Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her department is taking to support police forces to develop drone-as-first-responder programmes, including through funding, shared operational standards and the evaluation and expansion of pilot schemes.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the benefits that drone technology can provide to policing operations. The Home Office has supported police forces to develop Drone as First Responders (DFR) through funding of the NPCC Drones Programme since 2022. This programme aims to trial and better understand the benefits of these innovative drone capabilities for future police aviation, as well as standardise and professionalise the use of drones across all 43 forces in England and Wales to develop a safe and effective national drone capability for policing.
To date, the Home Office has allocated over £11m to the NPCC Drones programme, and through this, six forces are now operating DFR, all of which are extending into multi-city operations, and an additional eight forces will be coming online this year. The programme will contribute towards a better understanding of the role that future and current drone technology can play as part of police air support, including rural areas.
Though the department has not undertaken its own separate assessment on the operational benefits of drones to policing, we support and oversee the funding for the NPCC Drones programme, who are investigating Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flight, analysing results, and mapping benefits to policing. Therefore, the Home Office has considered evidence provided by policing partners on the operational benefits of drone technology, which indicate improved response times, positive public safety outcomes, and efficient use of police resources. The Government will continue to monitor emerging evidence from the programme and operational deployments to inform future policy development and funding decisions.
Regarding rural crime, this year the programme is focussing on developing a longer-endurance fixed-wing capability, which will provide a more rapid response in large rural areas than current drone capabilities, which are either shorter range or still need to travel to the scene by car. All the benefits drones provide to police operations generally will apply to rural crime, and developing a safe and effective drone capability will strengthen rural policing, improve response times and support enforcement in harder-to-reach areas. However, the programme is proactively working on getting them to rural countryside locations more quickly and ensuring they have the right equipment on board to allow a positive outcome. The programme is also working with the National Rural Crime Unit to ensure that rural crime is appropriately considered when implementing national police use of drone capabilities.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her department is taking to support police forces to develop drone-as-first-responder programmes, including through funding, shared operational standards and the evaluation and expansion of pilot schemes.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the benefits that drone technology can provide to policing operations. The Home Office has supported police forces to develop Drone as First Responders (DFR) through funding of the NPCC Drones Programme since 2022. This programme aims to trial and better understand the benefits of these innovative drone capabilities for future police aviation, as well as standardise and professionalise the use of drones across all 43 forces in England and Wales to develop a safe and effective national drone capability for policing.
To date, the Home Office has allocated over £11m to the NPCC Drones programme, and through this, six forces are now operating DFR, all of which are extending into multi-city operations, and an additional eight forces will be coming online this year. The programme will contribute towards a better understanding of the role that future and current drone technology can play as part of police air support, including rural areas.
Though the department has not undertaken its own separate assessment on the operational benefits of drones to policing, we support and oversee the funding for the NPCC Drones programme, who are investigating Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flight, analysing results, and mapping benefits to policing. Therefore, the Home Office has considered evidence provided by policing partners on the operational benefits of drone technology, which indicate improved response times, positive public safety outcomes, and efficient use of police resources. The Government will continue to monitor emerging evidence from the programme and operational deployments to inform future policy development and funding decisions.
Regarding rural crime, this year the programme is focussing on developing a longer-endurance fixed-wing capability, which will provide a more rapid response in large rural areas than current drone capabilities, which are either shorter range or still need to travel to the scene by car. All the benefits drones provide to police operations generally will apply to rural crime, and developing a safe and effective drone capability will strengthen rural policing, improve response times and support enforcement in harder-to-reach areas. However, the programme is proactively working on getting them to rural countryside locations more quickly and ensuring they have the right equipment on board to allow a positive outcome. The programme is also working with the National Rural Crime Unit to ensure that rural crime is appropriately considered when implementing national police use of drone capabilities.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential for drone technology to improve police response times and public safety in rural and geographically dispersed communities.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the benefits that drone technology can provide to policing operations. The Home Office has supported police forces to develop Drone as First Responders (DFR) through funding of the NPCC Drones Programme since 2022. This programme aims to trial and better understand the benefits of these innovative drone capabilities for future police aviation, as well as standardise and professionalise the use of drones across all 43 forces in England and Wales to develop a safe and effective national drone capability for policing.
To date, the Home Office has allocated over £11m to the NPCC Drones programme, and through this, six forces are now operating DFR, all of which are extending into multi-city operations, and an additional eight forces will be coming online this year. The programme will contribute towards a better understanding of the role that future and current drone technology can play as part of police air support, including rural areas.
Though the department has not undertaken its own separate assessment on the operational benefits of drones to policing, we support and oversee the funding for the NPCC Drones programme, who are investigating Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flight, analysing results, and mapping benefits to policing. Therefore, the Home Office has considered evidence provided by policing partners on the operational benefits of drone technology, which indicate improved response times, positive public safety outcomes, and efficient use of police resources. The Government will continue to monitor emerging evidence from the programme and operational deployments to inform future policy development and funding decisions.
Regarding rural crime, this year the programme is focussing on developing a longer-endurance fixed-wing capability, which will provide a more rapid response in large rural areas than current drone capabilities, which are either shorter range or still need to travel to the scene by car. All the benefits drones provide to police operations generally will apply to rural crime, and developing a safe and effective drone capability will strengthen rural policing, improve response times and support enforcement in harder-to-reach areas. However, the programme is proactively working on getting them to rural countryside locations more quickly and ensuring they have the right equipment on board to allow a positive outcome. The programme is also working with the National Rural Crime Unit to ensure that rural crime is appropriately considered when implementing national police use of drone capabilities.
Asked by: Peter Prinsley (Labour - Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the operational benefits of using drones to provide police officers with real time aerial intelligence when responding to road traffic collisions, searches for criminal suspects and other emergency incidents.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the benefits that drone technology can provide to policing operations. The Home Office has supported police forces to develop Drone as First Responders (DFR) through funding of the NPCC Drones Programme since 2022. This programme aims to trial and better understand the benefits of these innovative drone capabilities for future police aviation, as well as standardise and professionalise the use of drones across all 43 forces in England and Wales to develop a safe and effective national drone capability for policing.
To date, the Home Office has allocated over £11m to the NPCC Drones programme, and through this, six forces are now operating DFR, all of which are extending into multi-city operations, and an additional eight forces will be coming online this year. The programme will contribute towards a better understanding of the role that future and current drone technology can play as part of police air support, including rural areas.
Though the department has not undertaken its own separate assessment on the operational benefits of drones to policing, we support and oversee the funding for the NPCC Drones programme, who are investigating Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flight, analysing results, and mapping benefits to policing. Therefore, the Home Office has considered evidence provided by policing partners on the operational benefits of drone technology, which indicate improved response times, positive public safety outcomes, and efficient use of police resources. The Government will continue to monitor emerging evidence from the programme and operational deployments to inform future policy development and funding decisions.
Regarding rural crime, this year the programme is focussing on developing a longer-endurance fixed-wing capability, which will provide a more rapid response in large rural areas than current drone capabilities, which are either shorter range or still need to travel to the scene by car. All the benefits drones provide to police operations generally will apply to rural crime, and developing a safe and effective drone capability will strengthen rural policing, improve response times and support enforcement in harder-to-reach areas. However, the programme is proactively working on getting them to rural countryside locations more quickly and ensuring they have the right equipment on board to allow a positive outcome. The programme is also working with the National Rural Crime Unit to ensure that rural crime is appropriately considered when implementing national police use of drone capabilities.