Asked by: Lord Pack (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 20 January (HL13300), whether they have now reviewed whether it is necessary for the prescribed standards for police driving training to be set by legislation; and if so, what was the outcome of that review.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is vital that police drivers are trained to a high standard in order to maintain public and driver safety. This is why the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 introduced new training requirements and a new test for police drivers, which are required by the Act to be prescribed in regulations.
The Government engages regularly with the College of Policing and other stakeholders to ensure that police driver training continues to meet these high standards. We will give full consideration to making changes if it becomes clear there is a need to do so to maintain flexibility of the standards
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Epping Forest)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that police forces receive adequate resources to tackle crime effectively.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 2026–27 final police funding settlement provides up to £21.0 billion for the policing system in England and Wales. This is an increase of up to £1.3 billion compared with the 2025–26 settlement, representing a 6.7% cash increase and a 4.4% real terms increase.
Police forces will have up to £18.4 billion in 2026-27. This is an increase in funding to forces by up to £796 million, equating to a 4.5% cash increase and 2.3% real terms increase.
The Chancellor set out at the Spending Review that there will be a real terms increase in funding over the next three years. Despite the importance of living within the fiscal constraints, this government is prioritising funding for policing.
£200 million was made available in 2025-26 to support the delivery of 3,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel this year. We are on track to deliver that 3,000 by the end of March - and remain determined to reach 13,000 additional neighbourhood officers by the end of the Parliament.
The 2026-27 settlement ringfences £363 million of total funding to incentivise forces to grow neighbourhood policing teams, which includes an additional £50 million following feedback from the provisional settlement.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Epping Forest)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the funding settlement for Essex Police.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 2026–27 final police funding settlement provides up to £21.0 billion for the policing system in England and Wales.
Total funding to police forces will be up to £18.4 billion, an increase of up to £796 million compared to the 2025-26 police funding settlement. This equates to a 4.5% cash increase and a 2.3% real terms increase in funding.
Essex Police will receive up to £455.2 million in 2026-27. This is an increase of up to £21.1 million, equating to a 4.9% cash increase.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she will integrate Special Grant funding into the core settlement provided to Bedfordshire Police.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 2026-27 Final Police Funding Settlement confirmed £49.6m for Special Grant in the coming financial year. Funding for Bedfordshire Police will be up to £175.8m, an increase of up to £7.5m from 2025-26. Special Grant awards will be confirmed in due course.
The government has set out an ambitious programme of police reform in the Police Reform White Paper, and has committed to reform of the police funding model.
Asked by: Sarah Owen (Labour - Luton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she will provide an update on the status of Special Grant funding to Bedfordshire Police.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 2026-27 Final Police Funding Settlement confirmed £49.6m for Special Grant in the coming financial year. Funding for Bedfordshire Police will be up to £175.8m, an increase of up to £7.5m from 2025-26. Special Grant awards will be confirmed in due course.
The government has set out an ambitious programme of police reform in the Police Reform White Paper, and has committed to reform of the police funding model.
Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central of 24 November 2025 with case reference GS06761.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office responded to the hon. Member on 3 December 2025. This reply has been resent on 3 February 2026.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has not been added to the list of proscribed terrorist organisations in the UK.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is the Government’s long-standing position not to comment on the detail of security and intelligence matters, including whether or not a specific organisation is being considered for proscription.
We are acting decisively to disrupt threats posed by Iran here in the UK. We have placed the Iranian state on the enhanced tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), meaning that anyone working for or directed by the Iranian state to conduct activities in the UK must declare that activity, or risk up to five years in prison.
The UK now has over 550 sanctions against Iranian linked individuals and entities, including the IRGC, which has been sanctioned in its entirety. Over 220 designations have been imposed since this Government came into office.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people have been refused entry to the UK in the last 10 years due to extreme left-wing political views; and whether they will detail their names.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is committed to countering extremism in all its forms where it divides communities and inflames tensions. Regardless of the worldview it draws from, if an ideology is causing harm by radicalising others into hatred, violence and extremism we will take action to prevent this and to safeguard susceptible individuals.
The information requested is not centrally held and could only be collected and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Earl of Leicester (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why they have cancelled Eva Vlaardingerbroek's electronic travel authorisation to the UK.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is our long-standing policy that we do not comment on individual cases.
However, in general terms I can advise you that all foreign nationals seeking entry to the UK meet the suitability requirements for an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA).
Following a refusal or cancellation, the customer may still apply for the appropriate UK visa, which allows for a full consideration of their circumstances and may provide an alternative avenue to travel.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what timeline her Department has for introducing regulations that ensure generative AI cannot be misused to create extreme sexual abuse material involving children.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government recognises the serious and evolving threat posed by AI being misused to create child sexual abuse material. We know offenders will seek to exploit emerging technologies for their own sexual gratification.
AI-generated child sexual abuse is not a victimless crime. The material often includes depictions of real children, escalating the risk of contact abuse. The volume and realism of this material can make it increasingly challenging for safeguarding partners to identify and protect children. Offenders can also use these images to groom and blackmail children.
That is why this Government has introduced a measure within the Crime and Policing Bill to criminalise AI models that have been developed to create child sexual abuse material. These optimised models produce hyper-realistic indecent images that often contains the likeness of real children. This offence will carry a sentence of up to five years. To further ensure that generative AI models are not misused to create extreme child sexual abuse material, this Government has also sought to update the existing law criminalising ‘paedophile manuals’ to cover AI as well. Manuals which provide guidance on how to use AI to create child sexual abuse material will be punishable by up to three years in prison.
The Crime and Policing Bill is currently at the Lords Committee stage. Subject to parliamentary approval, the Crime and Policing Bill – and thus these two crucial measures to criminalise AI-generated child sexual abuse material – is expected to secure Royal Assent by the Spring of 2026.