Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her department has assessed the potential impact of beach-based police interventions in northern France on recent trends in levels of deaths in the Channel; and what measures she is implementing to help minimise potential risks from such interventions.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Our ongoing partnership with French law enforcement prevented over 22,000 crossing attempts during 2025. We are working closely with the French to reduce the risk to life from these crossings and with partners across Europe to bring the smuggling gangs to justice. We will continue our work with the French Government to explore every avenue to understand what further can be done in the Channel to disrupt and deter small boat crossings.
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what percentage of asylum seekers received initial decisions in quarter 4 of 2025 (October to December) compared to quarter 2 2024 (April to June).
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on initial decisions of asylum claims is published in table Asy_D02 of the ‘Asylum claims and initial decisions datasets’. The latest data relates to the year ending September 2025.
Data for the year ending December 2025, which will include Quarter 4 of 2025, will be published on 26 February 2026.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Pursuant to the answer of 2 December 2025, to Question 94192, on Holiday Accommodation: Taxation, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of applying the levy to asylum seekers in hotels on costs to the public purse.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide support to destitute asylum seekers and as such these are not discretionary overnight stays.
The Government’s position remains that the use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers is undesirable and unsustainable. Work is underway to expand the dispersal estate and develop alternative accommodation models to better deliver value for money and reduce impact on communities.
To support local authorities, the Home Office provides significant grant funding to manage the pressures associated with asylum accommodation. This includes the Asylum Grant 395 which is designed to offset costs for councils and support local services impacted by the use of hotels and other accommodation. Under this grant local authorities received an initial payment of £1,200 per bedspace occupied on 30 March 2025; with £100 per month for each additional occupied bedspace between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026.
Additional grant funding is available for the support of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and care leavers. These grants form part of a wider package of measures to ensure that local authorities are not disproportionately burdened by the statutory asylum support system.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of UK–France border agreements in the context of trends in the number of (a) fatalities and (b) reports of violence at the border; and whether any changes are planned.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Violence against French law enforcement is unacceptable. Whilst the French law enforcement response to that violent conduct has to be a matter for the French authorities, we continue to support their operations to prevent small boat crossings.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 December 2025 to Question 99417 on Undocumented Migrants, what steps she is taking to strengthen (a) statutory and (b) operational powers to (i) relocate and (ii) detain illegal migrants.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
In our Restoring Order and Control statement, we set out a series of measures designed to increase the rate of removal of illegal migrants from the UK, focusing on five areas. First, scaling up removals of those whose claims have failed. Second, imposing sanctions on countries that refuse to take their citizens back. Third, reforming our appeals system. Fourth, pursuing legal reform, both nationally and internationally. Finally, tackling other barriers that are used today to block removals.
Immigration detention plays a key role in maintaining effective immigration controls and securing the UK’s borders. We have made significant reforms to detention over the past few years in line with external reports and recommendations including strengthening our powers to detain individuals who arrive unlawfully through the Border, Security and Asylum Act 2025, enabling detention from the point an individual is notified they are liable for removal. We also expanded the detention estate with the opening of IRC Campsfield in December 2025.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department collects on the religion of migrants, other than through the Census.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
UVKI do not request this information as part of the visa application process.
Asylum claimants are asked for information about their religion as part of the asylum screening (registration) process, during the substantive asylum interview and when submitting evidence in support of their claim. This information is recorded on any interview record and within the claimant’s electronic file.
As part of the asylum process, the asylum decision-maker must determine whether the claimant has a characteristic (or be perceived to have a characteristic) which could cause them to fear persecution for a ‘Convention reason’, one of which is ‘religion’. We do not publish the number of asylum claims that were made on the basis of someone’s religion.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the press release, published on 12 January 2026, entitled UK and Ecuador join forces to tackle cocaine trade at source, what the cost was of providing equipment to Ecuador to assist with preventing the export of drugs since 2020.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Home Office International Operations and UK law enforcement are stationed in Ecuador with officers providing training, equipment and support to enhance the capabilities of Ecuadorian law enforcement – better preventing cocaine from reaching British borders.
