Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the proposals in the Earned Settlement consultation on staffing levels in the adult social care sector; and whether social care roles will be included within the public service consideration which reduces the baseline qualifying period for earned settlement.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The earned settlement model, proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, announced changes to the mandatory requirements and qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain. It is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

As part of this consultation, we are seeking views on the potential impact of the proposed changes on different groups, including those working in sectors such as social care. Details of the earned settlement model will be finalised following that consultation.

The final proposals will also be subject to full economic and equality impact assessments, which we have committed to publish in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the risks to the safety of Hong Kong BN(O) visa holders travelling through Hong Kong or mainland China of the transition from physical Biometric Residence Permits to the digital eVisa system.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

An eVisa is a digital record of a person's identity and their immigration permission in the UK, and any conditions which apply. As with biometric residence permits (BRPs), it is issued to enable a person to prove their status when travelling to the UK, including via third countries, and when living in the UK.

The transition from physical BRPs to eVisas does not create a risk for those travelling through mainland China or Hong Kong. Hong Kong BN(O) visa holders do not need to present their eVisa for this travel, since they do not require a UK immigration status for this purpose.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether it is her policy that only one person per household can respond to her open consultation on earned settlement.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The earned settlement model, proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, announced changes to the mandatory requirements and qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain. It is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

The consultation is open to anyone including multiple members of the same household. Each response must be submitted separately. People can request alternative formats of the consultation or report technical issues by contacting EarnedSettlementConsultationQueries@homeoffice.gov.uk.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether interest generated on savings will count towards the proposed £12,570 personal income threshold for acquiring permanent residence.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The earned settlement model, proposed in ’A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

Details of mandatory requirements, including those relating to the personal income threshold, will be finalised following that consultation.

The final model will also be subject to economic and equality impact assessment, which we have committed to publish in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2025 to Question 94005 on Immigration: Hong Kong, what plans her Department has to conduct face-to-face meetings with those people potentially affected and relevant campaign groups during the development of the impact assessment for the proposed earned settlement model.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Immigration White Paper set out the principle that settlement should be earned through contribution to the UK economy and society. The publication, ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, built on this principle and laid out proposals for the earned settlement model. It stated that we will raise the standard qualifying period for settlement from five years to ten years and everyone who wishes to settle in this country will need to meet mandatory requirements, including a clean criminal record and strong English language skills.

The consultation on the earned settlement model was launched on 20 November 2025 and will close on 12 February 2026.

The Government remains steadfast in its support for members of the Hong Kong community in the UK. BN(O) visa holders will attract a five-year reduction in the qualifying period for settlement, meaning they will continue to be able to settle in the UK after five years’ residence, subject to meeting the mandatory requirements.

The consultation seeks views from Hong Kongers on the proposals, including whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement.

Details of the earned settlement scheme will be finalised following the close of that consultation. In the meantime, the current rules for settlement under the BN(O) route will continue to apply.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department consulted with British National (Overseas) visa holders on the drafting of the White Paper entitled Restoring control over the immigration system, published on 12 May 2025.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Immigration White Paper set out the principle that settlement should be earned through contribution to the UK economy and society. The publication, ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, built on this principle and laid out proposals for the earned settlement model. It stated that we will raise the standard qualifying period for settlement from five years to ten years and everyone who wishes to settle in this country will need to meet mandatory requirements, including a clean criminal record and strong English language skills.

The consultation on the earned settlement model was launched on 20 November 2025 and will close on 12 February 2026.

The Government remains steadfast in its support for members of the Hong Kong community in the UK. BN(O) visa holders will attract a five-year reduction in the qualifying period for settlement, meaning they will continue to be able to settle in the UK after five years’ residence, subject to meeting the mandatory requirements.

The consultation seeks views from Hong Kongers on the proposals, including whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement.

Details of the earned settlement scheme will be finalised following the close of that consultation. In the meantime, the current rules for settlement under the BN(O) route will continue to apply.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many students have claimed asylum (a) while studying in the UK and (b) after completing their studies in each of the last three years.

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 the number of people claiming asylum after holding a study visa as their most recent category of leave prior to claiming asylum is published in table Asy_D01a of the ‘Asylum claims and decisions detailed datasets’. The latest data relates to the year ending September 2025. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook.

There is no published breakdown available on whether an individual claimed asylum before or after their visa expired.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether pensions income that is not eligible for taxation in the UK due to the UK and Hong Kong Tax Treaty will count towards the proposed £12,570 personal income threshold for British National (Overseas) visa holders wanting to acquire permanent residence.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The earned settlement model, proposed in ’A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

The Government remains steadfast in its support for members of the Hong Kong community in the UK. BN(O) visa holders will attract a five-year reduction in the qualifying period for settlement, meaning they will continue to be able to settle in the UK after five years’ residence, subject to meeting the mandatory requirements.

The consultation seeks views from Hong Kongers on the proposals, including whether there should be exemptions from the mandatory economic contribution.

Details of mandatory requirements, including those relating to personal income threshold, will be finalised following the close of that consultation. In the meantime, the current rules for settlement under the BN(O) route will continue to apply.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress she has made on responding to the Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendations on the minimum income requirement for the UK’s spouse and partner visa routes.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The MAC’s recommendations are being considered in detail alongside the work being carried out as a result of the Immigration White Paper (Restoring control over the immigration system: white paper - GOV.UK) which made clear that family migration would be reformed to tackle the over complex family immigration arrangements, including the financial requirements.

However, there is no set date for when we will publish a response to the MAC report.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Appendix ECAA visa holders will be affected by retrospective changes to settlement requirements.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The earned settlement model, proposed in ’A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

The consultation seeks views on whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement, such as those currently on ECAA visas. In the meantime, the current rules for settlement under the ECAA route will continue to apply.

Details of the earned settlement model will be finalised following the consultation.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many complaints she has received on the new electronic visa system.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office has received 1888 complaints about the electronic visa system from 1 July 2024 when it first categorised this issue to 31 January 2026.

This comprises 1785 Stage 1 and 103 Stage 2 complaints.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether pensions income that is not eligible for taxation in the UK due to the UK and Hong Kong Tax Treaty will count towards the proposed £12,570 personal income threshold for British National (Overseas) visa holders wanting to acquire permanent residence.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The earned settlement model, proposed in ’A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

The Government remains steadfast in its support for members of the Hong Kong community in the UK. BN(O) visa holders will attract a five-year reduction in the qualifying period for settlement, meaning they will continue to be able to settle in the UK after five years’ residence, subject to meeting the mandatory requirements.

The consultation seeks views from Hong Kongers on the proposals, including whether there should be exemptions from the mandatory economic contribution.

Details of mandatory requirements, including those relating to personal income threshold, will be finalised following the close of that consultation. In the meantime, the current rules for settlement under the BN(O) route will continue to apply.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of the proposed changes to indefinite leave to remain status on (a) holders of ECAA Turkish Businessperson visas and (b) their businesses in the UK.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The earned settlement model, proposed in ’A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

Time spent in routes that currently count towards settlement after 5 years will continue to count towards the new standard qualifying period.

