Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the reasons for which stop and search for items related to protest is used much more frequently by some police forces than others.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Public Order Act 2023 includes stop and search powers for police to search for and seize articles related to protest-related offences.
The Home Office publishes statistics on use of stop and search powers, the latest are at: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK
While overall numbers are small, the figures show that protest related searches are more concentrated in the Metropolitan Police Service, Surrey and Sussex.
The management of protests is an operational matter for the police. It is for chief constables and their officers to make decisions about the use of stop and search powers in response to local needs.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that police training on violence against women and girls includes training on technology-facilitated abuse.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office has already invested £13.1 million this year into the new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection (NCVPP). This funding includes an additional £2 million to deliver a comprehensive package of training enhancements across public protection. Through the NCVPP, we are working closely with the College of Policing to develop strengthened, specialist training for officers across all operational levels - frontline, specialist, and leadership. Grounded in academic research and behaviour change science, new training programmes will ensure that all officers are well equipped to investigate these crimes and provide support to victims. This includes the development of new modules to equip officers with the skills to investigate technology-facilitated and online harm.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to recent data obtained by StopWatch via Freedom of Information of this year’s Operation Sceptre results, what assessment will be made of the cost-effectiveness of public knife amnesty bins compared with enforcement options for recovering knives and other weapons.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government continues to encourage police forces to undertake a series of coordinated national weeks of action to tackle knife crime under Operation Sceptre. In 2025 police have delivered two national weeks of intensification in May and November, and the data and operational results from these are owned and held by the police.
The Government ran an extended knife surrender arrangement in July 2025 in various areas in the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and London. This allowed members of the public to surrender weapons anonymously at a mobile surrender van operated by FazAmnesty and in 37 new surrender bins installed by Word 4 Weapons with Home Office funding.
A total of 3,570 knives and weapons were surrendered through these arrangements. The figures were set out in a Written Ministerial Statement on 30 October: Written statements - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament
Across police operations, border seizures and knife surrender schemes this Government has already seen nearly 60,000 knives taken off our streets.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of job vacancies in key professions within her Department’s responsibilities, including contractor organisations.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The independent Office for National Statistics publish monthly estimates of online job adverts by occupation Labour demand volumes by Standard Occupation Classification (SOC 2020), UK - Office for National Statistics(opens in a new tab) and vacancies across each industrial sector VACS02: Vacancies by industry - Office for National Statistics(opens in a new tab).
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to mitigate the mental health impact of proposed changes to settlement routes.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
On 20 November, we launched a public consultation on our proposed earned settlement model.
This consultation provides a means for all members of the public to express any concerns about the proposed new system are considered as we finalise policy. We are also running a separate, focused survey of visa holders to make sure their specific concerns are fully captured.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to develop a National Integration Strategy for asylum seekers and refugees as part of proposed reforms to the asylum system.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government’s Asylum and Returns Policy Statement published on 17 November 2025 announced transformative changes to the asylum system and safe and legal routes.
Successfully integrating refugees remains a key Government priority. Work is underway to operationalise the proposals set out in the statement, with careful consideration being given to how integration is prioritised in implementation. Further details will be provided in due course.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will (a) review and (b) update Ukraine-related immigration (i) policies and (ii) guidance (A) in general and (B) on the application of protection principles depending on immigration route; what evidential criteria are used to justify refusal based on internal relocation; and if she will suspend removals to Ukraine during that review.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Our assessment of the situation in Ukraine is set out in the relevant Country Policy and Information Notes (CPINs), which are available on the Gov.UK website.
The CPINs for Ukraine are based on evidence taken from a wide range of reliable sources, including reputable media outlets; local, national and international organisations, including human rights organisations; and information from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). The material drawn from those sources, including links to the original documents, are available in the published notes. This provides the evidence base for our assessment, which itself considers the situation in general, and regionally, against the relevant legal and policy framework for considering protection claims. Decision makers will consider how this applies in individual cases, including considerations such as internal relocation. The CPINs are kept under constant review and are updated periodically to ensure they remain accurate and reflect current country conditions.
Decisions on whether to remove individuals are made on a case-by-case basis depending on the situation at the time.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish data, broken down by police service, of all offences by category associated with suspects or offenders who were detected using live facial recognition (LFR) technology during each calendar year since 2016, along with any other categories of people added to LFR watchlists, if these were not suspects or offenders.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to equipping police forces with the tools they need to tackle serious crimes, locate offenders and bring them to justice. As part of this commitment, the Home Office has funded the roll-out of ten live facial recognition (LFR) vans.
