Pulse.Assent

On 6 November the Saudi-led Coalition released a statement providing details of Iranian support to the Houthis in Yemen, including via the provision of ballistic missiles. The UK has had longstanding concerns about Iranian involvement in Yemen, which we have raised with the Iranian government. The provision of weapons to the Houthis and forces aligned to former President Saleh is contrary to UN Security Council Resolutions.

Alistair Burt, Minister for the Middle East, said:

There is a critical need to end the conflict in Yemen which has created the world’s most serious humanitarian crisis and poses risks to regional security and stability.

I am deeply concerned by reports that Iran has provided the Houthis with ballistic missiles, which threaten regional security and prolong the conflict. It is essential that the UN investigates these reports. The UK Government condemned the Houthi missile attack on Riyadh on 4 November, which deliberately targeted a civilian area and was intercepted over an international airport.

There remains a desperate need for a political solution to the Yemen conflict to help end the suffering of the Yemeni people, counter destabilising interference and end attacks upon neighbouring countries. The UK will continue to work towards a political settlement, and we call upon all countries in the region to support that goal. We will also continue to support our partners in the region to protect themselves against security threats.

Notes to editors

The UK is playing a leading role in the humanitarian response as the 3rd largest humanitarian donor to Yemen and the 2nd largest donor to the UN appeal. We have increased our UK aid for Yemen to £155 million for 2017/18 and are pressing the international community to step up its efforts. Other international and regional partners including the US, EU, UAE and Saudi Arabia are also playing a critical role in response.

Further information

• Follow Minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt on Twitter @AlistairBurtUK and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

Councils across England are set to receive a further £18 million to help alleviate pressures on local services such as housing, education and health services resulting from recent migration.

The government recognises that local authorities understand their local communities best and can identify specific pressures on services that can result from high, concentrated or short-term migration. Councils receiving these grants have developed specific plans to ease local pressures arising from migration and at the same time providing overall benefits to their wider communities.

Communities Minister Lord Bourne said:

In some places population change in a short space of time has put pressure on local services and we’re clear there are things we can do to address these problems.

This new funding will help councils rise to the challenge of reducing the impact of migration on local communities in a variety of ways – whether that’s tackling the small minority of landlords who damage neighbourhoods with overcrowded properties, providing English language classes to ensure effective integration.

The grants are the second allocations from the £100 million Controlling Migration Fund, following an initial allocation of £15 million awarded earlier this year.

Many of the projects supported will provide English language lessons to allow new residents to contribute to and feel part of their communities. They will also include education around British values and social norms, breaking down cultural barriers.

The fund is helping to ease pressures on local services but there’s still more work to do to bring net migration down further to sustainable levels. That is why government has reformed routes to the UK from outside Europe, and will get control of our borders and negotiate the right deal in the national interest in our Brexit negotiations.

Lord Bourne added:

It’s great to see so many projects tackling the problems of poor integration in their communities by, for example, allowing migrants to access the benefits of good English. This will create stronger relationships between neighbours and unlock better services for all.

Boston council in Lincolnshire will receive over £1 million to fund a wide range of integration projects, including additional sport and gym facilities where there is pressure on services, community sport sessions and encouraging volunteering from all communities.

Boston borough council Leader Councillor Michael Cooper said:

We’ve been awarded this money in recognition of the impact that migration has had locally. Our partnership will focus on doing things that our residents have told us are important to them.

We will extend the availability of advice services, enforcement capacity, community leadership and volunteering opportunities and importantly, we will support the development of English language skills to support people to communicate effectively with public services to help save time and money and increase efficiency and effectiveness.

Peterborough’s project will help new residents navigate services and provide additional capacity for the whole community. Citizen’s Advice Peterborough is receiving £288,000 to provide advice in a range of locations across the city and help an additional 4,000 clients a year from across the community.

Councillor Irene Walsh, Peterborough City Council Cabinet Member for Communities said:

We are delighted to receive this funding from the Controlling Migration Fund as it will allow even more people to benefit from the valuable service provided by Citizens Advice Peterborough in more locations across the city.

Further information

The Controlling Migration Fund is designed to support local areas facing pressures linked to recent immigration. See further details in the
Controlling Migration Fund allocations table
(PDF, 37.4KB, 13 pages)

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This funding will supplement local authorities’ budgets of £200 billion across the 4 year period up to 2020.

The Fund is available over the 4 years from 2016-17 to 2019-20, and is in 2 parts:

• ‘local service impacts’ totalling £100 million, led by the Department for Communities and Local Government, to help local authorities in England and their communities experiencing high and unexpected volumes of immigration to ease pressures on local services
• enforcement, led by Immigration Enforcement, worth £40 million to direct enforcement action to reduce the impact of migration on local communities; Immigration Enforcement are on track to meet their commitments under the Fund, including through supporting Rochdale’s Operation Maverick
• the government has been reviewing the available evidence on the main causes of poor integration; in the coming months we will bring forward plans for tackling these issues through a new integration strategy, to help people in more isolated communities, including migrants, to integrate into UK society

A former Dragon’s Den contestant, jailed for 13 child sex offences, including sexual assault has had his jail sentence increased to 7 years 3 months.