The consultation seeks views on whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement. Protections will be put in place where appropriate.

Details of the earned settlement model will be finalised following the consultation and will be subject to economic and equality impact assessments, which we have committed to publish in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visitors from (a) India, (b) Pakistan, (c) Bangladesh and (d) Nepal were refused visas in 2024.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas by visa route, including Visitor visas, and nationality in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on visa applications refused are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the detailed entry clearance visas dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data is from January 2005 up to the end of September 2025.

Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government when the cross-departmental ministerial group will next meet to discuss the violence against women and girls strategy action plan; and how that group plans to report its work to Parliament.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Ministerial Board met on Tuesday 27^th January and will continue to meet regularly.

Home Office Ministers look forward to engaging with Parliament on the working of the government in implementing our Strategy ‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse’, our supporting Action Plan, and our ambition to halve VAWG within a decade. This will include annual progress reports which will be published.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk of released Daesh members with British citizenship or residency returning to the UK.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

It is the long-standing policy of successive UK Governments not to comment either on individual cases or operational intelligence.We are monitoring the situation in North-East Syria closely and working with partners, including the Global Coalition against Daesh, to mitigate shared national security risks.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many watercrafts linked to people smugglers have been seized by officials in each year since 2023.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Border Security Command (BSC) works with partners across Government and further afield to disrupt the smuggling gang networks who facilitate small boat crossings, and to help bring those responsible to justice.

Since 2023, the BSC and National Crime Agency (NCA) have contributed to the seizure of over 950 small boats and engines related to Channel crossings.

The BSC and NCA work with a range of international partners to seize equipment, including Europol, Bulgaria, Belgium, France, and Germany. We do not routinely confirm the location of seizures publicly.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will provide a timeline for their engagement with technology companies on preventing nude image sharing among children, as referenced in Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls, published on 18 December 2025.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

We committed in the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy ‘to make it impossible for children in the UK to take, share or view a nude image’, and that ‘we are working constructively with companies to make this a reality’. This engagement will be targeted and carried out with the urgency that the issue deserves.

We want device operating systems to be doing more to protect their child users. Applying nudity detection technology more comprehensively across the operating system can prevent nude imagery from being taken, shared or viewed on the phone at all. This intervention is about preventing the harm from happening by blocking the imagery entirely. Preventing the creation and sharing of self-generated indecent imagery (SGII) would undermine grooming and sextortion models, where imagery is extorted out of the child by offenders.

This intervention will also prevent children from being exposed to harmful content, building on similar protections already enacted through the Online Safety Act. Exposure to harmful content – especially pornography – at such an impressionable age can feed misogynistic views and give distorted views of healthy relationships.

We will provide an update on this work as soon as possible. If voluntary action from industry is not sufficient, we will not hesitate to consider other means.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to Freedom from violence and abuse volume 2: action plan, published on 18 December 2025, what actions they have taken, or plan to take, to deliver the commitment to working with employers on domestic abuse.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls’, published on 18 December 2025, sets out our commitment to improving the employer response to violence against women and girls (VAWG). Work is underway to encourage employers to maximise employment opportunities and provide support for those experiencing domestic abuse in the workplace. This includes:

• Updating existing guidance for employers on workplace support for domestic abuse victims and survivors and expanding it to cover all VAWG victims and survivors.
• Encouraging employers to ensure that their staff receive sufficient training on VAWG and to implement robust policies and processes on responding to victims and survivors, and perpetrators of VAWG, in the workplace.
• Encouraging employers to become members of expert networks such as the Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse and the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant.
• Conducting an annual survey of employers’ policies and training on VAWG.

We are working across government to deliver commitments on employers’ response to domestic abuse, including through a cross-government Ministerial Group that has shaped the development of the Strategy and will oversee its implementation.

This is further supported by a Strategy Advisory Board of external expert stakeholders who will help to hold the Government to account on delivery.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what support is in place to help recover the credit score of victims of domestic abuse when their credit score has been impacted by an abusive partner.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

This Government recognises the devastating impact economic abuse can have on victims, even long after a relationship ends. ‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls’, published on 18 December 2025, outlined a package of commitments to tackle economic abuse.

This included a commitment from His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) to work with Credit Reference Agencies, lenders and the third sector to improve the way coerced debt is reflected on victim-survivors’ credit files with the aim of making it easier for them to access financial products in the future. This commitment was also included in HMT’s recent Financial Inclusion Strategy which considered economic abuse as a key theme, in recognition of the particular challenges victim-survivors can face in accessing financial products and services.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Welsh Government regarding changes to how police forces are governed in Wales.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

We are working closely with the Welsh Government, Welsh local government, police forces and other partners to ensure new governance arrangements provide strong and effective local governance for Wales, recognising the distinct nature of local and regional arrangements. The Policing Minister regularly speaks to the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Jane Hutt, and attended the Policing Partnership Board for Wales on 18 December.

We have established a specific transition working group to consider future governance arrangements in Wales as part of our Police Governance Reform project, and we will continue to work collaboratively with Welsh stakeholders on the design and implementation of these arrangements.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her department holds on the (a) quality and (b) availability of the Airwave network in (i) Shropshire and (ii) North Shropshire.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of Airwave network coverage for emergency service delivery in rural areas.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of Operation Gull in Northern Ireland in the last 15 years.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

To maintain the highest standards of accuracy, the Home Office prefers to refer to published data, as this has been subject to rigorous quality assurance under National Statistics protocols prior to publication. Information about the effectiveness of Operation Gull is not available in our published data

Our published national data on enforcement activity is available at the following link and includes data on detected irregular arrivals to the UK: Immigration system statistics, year ending September 2025 - GOV.UK

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on whether the Security Service was aware of (a) the illegal activities of Jeffrey Epstein, (b) his relationship with Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and (c) advice given by the Security Service to the Royal Household about these matters.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

It has been the long-standing policy of successive governments not to comment on intelligence matters.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on updating the Computer Misuse Act 1990 to remove limits on the ability of cybersecurity professionals to deploy and use artificial intelligence tools to strengthen the UK’s resilience against cyber threats.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The Government is conducting an ongoing review of the Computer Misuse Act (CMA). The Home Office will update on proposals taken forward in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to provide resources to help ensure (a) reports of fraud are investigated and (b) victims of fraud receive support.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

In December 2025 Report Fraud replaced Action Fraud, introducing improved reporting tools, stronger analytical capability, and enhanced victim support to ensure reports are acted on and victims receive clearer guidance and follow‑up. Performance oversight has also been strengthened through better management information and a new performance dashboard, enabling the City of London Police and the Home Office to monitor outcomes and identify emerging fraud threats.

To support the investigation of fraud, around 400 specialist investigators have been recruited to the new National Fraud Squad, which takes a proactive, intelligence‑led approach to identifying and disrupting serious fraudsters. Report Fraud also provides improved intelligence to police forces to assist with case investigations.

