theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-07)

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Mike Wood:To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has issued guidance on policing announcements during the pre-election purdah period. \p Ms Abena Oppong-Asare: The Cabinet Office published guidance on conduct for civil servants during the pre-election period on 20 March. The guidance includes advice on government announcements during the pre-election period

The guidance can be found here:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/election-guidance-for-civil-servants
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Mr Richard Holden:To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the actual attendance of civil servants in the office as a proportion of assigned workforce to each government building. \p Georgia Gould: Central data on Civil Service Headquarters (HQ) occupancy is collected and published quarterly on GOV.UK for all HQ buildings of Whitehall Departments, Office for Scotland, Office for Wales and Northern Ireland Office. The latest data for the period January to March 2025 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-hq-occupancy-data. No other central information on occupancy data is gathered.
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Daisy Cooper:To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March to Question 34653 on Royal Mail: Workplace Pensions, how many of the 906 retirees effected by tax free lump sum overpayments in 2024 have been offered (a) compensation or (b) a reduction in repayment. \p Georgia Gould: The scheme administrator, Capita, has not compensated or agreed a reduction of payment figures for any of the 906 cases affected by overpayments.

However, the scheme administrator has taken steps to support these members. This includes arranging monthly deductions to be taken from the member’s pension in payment where they were unable to repay their overpayment in full. Affected members are also able to contact Capita to discuss alternative repayment arrangements using the helpline number or dedicated email address.
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Daisy Cooper:To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March to Question 34653 on Royal Mail: Workplace Pensions, what the total value of the 906 tax free lump sum overpayments in 2024 was. \p Georgia Gould: The total value of the overpayments in relation to the 906 lump sums miscalculated in 2024 is £1,325,340.78.

The Cabinet Office has worked closely with the scheme administrator, Capita, to review all other processes in relation to the administration of the scheme, to ensure that they are documented and accurately reflect the contractual requirements and scheme rules, to deliver the best possible service to members and minimise errors.
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Mr Richard Holden:To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled Public Bodies Handbook – Part 2: The Approvals Process for the Creation of New Arm’s-Length Bodies, whether his Department's public bodies team assessed the Independent Football Regulator against the requirement that the creation of a new arm's length body should only be considered as a last resort; whether the Department for Culture, Media and Sport provided evidence that alternative delivery models were considered; and which of the three tests in Chapter 2 of that guidance Independent Football Regulator met. \p Georgia Gould: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is currently working through the approval process to establish the Independent Football Regulator as an Arm’s Length Body, in parallel to the passage of the Football Governance Bill.
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Preet Kaur Gill:To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many deaths by suicide were recorded among Sikhs in each of the last five years. \p Georgia Gould: The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon lady’s Parliamentary Question of 28th April is attached.

PQ 48498 (pdf, 111.3KB)
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Mr Richard Holden:To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reason the public appointment process for the (a) Advisory Committee on Business Appointments and (b) House of Lords Appointments Commission members has been cancelled. \p Georgia Gould: Ministers exercised their rights under the Governance Code on Public Appointments not to appoint any candidates for the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments Chair role. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster informed the Chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) of his decision on 27 February 2025. The letter is available on PACAC’s website: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/46905/documents/242018/default/

The outcome of the appointment process for Independent Members to the House of Lords Appointments Commission will be announced once that process has concluded.
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Mr Richard Holden:To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the new Civil Service Jobs service will be open to the public. \p Georgia Gould: There will be no change to what information and services will be open to the public when the new Civil Service Jobs platform is in place.
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Mr Richard Holden:To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an estimate of the average number of days for a write-round clearance to be approved by the (a) Parliamentary Business and Legislation Committee and (b) Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat since 5 July 2024. \p Georgia Gould: The principle of collective responsibility requires that the privacy of ministerial discussions at Cabinet and its committees should be maintained. It is therefore a long-established precedent that information relating to the proceedings of Cabinet and its committees, including decisions reached via correspondence, is not normally shared publicly.
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Daisy Cooper:To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March to Question 34653 on Royal Mail: Workplace Pensions, how many of the 906 overpayments of tax free lump sums in 2024 have been resolved by (a) payment in full, (b) part payment as full settlement or (c) written off. \p Georgia Gould: Out of the 906 miscalculated overpayments in 2024, in respect of the second bite overpayment (742 members) we can confirm that 248 overpayments have been recovered in full; 494 are in recovery by way of monthly deductions to their pension, and 4 members have yet to have their recovery method agreed, and there is ongoing correspondence to finalise this.

