The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 7th October 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government whether it remains their policy to increase the minimum income for spouse/partner visas to £38,700 by 2025.
Lord Hanson of Flint (Lab, Home Office): The Home Secretary has commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the financial requirements in the Family Immigration Rules. Conducting a review of the financial requirements across the family routes will ensure we have a clear and consistent system.
There will be no changes to the current threshold of £29,000, or the ways in which the Minimum Income Requirement can be met, until the MAC review is complete.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that (1) driving lessons, and (2) driving tests, are (a) available, and (b) affordable.
Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill (Lab, DfT): The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is to reduce car practical driving test waiting times, whilst upholding road safety standards.
As of 9 September 2024, there were 556,774 car practical driving tests booked, and 91,059 driving tests available within the 24-week booking window.
Measures already in place to reduce waiting times for customers at driving test centres. These include the recruitment of driving examiners, conducting tests outside of regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays, and buying back annual leave from driving examiners. The Secretary of State for Transport has met with the Chief Executive of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency to discuss solutions to barriers to obtaining a driving test.
The DVSA also continues to deploy examiners from areas with lower waiting times into those centres with longer waiting times. This is in addition to the DVSA recruiting additional examiners across the country into areas where waiting times are highest.
The DVSA does not employ driving instructors so has no control over what they charge for their services, including lessons.
Driving test fees are set in legislation.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of robbery and shoplifting offences in Hertfordshire; and what steps they plan to take to tackle those crimes in that area.
Lord Hanson of Flint: Police recorded crime for England and Wales showed a 30% annual rise in shoplifting offences and 8% in robbery offences for year ending March 2024. Hertfordshire Police Force saw a 25% rise in shoplifting and a 35% rise in police recorded robbery offences in the same period.
In cases of shoplifting, more and more offenders are using violence and abuse against shopworkers. We will not stand for this. This Government will introduce a new offence for assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores. We will also end the effective immunity, introduced by the previous Government, granted to low-value shoplifting of goods under £200.
Tackling serious violence, including robbery, is a priority for this Government. One of the ways we are doing this is through close working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s Personal Robbery Steering Group.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government whether they intend to extend the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 to include GPS kits.
Lord Hanson of Flint: We are committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, which aims to prevent the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting.
The Act requires secondary legislation before it can come into effect. We will be carefully considering the views of those who may be affected by the legislation and its regulations, to determine the scope of the legislation and understand its potential implications.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to tackle hare coursing; and what assessment they have made of whether hare coursing is increasing.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab, DEFRA): The Government recognises the impact which the crime of hare coursing has on rural communities.
Measures to strengthen law enforcement and increase the powers of the courts were introduced through the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. They have been widely welcomed. The new offences and higher penalties introduced by the Act are all being used and imposed by the courts.
Wildlife crimes such as hare coursing are not ‘notifiable’ so there are no official Home Office statistics or identifiable trends to judge robustly whether such crimes are increasing or decreasing across the country. Decisions on whether to make wildlife crimes notifiable sit with the Home Office. It is reasonable to assume the 2022 legislation, along with improved police tactics, intelligence and information sharing as well as the use of community protection notices (CPN) and criminal behaviour orders (CBO), has had an effect in terms of reducing levels of hare coursing.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what steps they plan to take to tackle dog attacks on livestock, following the 30 per cent increase in dog attacks on livestock in 2023 compared to the previous year.
Baroness Hayman of Ullock: The Government recognises the distress livestock worrying can cause animals and their keepers. We are considering the most effective ways to deliver our commitments in this area and will be setting out next steps in due course.
The Church of England in Parliament 
You must be logged in to post a comment.