Report Fraud Victim Services (RFVS) provides a focused and targeted service to victims of fraud and cyber‑crime, delivering a consistent, high‑quality national standard of care across England and Wales. RFVS now supports all 43 police forces at Level 1 (non‑vulnerable victim care) and at the enhanced Level 2 service for vulnerable victims. Since 2018, RFVS has supported over 1,018,000 victims of fraud (as of October 2025), prevented nearly £14 million from being lost to fraud, and helped victims recover over £6.1 million since January 2021.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Prime Minister’s press release entitled Prime Minister unlocks new opportunities for British businesses in China, published on 29 January 2026, how she plans to monitor and evaluate cooperation with China on transnational organised crime and illegal immigration.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The Home Office will monitor and evaluate the impact of any cooperation with China by assessing operational outcomes against the UK’s Transnational Crime and Illegal Migration threat picture, drawing on performance indicators and intelligence from UK operational partners to determine the reduction in associated harms.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will publish full details of their engagement with the Highland Council regarding the proposed use of Cameron Barracks as asylum accommodation.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office has engaged with Highland Council, as well as other local stakeholders including the Police, NHS, Scottish Fire & Rescue Service and others since plans were announced in October 2025.

The department will continue to engage regularly with all statutory partners as plans are progressed. Key information about the plans discussed with local partners can be found on the factsheet Cameron Barracks, Inverness: factsheet - GOV.UK, which will be updated as further information becomes available.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken with relevant authorities to help tackle crime in town centres across greater London.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces, so they focus on tackling local issues, like fighting town centre crime.

Our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee is already making a difference. For too long, people have not seen police patrolling their streets. We will have 3,000 more neighbourhood officers by March this year. The Metropolitan Police Service’s projected growth over 2025 to 2026 will be 420 police officers (FTE) and 50 Police Community Support Officers (FTE). We are giving them the powers they need, including making it a specific offence to assault retail workers and ending the treatment of theft under the value of £200 as a summary-only offence.

We are equipping the police to fight the organised crime gangs that are often responsible for driving shop theft across the country. Our £5m investment into OPAL (a specialist policing unit) will supercharge intelligence-led policing to identify offenders, disrupt the tactics used to target shops, and bring more criminals to justice.

We have also delivered on our manifesto pledge: every police force in England and Wales now has a dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour, who will work with communities to develop an action plan to tackle ASB. We are also strengthening the powers to tackle ASB. Our new Respect Orders will give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to tackle the most relentless ASB offenders.

Through our Summer Initiative police forces and local authorities increased patrols in town centres, tackling retail crime and anti-social behaviour as part of the Government’s Plan for Change to make our streets safer. Our Winter of Action, which ran from 1 December 2025 to 31 January 2026, built on this, with an additional focus on repeat offenders and protecting women and girls at night. The full list of locations the Metropolitan Police Service focused on as part of the Winter of Action can be found here: Winter of Action: location list - GOV.UK

Building from the Winter of Action, we are working with forces and local partners to identify and tackle the most prolific retail offenders - where a few individuals can drive a large proportion of the local crime problem.

Together with the police, we are sending a message: crime and anti-social behaviour will be punished.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many new telecommunications masts have been built for the Emergency Services Network in (a) total (b) Shropshire and (c) North Shropshire constituency.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set out (a) when and (b) in which locations the Emergency Services Network has been used in an operational setting.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her department holds on the number of incidents where emergency service response times have been impacted by communication network coverage.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost to the public purse of (a) the Airwave network and (b) the Emergency Services Network was in each of the last five financial years.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) residential property, and (2) business property, immigration raids they have conducted in each year since 2023.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not publish data on immigration enforcement visits broken down by residential and commercial properties.

Although operational systems include an indicator of the type of address visited this level of detail is not currently included in our published statistics.

Information on enforcement visits and illegal working enforcement visits can be found at Illegal working and enforcement activity to the end of September 2025 - GOV.UK, giving the total number of number of enforcement visits.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure adequate security provision for the Palestinian Embassy in London.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The Government takes the protective security of diplomatic missions extremely seriously.

The UK’s protective security system is rigorous and proportionate, but it would not be appropriate to comment in detail on those arrangements.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of implementing a total ban on the (1) import, and (2) domestic sale, of dangerous weapons, including zombie-style knives.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

There are 22 different weapons prohibited as offensive weapons, and they include items such as knuckledusters, curved swords and truncheons. This legislation is kept under constant review and on 24 September 2024 we added zombie-style knives and zombie-style machetes to the list, and more recently, from 1 August 2025 we banned ninja swords. It is illegal to sell, manufacture, import or possess these weapons. It is currently possible to own specifically prohibited weapons if a legal defence applies, such as the weapon is owned for sporting purposes, is made by hand according to certain specifications, is of historical importance, or if it’s owned for the purpose of making it available to a museum.

On 16 December 2026 the Government launched a public consultation on plans to introduce a comprehensive licensing scheme for those who sell knives or other bladed articles, including importers, retailers and private sellers, making them subject to strict regulations and conditions. The consultation closes on 24 February and is available on GOV.UK: Licensing for knife sales - GOV.UK. This follows recommendations made in Commander Clayman’s Independent End-to-End Review of Online Knife Sales to introduce a registration scheme for knife sellers and an ‘import licensing scheme to prohibit unlicensed importation of knives and prohibited weapons’.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2026, to Question 105789, on Ministers and Public Consultation: Evidence, whether the Muslim Council of Britain is on the list of organisations subject to the policy of non-engagement.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The Home Office does not comment on specific groups.

It is up to each department to carry out due diligence when choosing to engage with any organisation or individual and, if asked, we will advise and share information to help others inform their decisions.

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 Conflict Management Dogs as a less-lethal option for Counter Terrorism Specialist Firearms Officers; and what plans she has to ensure that capability is maintained.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

Armed policing capabilities are built upon ongoing assessments of operational threat and risk and are used in threat to life situations. The use of firearms by the police should always be the last resort, considered only where there is a serious risk to public or responder safety. Counter Terrorism Specialist Firearms Officers (CTSFOs) receive the highest level of police firearms training and can provide a second-wave response to more complex or long running attacks.

The Home Office works closely with the police to ensure they have the necessary capabilities and their capacities to respond to a range of incidents across the policing and counter-terrorism landscape, while respecting their operational independence from Government.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of reports that Russia is using Interpol systems to target political opponents abroad on UK national security.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The Government views any allegation of misuse of INTERPOL’s systems very seriously and works closely with INTERPOL to ensure the legitimacy of the Red Notice system.

Any State that is found to be wilfully abusing and misusing the INTERPOL system should be held to account to the fullest extent. This is even more important for any states that are already under corrective measures.

The Home Office works with INTERPOL and the National Crime Agency (NCA), which acts as the UK’s National Central Bureau (NCB) for INTERPOL, to monitor the effectiveness of existing safeguards.

We encourage INTERPOL to uphold international human rights obligations and we won’t hesitate to recommend further reforms to INTERPOL as necessary.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that people based in the UK, including people granted asylum, are protected from politically-motivated red notices.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The Government views any allegation of misuse of INTERPOL’s systems very seriously and works closely with INTERPOL to ensure the legitimacy of the Red Notice system.

