to go abroad to ensure that proper efforts are made to find people who Switzerland to train for the Olympics? are legitimately trying to continue their stay here? Nick Herbert: I know of the hon. Lady’s long-standing Mrs May: I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising concern. The Government seek to draw the distinction that issue and I remind him and other hon. Members between the unlawful use of weapons, which we aim to that the Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee deal with as robustly as possible, and the lawful possession asked Members of Parliament to write to the Home of such weapons. We have the tightest set of firearms Office to say whether they had any cases of the sort that controls in the world, but sporting shooting, particularly the hon. Gentleman mentions. The work that we have in relation to the Olympics, is of course important. been doing is of course clearing up the chaotic mess in the asylum system that was left, sadly, by the last UK Border Agency Government. 3. Gavin Shuker (Luton South) (Lab/Co-op): What Mr Don Foster (Bath) (LD): With tourism vital to recent assessment she has made of the operational places such as Bath, it is worrying that the more and effectiveness of the UK Border Agency. [85718] more people who travel abroad from countries such as India and China tend not to come to this country The Secretary of State for the Home Department because they think that the UKBA is unwelcoming. (Mrs Theresa May): I should like to pay tribute to the Should we not at least have a special visa for 2012 to many dedicated and hard-working staff of UKBA, who commemorate the Olympics and the diamond jubilee, do a good job, working day in, day out to keep our and have the application forms in the language of the border secure and enforce immigration rules. There is tourist rather than in English? certainly more to be done. The agency’s new chief executive, Rob Whiteman, has a vision to make further Mrs May: I fully understand the benefits and importance improvements. I share that vision. of tourism to certain parts of the United Kingdom such as my right hon. Friend’s constituency. I assure Gavin Shuker: Has the Home Secretary yet received him that special arrangements have been put in place by the interim internal report on this summer’s security the UKBA for those who are travelling to be part of or lapse, and if so can she tell me how many people were to view the Olympics next summer. wrongly allowed into Luton airport in my constituency? Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab): Mrs May: As the hon. Gentleman knows, we have Last month, the Home Office claimed that seizures of made available some figures from the early assessment class A drugs by the UKBA were up. That was described of the success rate of the pilot that was run in the by the chair of the UK Statistics Authority as summer. We are of course awaiting the independent “highly selective in its choice of statistics, in order, it seems, to investigation by the chief inspector of the UK Border show the UK Border Agency in a good light”. Agency, which will not be available until the end of In reality, official statistics show that UKBA seizures of January. class A drugs fell last year. Overall, there were barely half the number of seizures than in 2008-09. Given that Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire) (Con): There 452,000 people take ecstasy in the UK each year, does has been a warm welcome in the House and the country the Home Secretary think that seizing only 300 ecstasy for the firmer approach being taken by this Government, tablets is good enough? but can the Home Secretary give us any further information on the ending of the bogus colleges scam, and to what Mrs May: Seizures have gone up in the past six extent the Government are able to influence events in months.