In addition, all 160 duplicate pension increase members are in recovery. Where members were unable to return the overpayment in full, monthly deductions from their pension were put in place. There were no part payments or payments written off.
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Mr Richard Holden:To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2024 to Question 13820 on Government Departments: Staff, if he will publish the transparency publication guidance referred to in the Answer. \p Ms Abena Oppong-Asare: The transparency publication guidance is a technical document, focusing on the procedures for completing the publication template. As it is not policy-related, and is intended for use by an internal audience, it would not be appropriate to publish it.
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James Cartlidge:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2025 to Question 44502 on Puma Helicopters: Decommissioning, whether he plans to provide an interim capability for Brunei between 7 April 2025 and 7 April 2026 for non-UK SF training. \p Luke Pollard: Mitigations against jungle training in Brunei are in place. The six Airbus H145 HC2 Jupiter helicopters will deploy and commence operational activity in 2026.
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Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps the Government is taking to (a) invest in and (b) develop advanced defence technologies to enhance the United Kingdom's military capabilities; and how these technologies are being integrated into current and future defence strategies. \p Maria Eagle: The Government launched the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) on 16 July 2024 to ensure we have the military capabilities needed to protect the United Kingdom now and in the future.

The SDR has been considering all aspects of Defence, including the capabilities required by UK Defence to meet the challenges, threats, and opportunities of the twenty-first century.

As the Prime Minister reported in his Statement on Defence and Security on 25 February 2025 (columns 631-634) in the House of Commons, the Strategic Defence Review is being finalised and it will be brought to house as soon as it is ready. It will help set the path for Britain's defence for the next decade.
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Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to (a) implement the objectives of Pillar Two of the AUKUS partnership and (b) increase collaboration on (i) artificial intelligence, (ii) quantum technologies, (iii) cyber and (iv) other advanced capabilities. \p Maria Eagle: The UK remains staunchly committed to AUKUS. Working with Australia and the US, we are committed to addressing the most important military challenges each nation faces, delivering cutting-edge capability advantage, and enhancing interoperability.

We have set the International Joint Requirements Oversight Council (I-JROC) as the primary body to inform AUKUS Pillar Two’s focus on operational requirements most relevant to deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. This allows us to prioritise joint efforts where our capability needs align.

The UK works with US and Australian colleagues on a range of capability areas including artificial intelligence & autonomy, quantum, cyber, undersea warfare, electronic warfare, hypersonics and counter-hypersonics, and innovation.
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Mr Mark Francois:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many test flights the first E-7 Wedgetail aircraft has successfully completed. \p Maria Eagle: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave on 28 January 2025 to Question 25383 to the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Johanna Baxter).

Boeing E-7: Procurement (docx, 29.1KB)
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Max Wilkinson:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department made of the potential impact of the use of Chinese-made drones to survey critical national infrastructure sites on cybersecurity. \p Luke Pollard: The Ministry of Defence takes the security of all its assets very seriously, but we do not comment on details as these could be useful to potential adversaries.
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James Naish:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to reduce the duration of the recruitment process for the Royal Air Force. \p Luke Pollard: The current Government inherited a crisis in recruitment and retention from the last administration but are taking steps to address it.

Since June 2024, the recruitment timeline for Enlisted Aviator entrants has reduced by over 10 per cent and work is ongoing to reduce this further to ensure applicants have a positive candidate experience.