Richard Hazell, 48 from Hoddeston, Hertfordshire was arrested when his abuse came to light after the father of one of his victim’s made a complaint to social services. His original sentence of 4 years and 9 months was increased by 2 years 9 months following intervention by the Attorney General Jeremy Wright QC MP under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

Hazell, was convicted earlier this year for sexually assaulting four girls, one as young as 6 and was found to have nearly 3000 indecent images of children on a computer seized by police. He denied the offences in Court and was convicted only after a lengthy trial where it was revealed he had searched ‘can you be found guilty for downloading child porn if the files are deleted on your computer’ prior to his arrest.

Following the successful appeal the Attorney General said:

“Child sexual offences aren’t singular events, they are truly dreadful offences that will stay with victims for the rest of their lives. They take away a child’s innocence and diminish their capacity to form relationships.

Refusing to admit his offence, despite overwhelming evidence needlessly prolonged the suffering of the victims. I am pleased that the sentence has been increased.”

The Court of Appeal has today increased the sentence of Manchester man, Nadeem Muhammed who was convicted of trying to take an improvised explosive device onto a plane.

On 30 January 2017, Muhammed was stopped by security staff at Manchester International Airport on his way to Bergamo in Italy. A small pipe bomb was found in the zipped lining of his carry-on suitcase, which he was planning on detonating on the plane.

Muhammed, 43, was convicted at Manchester Crown Court in August of possessing an explosive with intent to endanger life or property and was sentenced to eighteen years imprisonment with an extended licence period of five years.

Following a referral by the Attorney General Jeremy Wright QC MP under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme, the Court of Appeal has today increased Muhammed’s sentence to one of 22 years with an extended licence period of 5 years.

Speaking after the hearing, the Attorney General said:
“This is a very disturbing case that could have had a devastating impact.

“I am pleased that the Court of Appeal has sent a strong message, that this type of offending merits very significant sentences.”

The Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) report published today (9 November 2017) presents the findings of its research which involved speaking with work coaches, policy experts, employers and a small number of working recipients of Universal Credit.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has embarked on an ambitious programme of in-work support through Universal Credit which is without precedent internationally. This extends conditions and support to people in low paid work only applying to unemployed claimants previously, with the goal of increased earnings and reduced benefit payments. The current ‘test and learn’ approach takes the form of a randomised control trial (RCT) testing the impact of different frequencies of work coach intervention.

The committee believes that DWP is right to be cautious given the very large number of households in scope. Of the 590,000 people receiving Universal Credit, 39% (230,000) are working. While it is not known how many people in work will get Universal Credit when it replaces tax credits, in 2015-16, 3 million families received in-work tax credit payments totalling £20.5 billion. While it is too soon to draw firm conclusions on how the current in-work approach is faring, SSAC concludes that DWP should:

• Test a much broader range of interventions, including those identified by work coaches in local jobcentres, taking account of personal and local circumstances.
• Establish a clear evaluation framework to enable local testing, while drawing on the central analytical capacity to ensure rigorous evaluation.
• Avoid constraining work coaches with tightly-prescribed targets. However, policy and guidance needs to clarify the variety of reasons people have for working part time (for example, having young children, having a disability or long-term condition, early phase self-employment, studying or re-training) if work coaches are to use discretion appropriately.
• Develop a richer understanding of working claimants and employers in key sectors. It is particularly important for DWP to understand routes into low paid work and the diverse circumstances of low paid households before any large scale migration of tax credit recipients onto Universal Credit.
• Take a data-driven approach to segmenting people’s circumstances, drawing on skills, work experience and attitudinal data.
• Fix the delays and complexity reported by Universal Credit claimants which may hinder in-work progression. The rules for couples are particularly complicated. Universal Credit needs to provide predictable support if it is to really help people increase their earnings. A better ‘it pays to progress’ calculator is needed for both recipients and work coaches to have greater confidence.

Paul Gray, Committee Chairman said:

As tax credits migrate into Universal Credit, DWP is making a major shift from its traditional role of helping the unemployed into work towards supporting those already in low paid work to increase their earnings. This is a major challenge no other country has attempted on this scale. Our report highlights ways in which this focus on in-work support can best be tailored and improved.

Chris Goulden, Chair of the committee’s Independent Work Programme sub-committee said:

The department is currently examining the effectiveness of different techniques of work coach contact, but this trial is quite narrowly focused. Our research highlights the breadth and complexity of in-work progression, as well as the wide range of affected groups – which includes both employers and working claimants. The committee would encourage the department to set out its broader aims on in-work progression as well as take up our recommendation to enable a broader and more innovative set of practices to be tested.

Contact the committee