Any State that is found to be wilfully abusing and misusing the INTERPOL system should be held to account to the fullest extent. This is even more important for any states that are already under corrective measures.

The Home Office works with INTERPOL and the National Crime Agency (NCA), which acts as the UK’s National Central Bureau (NCB) for INTERPOL, to monitor the effectiveness of existing safeguards.

We encourage INTERPOL to uphold international human rights obligations and we won’t hesitate to recommend further reforms to INTERPOL as necessary.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department names organisations that are (a) regarded as extremists and (b) subject to a policy of non-engagement; and how is the Muslim Council of Britain classified.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

Although The Home Office does not comment on specific groups or individual cases, I would like to reassure the Hon. Gentleman that we are committed to addressing the full range of threats that we currently face as a country and tackling anyone who spreads views that promote violence and hatred against individuals and communities.

We carry out due diligence when choosing to engage with any organisation or individual and, if asked, we will advise and share information to help others inform their decisions.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many countries have visa-free travel to the UK; and whether visa-free travel to those countries is reciprocated for British passports holders.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The UK visa system, including the Visa National List, is kept under regular review to ensure to works in the UK national interest. Decisions on which countries are ’non-visa national’ and are not required to apply for a visit visa and can instead apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), are taken on the basis of a range of factors. These vary globally, but often include security, compliance, returns arrangements and prosperity.

The countries and territories whose nationals are eligible to apply for an ETA prior to travelling to the UK are listed at Appendix ETA National List in the Immigration Rules. Currently, there are 85 locations where nationals can travel to the UK with an ETA rather than a visitor visa. Irish nationals do not require a visitor visa or an ETA to enter the UK. Visitors can usually stay in the UK for up to six months.

Any decision on whether a foreign country requires British passport holders to apply for a visa prior to travel is a sovereign matter for the country concerned. The UK no longer enters into reciprocal agreements with international partners concerning the requirement to obtain a visitor visa or ETA before travel.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to increase the number of countries that offer visa-free travel for British passport holders.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The UK visa system, including the Visa National List, is kept under regular review to ensure to works in the UK national interest. Decisions on which countries are ’non-visa national’ and are not required to apply for a visit visa and can instead apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), are taken on the basis of a range of factors. These vary globally, but often include security, compliance, returns arrangements and prosperity.

The countries and territories whose nationals are eligible to apply for an ETA prior to travelling to the UK are listed at Appendix ETA National List in the Immigration Rules. Currently, there are 85 locations where nationals can travel to the UK with an ETA rather than a visitor visa. Irish nationals do not require a visitor visa or an ETA to enter the UK. Visitors can usually stay in the UK for up to six months.

Any decision on whether a foreign country requires British passport holders to apply for a visa prior to travel is a sovereign matter for the country concerned. The UK no longer enters into reciprocal agreements with international partners concerning the requirement to obtain a visitor visa or ETA before travel.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help increase levels of recruitment of neighbourhood police officers.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government is committed to rebuilding neighbourhood policing and restoring the vital link between police forces and the communities they serve.

By the end of this Parliament there will be 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales. This year we have provided £200m to support forces to deliver 3,000 additional neighbourhood officers by March 2026. We are on track, with forces having already delivered almost 2,400 additional neighbourhood officers in just 6 months.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made on tackling knife crime.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

We have set an ambitious but essential target: to halve knife crime over this decade. We are already seeing results. Knife crime is falling.

Since the start of this Parliament, knife crime has fallen by 8% and knife homicides are down by 27%.

We have banned ninja swords and zombie style machetes, we have taken nearly 60,000 knives off our streets and we have established new Young Futures Panels.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with local authorities on the provision of services to prevent knife crime among young people.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

This Government have set an ambitious but essential target to halve knife crime over this decade and we are making progress: since the start of this Parliament, knife crime has fallen by 8% and knife homicides are down by 27%.

To achieve this ambition we are engaging with partners across the system both to address knife crime and address the root causes of knife crime. This includes local authorities who play a vital role.

This role is formalised within the Serious Violence Duty which places a statutory requirement on a range of public sector bodies, including local authorities, to work collaboratively, analyse the local problem, and put in place a strategy to prevent and reduce serious violence. Community Safety Partnerships, led by the local authority and whose partners match those subject to the Serious Violence Duty must also comply with these requirements.

The Home Office had discussions and worked with relevant local authorities to deliver the extended knife surrender arrangements which the Government ran in July 2025 and covered various locations in London, West Midlands and Greater Manchester. The extended surrender arrangements involved the use of a mobile surrender van and 37 bespoke weapons surrender bins and a total of a 3,570 knives and weapons were surrendered through these arrangements.

The Home Office maintain regular discussions with local authorities through Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) and Young Futures Panels partnership arrangements to support the effective delivery of services to prevent knife crime among young people.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 27 January (HL13553), who is responsible for conducting the research into grooming gang perpetrators' backgrounds and motivations; when that research is expected to be complete; and when that research will be published.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Secretary has commissioned UK Research and Innovation to deliver this new programme of research, which will address evidence gaps in our understanding of the backgrounds, motivations, and drivers of group-based child sexual exploitation offending. We expect the programme of research to be a multi-year project, with individual research projects reporting through its duration. Further details will be announced in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of awarding the contract for vessels for Border Force to UK shipyards on the number of jobs and apprenticeships.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

A dynamic UK shipbuilding sector has potential to play a key role in creating and sustaining jobs and in ensuring shared prosperity around the country. The Maritime Capabilities Replacement Programme procurement will require all bidders to deliver social value, with fair work and resilient supply chains identified as key priorities.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her department is taking to ensure that every child in care has their immigration status resolved before turning 18.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The previous Home Secretary set out in the Immigration White Paper published on 12 May 2025 that the Home Office will ensure children who have been in the UK for some time, turn 18 and discover they do not have status, are fully supported and able to regularise their status and settle where appropriate. This will also include a clear pathway for those children in care and care leavers.

This commitment will be delivered primarily through an update to the ‘children in care policy.

As part of this, separate targeted engagement will take place with external stakeholders to help us to understand the challenges in this area and develop a policy solution which supports children in care without status while upholding the need to have a robust and coherent migration system. Children who have claimed asylum are dealt with under separate provisions.

A range of reforms are underway across the immigration and asylum system, and the development of a clear pathway to settlement for children in care and care leavers must be considered alongside these changes.

When handling child applications, all caseworkers must comply with their duty under Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009, to have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Further detail on this will be set out in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to provide exemptions from Electronic Travel Authorisation for children living abroad who hold dual citizenship having inherited their British Citizenship from a Parent but who do not possess a British Passport.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

British citizens with dual nationality (including those who acquired British citizenship from birth), are already exempt from the requirement to obtain an electronic travel authorisation when travelling to the UK.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of issuing emergency visas to students in Gaza who have confirmed UK university places; and whether her Department has had recent discussions with UK universities on facilitating safe passage for affected students.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government provided exceptional support to enable the departure of Chevening Scholars and fully funded scholarship students from Gaza, for students whose courses began before 31 December 2025. This support was for students who met the relevant requirements of the Immigration Rules.