The Royal Air Force (RAF) candidate recruitment journey has been improved by an overhaul of the RAF recruitment website and portal, process improvements such as the streamlining of eligibility checks and aptitude assessments, and the introduction of the digital exchange of medical information with civilian GPs.
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Andrew Rosindell:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has taken recent steps to increase naval co-operation between the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy. \p Luke Pollard: The Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy have strengthened their naval cooperation through joint exercises, personnel exchanges, and collaborative projects such as the deployment of HMCS Ville de Quebec with the Carrier Strike Group and the development of the Global Combat Ship platform.
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James Cartlidge:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 23 April to Question 45049 on Military Strategic Headquarters: Armed Forces, whether posts  will be (a) rotational, (b) competitive and (c) divided between the services to be filled by their own boarding procedures. \p Luke Pollard: It is too early to specify the staffing requirements and representation levels for the four new areas of Defence created by Defence Reform: Department of State, Defence Nuclear Enterprise, National Armaments Director Group, and Military Strategic Headquarters (MSHQ). Head Office responsibilities have been subsumed into the new structure, and Strategic Command is part of MSHQ.

However, Service personnel apportionment and representation will be balanced to ensure effective strategic direction, policy formulation, and coordination of joint capabilities and operations. It is anticipated that this continue to apply in new structure through a combination of rotation, competition-based appointments, and individual Service boarding procedures to ensure career progression and suitably qualified individuals.
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James Cartlidge:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any non-SF training will take place in Brunei between 28 April 2025 and 28 April 2026. \p Luke Pollard: The Jungle Warfare Division delivers two Jungle Warfare Instructors Courses per year and two Operational Tracking Instructor Courses per year in Brunei for military training. Since 5 July 2024, the Jungle Warfare Division has delivered four courses.

Alongside units training in Brunei, the Jungle Training Courses delivered by the Jungle Warfare Division often involve cohorts of service personnel drawn from multiple units across Defence, sometimes in small numbers. It is therefore not possible to list all the units represented as this information isn’t held centrally.
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James Cartlidge:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 10 April 2025 to Question 43141 on Armed Forces: Grants, whether members of the University Officer Training Corps count as service personnel. \p Al Carns: Members of the University Officer Training Corps (UOTC) are entitled to apply for bursaries in order to support them through university, helping them reach their full potential.

UOTC cadets are primarily civilian university students who have volunteered for a leadership development programme alongside their studies. Whilst they undertake military training and have a formal association with the Army, they remain prospective entrants and are not considered established Service personnel with a regular or reserve commitment.

This status means they are eligible to apply for bursaries as they are still classed as applicants to join the Armed Forces. This is reflected in the Army Commissioning Regulations which explicitly lists UOTC cadets as eligible applicants.
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Anna Sabine:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the efficiency of Veterans UK in processing injured veterans' claims. \p Al Carns: I regularly meet the Chief Executive of Defence Business Services, most recently on 29 April 2025 to discuss performance and related issues. The average clearance times for Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) and War Pension Scheme (WPS) claims are currently higher than target, and we are focused on bringing these down. I am pleased to say volumes and clearance times of AFCS claims have begun to fall.

The digitalisation and consolidation of claimants' data from hardcopy records and the thirty-year-old legacy database into a single, whole-scheme IT system will lead to improving long-term efficiency and service delivery for Serving personnel, Veterans and their dependants. However, this has unfortunately led in the short term to disruptions processing claims during the transition period, and officials are working hard to clear the backlog.

Whilst we continue to make every effort to improve processing times, some aspects such as requirements to obtain supporting evidence from third parties outside the department can contribute to longer processing times.
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Anna Sabine:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department plans to increase the amount of support it provides to injured veterans. \p Al Carns: This is a Government of service that will always stand up for those who serve our country. I am working across Government and with civil society to ensure Veterans get access to the health, housing, employment and other support they need. This year, we will set out our plans for Veterans in our updated Veterans’ Strategy. This Government will always stand up for those who have served our country.

Veterans who are resident in England can access specialist care for physical and mental health conditions via Op RESTORE and Op COURAGE respectively. Alternative provision is available in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as responsibility for health is devolved.

Veterans UK, which is part of the Ministry of Defence, provides free support for Veterans and their families, including a helpline, Veterans Welfare Service, Defence Transition Services and injury/bereavement compensation scheme payments.

The Ministry of Defence runs two main compensation schemes – Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and War Pension Scheme. Both Schemes provide compensation for injury or illness caused by Service. Eligible Veterans are entitled to make a claim, the details of which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-armed-forces-compensation-or-a-war-pension
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Alberto Costa:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of trends in the level of homelessness among armed forces veterans; and what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help prevent veterans from becoming homeless after leaving the military. \p Al Carns: This is a Government that will always stand up for those who serve our country. I am working across Government to ensure veterans across the UK have access to the support they need on housing, as well as health, employment and other areas.

