Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of consolidating the specific grant for the Police Uplift Programme into the core policing grant.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 2026-27 provisional police funding settlement (18 December) published that total funding to Territorial Police Forces will be up to £18.3 billion, an increase of up to £746 million compared to the 2025-26 police funding settlement. This equates to a 4.2% cash increase and a 2.0% real terms increase for the policing system. On 16th January, forces received a letter inviting views on the delivery of Neighbourhood Policing model.
The Government has listened to policing’s concerns about the Officer Maintenance Grant and its requirement to achieve a specified officer headcount target. This funding mechanism has in some instances led to forces placing more officers in back-office roles which is not helpful in supporting visible policing and prevents forces from building a workforce with the mix of skills necessary to tackle crime.
The Government’s position is that people want to see neighbourhood police on the streets. We recognise the need to improve trust and confidence in policing – strengthening neighbourhood policing is a way of achieving that goal.
Final force level funding allocations for 2026-27 will be published at a Final Police Funding Settlement by the end of January.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has issued guidance to the Metropolitan Police on the circumstances in which conditions that effectively prevent a protest from taking place may be imposed under sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 allow the police to impose conditions on public processions and public assemblies as necessary to prevent serious public disorder, serious damage to property, or serious disruption to the life of the community.
Any conditions that are necessary can be placed on the public procession or public assembly, including the location or route, time and date, or prohibiting individuals entering any public space specified. These powers do not allow police to ban protests or prevent protests from taking place.
Decisions on how to police demonstrations are an operational matter for the police, working within the legal framework of the Public Order Act 1986. In making these considerations, the police must always balance decisions with the right to peaceful protest.
The College of Policing is responsible for providing guidance and operational advice for frontline policing. The College of Policing produces the Public Order Public Safety authorised professional practice. Alongside this, the Protest Operational Advice Document is published jointly by the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support police forces in tackling shoplifting and retail crime.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police recorded crime figures recorded 529,994 shoplifting offences for year ending June 2025. This represents a 13% increase from the previous year.
Charges for shop theft rose by 25% (up to 107,090 charges). That is why we’re committed to restoring visible, responsive neighbourhood policing with 3,000 additional officers in neighbourhood policing roles by spring next year.
In the Crime and Policing Bill, we are bringing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores and we are removing the legislation which makes shop theft of and below £200 a summary-only offence, sending a clear message that any level of shop theft is illegal and will be taken seriously.
The Home Office has regular discussions with the police and other partners on protecting retail workers and tackling shop theft.
We are also providing over £7 million over the next three years to support the police and retailers tackle retail crime, including continuing to fund a specialist policing team – in partnership with the retail sector - to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.
Asked by: Maureen Burke (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set out how complaints relating to (a) cleanliness, (b) safety and (c) hygiene in landlord-provided asylum accommodation are (i) monitored, (ii) reported and (iii) investigated to ensure such accommodation is fit for purpose.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office expects the highest standards of cleanliness, safety and hygiene in all asylum accommodation and holds providers to account through the Asylum Accommodation and Support Services (AASC) contracts.
Contractual expectations are set out in the AASC Statement of Requirements (Schedule 2) which requires accommodation providers and their landlords to ensure that properties are safe, habitable and fit for purpose at all times, including meeting standards on cleanliness, hygiene, repairs and health and safety compliance.
Monitoring of accommodation standards is carried out through Home Office contract management and assurance activity, including inspections and performance reporting against contractual requirements.
Reporting routes are available to asylum seekers through the Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility (AIRE) service, delivered by Migrant Help, which allows issues or complaints relating to accommodation to be raised.
Investigation and resolution of complaints are managed by the Home Office once issues are escalated by Migrant Help. Providers are required to investigate concerns promptly, take remedial action within contractual timescales, and report outcomes to the Home Office.
