Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help (a) discover and (b) seize cannabis farms.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Local police forces and Regional Organised Crime Units deliver the bulk of enforcement and seizure activity against cannabis production and supply. The Home Office has provided funding to enable Operation Mille which is one of the most significant operations of its kind aimed at disrupting organised crime groups (OCG) by identifying and dismantling large-scale cannabis farms which provide a key source of illicit income.
Since June 2023, in Phases 1-3 of the operation, police have executed 1,368 search warrants and arrested over 1,000 individuals. They have also seized a significant number of cannabis farms including the recovery of over 100,000 cannabis plants worth over £100 million, as well £1m in cash and many weapons including 14 firearms.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring football clubs to contribute towards the cost of matchday policing.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Section 25 of the Police Act 1996 allows the police to recover costs for Special Police Services. This includes the policing of events, including football matches.
However, the proportion of costs recoverable is currently constrained by case law. As a result, each year police forces in England and Wales incur costs in the tens of millions of pounds from policing commercial events like football.
The Home Office is concerned that the cost of policing football matches that is currently falling to the public purse is too high and is exploring ways to address this. This is an important issue that requires careful consideration in order to ensure a balance between the costs to the public purse and the wider cultural and economic value of these events.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to share the findings from the national inquiry into grooming gangs with her counterparts in the devolved administrations.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Whilst child protection is fully devolved in the UK and policing devolved except for Wales, all parts of the UK must work together to protect children and bring perpetrators to justice and we are engaging with devolved administrations as part of our response to Baroness Casey’s recommendations.
We expect any relevant findings to be shared with devolved administrations to support a comprehensive approach across the UK. All parts of the UK must work together to protect children and bring perpetrators to justice. We will set out further details on the establishment of the national inquiry in due course and how this may interact with the responsibilities of devolved administrations.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help support skilled fishermen in Northern Ireland through the visa system.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are aware of concerns around labour shortages in the fishing industry and seafood processing sectors. The generally more remote location of the jobs, as well as pay and the challenging working conditions, all present challenges for UK and devolved governments, and the industry, to address. It is important that the industry looks to the domestic workforce to fill vacancies.
Following publication of our Immigration White Paper, the threshold for Skilled Worker visas was raised to graduate professions, but fishing occupations remain on the Immigration Salary List, as a transitional measure until the end of 2026. The industry will need to adapt away from relying on the visa system in that time.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign nationals have been deported in the last five years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on FNO returns in the quarterly Immigration System Statistics release. Quarterly data on enforced, voluntary and port FNO returns (of which ‘deportations’ are a legal subset) are published in table Ret_D03 of the Returns detailed datasets accompanying the release.
Information on FNOs who have been deported more than once, or who have returned to the UK after deportation, is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
A deportation order requires a person to leave the UK and prohibits them from lawfully entering the UK while it remains in force. Entering in breach of a deportation order is a criminal offence under section 24(1)(a) of the 1971 Act, with a maximum sentence of five years under section 40 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been arrested for non-fatal strangulation in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold the data requested.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales, including reason for arrest, as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures’ statistical series. The data is available here: Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK
However the data is collected by wider offence group, for example “Violence against the person”, therefore data on arrests for non-fatal strangulation is not available.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to reduce the cost of the firearms licence application fee.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Increased firearms licensing fees were introduced on 5 February 2025, enabling full cost recovery for police forces and fulfilling a manifesto commitment.
Firearms licensing fees were last updated in 2015 and had fallen significantly below the cost of delivering the service. We will keep the level of fees under close review.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with police forces on the adequacy of police resources allocated to tackling fraud.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling fraud is a clear priority for this Government, and I am committed to working with police forces to ensure resources are in place to effectively combat this crime and support victims.
That is why we are publishing a new, expanded Fraud Strategy to strengthen our national response to this crime.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps her Department has taken to help reduce the number of irregular migrants arriving in the UK on small boats.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Border Security Command (BSC) is leading the national response to prevent small boat crossings in the English Channel.
The BSC continues to focus on tackling the organised immigration crime gangs that are facilitating small boat crossings, working with domestic partners such as the National Crime Agency, and overseas counterparts in a range of countries, to dismantle the gangs and disrupt their supply chains. This work has already led to a number of widely publicised raids and arrests, as well as agreements with France, Germany, Italy, Iraq and other key partners which will increase enforcement activity and cooperation further over the coming months.
This summer, the Home Office announced a £100 million funding injection to further strengthen existing law enforcement operations. The funding will pay for up to 300 extra National Crime Agency officers (NCA), state-of-the art detection technology and new equipment to smash the networks putting lives at risk in the Channel.
We have also signed a landmark agreement with France to prevent dangerous small boat crossings. This agreement means that anyone entering the UK on a small boat can be detained on arrival and returned to France by the UK government. The aim is to test the deterrent effect to prevent dangerous journeys by demonstrating that small boat crossings are not a viable way to enter and remain in the UK and to disrupt the organised immigration crime gangs.
Ensuring we have the right legislation in place to take robust, meaningful action to address these challenges is crucial. With this in mind, the UK’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, currently going through Parliament, creates new powers for law enforcement through new criminal offences, expanded data-sharing capabilities and an improved intelligence picture to identify, intercept, disrupt and prevent serious and organised crime, including tackling those who facilitate small boats crossings.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking with international partners to disrupt cross-jurisdictional fraud networks.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Home Office is committed to leading international efforts to tackle fraud, which is why we are supporting the next Global Fraud Summit in March 2026, hosted by UNODC and INTERPOL. This will be a key event to strengthen the global fight against fraud and will include ministers, private industry and civil society from across the world.
We are also working bilaterally with key countries to build capability and strengthen their ability to tackle and disrupt fraud before it reaches the UK. This has already resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding between UK and Nigeria, signed this spring by Lord Hanson in Abuja, agreeing a clear framework of future collaboration, including on policy development, law enforcement, and information sharing to tackle fraud.