In November 2024 the Prime Minister announced an additional £3.5 million for the cross-UK Reducing Veterans Homelessness Programme, including Op FORTITUDE. This is in addition to the reforms which mean that veterans are now exempt from local connection and residency tests when applying for social housing in England.

This Government has removed local connection requirements for veterans applying for social housing, ensuring that those who have served our nation can access housing where they choose to.

We are taking a cross-Government approach to tackling homelessness more broadly, developing a strategy alongside Mayors and Councils across the country, to put Britain back on track to ending homelessness. I attend the regular meetings chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister to represent veterans in the formulation of this strategy.

Finally, the Defence Housing Strategy will turbocharge the development of surplus military land, supporting the delivery of affordable homes for families across Britain as part of the government’s Plan for Change.

Through these measures, the Government is ensuring that homes will be there for heroes.
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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, in what location the 36,347 houses reacquired in January 2025 are. \p Al Carns: The number of Service Family Accommodation (SFA) properties by location reacquired from Annington Property Limited in January 2025 are shown in the following table:

UK Region

Annington SFA pre-January 2025

East Midlands

2,336

Eastern

4,713

London

1,597

North East

365

North West

504

Northern Ireland

0

Scotland

0

South East

12,311

South West

9,341

Wales

778

West Midlands

1,590

Yorkshire and the Humber

2,812

Total

36,347
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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the complete list is of surplus military land in scope for development under the Defence Housing Strategy. \p Al Carns: A list of surplus military land in scope for development is currently not held.

As announced by the Defence Secretary, Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister earlier this year, the Ministry of Defence is undertaking a review of development opportunities on military land as part of a cross-Government, taskforce-led initiative. The Defence Housing Strategy review is complementing this work and will report later this year.
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James Cartlidge:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he plans to publish his Department's next Equipment Plan. \p Maria Eagle: The Government is committed to sharing more detail of the Ministry of Defence's future investment choices following the Strategic Defence Review. The format this takes is being assessed in light of both Defence Reform and the upcoming Strategic Defence Review publication. As the Permanent Secretary set out in his letter of 12 March 2025to the Chairs of the Public Accounts Committee and Defence Select Committee, one of the options under consideration is reporting on defence investment more widely, rather than continue with the Equipment Plan in its previous format.
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Mr Mark Francois:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) acquisition, (b) modification, (c) training and (d) infrastructure development costs are of each of the E-7 Wedgetail aircraft. \p Maria Eagle: The whole life costs of the E7 programme are subject to approval by His Majesty's Government and cannot be confirmed until this process concludes.
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Mr Mark Francois:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the status is of the (a) modification and (b) integration processes for the second and third E-7 Wedgetail aircraft. \p Maria Eagle: The modification of the second and third E-7 Wedgetail aircraft continues.

The second Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array (MESA) radar is fitted to aircraft two and the third MESA is on site and scheduled to be fitted in June 2025.
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Mr Mark Francois:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any issues have been reported to his Department on the Ajax armoured vehicle’s ability to fire on the move. \p Maria Eagle: No issues have been reported; the Ajax armoured vehicle’s ability to fire on the move has been successfully demonstrated.
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Mr Mark Francois:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Ajax armoured vehicle programme has completed its full safety case. \p Maria Eagle: Yes. Full safety cases are in place for all Ajax variants.
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Navendu Mishra:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help protect migrant social care workers from (a) substandard accommodation, (b) non-payment of wages, (c) contracts containing repayment clauses and (d) other exploitative employment relationships. \p Seema Malhotra: The Government condemns the exploitation of international care workers by rogue employers in the adult social care sector and continues to take robust action against this unscrupulous behaviour.

We have recently implemented a prohibition on Skilled Worker sponsors recouping sponsorship costs from those they sponsor, and those doing so now risk losing their licence.

Sponsor licences can also be revoked if workers are not paid correctly and on 9 April we further clarified our Skilled Worker salary assessment rules to make clear that sponsors cannot inflate wages by including loans for the worker’s immigration application.

