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 applications for asylum have been approved for people on the security services' watch list in the past 12 months.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The first priority of government is protecting national security.
All applications for UK immigration status, including asylum claims, are subject to comprehensive security checks. Where an individual is assessed as presenting a risk to our country, we take swift and robust action.
The Home Office uses various tools to detect and disrupt travel by individuals of national security interest and by individuals excluded from the UK; previously deported from the UK; or using lost, stolen or revoked documents and visas. This includes the use of domestic and international watchlists.
It is longstanding policy not to discuss either the specific data held on the watchlist, the source of the data or how it is used, as to do so would be counterproductive and harmful to the national security of the 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 estimate her Department has made of the number of victims of grooming gangs who will have convictions for prostitution expunged.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office is setting up a disregards scheme for convictions and cautions issued to under 18s for persistently loitering or soliciting in a street or public place for the purpose of prostitution, contrary to Section 1 of The Street Offences Act 1959.
A preliminary search of centrally held digital records suggests that 352 individuals have been cautioned or convicted for this offence while under 18, since 1995. We are legislating in the Crime and Policing Bill to disregard and pardon these convictions and cautions.
However, it is not possible to calculate the proportion of the 352 individuals who were the victim of group based child sexual exploitation.
We are aware that victims of group based child sexual exploitation may have been convicted for other offences; the Ministry of Justice is working with the Criminal Cases Review Commission to ensure it is properly resourced to review the applications of victims of Child Sexual Exploitation who believe they were unjustly convicted when their position as a victim was not properly understood.
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 crimes where (a) e-scooters and (b) e-bikes were used by the perpetrator have been recorded by his Department by police force in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects information on the number of notifiable offences recorded by the police in England and Wales but this does not include whether or not an offence was committed with the use of e-scooters or e-bikes.
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 steps her Department is taking to help tackle the misuse of ketamine.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling the harms caused by the use of illicit drugs is critical to delivering the Government’s key missions on safer streets and improving health outcomes, as well as contributing to the opportunity and national growth missions. We are taking an end-to-end approach to disrupt illicit drug supply chains, including working with law enforcement partners upstream and at the UK border to tackle the gangs responsible for drug trafficking.
Ketamine is a dangerous substance, which can cause irreversible bladder damage and in some cases death. Ministers are concerned about the harms ketamine causes and in January 2025 the Government asked the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to provide an updated harms assessment of ketamine, and advice on reducing those harms, and in particular whether ketamine should be moved from Class B to Class A within the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The ACMD carried out a public call for evidence in August and we expect to receive its report soon. We will then carefully consider its recommendations.
This activity sits as part of our work across Government to monitor and respond to emerging trends and harms, including those related to ketamine use. For example, on 16 October 2025 the Department for Health and Social Care launched a campaign to alert young people to the dangers of this drug.
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 members of staff in her Department currently spend one or more days a week working from home.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 24 October 2024 the Cabinet Office announced that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service. Senior managers will continue to be expected to be in the office more than 60% of the time and individual attendance requirement can be up to 100% based on business need.
Details of the exact number of staff currently working from home one or more days per week are not held centrally.
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 times police forces in England and Wales have used stop-and-search powers in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of stop and searches undertaken by the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales and the British Transport Police, on a financial year basis. The latest data are available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK
Table 1 below shows how many stop and searches were undertaken by police forces in England and Wales in each of the last five complete financial years
Table 1 – stop and searches in England and Wales, 2020/21 to 2024/25
Financial year | Number of stop and searches |
2020/21 | 714,914 |
2021/22 | 530,970 |
2022/23 | 547,000 |
2023/24 | 536,217 |
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 asylum applications have been approved for people with a criminal record in the UK prior to the commencement of their asylum application.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The requested data on asylum applications from foreign national offenders is not currently published by the Home Office.
As explained in this note published in April 2025, systems for collecting and compiling data related to foreign national offenders in the immigration system are currently undergoing a transition to improve the quality of information held by the department. The Home Office is currently working towards a release of this data. At this stage, we are not in a position to detail what this will contain or the exact timing of the release.
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 steps she is taking to ensure that a person seeking asylum has not been involved in terrorism; and if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the application of these checks in the last five years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
All asylum claimants undergo 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. To protect the integrity of the specific identity and security checking processes that are conducted, details about them are not disclosed publicly.
All asylum and human rights claims are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with our international obligations. Our guidance for considering asylum claims is available on GOV.UK at: Assessing credibility and refugee status: caseworker guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Each assessment is made using relevant case law and the latest available country of origin information, which is based on evidence taken from a wide range of reliable sources. Our assessment of the situation of a given group in a given country, is set out in the relevant country policy and information note, which is available on GOV.UK at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/country-policy-and-information-notes
Under Article 1F of the Refugee Convention, we will deny protection to those who commit serious crimes or represent a threat to national security.
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 all asylum applications have been subject to the same consideration criteria in the last five years.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
All asylum claimants undergo 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. To protect the integrity of the specific identity and security checking processes that are conducted, details about them are not disclosed publicly.
All asylum and human rights claims are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with our international obligations. Our guidance for considering asylum claims is available on GOV.UK at: Assessing credibility and refugee status: caseworker guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Each assessment is made using relevant case law and the latest available country of origin information, which is based on evidence taken from a wide range of reliable sources. Our assessment of the situation of a given group in a given country, is set out in the relevant country policy and information note, which is available on GOV.UK at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/country-policy-and-information-notes
Under Article 1F of the Refugee Convention, we will deny protection to those who commit serious crimes or represent a threat to national security.
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 (a) security and (b) criminal record checks are made by her Department when considering an application for asylum.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
All asylum claimants undergo 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. To protect the integrity of the specific identity and security checking processes that are conducted, details about them are not disclosed publicly.
All asylum and human rights claims are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with our international obligations. Our guidance for considering asylum claims is available on GOV.UK at: Assessing credibility and refugee status: caseworker guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Each assessment is made using relevant case law and the latest available country of origin information, which is based on evidence taken from a wide range of reliable sources. Our assessment of the situation of a given group in a given country, is set out in the relevant country policy and information note, which is available on GOV.UK at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/country-policy-and-information-notes
Under Article 1F of the Refugee Convention, we will deny protection to those who commit serious crimes or represent a threat to national security.