Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has been made of the potential connection between vape shops and illegal activity on high streets.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Government is aware that criminal groups are deliberately exploiting apparently legitimate businesses to conceal their activities, with money laundering playing a key role in allowing these networks to operate and profit. Addressing this threat is a priority for the Government and the £30 million crackdown announced earlier this year is deliberately targeting any cash intensive business on the high street involved in criminal activity, which might include those masquerading as legitimate barber shops, vape shops, mini-marts and sweet shops etc.
The Home Office’s new High Street Organised Crime Unit is working with national and local responders to strengthen the policy and operational response in tackling high street illegality. In particular, it is working closely with HMRC and DHSC which are boosting enforcement efforts against illicit and underage tobacco and vape sales. Under the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, DHSC will consult on introducing a future retail licensing scheme for tobacco, vapes and nicotine products to strengthen enforcement and support law-abiding retailers, while tackling those who break the law.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to counter the weaponisation of illegal migration networks by hostile states.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
As a matter of longstanding policy the Government does not routinely comment on operational matters.
Questions about operational issues regarding hostile states are amongst the most sensitive national security issues that the Government manages and there are obvious limits to what can be said.
Regardless of likelihood, any possibility that a hostile state could seek to exploit illegal migration networks is taken extremely seriously and kept under continuous assessment by officials and our security partners.
That is why we are treating border security as national security, combining rigorous identity and biometric checks, with investigation and law-enforcement action wherever concerns emerge.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the police funding formula in meeting the needs of rural police forces.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The majority of public funding for police forces in England and Wales is provided by the Home Office and is agreed by the House of Commons on an annual basis at the police funding settlement. Each year the Home Office produces a Police Grant Report which is published and voted on by Parliament and contains grant funding allocations for the following year to be paid out under the Police Act 1996. The funding formula used for distributing Home Office Police Main Grant divides funds between different activities that the police undertake. A portion of total funding is also distributed according to population sparsity, to address the specific needs of rural forces. A copy of the most recent Grant Report for 2026-27 has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses and can be found online:
The Police Reform White Paper confirmed that we will review the formula once the implementation of police reform is underway so that the new formula reflects the new police force structures.
Reviewing the funding formula is an opportunity to review and update the factors that drive relative demand on modern police budgets for all forces – whether rural, urban or a blend of the two. Next steps of this review will be set out after the Independent Review of structures has reported.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what resources have been provided to the Joint Security and Resilience Centre (JSaRC) to support public-private execution of the National Security Strategy 2025.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The Joint Security and Resilience Centre (JSaRC) acts as a convening and engagement mechanism for the security industry that supports delivery of the National Security Strategy 2025.
JSaRC is staffed by 15 full-time equivalent civil servants, supported part-time by three secondees from industry. Its budget for 2026 to 2027 is £1,748,476.
These resources enable JSaRC to provide the secretariat for the Security and Resilience Growth Partnership board and to run the annual Security & Policing Exhibition.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has increased counter-terrorism policing budgets to address domestic threats.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
Funding for Counter-Terrorism Policing increased to over £1.2 billion this year (2026-27). This funds a range of capabilities, as well as approximately 800 live investigations, which allows policing to respond swiftly and decisively to domestic, hostile state and international terrorist threats.
As part of the recently announced National Policing Response to Antisemitism (14 July 2026, HCWS246), Counter-Terrorism Policing will receive a further £59 million over the next three years to provide further security to vulnerable communities, places and people.
We do not disclose specific breakdowns of funding for security reasons.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how law enforcement agencies are being equipped to tackle AI-generated deepfakes and automated cybercrime operations.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
I can assure that the government takes AI enabled crime and cybercrime very seriously and will continue to take the necessary steps to protect the public and support victims.
The Home Office has established the Police AI Threat Hub (PATH), as part of PoliceAI, to help build a consistent national response across local policing to the criminal misuse of AI.
PATH brings together expertise from across policing and partner organisations to develop and share good practice, and strengthen the response to emerging threats, including AI-generated deepfakes.
Through the Crime and Policing Act 2026, the Government banned the making and supply of deepfake intimate image generators, often known as nudification apps.
