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 are being taken to improve safeguarding for victims of modern slavery.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Modern slavery is a vicious crime that dehumanises people. Safeguarding victims of modern slavery, and human trafficking is a priority, and this Government is committed to tackling it in all its forms and to giving survivors the support and certainty they need to recover.
Child victims are supported through statutory local authority support, and the Government-funded Independent Child Trafficking Guardianship (ICTG) service, which provides advocacy and specialist support to children referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and the professionals supporting them. In September 2025, the invitation-to-tender for the national contract was launched, which will expand the current service coverage from two-thirds of local authorities to all child victims referred into the NRM in England and Wales.
Adult victims of modern slavery identified through the NRM in England and Wales can access the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract (MSVCC). The MSVCC provides safe accommodation where necessary, financial support and a support worker to help victims access a range of services, including healthcare and legal advice. The Government will enhance support available to victims through the forthcoming Support for Victims of Modern Slavery contract, which will replace the MSVCC in 2027.
The Government has also taken steps to strengthen safeguarding and support for victims. We have launched an updated NRM referral form to improve the quality of referrals, better reflect victims’ experiences and support more informed and consistent decision-making.
To add, we understand that embedding the voices of people with lived experience in policymaking is imperative to achieving better outcomes. We are strengthening our engagement with existing sector-led Lived Experience Advisory Panels (LEAPs). These panels, coordinated by trusted experts, offer a safe and inclusive environment and provide access to a broad range of survivor perspectives. In March 2026, we held eight survivor engagement workshops to better understand lived experience on the themes of definitions, identification, and decision-making. The evidence we have received is informing the on-going policy development to improve the process of identifying victims of modern slavery, human trafficking, and exploitation.
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 assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the use of body-worn cameras by police officers.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the important role that body-worn video can play in supporting effective, transparent and accountable policing. College of Policing and National Police Chief’s Council guidance supports the use of body-worn video during police encounters, including stop and search. Operational decisions on its deployment remain a matter for Chief Constables.
The College of Policing, in its 2024 guidance, highlights that body-worn video can improve evidential capture, support transparency and accountability by providing an objective record of police-public interactions, and strengthen public confidence through facilitating scrutiny of police encounters and the use of police powers.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of CCTV footage in reducing crime in urban areas.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
CCTV is a long-established and widely used tool across England and Wales, operated by a range of public and private bodies to support crime prevention, public safety and investigations.
The Surveillance Camera Commissioner (SCC) is responsible for encouraging compliance with the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice. The Code provides guidance on the responsible use of surveillance camera systems, including CCTV, by police and local authorities and voluntary adopters in England and Wales. This ensures public trust and compliance with data protection laws. The Commissioner also provides advice and information to the public and surveillance system operators about the effective, appropriate, proportionate, and transparent use of surveillance camera systems.
The SCC is progressing the delivery of a project to assess how overt surveillance, such as CCTV, can support the Government’s Safer Streets initiative and efforts to reduce violence against women and girls (VAWG). The findings and recommendations are anticipated to be published later this year.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of gang prevention programmes for young people.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) was established in 2019 with an initial investment of £200 million from the Home Office to build the evidence base on what works to prevent children and young people becoming involved in violence including knife crime and gang involvement.
The YEF Violence Prevention Toolkit summarises the best available research evidence on approaches to preventing children and young people’s involvement in violence, including focussed deterrence, mentoring and youth clubs, and assesses the evidence of their effectiveness.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate he has made of the backlog of asylum claims.
Answered by Alex Norris - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of asylum claims awaiting an initial decision is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum claims awaiting an initial decision datasets’. The latest data relates to as at 31 March 2026.
Please note that figures for immigration and asylum appeals at First-Tier Tribunal and subsequent stages are published by the Ministry of Justice as part of their ’Tribunal Statistics release’ release. The latest data relates to January to March 2026.
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 immigration enforcement officers have been deployed in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alex Norris - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The information requested is not centrally held and could only be collected and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
The Home Office published the average number of full-time equivalent staff employed in Immigration Enforcement during 2024–25 in its Annual Report and Accounts, available at: Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2024 to 2025. This figure comprises a range of roles within Immigration Enforcement and is not limited to deployed Immigration Enforcement officers.
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 he is taking to help reduce the volume of channel crossings.
Answered by Alex Norris - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Government is taking decisive action to reduce Channel crossings by strengthening border security, intensifying cooperation with our international partners such as France, and targeting the criminal gangs who facilitate these dangerous journeys. We have also implemented new powers under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 including new powers to target smuggling networks and seize evidence used to facilitate crossings.
Cooperation has also been strengthened with France, including increased funding for policing, surveillance, and intelligence activity in northern France to stop boats before they launch. Joint UK-France action prevented over 22,000 attempted crossings in 2025, and the UK continues to work with international partners to disrupt smuggling networks, tackle illegal migration routes, and increase returns.
Alongside this, the Government is pursuing reforms to the asylum and returns system to reduce the incentives for dangerous illegal migration and restore order to the immigration system. More on this has been set out at this link.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the UK’s visa application system in preventing fraud.
Answered by Mike Tapp
The Home Office takes the threat of fraud within the visa application system very seriously. All visa applications are subject to rigorous checks to assure the identity of the applicant and the information that is provided in support of applications. Where there is evidence of fraud, applications will be refused. Our systems and our responses to these threats are constantly in review to ensure we keep pace and are alert to emerging risks and can make necessary adjustments or improvements to prevent further fraudulent activity.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of organised crime groups on local communities.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The NCA is charged with undertaking an annual assessment of the serious and organised crime (SOC) threat to the UK, including analysis of emerging and evolving trends in this threat. The National Strategic Assessment (NSA) 2026 of Serious Organised Crime can be found and includes further detail as to the impact on communities caused by organised crime, both to individuals and society more broadly.
This Government remains firmly committed to tackling serious and organised crime and the significant threat it poses to communities across the UK. We will ensure that law enforcement agencies have the robust powers and capabilities they need to disrupt and prevent serious and organised criminal activity.
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 are being taken to improve the effectiveness of crime reporting apps and online reporting systems.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2016, the Home Office has invested over £170m in improving and modernising contact channels between the public and local police forces. Online crime reporting is available for all forces across England and Wales either via local force websites or the Police.UK mobile phone application. The department works closely with policing to continuously monitor and update these systems, recent examples include specific reporting routes for sexual assaults, spiking and knife crime.
The department is committed to building on these foundations by investing in new, innovative capabilities to improve the public’s experience when reporting crimes or incidents and to support forces in managing contact demand with greater efficiency. These capabilities are currently being piloted in selected local forces and include a secure, two way Portal where victims can communicate with the officer in command of their investigation; video call response for victims of non-emergency domestic abuse; and integrating artificial intelligence into force control rooms to support call handlers in administrative tasks and to quickly route callers and those contacting the police online to the support that they require. Subject to the successful pilots and funding, we plan to rollout these capabilities to all forces over the coming years.