We are also working to ensure sponsorship and employment systems are more strongly aligned.
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Gregory Stafford:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Electronic Travel Authorisation scheme on the number of trade visitors from the EU entering the UK. \p Seema Malhotra: Electronic travel authorisations (ETAs) have been introduced to enhance our ability to screen travellers upstream and stop those who pose a threat from travelling to the UK. In addition, by knowing more about people in advance of travel our ambition is to increase automation of passenger clearance at the border. This will improve the end-to-end experience for legitimate passengers and promote the UK as a top destination for tourism and business passengers. The experience of other countries to have implemented similar schemes (such as the USA) gives us confidence that volumes of business visitors will not be negatively impacted.

The application is quick and light-touch, and many applications are decided within minutes. Since the scheme’s introduction until the end of 2024, over 1.1 million ETAs have been granted.

The Home Office published an initial impact assessment on the introduction of ETAs, and a further Impact Assessment was published alongside the Fee Regulations in March that increased the chargeable ETA fee (alongside other fees) - The Immigration, Nationality and Passport (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2025.
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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding her Department has provided to (a) Respect, (b) Galop, (c) SignHealth and (d) Hourglass in each of the last three financial years; and how much it will provide in 2025-26. \p Jess Phillips: The table below outlines funding allocated by the Home Office to these organisations for tackling violence against women and girls. The table covers the 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years. Funding for these organisations in this financial year (2025-26) is subject to final commercial approvals and will be announced soon.

Name of organisation

FY2022-23 Allocation

FY2023-24 Allocation

FY2024-25 Allocation

(a) Respect

£350,000

£440,585

£440,000

(b) Galop

£348,000

£348,000

£520,000

(c) SignHealth

£125,000

£824,984

£895,580

(d) Hourglass

£50,000

£361,109

£432,121

Total

£873,000

£1,974,678

£2,287,701
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Lisa Smart:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with refugee charities on the potential merits of creating greater flexibility for the collection of biometric information for people seeking refugee family reunion. \p Seema Malhotra: The Home Office keeps all aspects of the immigration system under regular review, in consultation with a wide range of experts and stakeholders.
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Martin Wrigley:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2025 to Question 45216 on Visas: Ukraine, if she will take steps to ensure financial reasons are not used as a factor when deciding to give Ukrainians indefinite leave to remain. \p Seema Malhotra: The UK continues to provide Ukrainian nationals and their family members, where they qualify, a specific route so that they are able to seek sanctuary in the UK. Permission to stay in the UK under the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme provides entitlements to access work, benefits, healthcare, and education. Furthermore, those eligible to apply are not required to pay an application fee or the immigration health surcharge.

The Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme is not a route to settlement. These measures are consistent with our respectful wishes of the Government of Ukraine that its citizens will eventually return to Ukraine to help rebuild the country.

It is open to anyone on the Ukraine schemes to switch to any route to settlement within the Immigration Rules for which they qualify. It is fair that rules on other routes such as family or work routes that lead to settlement apply to all nationalities. This includes the financial requirements of the family rules and the salary requirements of work routes which must still be met at the point of settlement.
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Suella Braverman:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the UK's membership of the ECHR on its capacity to control proscribed terrorist organisations. \p Dan Jarvis: Section 4 of the Terrorism Act 2000 provides that any organisation or person affected by a proscription order can submit a signed, written application to the Home Secretary requesting that they consider whether a specified organisation should be removed from the list of proscribed organisations.

These processes have operated in a functional way since the legislation was originally introduced, and there are no current plans to change them.
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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) neighbourhood police officers and (b) police community support officers there were as of (i) 5 July 2024 and (ii) 1 April 2025. \p Dame Diana Johnson: The Home Office collects information on the number of officers, PCSOs and staff on a biannual basis, as at 31 March and 30 September each year.

The latest information on the number of police officers and PCSOs in England and Wales covers the situation as at 30 September 2024, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-england-and-wales-30-september-2024

The latest information on the number of neighbourhood police officers covers the situation as at 31 March 2024, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/provisional-revision-to-neighbourhood-policing-data-at-31-march-2024.

