Home Office written question – answered at on 11 April 2019.
Kate Green
Chair, Committee on Standards, Chair, Committee of Privileges, Chair, Committee of Privileges, Chair, Committee on Standards, Chair, Committee on Standards
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2019 to Question 237682 on Travellers: Caravan Sites, for what reason that Answer did not set out (a) the number of (i) police forces and (ii) police representative bodies that responded to that consultation and (b) how many of those responses favoured the criminalisation of unauthorised encampments.
Nick Hurd
The Minister of State, Home Department, Minister of State (London)
Last year’s Government consultation on powers for dealing with unauthorised development and encampments received responses from a wide range of stakeholders, including police forces, offices of police and crime commissioners, law enforcement representative bodies, local authorities, private sector bodies, representative groups of the Gypsy and Traveller community and members of the public. The result of this consultation was clear - people want to see greater protection for local communities.
Acting on the findings of the consultation, where the Majority of respondents believed that the Government should consider criminalising unauthorised encampments, the Home Office launched a review into whether this could be achieved
Responses to the consultation were received from six police forces and two police representative bodies. A summary of responses to the consultation can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/powers-for-dealing-with-unauthorised-development-and-encampments
Yes2 people think so
No3 people think not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
