Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of collecting data on the number of callouts police attend to (a) attempted suicides and (b) suicides in progress.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect data from police on calls about suicidal ideation or where an apparent suicide is in progress and has no current plans to do so.
The College of Policing sets the professional standards for police in England and Wales. The College’s core guidance includes the initial training for officers under the Policing Education Qualifications Framework which incorporates autism, learning disabilities, mental health and vulnerabilities. Through this, officers are taught to assess vulnerability and amend their approaches as required.
The College further promotes the need for frameworks to assess vulnerability, to aid in consistent identification, support decision making, and to trigger appropriate safeguarding action. Such principles and practices are set out in a number of college products, including the Detention and Custody Authorised Professional Practice (APP) and the Mental Health APP which has guidance on suicide prevention and bereavement response.
Policing is operationally independent, and it is a matter for the chief constables of each force to decide which additional training their officers should undertake.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Brigg and Immingham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the suicide prevention training provided to police staff.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect data from police on calls about suicidal ideation or where an apparent suicide is in progress and has no current plans to do so.
The College of Policing sets the professional standards for police in England and Wales. The College’s core guidance includes the initial training for officers under the Policing Education Qualifications Framework which incorporates autism, learning disabilities, mental health and vulnerabilities. Through this, officers are taught to assess vulnerability and amend their approaches as required.
The College further promotes the need for frameworks to assess vulnerability, to aid in consistent identification, support decision making, and to trigger appropriate safeguarding action. Such principles and practices are set out in a number of college products, including the Detention and Custody Authorised Professional Practice (APP) and the Mental Health APP which has guidance on suicide prevention and bereavement response.
Policing is operationally independent, and it is a matter for the chief constables of each force to decide which additional training their officers should undertake.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will allocate additional funding to support police forces in rural areas.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to giving police the resources they need to tackle crime and the allocation of funding to police forces in England and Wales remains an important consideration. The Chancellor has announced a real terms increase in police spending power over the next three years and more details on police force funding allocations for 2026-27 will be made via the provisional police funding settlement later in the year.
Through our Safer Streets Mission, rural communities will be safeguarded, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping. We have worked closely with the National Police Chief’s Council to deliver their updated Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy for 2025-2029. The strategy will set out operational and organisational policing priorities in respect of tackling crimes that predominantly affect rural communities.
Asked by: Lord Cameron of Lochiel (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many applications for British citizenship from UK-based foreign nationals (1) have been processed, and (2) are yet to be processed, as of 30 September.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on the processing of applications for British citizenship on the Gov.uk website.
Information on the location of customers who have applied for citizenship is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Data on the number of citizenship applications decided each quarter can be found here: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK
The number of outstanding citizenship applications each quarter can be found here: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the police are able to enforce bail conditions for people released on post-charge bail.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government ensures that policing has the powers, resources and guidance it needs to enforce bail conditions and keep people safe.
There is wide discretion in law for police to impose bail conditions on suspects to protect victims and witnesses, prevent offending and to prevent the suspect from failing to appear in court. Bail conditions must be necessary, reasonable, proportionate and enforceable, and should be subject to regular review as the perceived risk posed by the suspect may change over time.
Police have a range of powers under section 7 of the Bail Act 1976 to arrest a suspect in relation to suspected or anticipated breaches of bail conditions. This includes where there are reasonable grounds for believing the suspect is likely to break conditions, or where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting (a lower threshold) that conditions have been broken. Following arrest on these grounds, a suspect must be brought before a court within 24 hours, where a magistrate may remand them in custody or grant court bail.
The College of Policing produces its Authorised Professional Practice (APP) to provide authoritative guidance the police. APP advises that bail conditions should be accompanied by a police action plan to ensure effective enforcement. This is intended to ensure that victims can have improved confidence that the police will take action in the event of a breach, and that perpetrators understand that there are consequences to their actions. Action plans may include curfew checks at home addresses, proactive patrols to exclusion zones and scrutiny into whether conditions such as signing on bail at a police station are being maintained.
