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, what steps her Department plans to take to help speed up decision-making for asylum cases; and what targets her Department has set for improving decision-making times.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is investing in innovative techniques, including AI, to explore how we can improve productivity, speed up the processing of asylum cases awaiting an initial decision, and restore order in the asylum system.
The proportion of asylum claims receiving an initial decision within six months is at the highest level since Q3 2017 (60.6%).
Asylum decisions are subject to stringent quality checks to ensure that claims are properly considered, decisions are sound, and protection is granted to those who genuinely need it.
We are working to improve the speed of decisions and reduce the number of outstanding claims; but there will always be complex cases, and it is right we take time to work through them carefully.
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, what steps she is taking to improve the quality of initial decision-making in asylum cases.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We have adopted a plan to improve the quality of asylum casework, this includes improved training for decision makers and feedback loops to ensure we are learning from appeals to get decisions right first time.
Asylum decisions are subject to stringent quality checks to ensure that claims are properly considered, decisions are sound, and protection is granted to those who genuinely need it.
Each quality assessment will rate the impact of any casework or process errors against the agreed marking standards. Asylum decision quality data is published in the ADQ_01A table found in Migration transparency data - GOV.UK of the Immigration and Protection data.
Quality assessments must adhere to Home Office interview and decision standards. These standards are shared with Decision Makers to improve understanding of quality scores when receiving feedback.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the UK is taking to combat international drug trafficking networks.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Drugs have a devastating impact on the health of individuals and communities.
The Home Office and UK Law Enforcement, particularly Border Force and the National Crime Agency, delivers a significant amount of operational activity to detect and seize illicit drugs being trafficked to the UK and to secure our border. Our strategy focuses on working closely with law enforcement partners upstream to stop drug trafficking at source and across the supply chain, targeting the gangs responsible, and bringing them to justice.
In the year ending March 2025, Border Force seized over 150 tonnes of illegal drugs from overseas; the highest amount on record and a 40% increase on the amount seized in the year ending March 2024.
Serious criminals are constantly developing their approaches to traffic drugs into the UK in response to our efforts at the border and we recognise that we must continue to adapt our approach.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help county councils in using closure notices and closure orders under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The closure power, under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, enables police or local councils to quickly close premises which are causing or likely to cause nuisance or disorder.
County councils may issue a closure notice and apply directly for closure orders in England and Wales providing that there is no district council in the area.
The closure power, along with all the powers in the 2014 Act, is deliberately local in nature, and it is for the relevant local agencies to determine whether its use is appropriate in the specific circumstances.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 15 January 2026 to Question 104116 on Firearms Licensing, whether the government will set out a timeline for publication of the consultation on firearms licensing; and whether the impact assessment will be published alongside the consultation.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government will be publishing the public consultation paper on strengthening the controls on shotguns shortly.
The Government will provide the necessary impact assessments in due course, depending on whether we decide to make any changes following the consultation.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether any guidance exists for each Constabulary on the number of candidates they recommend to the College of Policing’s Executive Leadership Programme in any given year to assist with professional development and succession in leadership.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring there is strong and consistent leadership across policing and a pipeline of diverse and talented candidates for chief officer appointments. The College of Policing’s Executive Leaders Programme aims to open up access to a wide pool of officers, who have the skills, experience and potential to become chief officers, ready for substantive appointment to a chief officer role.
Neither the Home Office nor the College of Policing issues guidance to police forces on the specific number of candidates they should recommend to the Executive Leaders Programme. Recruitment is managed locally by individual police forces, following national guidelines and the application, assessment, and selection framework set by the College of Policing.
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of candidates attending and completing the Executive Leaders Programme.
The College of Policing has undertaken a review of the effectiveness of the Executive Leaders Programme, which was carried out in 2023-2024 on the first two cohorts. Based on the recommendations of the review, further improvements were communicated to forces and implemented in subsequent cohorts of the programme by the College of Policing.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which police constabulary referred the (a) highest and (b) lowest number of candidates across the UK to the College of Policing’s Executive Leadership Programme since 2023.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring there is strong and consistent leadership across policing and a pipeline of diverse and talented candidates for chief officer appointments. The College of Policing’s Executive Leaders Programme aims to open up access to a wide pool of officers, who have the skills, experience and potential to become chief officers, ready for substantive appointment to a chief officer role.
Neither the Home Office nor the College of Policing issues guidance to police forces on the specific number of candidates they should recommend to the Executive Leaders Programme. Recruitment is managed locally by individual police forces, following national guidelines and the application, assessment, and selection framework set by the College of Policing.
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of candidates attending and completing the Executive Leaders Programme.
The College of Policing has undertaken a review of the effectiveness of the Executive Leaders Programme, which was carried out in 2023-2024 on the first two cohorts. Based on the recommendations of the review, further improvements were communicated to forces and implemented in subsequent cohorts of the programme by the College of Policing.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to establish a national registration scheme for tradespeople’s power tools; and whether she has had discussions with manufacturers, retailers, insurers and the police on this matter.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We recognise the negative impact theft has on victims who rely on the tools of their trade to earn a living.
We are partnering with tradespeople’s representatives, policing and other partners, including retailers and manufacturers, to co-design actions Government and industry can take to encourage the prevention of tool theft.
We are also providing £2m funding for the National Business Crime Centre over the next three financial years to help tackle the crimes most affecting businesses today.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many candidates from Police Service Northern Ireland successfully completed the College of Policing’s Executive Leadership Programme since 2023.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring there is strong and consistent leadership across policing and a pipeline of diverse and talented candidates for chief officer appointments. The College of Policing’s Executive Leaders Programme aims to open up access to a wide pool of officers, who have the skills, experience and potential to become chief officers, ready for substantive appointment to a chief officer role.
Neither the Home Office nor the College of Policing issues guidance to police forces on the specific number of candidates they should recommend to the Executive Leaders Programme. Recruitment is managed locally by individual police forces, following national guidelines and the application, assessment, and selection framework set by the College of Policing.
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of candidates attending and completing the Executive Leaders Programme.
The College of Policing has undertaken a review of the effectiveness of the Executive Leaders Programme, which was carried out in 2023-2024 on the first two cohorts. Based on the recommendations of the review, further improvements were communicated to forces and implemented in subsequent cohorts of the programme by the College of Policing.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many candidates from Police Service Northern Ireland have attended the College of Policing’s Executive Leadership Programme since 2023.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring there is strong and consistent leadership across policing and a pipeline of diverse and talented candidates for chief officer appointments. The College of Policing’s Executive Leaders Programme aims to open up access to a wide pool of officers, who have the skills, experience and potential to become chief officers, ready for substantive appointment to a chief officer role.
Neither the Home Office nor the College of Policing issues guidance to police forces on the specific number of candidates they should recommend to the Executive Leaders Programme. Recruitment is managed locally by individual police forces, following national guidelines and the application, assessment, and selection framework set by the College of Policing.
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of candidates attending and completing the Executive Leaders Programme.
The College of Policing has undertaken a review of the effectiveness of the Executive Leaders Programme, which was carried out in 2023-2024 on the first two cohorts. Based on the recommendations of the review, further improvements were communicated to forces and implemented in subsequent cohorts of the programme by the College of Policing.