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 prevent radicalisation in communities.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring all communities are safe from radicalisation. Prevent is about stopping people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism and tackles the ideological causes of terrorism, as well as providing early intervention for people at risk of radicalisation.
Prevent deals with all forms of terrorist ideologies, and works closely with communities and organisations to support them in safeguarding people at risk of being radicalised, as well as to disrupt groups that radicalise others, both online and in communities. As announced in the Protecting What Matters publication on the 9th March 2026, our Disruptions team, which horizon scans for extremist influence and events, will be expanded with additional resource to disrupt extremist networks at a national and local level.
The Prevent programme also provides training for educators, healthcare professionals and other frontline staff to help them identify and protect those susceptible to radicalisation. A Prevent referral allows of a multi-agency safeguarding assessment to be conducted, and for a tailored package of support to be offered. This helps to support individuals to move away from radicalisation.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to help protect UK (a) businesses and (b) investors from fraud where people found liable by UK courts are resident in jurisdictions like Dubai that do not consistently enforce UK judgments.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Home Office published its new Fraud Strategy on 9 March. This enhanced plan focuses on disrupting fraud before it reaches a target, safeguarding individuals and businesses by building resilience and responding with victim support and justice. Backed by £250million of investment, the Government has made it clear it will work with partners at home and abroad to clamp down on the fraud epidemic.
The strategy sets out how we will safeguard UK citizens and businesses. Working with the Federation of Small Businesses, the City of London Police, NCSC and the NCA, the Government has developed and published a checklist for businesses to protect themselves against fraud, which can be found on the Stop! Think Fraud website. This is in addition to personal and consumer advice for individuals, also provided on the website.
International collaboration is also a critical part of our response, and we are committed to strengthening the global response on fraud. The UK sponsored a UNODC-INTERPOL Global Fraud Summit which took place on 16-17 March. This Summit brought together over 1,400 delegates, including 115 countries, 400 senior business leaders and 40 ministers. The Summit strengthened global standards on fraud and agreed a framework between governments and industry to facilitate greater international action to protect UK citizens and businesses.
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 an assessment of the potential impact of the UK-UAE Illicit Finance Partnership Agreement on (a) Muhammad Tahir Lakhani and Muhammad Ali Lakhani and (b) other enforcement outcomes.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK–UAE Partnership to Tackle Illicit Financial Flows is focused on strengthening cooperation on illicit finance, fraud, asset recovery and the return of the proceeds of crime.
Since the partnership was established in 2021, the UK and UAE have worked together to enhance operational collaboration, improve information sharing, and build stronger structures to support joint law enforcement activity.
However, the Home Office is not able to comment on or make assessments regarding individual cases.
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 asylum seekers have been resettled in Northern Ireland this year.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Northern Ireland is not a dispersal area and asylum seekers are therefore not routed between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Only those claiming asylum in Northern Ireland are accommodated there. Northern Ireland’s asylum population is, however, proportionate to its population when compared to the UK.
Data on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation, including hotels, and by local authority can be found within the Asy_D11 tab for our most recent statistics release: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK
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 tackle human trafficking in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office works closely with law enforcement agencies and prosecution services to strengthen the operational response to modern slavery and human trafficking, and identify any barriers to prosecution. However, under the devolution settlement for Northern Ireland, responsibility for the policy and legislative response to modern slavery and human trafficking, including policing and criminal justice, rests with the Government of Northern Ireland.
The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) identification system operates UK-wide and the Home Office Competent Authorities identify victims of modern slavery for cases referred in Northern Ireland; the Northern Ireland Executive have voluntarily ‘opted in’ to this model.
In terms of improving identification and decision-making for child victims, the devolved decision-making pilot launched in 2021. The pilot enables decisions about whether a child is a victim of modern slavery to be made by those involved in their care. It also ensures that decisions are closely aligned with the provision of local, needs-based support and any law enforcement response. The pilot has seen a range of benefits including reduced decision-making time, better local understanding of the NRM, modern slavery and exploitation, and improved multi-agency join-up. Following its recent expansion in 2025, it now covers 39 local authorities across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as all Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland.
