Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will set out an assessment of the feasibility of seizing frozen assets for community benefit.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Asset recovery is an effective tool to deprive criminals of their profits, disrupt criminal networks, deter criminality and return recovered assets to the public good. Assets recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 are already used to deliver public benefit through the Government’s Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS), under which a proportion of recovered funds are redistributed to agencies involved in the asset recovery.
ARIS funding supports further enforcement activity, tackles economic crime and, where appropriate, funds community and crime prevention initiatives. Examples of how ARIS funding is used are set in the recently published Asset Recovery Annual Statistical Bulletin: Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme - GOV.UK
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which capital projects have been (a) cancelled, (b) delayed, (c) descoped and (d) reprofiled to fund the Defence Investment Plan by region, original funding allocation and revised funding allocation.
Answered by Alex Norris - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Departments have been asked to contribute 1p in every £1 of their capital budgets to fund this Government’s Defence Investment Plan, helping keep the country safe in an increasingly volatile world.
The Home Office will set out further impacts on specific policies and programmes in due course.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what training her Department provides on AI; and (a) how many hours and (b) what topics and skills are covered by such training.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
All Home Office staff are encouraged to complete foundation courses on AI concepts and the safe and responsible use of generative AI tools. Staff also have access to a self-service online portal that provides around 30 hours of recommended AI learning resources and role-specific AI learning pathways. The topics covered seek to build skills in safe, ethical and responsible AI use, data quality and governance, prompt writing, productivity, document drafting and analysis, automation, risk assessment, human verification, and applying AI effectively across operational, policy, business and strategic workflows.
In addition, Data and Digital specialists can undertake a 10-minute AI skills assessment delivered via the external learning platform, DataCamp. The assessment consists of a series of timed challenges covering key areas of AI knowledge and application, including the use of generative AI tools for routine business scenarios and understanding the large language models that underpin them, understanding AI domains and their application within organisations, and applying ethical considerations when using and developing AI systems.
Following completion of the assessment, participants receive personalised learning recommendations tailored to their performance across each topic area. The duration of the learning pathway varies according to an individual's assessed learning needs and areas for development.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the cost of the associated overheads related to the reconnaissance aircraft which are involved in monitoring and identifying small boats carrying migrants, per annum, since the contract was signed.
Answered by Alex Norris - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office contracts an aerial surveillance capability in order to detect and monitor people making dangerous, illegal and unnecessary crossings of the Channel in small boats, rather than paying for the individual costs for this capability. Part of this capability is for manned surveillance aircraft provided by PAL Aerospace. This service was contracted on 29 October 2024 and lasts until 30 November 2026. The total value of the contract is £54m. Since 29 October 2024 nearly 56,000 lives have been saved as a result of these Channel crossings being detected at the earliest possible opportunity.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the cost of the reconnaissance aircraft, which are involved in monitoring and identifying small boats carrying migrants, per annum, since the contract was signed.
Answered by Alex Norris - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Home Office contracts an aerial surveillance capability in order to detect and monitor people making dangerous, illegal and unnecessary crossings of the Channel in small boats, rather than paying for the individual costs for this capability. Part of this capability is for manned surveillance aircraft provided by PAL Aerospace. This service was contracted on 29 October 2024 and lasts until 30 November 2026. The total value of the contract is £54m. Since 29 October 2024 nearly 56,000 lives have been saved as a result of these Channel crossings being detected at the earliest possible opportunity.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help prevent bicycle theft in Twickenham constituency.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities from local forces so they can focus on tackling issues of key concern to communities, such as dealing with bike theft. The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will ensure that every community in England and Wales will have named and contactable officers dealing with local issues, and that neighbourhood teams spend the majority of their time in their communities providing visible patrols and engaging with local communities and businesses.
In addition, we are also providing the police with new powers to support their response. The Crime and Policing Bill, now at Committee Stage in the House of Lords, will ensure that Officers can enter and search premises where stolen items – such as GPS-tracked bicycles – are reasonably believed to have been stolen and located, and where it is not reasonably practicable to obtain a court warrant. This will significantly enhance the ability of the police to act swiftly and effectively in recovering stolen property.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the potential cost to the Metropolitan Police of the proposals set out in her Department's policy paper entitled From local to national: a new model for policing published on 27 January 2026.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The reforms set out in the White Paper are fully funded to the end of the Parliament with nearly half a billion pounds invested. These reforms will make policing both more effective and more efficient with savings made through removal of duplication across the policing system. These savings will be reinvested into neighbourhood policing, including in London.
In addition, this Government has already announced record funding for policing of £18.4 billion next year to tackle crime and improve community safety. The Metropolitan Police will benefit from increased funding of up to £4.0bn next year, a 4.7% cash increase.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 16 October 2025 to Question 77070 on Demonstrations: Palestine Action, whether she has had discussions with the Metropolitan Police on the potential for using cautions rather than arresting Palestine Action protestors.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The management of protests are matters for the police, who are operationally independent from government.
The Government is absolutely clear that support for proscribed organisations is unacceptable. We fully support the police to use all the powers available to ensure those who do commit offences face the full force of the law.
To be clear, those who want to oppose the proscription of Palestine Action can do so freely and lawfully – that is not itself an offence. It is an offence when protest is focused on showing support for an organisation that has been proscribed.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Mayor of London on public consultation on police station front counter closures.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
A key part of this Government’s Safer Streets Mission is restoring neighbourhood policing and rebuilding trust and confidence in policing.
This is why, under this government, we will ensure 3,000 more neighbourhood officers will be on the beat by April 2026.
The Metropolitan Police will receive up to £3.8 billion in 2025-26, a £262 million increase in funding through the settlement.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support the Metropolitan Police.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Metropolitan Police will receive up to 3.8 billion pounds in funding in the current financial year, an increase of more than 262 million when compared to last year’s police settlement.
That includes an increase of more than 63 million pounds in the National and International Capital City Grant, recognising the increased demands on the Met from policing the capital city.
We will continue to work closely with the Met and the Mayor’s Office to support them in keeping Londoners safe.