Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the answer of 9 December 2025, to Question HL12288, on Council tax, what is the increase in police spending power on average across the Phase 2 settlement excluding the revenue raised from increasing council tax.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 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. Total grant funding to Police and Crime Commissioners will increase by up to £382 million next year, a 3.3% cash increase.
Council tax levels are a local decision, and elected Police and Crime Commissioners will rightly want to consider the balance between increasing resources for policing local communities and the overall council tax burden.
Police funding is agreed on an annual basis and allocations beyond 2026–27 will be determined as part of future police funding settlements.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding her Department provided to strategic migration partnership in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not currently publish funding levels to Strategic Migration Partnerships, previous years funding can be found here Government Grants Data and Statistics
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is issued guidance on the political uniform ban in the Public Order Act 1936 and the definition of a uniform.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Public Order Act 1936 aimed to control and regulate the wearing of uniform in a public place or at a public meeting if that uniform signifies association with a political organisation or promotes a political object.
The Home Office has not considered issuing guidance specifically on the political uniform ban under the Public Order Act 1936. Enforcement of this provision remains an operational matter for the police.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on what intelligence was shared by West Midlands Police with (a) the UK Football Policing Unit, (b) the National Police Chiefs Council and (c) her Department.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Affairs Select Committee held evidence sessions on 1 December and 6 January to examine West Midlands Police’s intelligence assessments underpinning the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters.
As I committed to the House of Commons, I have provided details of my correspondence with the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police to the Home Affairs Select Committee. Correspondence and evidence submitted to the Committee are routinely published on its official website, ensuring full transparency.
In addition, the Home Office has published HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary’s inspection report, which considers the information and intelligence in respect of the match assessment and categorisation produced by West Midlands Police. The report can be found at the following link: Inspection of police forces’ contributions to safety advisory groups: West Midlands Police - GOV.UK
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2025, to Question 96551, on Police: accountability, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of adding district-level licensing authorities in two-tier areas to the new Policing and Crime Boards.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government intends to legislate as soon as Parliamentary time allows to create Policing and Crime Boards to replace Police and Crime Commissioners where it is not possible for policing functions to be held by a Strategic Authority Mayor. These changes will take effect in May 2028.
Councils in two-tier areas are currently undergoing local government reorganisation, and the Government is on track to deliver unitary local government in all areas by 2028. Therefore, no district-level authorities will exist from that point.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Pursuant to the answer of 2 December 2025, to Question 94192, on Holiday Accommodation: Taxation, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of applying the levy to asylum seekers in hotels on costs to the public purse.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has a statutory obligation to provide support to destitute asylum seekers and as such these are not discretionary overnight stays.
The Government’s position remains that the use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers is undesirable and unsustainable. Work is underway to expand the dispersal estate and develop alternative accommodation models to better deliver value for money and reduce impact on communities.
To support local authorities, the Home Office provides significant grant funding to manage the pressures associated with asylum accommodation. This includes the Asylum Grant 395 which is designed to offset costs for councils and support local services impacted by the use of hotels and other accommodation. Under this grant local authorities received an initial payment of £1,200 per bedspace occupied on 30 March 2025; with £100 per month for each additional occupied bedspace between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026.
Additional grant funding is available for the support of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and care leavers. These grants form part of a wider package of measures to ensure that local authorities are not disproportionately burdened by the statutory asylum support system.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department collects on the religion of migrants, other than through the Census.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
UVKI do not request this information as part of the visa application process.
Asylum claimants are asked for information about their religion as part of the asylum screening (registration) process, during the substantive asylum interview and when submitting evidence in support of their claim. This information is recorded on any interview record and within the claimant’s electronic file.
As part of the asylum process, the asylum decision-maker must determine whether the claimant has a characteristic (or be perceived to have a characteristic) which could cause them to fear persecution for a ‘Convention reason’, one of which is ‘religion’. We do not publish the number of asylum claims that were made on the basis of someone’s religion.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 8 December 2025, to Question 95340, on Asylum: Hillingdon, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of publishing grant payments made to local authorities; and if she will make it her policy to publish the Hillingdon figures.
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:
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason her Department has paused the sharing of regional asylum dispersal pack data with local government led strategic migration partnerships; and if she will change the policy of her Department in sharing this data.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office regularly publishes official accredited statistics, setting out the numbers of asylum seekers in receipt of Home Office support, broken down by local authorities These statistics are published on Gov.uk and are freely available to local authority officials.
There are frameworks and processes in place, to facilitate the sharing of additional or sensitive information with local authority officials to facilitate their planning and delivery. The Home Office regularly reviews the sharing of such information to ensure it remains necessary, proportionate and complies with legislation. Although rare, we may have to temporarily pause the sharing of such information whilst we undertake a review.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 5 November 2025, to Question 86340, on Asylum: Housing, for what policy reason the monetary value of Grant 7 and Grant 6 payments to individual local authorities is confidential.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office do not publicly publish our grant payment levels by Local Authority to protect our relationship with Local Government.