Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what tasks crewed police helicopters can do that drones cannot.

The Home Office provided £10.6m to NPAS in FY2025/26. In addition, the Home Office has committed £34.5m to NPAS to support the replacement of 7 helicopters. For further information on annual grant information for NPAS, the Government via the Cabinet Office is committed to publish grant data on an annual basis for schemes and programmes that are funded by the Government, including the NPAS Capital Grant. This can be accessed on the Cabinet Office website under 'Government grant data and statistics'.

The procurement, operational deployment and recording of data on police use of drones and crewed aircraft are operational matters for police forces, who are best placed to assess their own operational needs while ensuring they have the tools necessary to protect the public. The Home Office does not hold information on the proportion of drones registered by the CAA.

The Home Office is currently funding and supporting the work of the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s (NPCC) Drones Programme, who were allocated £2.3m in FY2025/26. The programme is responsible for standardising and professionalising the use of drones across UK police forces. This includes developing a bespoke training and accreditation pathway for police drone operators as well as working with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to provide the necessary oversight on the safety aspects of police drone operations.

Drones and helicopters are complimentary to one another, not interchangeable. Drones are valuable for close‑range, localised tasks, but may not always replace the speed, persistence, capacity and safety assurance of a helicopter. However, this is subject to ongoing research and analysis, continuously evolving as technology advances.

The Home Office is currently working with NPAS and the NPCC Drones Programme to assess, compare and evaluate the benefits and cost-effectiveness of crewed and uncrewed technologies for operational policing and how this will support development of a future blended fleet model for police aviation, in line with the NPCC Aviation Strategy (2025-2035).

In addition, the Government takes national and cyber security extremely seriously and regularly reviews risks, including from Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) which includes drones. The National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) have issued guidance for security professionals across public and private sector organisations on the appropriate security measures which should be taken to manage potential security risks via UAS technologies, including drones. In line with existing guidance, the NPCC Drones Programme is currently undertaking a review on the data and security risk implications associated with police use of drones.