Policing is operationally independent of Government. Chief Constables and elected Police and Crime Commissioners are responsible for the operational management of their police officers and the enforcement of bail conditions.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
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 allowing police forces to release details of a suspect's (a) ethnicity, (b) nationality and (c) immigration status on the fairness of subsequent trials.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not direct operational policing decisions, including those related to the disclosure of information about a person suspected or charged with committing an offence. These matters rightly fall under the purview of Chief Constables.
The murders and subsequent riots in Southport in July 2024 raised questions about how the Government may best counter misinformation and disinformation without creating a risk of being in contempt of court in relation to ongoing criminal proceedings. There are restrictions on what can be said before and during a trial to ensure that trials are fair and justice is delivered. At the same time, however, social media is putting these long-established rules under strain, especially in cases such as Southport where partial or inaccurate information appears online.
The NPCC and the College of Policing issued interim guidance to police forces in August, which aims to support forces in managing sensitive investigations and mitigating risks associated with them.
The interim guidance encourages police forces to confirm a suspect’s ethnicity and nationality (where known or recorded) in certain high-profile or sensitive investigations where they determine it is necessary to maintain public safety and reassure the public.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support her Department provides to local police forces to identify and tackle anti-social driving behaviour in known wildlife and animal collision hot spots.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for the Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission. We are giving police the powers they need to tackle anti-social driving in both rural and urban areas so that they will be able to more easily seize these vehicles from offenders and dispose of them.
The Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, will enhance police powers to seize nuisance vehicles which are used in an anti-social manner by removing the requirement to first give a warning to the offender and allow police to put an immediate stop to offending.
The Government has also recently consulted on proposals to allow the police to more quickly dispose of seized vehicles which have been used anti-socially. The consultation closed on 8 July and the Government response will be published in due course.
Combined, these proposals will help tackle the scourge of vehicles ridden anti-socially and illegally by sending a clear message to would-be offenders and local communities that this behaviour will not be tolerated.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with the Metropolitan Police Service on the level of its compliance with its statutory obligations (a) under the Data Protection Act 2018 and (b) with GDPR in relation to Subject Access Requests from members of the public.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Compliance with data protection obligations, including the handling of Subject Access Requests (SARs), is the responsibility of individual police forces. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) produces guidance for organisations on how to comply with data protection law.
The Data (Use and Access) Act received Royal Assent in June 2025 and includes some changes to data protection obligations while maintaining high standards of protection for personal data.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to direct police forces to instruct them to scrap the recording of all non-crime hate incidents.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government has been clear that the police should focus on tackling real crime and policing the streets, and that a consistent and common-sense approach must be taken with non-crime hate incidents (NCHIs).
That is why the Home Secretary has asked the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing to expedite its review of NCHIs which began earlier this year. The review, which is ongoing, is considering the recording of information that has not yet reached the criminal threshold, but which may still be useful for the purposes of monitoring community tensions and keeping the public safe. It is also considering the fundamental right of freedom of expression and recent court rulings in this area.
The Home Office is working closely with the NPCC and the College as they further develop their findings. We look forward to receiving the final recommendations of this review, and to working with forces to ensure they have the clarity they need to focus on keeping our communities safe whilst protecting free speech.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many officers are currently assigned to the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service; what that Service’s annual budget is for the 2025-26 financial year; and what discussions she has had with that Service on the adequacy of its capacity to tackle organised HGV and freight thefts.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We fully recognise the serious and growing threat that freight crime poses to businesses, drivers, and the wider economy. This Government is determined to crack down on it.
The Government does not fund the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS). NaVCIS is funded by industry, including finance and leasing companies, insurers and hauliers, to provide dedicated specialist intelligence and enforcement.
My officials have regular discussions with key partners, including Opal, the police’s national intelligence unit focused on serious organised acquisitive crime, and NaVCIS about tackling organised freight crime.