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 she has made of the effectiveness of her Department's measures to tackle organised crime.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to tackling SOC in all its forms in line with the priorities we have set out on crime and policing and security, including the Safer Streets mission and border security. Due to the nature of the threat from SOC requires a whole system approach in tackling it.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) plays a pivotal role in leading the operational response at the national and international level, protecting the public by targeting and pursuing criminals who pose the greatest risk to the UK. That is why as part of the recent Spending Review, the Government has increased the NCA core budget by £120m from 2025/26 to 2026/27, to ensure that the Agency is well-equipped to tackle SOC. A review of the effectiveness and efficiency of NCA by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services is underway and will be published later in the Spring.
As set out in the Government’s Police Reform White Paper, the Department will further strengthen the response to SOC and other threats by creating a National Police Service (NPS). The NPS will bring together the NCA, Counter Terrorism Policing (CTP) and the national facing capabilities of ROCUs. This will create a stronger, more coherent centre, delivering real benefit to the public. It will also improve efficiency and increase productivity, saving money to reinvest in local policing.
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 adequacy of resources available to police forces to address antisocial behaviour in local communities.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Antisocial behaviour causes misery in towns and communities across the country, often hitting the most vulnerable hardest. Under our Plan for Change, we have committed to cracking down on anti-social behaviour, including in local communities.
The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces, so they focus on tackling local issues, like fighting anti-social behaviour.
Under the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee every police force in England and Wales now has a dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour, who will work with communities to develop an action plan to tackle ASB, these will be published in early April.
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.
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.
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 police forces in addressing rural crime.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Our police reforms will end the postcode lottery of provision by setting central targets, increasing transparency so people can see how their force is performing, and taking robust action where forces are not performing.
With our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee every neighbourhood, rural or urban, now gets a named contactable officer and a response to non-urgent queries in 72 hours.
Every rural area will be covered by a Local Policing Area under a commander responsible for emergency response, local crime investigation and neighbourhood policing. They will be set targets to ensure they answer 90% of 999 calls within 10 seconds and attend 90% of the most serious incidents within 15 minutes in urban area or 20 minutes in rural areas.
We are ensuring forces have the tools and resources they need to deal with rural crime like equipment theft and livestock rustling. We are on track to deliver an additional 3,000 neighbourhood officers by March.
We are equipping those officers with tougher measures to clamp down on equipment theft and anti-social behaviour, and to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping. We are finally implementing the Equipment Theft Act, which will make it harder to steal All-Terrain Vehicles and GPS units used in an agricultural setting and easier for the police to identify the owners when such items are recovered.
We are ensuring the police have the capability to pursue the organised criminal gangs behind some rural crime. This financial year the Home Office has provided the first Government funding since 2023 for the National Rural Crime Unit (£365,000) as well as continuing funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit (£450,000) to help them target organised crime groups stealing farm equipment and to disrupt networks exploiting endangered species in the UK and abroad.
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 improve cooperation between law enforcement agencies in tackling cross-border criminal activity.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office works closely with domestic and international partners to strengthen cooperation between law enforcement agencies in tackling cross‑border criminal activity. This includes supporting UK law enforcement’s use of established international frameworks and operational channels, including the UK’s arrangements with the European Union under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, as well as cooperation through organisations such as Europol and INTERPOL.
In line with the Common Understanding agreed at the 2025 UK‑EU Summit, the Department is continuing to build on the strong existing relationship with EU partners to improve practical cooperation against international criminality. This includes improved data‑exchange and operational capabilities, such as strengthened biometrics and criminal records sharing.
The Home Office also continues to develop bilateral and multilateral agreements with international partners to further improve law enforcement and judicial cooperation, where there is a need to do so, ensuring that UK law enforcement agencies are well equipped to prevent, investigate and disrupt criminal activity that operates across borders.
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 trends in cyber-enabled fraud in the last three years.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Using the latest data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, the survey estimates that 42% of fraud was cyber enabled in the year ending March 2023, rising to 48% in the year ending March 2024. However, this is likely to be an underestimate. The survey relies on victims self identifying whether the fraud they experienced involved any online or cyber element, and many victims may be unaware of how the offence was committed.
To tackle the levels of fraud in the UK, the Government launched a new Fraud Strategy on 9th March which will focus on disrupting fraud before it reaches a target, safeguarding individuals and businesses by building resilience and responding with victim support and justice.