The Home Office does not hold data on the number of neighbourhood police officers or PCSOs as at 5 July 2024 or 1 April 2025.

The next release of ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, which will cover information on the number of neighbourhood officers and PCSOs in post as at 31 March 2025 is due to be published in July 2025.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 April 2025 to Question 44484 on Travellers: Caravan Sites, whether her Department considered (a) appealing the judgement and (b) bringing forward legislative proposals to reverse it. \p Dame Diana Johnson: We are carefully considering the judgment issued by the High Court in May 2024.

The letter was sent by the NPCC.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-07)

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Lizzi Collinge:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to resume decision-making on applications for indefinite leave to remain from Syrian nationals resettled under the Community Sponsorship Scheme. \p Dame Angela Eagle: Following the fall of the Assad regime, the Home Office withdrew the Country Policy Information Notes and guidance relating to Syria and has temporarily paused all asylum interviews and decisions.

Settlement Protection applications from Syrian nationals are also subject to the pause, and this includes indefinite leave to remain applications from Syrian nationals resettled under the Community Sponsorship Scheme.

The decision to pause was, and remains, a necessary step. As long as there is no stable, objective information on which to base an accurate assessment of a claimant’s risk on return to Syria, we are unable to make robust, reliable decisions on claims for international protection.

Settlement in the UK is a privilege, not an automatic right. Given the need for protection may be temporary, a safe return review is carried out on every application for settlement on a protection route to determine and confirm the need for protection is continuing.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-07)

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Alex Sobel:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to Answer of 2 April 2025 to Question 41188 on Crossbows, what her Department's planned timetable is for publishing the (a) Government's response to that consultation and (b) steps the Government plans to take in relation to crossbow regulation. \p Dame Diana Johnson: I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave on 28 April, Official Report Volume 766, column 26 and 27. The Government will shortly publish our response to that call for evidence and this will set out the next steps we intend to take.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-07)

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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many one-off maternity payments of £300 have been granted to asylum seekers whose baby was (a) due in 11 weeks or less and (b) under 6 months old. \p Dame Angela Eagle: The data held centrally by the Home Office on support for asylum seekers does not disaggregate payments according to the age of the children or due to the date of their mothers. However, the Home Office publishes information on overall asylum expenditure in the Home Office Annual Report all relevant payments are included in this data.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-07)

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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of people who arrived illegally via small boat since 5 July 2024 have been granted asylum. \p Dame Angela Eagle: The Home Office publishes statistics on detected small boat arrivals to the UK in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on small boat arrivals claiming asylum and the outcomes of these asylum claims, by arrival year and quarter, is published in tables Irr_D02 and Irr_D03 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’, with the latest data up to the end of December 2024. Data up to the end of March 2025 will be published on 22 May 2025.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-07)

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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 2 April 2025 to Question 41060 on Asylum: Temporary Accommodation, with which local authorities her Department is working. \p Dame Angela Eagle: The Home Office works with all local authorities, devolved administrations and other stakeholders to meet our statutory obligations, and deliver our commitments to reduce overall asylum accommodation costs, and end the use of hotels over time.
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Jim Shannon:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce thefts of (a) mobile phones, (b) handbags and (c) other personal items. \p Dame Diana Johnson: Through our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee we will place thousands of additional police officers and police community support officers in neighbourhood policing roles to provide a more visible and effective service to the public, with each neighbourhood having a named, contactable officer dealing with local issues, including the theft of mobile phones, handbags and other personal items.

To tackle mobile phone theft specifically, on 6 February the Home Secretary brought together police, the National Crime Agency, the Mayor of London, leading tech companies and others to drive greater collaboration in breaking the business model of mobile phone thieves. The Summit resulted in clear commitments from attendees to work in partnership, including to significantly boost the sharing of data and intelligence on mobile phone theft to build a comprehensive picture of the problem, better understand the role of organised crime networks and identify the most effective means of tackling these crimes. As part of ongoing work on this, the Policing Minister recently met with the National Crime Agency and Border Force to consider how best they may be able to contribute to efforts to tackle this criminality.