The Government is reviewing the impact of the policy implemented to-date, and any decision on further support will depend on the evolving international situation. We will continue to keep the policy under review.

This has been a cross-Government initiative and the Home Office, Department for Education and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office have engaged with Higher Education Institutions throughout this process.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average cost per unaccompanied asylum-seeking child to local authorities was in the 2024-25 financial year.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

Support for looked after children, including unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, is the statutory responsibility of local authorities. The primary source of funding for local authority children's social care is through the Local Government Funding Settlement (and Devolved equivalents).

In addition to the funding for children's social care that local authorities receive through the Local Government Finance Settlement, and equivalent finance arrangements which apply to the Devolved Governments, the Home Office provides additional funding contributions to support local authorities in meeting the costs incurred looking after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to close asylum hotels, particularly the Four Points Hotel in Horley.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

This Government inherited a broken asylum system, with tens of thousands stuck in a backlog and claims not being processed, wasting millions in taxpayer money. We will empty asylum hotels as soon as possible, and by the end of this Parliament. That is a complex process that must be delivered through a controlled, managed and orderly plan of work.

For the safety, security, and wellbeing of those we accommodate, we do not publicly comment on individual hotels which may or may not be utilised by the Home Office, nor do we provide details of those we accommodate at any site.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2025 to Question 101646 on Offences against Children, whether guidance will explicitly address the concerns outlined in the Casey Review that Child Sexual Exploitation cases were being dropped or downgraded from rape to lesser charges where a 13 to 15 year-old has been 'in love' or 'had consented to' sex with the perpetrator.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Guidance accompanying the new mandatory reporting duty will make clear that child sexual abuse must never be tolerated. The government will work closely with those impacted by the introduction of the duty to ensure it is clearly understood ahead of commencement.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2025 to Question 101646 on Offences against Children, whether guidance to volunteer groups will explicitly state that child sexual abuse must not be tolerated under any circumstances, even where apparent consent is claimed.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Guidance accompanying the new mandatory reporting duty will make clear that child sexual abuse must never be tolerated. The government will work closely with those impacted by the introduction of the duty to ensure it is clearly understood ahead of commencement.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 December 2025 to Question 101647 on Anti-social Behaviour: Children, whether she will provide a forum for volunteer groups to ask questions that may arise as a result of the new guidance.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Guidance accompanying the new mandatory reporting duty will make clear that child sexual abuse must never be tolerated. The government will work closely with those impacted by the introduction of the duty to ensure it is clearly understood ahead of commencement.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the proposed change to qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain will apply to current and former non-citizen armed forces personnel and their families.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Armed Forces Covenant is a national commitment that those who serve or have served in HM Armed Forces should not face disadvantage due to their service. The government recognises the sacrifices made by service personnel and their families — including the loss of civilian freedoms — in defence of the UK.

The government is committed to upholding the Covenant by ensuring fair treatment for all who serve or have served, including non-UK personnel. Any changes to the settlement pathway, including the qualifying period for settlement, will be carefully considered to ensure they remain fully consistent with the principles of the Covenant — meaning service personnel and their dependants must be treated fairly and must not face additional barriers as a result of their service.

The Earned Settlement consultation is open until 12 February and seeks views on the treatment of armed forces members under the earned settlement system. However, we are not proposing that HM Armed Forces, and their family members should have a different pathway to settlement than they do today.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the sustainability of current funding arrangements for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

Support for looked after children, including unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, is the statutory responsibility of local authorities. The primary source of funding for local authority children's social care is through the Local Government Funding Settlement (and Devolved equivalents).

In addition to the funding for children's social care that local authorities receive through the Local Government Finance Settlement, and equivalent finance arrangements which apply to the Devolved Governments, the Home Office provides additional funding contributions to support local authorities in meeting the costs incurred looking after unaccompanied asylum-seeking children.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the statement by the Secretary of State for the Home Office on 26 January (HC Deb col 610), what assessment they have made of any bias and inconsistency of application in the use of facial recognition assessments and algorithms for Black and Asian men and women.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The algorithm used for retrospective facial recognition searches on the Police National Database (PND) has been independently tested by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), which found that in a limited set of circumstances it was more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in its search results. At the settings used by police, the NPL also found that if a correct match was in the database, the algorithm found it in 99% of searches.

We take these findings very seriously. A new algorithm has been procured and independently tested, which can be used at settings with no statistically significant bias. It is due to be operationally tested in the coming months and will be subject to evaluation.

Manual safeguards embedded in police training, operational practice and guidance have always required trained users and investigating officers to visually assess all potential matches. Training and guidance have been re-issued and promoted to remind them of these long-standing manual safeguards. The National Police Chiefs’ Council has also updated and published data protection and equality impact assessments.

Given the importance of this issue, the Home Secretary has asked HMICFRS, supported by the Forensic Science Regulator, to inspect police and relevant law enforcement agencies’ use of retrospective facial recognition, with work expected to begin before the end of March.

It is important to note that no decisions are made by the algorithm or solely on the basis of a possible match– matches are intelligence, which must be corroborated with other information, as with any other police investigation.

For live facial recognition, NPL testing found, a 1 in 6,000 false alert rate on a watchlist containing 10,000 images. In practice, the police have reported that the false alert rate has been far better than this. The NPL also found no statistically significant performance differences by gender, age, or ethnicity at the settings used by the police.

On 4 December last year, we launched a public consultation on when and how biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies should be used, and what safeguards and oversight are needed. Following analysis of the responses, we will publish a formal government response in due course.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has considered the merits of allowing police to issue Community Protection Warnings and Notices to 10-16 year-olds.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

Breach of a CPN is a criminal offence. Lowering the age that someone can receive a CPN from 16 to 10 years old risks putting young people into the criminal justice system.

While early and informal prevention-based approaches should generally be the first step where ASB is being perpetrated by a child, for the most serious cases of child-perpetrated anti-social behaviour, we already have powers available. The Civil Injunction is available for children from 10-18 and enables youth courts to make behavioural conditions to prevent ASB. It is for the youth court to determine if, on the balance of probabilities, the legal test is met, and it is just and convenient in the circumstances to grant a Youth Injunction.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Welsh Government on the desired governance end state for policing in Wales following the policing white paper; when those discussions took place; and what the outcomes were.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

We are working closely with the Welsh Government, as well as other Welsh Stakeholders including Welsh local government, police forces and other partners, to ensure new governance arrangements provide strong and effective police governance in Wales.

Officials have established a specific Welsh transition working group as part of the Police Governance Reform project, which last met on 22 January. Welsh Government officials are members of this Board and Home Office and Welsh Government officials speak regularly to develop proposals. The Minister for Policing and Crime regularly speaks to the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Jane Hutt MS, and she attended the Policing Partnership Board for Wales on 18 December. The Minister plans to attend the next Board on 5 March.

