Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with social media companies on the preservation and provision to law enforcement agencies of content depicting suspected criminal offences.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Home Office Ministers and senior officials regularly engage with key stakeholders, including social media companies, on a range of policy and operational issues.
It would not be appropriate to comment on the specifics of discussions with individual companies concerning the preservation or provision of content to law enforcement agencies, for reasons of operational sensitivity, national security and commercial sensitivity.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in receipt of subsistence-only asylum support have had that support (a) withdrawn and (b) suspended in the last 12 months because her Department was unable to establish contact with them.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
This data is not held in a reportable format.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who left Home Office asylum accommodation to stay with friends and family members did not go on to receive subsistence-only support.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
This data is not held in a reportable format.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who left Home Office asylum accommodation without receiving subsistence-only support are recorded as whereabouts unknown.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
This data is not held in a reportable format.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many addresses approved for subsistence-only asylum support are recorded as hosting more than one supported individual at the same time.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
This data is not held in a reportable format.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were in receipt of subsistence-only asylum support as of the most recent date for which figures are available.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of individuals in receipt of subsistence-only Home Office support is published in table Asy_D09 of the ‘Asylum support detailed datasets’. The latest data represents the number of people in receipt of support as at 30 June 2026.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what requirement exists for an asylum seeker to notify her Department of a change of address after leaving Home Office accommodation to stay with friends or family, where they are not in receipt of subsistence-only support.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
Where an asylum seeker makes an application for subsistence only support, an assessment is made on whether they are destitute. This may involve enquiries about the hosts circumstances where relevant to determining whether the asylum seeker is destitute.
Asylum seekers are required by Immigration Rule 358B to provide the Home Office with any change of address where they are not being supported by the Home Office. This includes where supported asylum seekers intend to leave asylum accommodation.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what checks her Department undertakes on the immigration status of a person hosting an asylum seeker under the subsistence-only support route.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
Where an asylum seeker makes an application for subsistence only support, an assessment is made on whether they are destitute. This may involve enquiries about the hosts circumstances where relevant to determining whether the asylum seeker is destitute.
Asylum seekers are required by Immigration Rule 358B to provide the Home Office with any change of address where they are not being supported by the Home Office. This includes where supported asylum seekers intend to leave asylum accommodation.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of arrangements for police forces to combine intelligence from (a) police records, (b) automatic number plate recognition systems and (c) publicly available information to identify and disrupt persistent vehicle-related offending.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the serious impacts that vehicle theft and dangerous driving can have on businesses, communities and individuals and is determined to ensure that crimes such as these receive the response they deserve.
Police Reform will support policing and provide our communities with more consistent services and policing which responds to local needs. At the local level, new Local Policing Units (LPUs) will work with communities to focus on the issues that matter most to them, such as responding to emergencies, preventing and investigating local crime – such as vehicle theft and dangerous driving – and supporting safer neighbourhoods. In addition, the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee commits to delivering 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel by the end of the Parliament. 3,814 additional police officers and PCSOs were delivered into neighbourhood roles by Mach 2026, creating more capacity for local patrols and a stronger presence in communities.
Vehicle theft is often organised, mobile and cross border in nature. At the national level, Police Reform will address cross-border threats such as these by establishing a more capable National Police Service (NPS) that will tackle national threats and deliver national capabilities. The NPS will bring together four core functions: strategic leadership, standard setting, support and enabling services for police forces in England and Wales and the operational response to serious and organised crime, like serious organised vehicle crime, and threats to national security. It will bring together the National Crime Agency, Counter Terrorism Policing and regional organised crime capabilities.
Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales indicates that the most common method of entry in the case of vehicle theft involved use of electronic devices to manipulate the signal from a remote locking device. The Policing and Crime Act provides the police and courts with stronger powers to target those who use, manufacture or supply these tools, allowing for a maximum penalty of up to 5 years imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.
In January 2026, the Government published a consultation on motoring offences and enforcement, including whether existing penalties and enforcement powers remain effective, proportionate and sufficiently capable of deterring repeat or dangerous behaviour. Responses to the consultation are currently being analysed, and the Government will publish its response in due course.
Information on stolen vehicles is already shared across law enforcement and with relevant partners to support the prevention, detection and investigation of vehicle crime. Opal, the police national intelligence unit focusing on serious organised acquisitive crime has responsibility for identifying and developing intelligence relating to organised vehicle crime. It works with law enforcement officers, partners and industry (both nationally and internationally) in delivering this remit. In addition, the National Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership headed by the National Police Chief Council’s Lead for Vehicle Crime, ACC Sarah Grahame, brings together law enforcement, industry and government partners. It is working to enhance information sharing and analysis, build networks to target offenders and coordinate activity to reduce vehicle crime and associated harm.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of arrangements for identifying and intervening with persistent offenders involved in (a) vehicle theft and (b) dangerous driving; and what steps she is taking to support police forces to prevent escalation in such offending.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the serious impacts that vehicle theft and dangerous driving can have on businesses, communities and individuals and is determined to ensure that crimes such as these receive the response they deserve.
Police Reform will support policing and provide our communities with more consistent services and policing which responds to local needs. At the local level, new Local Policing Units (LPUs) will work with communities to focus on the issues that matter most to them, such as responding to emergencies, preventing and investigating local crime – such as vehicle theft and dangerous driving – and supporting safer neighbourhoods. In addition, the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee commits to delivering 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel by the end of the Parliament. 3,814 additional police officers and PCSOs were delivered into neighbourhood roles by Mach 2026, creating more capacity for local patrols and a stronger presence in communities.
Vehicle theft is often organised, mobile and cross border in nature. At the national level, Police Reform will address cross-border threats such as these by establishing a more capable National Police Service (NPS) that will tackle national threats and deliver national capabilities. The NPS will bring together four core functions: strategic leadership, standard setting, support and enabling services for police forces in England and Wales and the operational response to serious and organised crime, like serious organised vehicle crime, and threats to national security. It will bring together the National Crime Agency, Counter Terrorism Policing and regional organised crime capabilities.
Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales indicates that the most common method of entry in the case of vehicle theft involved use of electronic devices to manipulate the signal from a remote locking device. The Policing and Crime Act provides the police and courts with stronger powers to target those who use, manufacture or supply these tools, allowing for a maximum penalty of up to 5 years imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both.
In January 2026, the Government published a consultation on motoring offences and enforcement, including whether existing penalties and enforcement powers remain effective, proportionate and sufficiently capable of deterring repeat or dangerous behaviour. Responses to the consultation are currently being analysed, and the Government will publish its response in due course.
Information on stolen vehicles is already shared across law enforcement and with relevant partners to support the prevention, detection and investigation of vehicle crime. Opal, the police national intelligence unit focusing on serious organised acquisitive crime has responsibility for identifying and developing intelligence relating to organised vehicle crime. It works with law enforcement officers, partners and industry (both nationally and internationally) in delivering this remit. In addition, the National Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership headed by the National Police Chief Council’s Lead for Vehicle Crime, ACC Sarah Grahame, brings together law enforcement, industry and government partners. It is working to enhance information sharing and analysis, build networks to target offenders and coordinate activity to reduce vehicle crime and associated harm.