In addition, the Crime and Policing Bill includes a measure to give police the power to enter and search premises for stolen property that has been electronically geo-location tracked to those premises, where it is not reasonably practicable to obtain a warrant without seriously prejudicing the entry and search purpose.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-07)

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Sir John Hayes:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Police Constable Degree Apprenticeships were (a) started and (b) completed in the last three years. \p Dame Diana Johnson: The Home Office does not routinely publish information on entry routes of police officers.

The Home Office published a one-off release including data on the entry routes of police officers recruited during the Police Office Uplift Programme, from 1 November 2019 to 31 March 2023, available here:

The data includes the number of police officers recruited via the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship pathway but it does not include the number of completed programmes. The Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship is one of four complementary entry routes available for forces to choose from to suit their local workforce requirements. The College of Policing is currently working with the policing sector and other partners to ensure that all police constable entry routes are as effective as they can be, to improve the experience of forces and participants and to enable streamlined, practical training with reduced cost to forces.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-07)

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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether named neighbourhood police officer coverage will be available 24 hours per day. \p Dame Diana Johnson: As the Prime Minister announced on 10 April, by July, every community will have named, and contactable officers dedicated to addressing the issues facing their communities as part of the government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. Police forces will ensure that neighbourhood policing teams spend the majority of their time in communities, providing visible patrols and engaging with local communities and businesses, providing them opportunities to raise concerns and priorities through regular beat meetings.

There will also be a guaranteed response time to neighbourhood queries of 72 hours. There will be a clear process in place for the public to seek recourse if this response time is not met.

The police are contactable 24 hours a day via force websites or by phoning 101 for non-emergency enquiries and concerns and the public should call the police on 999 in an emergency.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-07)

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Abtisam Mohamed:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that home delivery drivers are protected from abuse within the Crime and Policing Bill. \p Dame Diana Johnson: The Government is determined to tackle all forms of hate crime.

We have a robust legislative framework in place to respond to hate crimes which target race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and transgender identity, and we back the police in taking strong action against the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.

The Government funds an online hate crime reporting portal, True Vision, designed so victims of all types of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. We are also continuing to fund the National Online Hate Crime Hub, which supports individual local police forces in dealing specifically with online hate crime, providing expert advice to police to support them in investigating these abhorrent offences.

The Government is carefully considering how best to strengthen the response to hate crime going forward so we can continue to tackle this offending head on.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-07)

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Kirsty Blackman:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many posts there are for (a) press, (b) media and (c) other communications staff in her Department; and what the salary band is for each post. \p Dame Diana Johnson: In the central Home Office communications team, there are a total of 127 Full Time Equivalent Government Communication Service professionals.

Of this total, 35 work solely in the media discipline which covers press and media responsibilities.

This is the latest available data from June 2024.

Home Office salary bands are published on Gov.UK Home Office: structure and salaries, 2024 - GOV.UK
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-07)

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Suella Braverman:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of restricting access to the UK of foreign nationals who have expressed public support for proscribed terrorist organisations. \p Dan Jarvis: The Immigration Rules already provide for the refusal of entry clearance, permission to enter and permission to stay on general grounds, if there is any evidence in their background, immigration history, criminal records or past behaviour which shows that they should not be allowed to enter or stay in the UK.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-05-07)

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Natasha Irons:To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her planned timetable is for (a) decision-making and (b) funding allocation for embedded youth work in A&Es to support young victims of (i) violence and (ii) exploitation. \p Jess Phillips: Halving knife crime over the next decade is a key part of the Government’s Safer Streets mission. Prevention and early intervention to stop young people being drawn into crime is an integral part of that mission. That’s why the Government’s manifesto committed to offering young people a pathway out of violence by placing youth workers and mentors in A&E units and Alternative Provision Schools.

A&E navigator programmes are currently funded by Violence Reduction Units that are located in the areas worst affected by serious violence. These programmes place navigators, such as youth workers, in hospital emergency rooms to support children and young people with a violence-related injury and offer a pathway out of violence. We have provided £49.7m in 2025/6 for the continuation of the VRU programme, which includes provision for A&E navigators in VRU areas.

This year (25/26), we will continue to build on, and learn from, the work already underway on A&E navigators as well as working with the Youth Endowment Fund to further strengthen provision and ensure victims of violence and exploitation are supported.