We will continue to work collaboratively with Welsh stakeholders on the design and implementation of governance arrangements in Wales.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the numbers of animals being used in tests in order to satisfy international regulators despite a non-animal alternative being accepted in the UK; and what steps is she taking to reduce those numbers.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Animals in Science Regulation Unit has published guidance for applicants intending to conduct research under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 for regulated bodies outside the UK, available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/research-and-testing-using-animals (see section entitled ‘Research for regulatory bodies outside the UK’).

In summary, where there is a difference between the requested test and the lowest impact test used elsewhere, there must be associated benefit commensurate with allowing the higher impact test for that jurisdiction. This is aligned with the legally binding principle of the implementation of the 3Rs - Replacement, Reduction and Refinement.

This Government has recently launched an Alternatives Strategy to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of non-animal alternatives. The strategy is backed by £75 million in investment for delivery with plans to establish a UK Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many illegally possessed firearms have been seized in (a) Romford constituency and (b) greater London in each year since 1997.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not routinely collect data on the number of firearms seized by police forces as part of their operations to tackle illegally held weapons.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to prevent crime relating to wildlife.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office worked in partnership with Defra to support the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in delivering their Rural and Wildlife Crime strategy for 2025-28. The Strategy – which was published on 25 November -provides a framework through which policing, and its partners can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues including wildlife crime.

We also fund the National Wildlife Crime Unit who provide intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to forces and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime.

We are ensuring forces have the tools and resources they need to deal with rural crime including wildlife crime. We are on track to deliver an additional 3,000 neighbourhood officers by March.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what arrangements are underway to recruit a new Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner to ensure continuity of the role and remit once the current incumbent's term ends in December.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The role of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC) is important to tackling Modern Slavery and supporting victims of this abhorrent crime.

In line with the requirements of the Governance Code on Public Appointments, Ministers are currently considering the recruitment options, enabling a decision to be taken in good time before the current incumbent's term ends in December.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which of her Department's officials informed the Metropolitan Police that the US would not be extraditing Omar al-Bayoumi in 2001.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The attacks on 9/11 were an appalling assault on freedom. The courage displayed by the American people in the aftermath and in the years since is extraordinary and our thoughts remain with the victims and survivors, as well as all who loved them.

It would be inappropriate to comment on an individual case. It is also long standing government policy, followed by successive governments, to neither confirm nor deny any extradition request in these circumstances.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the work of the Metropolitan Police in September 2001 on the possible extradition of Omar al Bayoumi.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The attacks on 9/11 were an appalling assault on freedom. The courage displayed by the American people in the aftermath and in the years since is extraordinary and our thoughts remain with the victims and survivors, as well as all who loved them.

It would be inappropriate to comment on an individual case. It is also long standing government policy, followed by successive governments, to neither confirm nor deny any extradition request in these circumstances.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department had with US counterparts on extraditing Omar al Bayoumi in 2001.

Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The attacks on 9/11 were an appalling assault on freedom. The courage displayed by the American people in the aftermath and in the years since is extraordinary and our thoughts remain with the victims and survivors, as well as all who loved them.

It would be inappropriate to comment on an individual case. It is also long standing government policy, followed by successive governments, to neither confirm nor deny any extradition request in these circumstances.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full time equivalent police officers there were in Norfolk Constabulary on (a) 1 September 2024 and (b) 1 September 2025.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size of the police workforce in England and Wales, on a bi-annual basis, as at 31 March and 30 September each year in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.

The latest information on the number of police officers, as at 30 September 2025, is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-england-and-wales-30-september-2025.

Table 1 of the data tables accompanying the release includes information on full-time equivalent police officers in England and Wales, broken down by Police Force Area, as at 30 September 2024 and 2025.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what grounds Border Force might allow (a) sodium nitrate and (b) other toxic materials onward passage to a postal address.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Border Force controls imports and exports of sodium nitrate and other toxic materials in line with legislation. Where appropriate, Border Force uses powers in the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 (CEMA), The Police and Crime Evidence Act 1984, The Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989, and common law powers to detain or seize such goods, when they are liable to forfeiture under CEMA or evidence of an offence, referring to other law enforcement agencies for actioning as necessary.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what Border Force's policy is on the interception of (a) sodium nitrate and (b) other toxic materials at the border.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Border Force controls imports and exports of sodium nitrate and other toxic materials in line with legislation. Where appropriate, Border Force uses powers in the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 (CEMA), The Police and Crime Evidence Act 1984, The Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989, and common law powers to detain or seize such goods, when they are liable to forfeiture under CEMA or evidence of an offence, referring to other law enforcement agencies for actioning as necessary.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has she made of the potential benefit of establishing a joint Public order, firearms and tactics training centre in Cambridgeshire.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The use of police resources and the provision of training within police forces is a matter for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners, who are operationally independent of government.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2026 to Question 107739, if he will clarify what productivity and effectiveness service improvements are used with the assistance of AI.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is used across a number of Home Office services to support productivity, improve effectiveness, and enhance service delivery. In immigration operations, we have developed bespoke tools for specific teams to improve the asylum decision making process, with the pilot suggesting that up to an hour can be saved per case when reviewing interview transcripts and searching for country policy information.

AI is also used in other business areas to support productivity and effectiveness, as set out in the response to UIN 73677.

The Home Office continues to introduce AI-enabled tools, including the rollout of Microsoft Copilot to assist in routine administrative tasks, help summarise information, and improve search and analysis. We will continue to explore the appropriate and responsible use of AI to enhance effectiveness and strengthen the delivery of our services.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what methods are available to allow Syrians who arrived under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme to demonstrate their (a) right to (i) work and (ii) study in the UK and (b) recourse to public funds.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

Syrians resettled under the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) were granted permission to work and recourse to public funds on arrival in the UK.

The UK has transitioned to a fully digital immigration system, replacing physical documents such as Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) and visa vignettes with eVisas, which now serve as the primary proof of immigration status.

An eVisa shows an individual’s identity and immigration status, including right to work, rent or access public funds.

Individuals use their UKVI account to generate a share code to prove their status to employers, landlords or carriers, including when travelling.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department takes before issuing visas to former Pakistani military officers.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

UK Visas and Immigration undertake a range of checks as part of the visa application process. These checks can include verifying the information provided by the applicant, assessing their eligibility against the relevant Immigration Rules, verifying supporting information and conducting interviews where required to assess an applicant’s credibility and carrying out checks on biographic and biometric information using a variety of different sources.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to publish an impact assessment of the policies contained in the White Paper, Restoring Control over the Immigration System; and if she will set out a timetable for publication.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office has published the Technical Annex accompanying the White Paper (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/restoring-control-over-the-immigration-system-white-paper/restoring-control-over-the-immigration-system-technical-annex) and two subsequent Impact Assessments covering the Spring and Autumn Immigration Rules which implemented many of the policies set out in the White Paper (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/impact-assessments-covering-migration-policy)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that contracts for Border Force patrol vessels are awarded to UK shipyards.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

We are continuing to engage suppliers on the basis of a UK-led build, using the Defence and Security provisions within the Procurement Act 2023 where appropriate. This approach is consistent with the cross-government commitment to back British businesses. My officials are working closely with the National Shipbuilding Office while ensuring value for money and deliverability.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what impact assessments, internal modelling or economic analyses were produced to inform the policies set out in the White Paper “Restoring Control over the Immigration System”.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office has published the Technical Annex accompanying the White Paper (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/restoring-control-over-the-immigration-system-white-paper/restoring-control-over-the-immigration-system-technical-annex) and two subsequent Impact Assessments covering the Spring and Autumn Immigration Rules which implemented many of the policies set out in the White Paper (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/impact-assessments-covering-migration-policy)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of people who are victims of human trafficking.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Home Office does not have an up-to-date estimate of the number of victims of human trafficking. Understanding the true scale of modern slavery is difficult due to a few factors, including the hidden nature of the crime.