Funding for UK law enforcement activity and support in Ecuador is provided via the Integrated Security Fund, Home Office budgetary allocations and law enforcement agency budgets.
The Home Office does not comment on overseas operational deployments for security reasons.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office's press release published on 12 January 2026 entitled UK and Ecuador join forces to tackle cocaine trade at source, what recent assessment has she made of the potential impact of bilateral cooperation with Ecuador to reduce the export of drugs to the UK on the level of criminal activity in the UK.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is concerned by the impact that drug trafficking from South America, particularly cocaine trafficking, is having in the UK and its Overseas Territories. Tackling the supply of drugs remains a priority for this Government and will play a critical role in making our streets safer, including delivering our mission to halve knife crime over the next decade.
Ecuador is a key smuggling route for cocaine ending up on UK streets, making joint action essential as part of the UK’s end-to-end approach, including working with law enforcement partners internationally, and at the UK border to tackle the gangs responsible for drug trafficking. Home Office International Operations and UK law enforcement are stationed in Ecuador with officers providing training, equipment and support to enhance the capabilities of Ecuadorian law enforcement – better preventing cocaine from reaching British borders.
In 2024, in Ecuador alone, Home Office International supported the seizure of nearly 95 out of the 300 tonnes seized by police. In May 2025, the UK and Ecuador signed a memorandum of understanding, cementing both countries’ commitment to dismantling and disrupting violent criminal networks, which threaten the safety of communities in Britain and South America alike.
Funding for UK law enforcement activity and support in Ecuador is provided via the Integrated Security Fund, Home Office Drug Strategy funding and law enforcement agency budgets.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office's press release published on 12 January 2026 entitled UK and Ecuador join forces to tackle cocaine trade at source, what estimate has she made of the cost to UK police forces and other law enforcement organisations of providing training to Ecuador to prevent the export of drugs.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is concerned by the impact that drug trafficking from South America, particularly cocaine trafficking, is having in the UK and its Overseas Territories. Tackling the supply of drugs remains a priority for this Government and will play a critical role in making our streets safer, including delivering our mission to halve knife crime over the next decade.
Ecuador is a key smuggling route for cocaine ending up on UK streets, making joint action essential as part of the UK’s end-to-end approach, including working with law enforcement partners internationally, and at the UK border to tackle the gangs responsible for drug trafficking. Home Office International Operations and UK law enforcement are stationed in Ecuador with officers providing training, equipment and support to enhance the capabilities of Ecuadorian law enforcement – better preventing cocaine from reaching British borders.
In 2024, in Ecuador alone, Home Office International supported the seizure of nearly 95 out of the 300 tonnes seized by police. In May 2025, the UK and Ecuador signed a memorandum of understanding, cementing both countries’ commitment to dismantling and disrupting violent criminal networks, which threaten the safety of communities in Britain and South America alike.
Funding for UK law enforcement activity and support in Ecuador is provided via the Integrated Security Fund, Home Office Drug Strategy funding and law enforcement agency budgets.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent glassware attacks at late night venues.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The police are responsible for protecting the public by detecting and preventing crime. The government expects the police to respond to all allegations made, including those involving violence in the night time economy, and treat them seriously, investigate and consider any arrests or charging decisions as required.
The Home Office has responsibility for the Licensing Act 2003, which determines the regime for the licensing of, among others, venues which sell alcohol. The Act sets out four licensing objectives: the prevention of crime and disorder; the prevention of public nuisance; upholding public safety and protecting children from harm.
Local licensing authorities are responsible for making licensing decisions in England and Wales and ensuring the licensing objectives are upheld. The Government publishes statutory guidance to assist licensing authorities in fulfilling these duties. The guidance sets out matters that should be considered by a licensing authority in relation to public safety. This explicitly includes giving consideration to requiring, as part of a premises licence, the use of plastic containers and preventing customer access to glass bottles.