To tackle cybercrime the Home Office works with our partners across Government and law enforcement, including the National Crime Agency, National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Policing, to tackle all cyber threats. This includes Home Office funding for Regional Cyber Crime Units (RCCUs) across England and Wales, tasked with investigating and pursuing serious cyber offenders conducting crime committed in, or against, the UK. Since 2017, in partnership with local Police and Crime Commissioners, the Home Office has also directly funded a national network of local specialist officers trained to investigate cybercrime and support local communities in efforts to prevent crimes that occur online.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle illicit activity on the high street.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
In May, the Government announced a £30 million crackdown targeting illicit cash intensive businesses such as barber shops, vape stores, mini-marts and sweet shops operating on our high streets, over three years. This includes the following activities:
- £20 million in funding towards an enhanced law enforcement response, including establishing a new multi-agency coordination cell based in the National Crime Agency.
- Police officers are being uplifted across forces in hotspot regions (Greater Manchester Police, West Midlands Police, and a joint Kent Police and Essex Police Unit).
- Trading Standards will also be backed with £6 million in new funding to bolster the response to sham businesses in at-risk local authorities. New officer training will be rolled out to identify suspicious businesses, strengthen business compliance and boost enforcement.
- A new cross-government High Street Organised Crime Unit has also been established to bring together government departments, policing partners and Trading Standards. The unit is responsible for identifying what more is needed – from stronger powers to better coordination – to stop this criminal activity from happening in the first place. On that front, the Government has already announced plans to double the duration of closure orders and plans are underway to introduce secondary legislation to that effect in the coming months.
- The remainder of the funding is split between HMRC and immigration enforcement.
This work builds upon operational activity, Operation MACHINIZE, led by the National Crime Agency in conjunction with the National Police Chief’s Council, which, since March 2025, has led to over 3,000 high street premises suspected of criminality having been visited and nearly 1,000 individuals arrested.
This Government is committed to tackling high street crime and the selling of illegal goods and we will continue to work with the NCA, regional and local policing, and other key stakeholders to disrupt the highest harm organised crime groups who operate these illegal businesses and cause harm within our communities.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what specific measures are being taken to harden critical national infrastructure against sub-threshold attacks.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The Government's first responsibility is to keep the country safe, and strengthening the resilience of the UK's Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) is a key element of our National Security Strategy and wider domestic resilience agenda. The Government is taking a range of measures to strengthen CNI against the full spectrum of threats, including sub-threshold activity.
The Government's 2025 Resilience Action Plan sets out an ‘all-hazards approach’ to building national resilience, including for CNI, and is supported by the National Security Strategy, Strategic Defence Review and 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy.
We work closely with CNI operators to improve security, preparedness and resilience across all CNI sectors. We have carried out a range of work to build awareness of the threats we face and the steps that businesses can take to strengthen their security and resilience. As part of this, we recently announced that the Security Minister will chair a threat briefing with industry bodies representing CNI.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what action she is taking to help improve the availability of domestic abuse services in rural areas.
Answered by Natalie Fleet
Every victim of violence against women and girls (VAWG), whether in a city or a rural village, should be able to access the help they need. In the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy, we committed to reform how victim’s services are commissioned to ensure that support is consistent, delivers what victims and survivors need, and is fit for purpose. To support this transformation, we will deliver a new national commissioning statement to replace the current National Statement of Expectations and VAWG Commissioning Toolkit. This statement will provide clear definitions of ‘by-and-for' and specialist services, helping commissioners allocate funding more effectively and support local areas to tailor their provision to their local communities, including rural victims.
On 15th June, we launched two new competitions to shape the future delivery of helplines and advocacy services. These initiatives are designed to strengthen and expand access to vital support for victims of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) across England and Wales, ensuring help is available to victims in their time of greatest need, regardless of location. We will share further updates on the outcomes of these competitions in due course.
Last year, the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) commenced a call for evidence across a network of rural stakeholders to inform our understanding of the availability of support services and effective practice to provide support in rural areas. This research will help to confront the disparities in the provision and inform our future work to address the disparities of provision.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
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 changes in the number of police officers on trends in the level of crime in rural areas.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Decisions on the deployment of police officers and resourcing are matters for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners, who are best placed to determine how to respond to local need, including in rural communities. The Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee has delivered named, contactable officers in every neighbourhood (including rural neighbourhoods) who are dedicated to addressing local issues. More than 3,000 additional neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs are now in neighbourhood policing roles across England and Wales, strengthening visible policing.
In relation to rural crime, the Government is supporting action against rural crime, including through tougher measures to tackle equipment theft and by providing funding to specialist units such as the National Rural Crime Unit and National Wildlife Crime Unit, supporting policing in disrupting serious and organised crime groups, which pose unique challenges for policing in large and isolated rural areas.