We understand from recent estimates by NGOs that well over 100,000 individuals in the UK may be affected by this crime.

Data on the number of identified potential victims of modern slavery in the UK, as indicated through National Referral Mechanism (NRM) referrals, are published every quarter. In total, 19,125 potential victims of modern slavery were referred in 2024 (with latest 2025 annual figures to be published later this month). We continually look to improve the quality and provision of these statistics. The NRM statistics publications can be found here: National Referral Mechanism statistics - GOV.UK.

The Government remains firmly committed to ensuring that all victims of human trafficking and modern slavery are effectively identified and supported to rebuild their lives, while taking action to bring those who exploit vulnerable people to justice.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which occupations have been (a) added and (b) removed from the shortage occupation list since 5 July 2024.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Government's Immigration White Paper set out how we will phase out the Immigration Salary List (ISL, formerly the Shortage Occupation List), and introduce a new Temporary Shortage List (TSL) , where entries will be genuinely temporary and linked to workforce plans to tackle the root causes of workforce shortages.

As interim measures, we applied end dates to the ISL and added two occupations (“1232 Residential, day and domiciliary care managers and proprietors” and “6131 Nursing auxiliaries and assistants”) on 22 July 2025. We also introduced the interim TSL at this time.

The ISL can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-visa-immigration-salary-list/skilled-worker-visa-immigration-salary-list

The interim TSL can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-visa-temporary-shortage-list/skilled-worker-visa-temporary-shortage-list

The Migration Advisory Committee are currently reviewing the TSL and are due to report in July this year.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has received legal advice on the compliance of new facial recognition technology deployed by police forces with human rights obligations.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office published its consultation on proposals for a new legal framework for law enforcement use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies on 4 December 2025. This considers how the police could use new facial recognition technology in a way that continues to be compatible with the Human Rights Act 1998.

The Department was an interested party in an important court case on this issue, R (Bridges) v Chief Constable of South Wales Police [2020] EWCA Civ 1058. In preparing the consultation, the Department took into account the court’s judgement and received advice on all aspects of the current legal framework for the use of such technology.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made on the potential impact of the Police Funding Settlement (England and Wales) 2026-27 on the response times to rural crime incidents in North West Norfolk constituency.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

As a result of the 2026-27 police funding settlement, Norfolk Police will receive up to £248.7 million in 2026-27, which is an increase of £9.5 million on the previous year. This equates to a 4.0% cash increase in funding.

Forces are operationally independent, and the deployment of officers and staff remains an operational decision for Chief Constables.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact on the Police Funding Settlement (England and Wales) 2026-27 on the provisions for tackling fly tipping in rural areas.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

As a result of the 2026-27 police funding settlement, Norfolk Police will receive up to £248.7 million in 2026-27, which is an increase of £9.5 million on the previous year. This equates to a 4.0% cash increase in funding.

Forces are operationally independent, and the deployment of officers and staff remains an operational decision for Chief Constables.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made on the potential impact of the Police Funding Settlement (England and Wales) 2026-27 on the number of police officers in North West Norfolk constituency.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

As a result of the 2026-27 police funding settlement, Norfolk Police will receive up to £248.7 million in 2026-27, which is an increase of £9.5 million on the previous year. This equates to a 4.0% cash increase in funding.

Forces are operationally independent, and the deployment of officers and staff remains an operational decision for Chief Constables.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 10 of the Police reform white paper From Local to National: A New Model for Policing (CP1489), by what date will the independent review of police force structures report its findings.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Police Reform White Paper, published on 26 January 2026, set out an ambitious package of reform, including an ambition to significantly reduce the number of police forces across England and Wales by the end of next Parliament.

We will shortly launch an Independent Review of Police Force Structures, which will make recommendations on the optimum number and configuration of forces. It will be led by an independent Chair and will consider a wide range of evidence in making its recommendations by Summer.

We will announce the Chair and publish the full Terms of Reference for the Review shortly.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the a) longest and b) shortest custodial sentence handed down for possession of a Class B drug with intent to supply was in each of the last five years.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The data requested is published by the Ministry of Justice.

The Sentencing Council’s guideline on ‘Possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply’ can be found here: https://sentencingcouncil.org.uk/guidelines/supplying-or-offering-to-supply-a-controlled-drug-possession-of-a-controlled-drug-with-intent-to-supply-it-to-another/ which sets out the relevant factors for courts to consider when sentencing for this offence.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress has she made in procuring a new firearm to replace the Heckler and Koch G36 for Cambridgeshire Constabulary.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office does not procure or proscribe services to Police forces. It is a matter for each Force to assess and procure services proportionate to its needs to provide effective policing for their area as they are best placed to understand local needs and priorities.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 9 of the Police reform white paper From Local to National: A New Model for Policing (CP1489), what Artificial Intelligence powered a) tools and b) software to automate manual processes will she roll-out.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government is determined to ramp up the responsible use of Artificial Intelligence across policing. We have already begun to support policing to adopt AI responsibly, with over £50 million invested to date in priority areas such as facial recognition technologies, AI enabled audio visual file redaction, and robotic process automation. These technologies are already helping to catch more criminals and make policing more efficient. We will continue progressing this work in the coming years.

We recently announced over £115 million over the next three years to support the rapid and responsible development, testing and rollout of AI tools across all 43 police forces in England and Wales.

This will be spearheaded by the creation of Police.AI, a new National Centre for AI in Policing. Whilst specific use cases and tools are still being investigated and developed, in its first year, Police.AI is expected to focus on some of the biggest administrative pressures facing policing. This includes developing and supporting tools to automate tasks such as disclosure, the analysis of CCTV footage, production of case files, crime recording and classification, and the translation and transcription of documents. These tools are expected to save around six million policing hours a year, while improving the speed and quality of service provided to victims and witnesses.

Police.AI will support forces to adopt AI tools and software by testing and assuring AI models, helping with scaling implementation, and providing public facing transparency through a registry of AI tools in use by policing.

This announcement reflects the Government’s commitment to supporting policing to use AI in an evidence based and transparent way to catch more criminals, speed up investigations and free up officers for frontline duties.