Independent customer satisfaction and assurance activity further informs performance management and continuous improvement.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Widnes and Halewood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, further to her oral answer of 17 November 2025, Official Report column 524, what steps she will take to stop asylum seekers who have committed crimes and are deported making a new asylum application after deportation.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are committed to ensuring that any asylum seeker who commits a serious crime in the UK is not granted asylum and is removed or deported as quickly as possible. If deported, the person is prohibited from returning to the UK as long as the deportation order made against them remains in force. Anyone who is subject to a deportation order is liable to have their fingerprints retained beyond the standard 15-year retention period.
Once abroad, there is no provision within our Immigration Rules for someone to be allowed to travel back to the UK to seek asylum or temporary refuge.
If someone returns to the UK and re-enters the further submissions process has to be followed. Due to our robust biometric checks, face and fingerprints, individuals who have re-entered in this way will be detected upon being encountered, have their further submissions heard quickly, and they will be removed as swiftly as possible if their further submissions are without merit. We will deny the benefits of protection status to those who commit serious crimes and are a danger to the community, or those who are a threat to national security.
We are clear that serious criminals are not welcome here.
Asked by: Maureen Burke (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what contractual expectations are placed on landlords providing asylum accommodation.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office expects the highest standards of cleanliness, safety and hygiene in all asylum accommodation and holds providers to account through the Asylum Accommodation and Support Services (AASC) contracts.
Contractual expectations are set out in the AASC Statement of Requirements (Schedule 2) which requires accommodation providers and their landlords to ensure that properties are safe, habitable and fit for purpose at all times, including meeting standards on cleanliness, hygiene, repairs and health and safety compliance.
Monitoring of accommodation standards is carried out through Home Office contract management and assurance activity, including inspections and performance reporting against contractual requirements.
Reporting routes are available to asylum seekers through the Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility (AIRE) service, delivered by Migrant Help, which allows issues or complaints relating to accommodation to be raised.
Investigation and resolution of complaints are managed by the Home Office once issues are escalated by Migrant Help. Providers are required to investigate concerns promptly, take remedial action within contractual timescales, and report outcomes to the Home Office.
Independent customer satisfaction and assurance activity further informs performance management and continuous improvement.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's policy is on publishing details of grants on asylum housing costs to individual local authorities.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not publicly publish grant payment levels by local authority, and we have no plans to do so. We do however publish the grant funding instructions, which can be found here:
Unaccompanied asylum seeking children and leaving care: funding instructions - GOV.UK
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department will publish an annual summary of due diligence outcomes and contract performance for its highest-value suppliers.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Home Office meets Cabinet Office transparency arrangements to ensure consistency across Government. There is no current requirement to meet the scope suggested.
Cabinet Office publishes quarterly KPI data from returns supplied by Departments.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance the Government provides to police forces to (a) help deal with racially aggravated sexual assault and (b) support victims of those crimes.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police are operationally independent and work in line with College of Policing guidance to respond to hate crime and sexual offences.
However, the Government expects the police to fully investigate each and every assault and work with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure perpetrators are brought to justice.
The Ministry of Justice will invest £550 million over the next three years to provide counselling, court guidance and children’s services for victims. This funding will be delivered via PCCs, who assess local need and are best placed to commission tailored services, including for victims with protected characteristics such as race.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour in Gloucester city centre.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Through the Crime and Policing Bill, we are strengthening the powers available to police and other relevant agencies to tackle ASB, including introducing new Respect Orders to give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to crack down on the most relentless ASB perpetrators.
Under the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, we are putting neighbourhood officers back into communities, both urban and rural, and restoring public confidence by bringing back community-led, visible policing. By the end of this parliament there will be 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales, including up to 3,000 additional neighbourhood officers by the end of March 2026. Gloucestershire Constabulary’s projected growth over 2025 to 2026 will be 23 police officers (FTE).
Gloucestershire Constabulary participated in the Safer Streets Summer Initiative, as part of activity to tackle anti-social behaviour, retail crime and street crime across six town centres. The force is currently participating in the Winter of Action, which builds on this work and covers twelve town centres, including Gloucester City Centre, with activity focused on anti-social behaviour, retail crime, offending linked to the night-time economy, and violence against women and girls. The full list of locations Gloucestershire has been focusing on as part of the Winter of Action can be found here: Winter of Action: location list - GOV.UK