Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of levels of funding for policing Leicester on trends in levels of bicycle theft in that area.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
As set out at the final police funding settlement, overall funding for policing will total up to £19.6 billion in 2025-26, an increase of up to £1.2 billion when compared to the 2024-25 settlement.
Of this, Leicestershire Police will receive up to £272.9 million in funding in 2025-26, an increase of up to £16.9 million when compared to the 2024-25 police settlement, equating to a 6.6% cash increase.
Bike theft has a significant impact on individuals and for too long many of the victims have felt that not enough was being done to prevent their bikes being stolen or track down the thieves responsible.
As policing has operational independence, it is for local decision-makers to determine operational priorities, including how to allocate resources based on their knowledge and experience.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the use of facial recognition and AI technologies by the police is transparent.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Facial recognition is an important tool that assists the police in protecting the public, and identifying the perpetrators of crime, and we want to ensure that we maximise the potential of that technology to support our Safer Streets mission.
At the same time, we recognise the importance of ensuring that facial recognition technology operates on a firm footing, and I have been meeting with the police, regulators, civil society groups, industry and others to discuss this matter carefully.
We will continue to have those discussions, and I will be meeting with MPs and Peers in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Shockat Adam (Independent - Leicester South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to raise the minimum income requirement for family immigration visas to £34,000; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of such an increase on (a) Leicester and (b) other low average income areas.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The financial requirements for the Family Immigration Rules include the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR) which is currently set at £29,000 and is intended to maintain the economic wellbeing of the UK whilst respecting family life.
The Home Secretary has announced her intention to commission the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to review the financial requirements in the Family Immigration Rules.
Conducting a review of the financial requirements across the family routes will ensure we have a clear and consistent system. There will be no changes to the current threshold of £29,000, or the ways in which the MIR can be met, until the MAC review is complete.