The National Audit Office reports on Home Office expenditure which is then independently scrutinised and reported on by the Public Accounts Committee.
Oversight of LFR is provided by a number of independent bodies including the Information Commissioner, Equality and Human Rights Commission and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire & Rescue Services.
However, oversight is fragmented and we want to improve it through the creation of a bespoke new legal framework. Subject to consultation, that framework will include specific oversight for the use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies.
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of arrests made following the police’s use of facial recognition technology, including the use of LFR, as specific LFR deployment decisions rest with individual police forces. The department is however funding national evaluation work to understand better the impact of facial recognition on police and crime outcomes.
Where police forces are using LFR, the number of arrests made following each deployment are published on their respective websites. Further, the Met Police have published these in their recent Live Facial Recognition Annual Report September 2025
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what independent scrutiny is being carried out on the use of the ten new live facial recognition systems provided to local police services by the Home Office, starting in November 2025, and when the conclusions of this scrutiny will be published.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to equipping police forces with the tools they need to tackle serious crimes, locate offenders and bring them to justice. As part of this commitment, the Home Office has funded the roll-out of ten live facial recognition (LFR) vans.
The National Audit Office reports on Home Office expenditure which is then independently scrutinised and reported on by the Public Accounts Committee.
Oversight of LFR is provided by a number of independent bodies including the Information Commissioner, Equality and Human Rights Commission and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire & Rescue Services.
However, oversight is fragmented and we want to improve it through the creation of a bespoke new legal framework. Subject to consultation, that framework will include specific oversight for the use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies.
The Home Office does not hold data on the number of arrests made following the police’s use of facial recognition technology, including the use of LFR, as specific LFR deployment decisions rest with individual police forces. The department is however funding national evaluation work to understand better the impact of facial recognition on police and crime outcomes.
Where police forces are using LFR, the number of arrests made following each deployment are published on their respective websites. Further, the Met Police have published these in their recent Live Facial Recognition Annual Report September 2025
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of amending (a) visa and (b) asylum routes for people fleeing conflict in Sudan with British national immediate family members in the UK by (i) waiving income rules, (ii) allowing asylum applications to be made in third party countries and (c) bringing forward other measures to help reunite families separated by conflict.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Sudanese nationals who wish to come to the UK to join a family member here need a family visa. Applications can be made for a family visa to live with a spouse or partner; fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner; parent; child; relative who is providing care.
The financial requirements form part of the ‘core’ requirements of the Family Immigration Rules. Expecting family migrants and their sponsors to be financially independent is reasonable, both to them and the taxpayer.
However, where someone cannot meet the core requirements, including those relating to finances, permission will still be granted where refusal would breach Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
As part of the Immigration White Paper reforms, the government intends to set out a new family policy that will cover all UK residents, including those who are British, settled, on work routes or refugees seeking to bring family members to the UK.
The UK has a proud history of providing protection and we continue to welcome refugees and people in need through our safe and legal routes. However, there is no provision within our Immigration Rules for someone to be allowed to travel to the UK to seek asylum or temporary refuge. Those who need international protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach – that is the fastest route to safety.
Whilst we sympathise with people in many difficult situations around the world, including the current situation in Sudan, we are not bound to consider asylum claims from the very large numbers of people overseas who might wish to come here. It is important that safe and legal routes are sustainable, well managed and in line with the UK’s capacity to welcome, accommodate and integrate refugees. We do not currently have any plans to open a specific route for people affected by the conflict in Sudan.
Additionally, the recently announced Asylum Policy Statement set out a new model for refugee resettlement. We will give greater say to communities and support refugees as they settle, become self-sufficient, and contribute to their local areas. This new model will be based on local capacity to support refugees, and arrival numbers will be tightly controlled by the government.
To achieve this, we will:
• Reform refugee sponsorship to give voluntary and community sector organisations a greater role in resettlement through named sponsorship, within caps set by government.
• Introduce a capped route for refugee and displaced students to study in the UK, helping talented refugees to continue their studies, realise their potential and be able to return to their country and help rebuild it as soon as circumstances allow.
• Establish a capped route for skilled refugees and displaced people to come to the UK for work, building on the experience of the Displaced Talent Mobility Pilot.
Our intention is that those arriving on the reformed resettlement routes will be on the ten-year route to settlement. However, this will be subject to wider consultation.