Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the request by the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs to call in the planning application for the new Chinese Embassy on national security.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The planning application has been called in by the Secretary of State for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and she will make this quasi-judicial decision independent from the rest of Government.
As set out in a joint letter by the Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary to the Planning Inspector on 14 January, the Home Office has considered the breadth of national security issues in relation to the planning application.
It would not be appropriate to comment in further detail on specific matters relating to national security.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the £264 million additional core grant funding for police will support police stations to remain open.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The 2025-26 provisional police funding settlement provides funding of up to £19.5 billion for the policing system in England and Wales. This is an overall increase of up to £1 billion when compared to the 2024-25 settlement, and equates to a 5.5% cash increase, and 3% real terms increase in funding.
Total funding to police forces will be up to £17.4 billion, an increase of up to £987 million compared to the 2024-25 police funding settlement.
The Government recognises the importance of accessibility to the police, and police stations remain one of many important methods where incidents can be reported by members of the public. It is the responsibility of locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables to take decisions around their resourcing and estates including police stations, based on their local knowledge and experience.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of recent pay rises for police officers on trends in the level of police numbers.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The independent Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) and Senior Salaries Review Body (PRRB) make recommendations to the Government on the appropriate level of pay and allowances for police officers. In reaching their recommendations, the Review Bodies consider the need to recruit and retain officers.
On 29 July, the Government announced it had accepted the PRRB’s and SSRB’s recommendations to award officers a consolidated pay award of 4.75% with effect from 1 September. The Home Office has provided £175 million of additional funding in 2024-25 towards policing to help with the cost of this pay increase.
The Government is committed to working with policing to improve public confidence and prioritise frontline services. This includes ensuring there are 13,000 more police officers, police community support officers and special constables in neighbourhood policing roles by the end of this parliament.
Asked by: Saqib Bhatti (Conservative - Meriden and Solihull East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the level of misuse of nitrous oxide in the West Midlands.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The most reliable current source for prevalence of drug misuse is the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). The Office for National Statistics publishes CSEW estimates for use of illicit drugs and psychoactive substances, including nitrous oxide, by adults aged 16-59. However, there are no available regional estimates for nitrous oxide due to small survey samples.
The latest estimates for drug misuse are for the year ending June 2022 available at:
Drug misuse in England and Wales - Appendix table - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
Data on school age drug misuse, primarily 11-15 year olds, is collected by NHS Digital and the latest data are available at:
Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England, 2021 - NDRS (digital.nhs.uk).