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Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether evidence or representations from stakeholders in Northern Ireland have been considered by the Motor Insurance Taskforce; and what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the Northern Ireland insurance market, including differences in (a) pricing, (b) claims costs and (c) legal frameworks.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The work of the motor insurance taskforce focused on issues and concerns associated with the cost of insurance premiums and claims that are shared across the UK.

The taskforce heard representations that some of the unique features of the motor insurance market in Northern Ireland have led to increasing costs there. Some of those, such as road safety and costs associated with taking claims through the judicial system, are devolved matters for the Northern Ireland Executive to consider. The government will continue to work constructively with the Executive on relevant areas of policy.

The taskforce met for the first time on 16 October 2024 and subsequently met on 28 April 2025 and 21 July 2025, which was the final meeting of the taskforce. Taskforce members were the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, Department for Education, Department for Business and Trade, Financial Conduct Authority and the Competition and Markets Authority as well as the Department for Transport and HM Treasury, who were the co-chairs.

We do not plan to publish the minutes or summaries of meetings as they cover the formulation and development of ‘live’ government policy and to do so would hinder future policy development as it could inhibit a free exchange of views.

Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what discussions his Department has had with Highland Council and Police Scotland on the housing of asylum seekers at Cameron Barracks.

Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)

This Government has committed to ending the use of hotels for asylum seekers. Scotland Office officials have been engaging regularly with Home Office officials, who had direct and regular communication with the Scottish Government, Highland Council and Police Scotland in advance of this announcement.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many times the Motor Insurance Taskforce met since its establishment; on what dates those meetings took place; which organisations and departments were represented; and whether she plans to publish minutes or summaries from those meetings.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The work of the motor insurance taskforce focused on issues and concerns associated with the cost of insurance premiums and claims that are shared across the UK.

The taskforce heard representations that some of the unique features of the motor insurance market in Northern Ireland have led to increasing costs there. Some of those, such as road safety and costs associated with taking claims through the judicial system, are devolved matters for the Northern Ireland Executive to consider. The government will continue to work constructively with the Executive on relevant areas of policy.

The taskforce met for the first time on 16 October 2024 and subsequently met on 28 April 2025 and 21 July 2025, which was the final meeting of the taskforce. Taskforce members were the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, Department for Education, Department for Business and Trade, Financial Conduct Authority and the Competition and Markets Authority as well as the Department for Transport and HM Treasury, who were the co-chairs.

We do not plan to publish the minutes or summaries of meetings as they cover the formulation and development of ‘live’ government policy and to do so would hinder future policy development as it could inhibit a free exchange of views.

Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the proposed use of Cameron Barracks to accommodate asylum seekers.

Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)

This Government has committed to ending the use of hotels for asylum seekers. The Scotland Office has been engaging with the Home Office regularly on the proposed use of Cameron Barracks. The Home Office continues to engage regularly with representatives from the Scottish Government, Highland Council, the NHS, Police, and local partners, including via Multi Agency Forums, to respond to the concerns of those most impacted by the site and to identify ways to keep them informed.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has held with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the a) operation and b) alignment of Local Criminal Justice Boards within future policing structures.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Government recognises the important role Local Criminal Justice Boards play as the forum where local criminal justice system partners collaborate, and the Ministry of Justice remain committed to supporting them. The Ministry of Justice is working closely with the Home Office to ensure they collectively understand how local criminal justice governance, including the operation of Local Criminal Justice Boards (LCJBs), will operate under any new policing model.

In tandem, the Government is considering the recommendations in Part II of Sir Brian Leveson’s Independent Review of the Criminal Courts relating to the operation and governance of LCJBs and will respond to them in the coming months.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to eliminate total not-spots through the Shared Rural Network; and what assessment they have made of whether the current delivery model is sufficient to achieve the elimination of total not-spots in the most rural areas.

Answered by Baroness Lloyd of Effra - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Shared Rural Network (SRN) has already delivered its core objective, 4G mobile coverage from at least one mobile network operator to 95% of UK landmass, a year ahead of schedule. However, there are still rural areas of the UK where there is either limited or no mobile coverage, and the SRN continues to deliver new coverage to these communities. We have already upgraded 110 of 190 Home Office masts and activated the first of up to 44 new total not-spot masts which are already delivering new 4G coverage in the most rural areas. While the SRN will not remove every total not spot, it is designed to deliver coverage where it will have the greatest benefit, primarily where people live, work and travel. On this basis, Government assesses that the current delivery model is a proportionate and cost-effective way of addressing the majority of connectivity gaps in rural areas while ensuring value for public money.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the Home Office on fire safety and the use of flammable materials in indoor entertainment venues.

Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

No such discussions have taken place. The Home Office is the department responsible for fire safety policy and the enforcement of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which governs the safety of all non-domestic premises, including indoor entertainment venues. Building regulations regarding the use of materials are the responsibility of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the Barnett consequentials allocated to the Northern Ireland Executive from the £750,000 uplift provided in 2019 for an increase in officer numbers to 20,000 in England and Wales.

Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with his counterparts in the Home Office and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on extending medical evacuation support to people currently in Gaza requiring access to urgent or serious medical treatment who have families based in the UK.

Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

On 25 July 2025, the Prime Minister announced that the United Kingdom was taking immediate steps to alleviate the humanitarian situation, including getting injured children out of Gaza and into British hospitals. 50 children and their immediate families have been evacuated from Gaza to the UK as part of the UK Government led process. Participation in the UKG Gaza Medevacs is solely through the World Health Organization supported process and UKG will not consider direct requests for assistance. Outside of the UKG Gaza Medevacs process those wishing to come to the UK from Gaza should do so under the existing immigration rules.

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Found: The Scottish Government has published three letters to the Home Office on Cameron Barracks, two to the

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Found: Home Office and Highland Council correspondence regarding Cameron Barracks: FOI release

Found: Home Office and Highland Council correspondence regarding Cameron Barracks: FOI release

Found: Home Office and Highland Council correspondence regarding Cameron Barracks: FOI release

Found: – All the emails and texts between the Scottish Government and the Home Office, Highland Council, NHS

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Found: welcomed a number of guest speakers to the meeting: • [redacted section 38(1)(b)] from the Home Office

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Found: The date on which Shirley-Anne Somerville first became aware that the Home Office intended to proceed

Question

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the Home Office regarding its plans for Cameron barracks in Inverness, including clarifications on the expected duration of use, operational arrangements and impacts on local services, and whether it will provide details of any representations it has made.

Answered by Somerville, Shirley-Anne - Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice

I met Alex Norris, UK Minister for Border Security and Asylum, on 4 November and 15 December 2025 to seek clarity on Home Office plans to use Cameron Barracks as asylum accommodation.

The Scottish Government has pressed for clear and timely communication with delivery partners, including a timeline for arrivals, public information for the local community, and assurances that any additional costs incurred by NHS Highland and The Highland Council will be met by the UK Government.

An Operational Working Group has been established by the Home Office, involving the Scottish Government, NHS Highland, The Highland Council, and Police Scotland.

Despite repeated requests, the Home Office has not provided a timeline for arrivals, nor confirmed that a final decision on the use of the site has been taken.

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