Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the longest time was for an asylum application to reach a final resolution in the last ten years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost. The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘asylum detailed datasets’ as part of the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
Data on the number of claims awaiting an initial decision, by duration, is published in table Asy_D03. The latest data relates to as at 30 June 2025. For further information on the data, see the notes pages of the tables.
Additionally, data on the number of cases in the asylum system, by case age, is published in table ASY_03 of the 'Migration transparency data'. The latest data relates to as at June 2024.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the level of net migration on public services.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes a variety of analysis considering the impact of migration on public services. Home Office Impact Assessments and wider analysis can be found here: Migration analysis at the Home Office - GOV.UK
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent guidance she has issued to police forces on the (a) lawful and (b) proportionate use of stop and search powers.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Stop and search is an important tool for tackling knife crime, but it must be used fairly and effectively. Getting that balance right is key to meeting the Government’s objective of halving knife crime in ten years. We know that stop and search is most effective when it is targeted and intelligence led.
Code A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) governs the use of stop and search powers. Guidance on the use of stop and search is also issued to forces by the College of Policing in its Authorised Professional Practice.
In the year ending March 2024, available data suggests there were at least 9,423 arrests for offensive weapon or firearm offences following a stop and search. However, this data is designated as ‘Official Statistics in development’ to denote that there are known data quality issues, and the true figure will be higher.
In the year ending March 2024, 16,066 (3.0%) of stop and searches resulted in an offensive weapon or firearm being found. However, that figure includes searches where police were looking for drugs, stolen goods, or other items rather than weapons. Where offensive weapons were the reason for the search, the find rate was 12%.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of stop and searches resulted in the seizure of a weapon in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Code A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) governs the use of stop and search powers. Guidance on the use of stop and search is also issued to forces by the College of Policing in its Authorised Professional Practice.
Stop and search is an important tool for tackling knife crime, but it must be used fairly and effectively. Getting that balance right is key to meeting the Government’s objective of halving knife crime in ten years. We know that stop and search is most effective when it is targeted and intelligence led.
In the year ending March 2024, available data suggests there were at least 9,423 arrests for offensive weapon or firearm offences following a stop and search. However, this data is designated as ‘Official Statistics in development’ to denote that there are known data quality issues, and the true figure will be higher.
In the year ending March 2024, 16,066 (3.0%) of stop and searches resulted in an offensive weapon or firearm being found. However, that figure includes searches where police were looking for drugs, stolen goods, or other items rather than weapons. Where offensive weapons were the reason for the search, the find rate was 12%.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of stop and search powers in reducing knife crime.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Stop and search is an important tool for tackling knife crime, but it must be used fairly and effectively. Getting that balance right is key to meeting the Government’s objective of halving knife crime in ten years. We know that stop and search is most effective when it is targeted and intelligence led.
Code A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) governs the use of stop and search powers. Guidance on the use of stop and search is also issued to forces by the College of Policing in its Authorised Professional Practice.
In the year ending March 2024, available data suggests there were at least 9,423 arrests for offensive weapon or firearm offences following a stop and search. However, this data is designated as ‘Official Statistics in development’ to denote that there are known data quality issues, and the true figure will be higher.
In the year ending March 2024, 16,066 (3.0%) of stop and searches resulted in an offensive weapon or firearm being found. However, that figure includes searches where police were looking for drugs, stolen goods, or other items rather than weapons. Where offensive weapons were the reason for the search, the find rate was 12%.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has recent discussions with police forces on their use of stop and search powers under Section 60 of the Public Order Act 2023.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Code A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) governs the use of stop and search powers. Guidance on the use of stop and search is also issued to forces by the College of Policing in its Authorised Professional Practice.
Stop and search is an important tool for tackling knife crime, but it must be used fairly and effectively. Getting that balance right is key to meeting the Government’s objective of halving knife crime in ten years. We know that stop and search is most effective when it is targeted and intelligence led.
In the year ending March 2024, available data suggests there were at least 9,423 arrests for offensive weapon or firearm offences following a stop and search. However, this data is designated as ‘Official Statistics in development’ to denote that there are known data quality issues, and the true figure will be higher.
In the year ending March 2024, 16,066 (3.0%) of stop and searches resulted in an offensive weapon or firearm being found. However, that figure includes searches where police were looking for drugs, stolen goods, or other items rather than weapons. Where offensive weapons were the reason for the search, the find rate was 12%.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many stop and searches in have led to an arrest for (a) possession of a knife and (b) bladed article in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Stop and search is an important tool for tackling knife crime, but it must be used fairly and effectively. Getting that balance right is key to meeting the Government’s objective of halving knife crime in ten years. We know that stop and search is most effective when it is targeted and intelligence led.
Code A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) governs the use of stop and search powers. Guidance on the use of stop and search is also issued to forces by the College of Policing in its Authorised Professional Practice.
In the year ending March 2024, available data suggests there were at least 9,423 arrests for offensive weapon or firearm offences following a stop and search. However, this data is designated as ‘Official Statistics in development’ to denote that there are known data quality issues, and the true figure will be higher.
In the year ending March 2024, 16,066 (3.0%) of stop and searches resulted in an offensive weapon or firearm being found. However, that figure includes searches where police were looking for drugs, stolen goods, or other items rather than weapons. Where offensive weapons were the reason for the search, the find rate was 12%.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department has issued to staff who (a) examine and (b) process asylum claims on the implementation of background checks.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Asylum caseworkers receive extensive training and mentoring for the role. All asylum claimants are subject to mandatory security checks to establish their identity and to link it to their biometric details for the purpose of immigration, security and criminality checks - including war crimes, crimes against humanity and terrorism.
The Home Office performs mandatory identity verification and security checks on individuals applying to enter or remain in the UK. These checks are set out in comprehensive, internal guidance called the UK Visas and Immigration Operating Mandate (OM). To protect the integrity of the specific identity and security checking processes that are conducted under the OM, the information contained within it is not disclosed publicly.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact on public services from the population increase caused by immigration.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes a variety of analysis considering the impact of migration on public services. Home Office Impact Assessments and wider analysis can be found here: Migration analysis at the Home Office - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of houses of multiple occupancy that were accommodating asylum seekers in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
“Data on asylum accommodation is published quarterly on GOV.UK (Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK) and includes breakdowns by local authority”.