Home Office

All asylum and human rights claims including those based on sexual orientation and gender identity are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with our international obligations. Each individual assessment is made against the background of relevant case law and the latest available country of origin information. This is 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 & Development Office. Our assessment of the situation of a given group in a given country, is set out in the relevant country policy and information note, which is available on Country policy and information notes - GOV.UK.

When someone applies for settlement, we review the situation in their country to assess whether they still need protection. Those who no longer need protection can return home in safety or apply to stay under other provisions of the Immigration Rules.

We will not remove anyone to any country where they will face persecution or serious harm.

All asylum and human rights claims including those based on sexual orientation and gender identity are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with our international obligations. Each individual assessment is made against the background of relevant case law and the latest available country of origin information. This is 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 & Development Office. Our assessment of the situation of a given group in a given country, is set out in the relevant country policy and information note, which is available on Country policy and information notes - GOV.UK.

When someone applies for settlement, we review the situation in their country to assess whether they still need protection. Those who no longer need protection can return home in safety or apply to stay under other provisions of the Immigration Rules.

We will not remove anyone to any country where they will face persecution or serious harm.

The UK-France pilot has already been put into action meaning that anyone entering the UK on a small boat can be detained on arrival and returned to France.

On 17 November 2025 ‘Restoring Order and Control: A statement on the government’s asylum and returns policy’ was published on .GOV.UK. This statement sets out that we will increase removals form the UK, impose visa penalties with countries who do not cooperate with us on returns, incentivise family returns, and sanctions for non-cooperation; consult on ending indefinite support for failed asylum seeking families; and explore safe third-country hubs for those who cannot quickly return to their country of origin.

We will also make changes to the appeal system to expedite returns and seek to reform the application of Articles 3 and 8 of the ECHR to remove barriers to return.

The Government is working at pace on the legislative and policy changes required and will set out timelines for implementation in due course.

Transport services for asylum seekers are provided through our Asylum Accommodation & Support Contracts. We pay a fixed rate for transportation services which is set out in the contracts. Our suppliers must deliver transportation requirements in line with contractual standards and the fixed rate – with the type of transportation determined by our suppliers within this framework. Information on spend by specific transportation types is therefore not readily available.

Transport services for asylum seekers are provided through our Asylum Accommodation & Support Contracts. We pay a fixed rate for transportation services which is set out in the contracts. Our suppliers must deliver transportation requirements in line with contractual standards and the fixed rate – with the type of transportation determined by our suppliers within this framework. Information on spend by specific transportation types is therefore not readily available.

The Home Office does not publicly publish grant payment levels by local authority, we do however provide funding to Local Authorities under the following grant agreements Asylum, Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking children & former unaccompanied asylum-seeking children Care Leavers.

Please see the link below to the relevant Funding Instructions:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unaccompanied-asylum-seeking-children-uasc-grant-instructions

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-dispersal-grant-funding-instruction/funding-instruction-for-local-authorities-asylum-grant-2025-2026

Guidance is provided to officials on how to answer Parliamentary Questions within the Home Office.

The Cabinet Office's Guide to Parliamentary Work sets out the timelines and standards that departments should seek to meet. This can be found here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/111

The official set up dates are as follows:

a) The Jermain Baker Inquiry: 12 February 2020

b) The Manchester Arena Inquiry: 22 October 2019

c) The Anthony Grainger Inquiry: 17 March 2016

This government is committed to upholding the right to peaceful protest as well as balancing the need to protect the life of a community in the development of public order legislation. The right to peaceful protest is a vital part of our democracy, and people are free to gather and express their views, provided they do so within the law.

The government has published a human rights memorandum on the measures in the Crime and Policing Bill, here: ECHRMemo.pdf

The memorandum provides a detailed consideration of each provision’s compatibility with Convention rights.

An equalities impact assessment for these measures in the Bill will be published in due course, this will assess the potential impact of the measures on those with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, including age.

This government is committed to upholding the right to peaceful protest as well as balancing the need to protect the life of a community in the development of public order legislation. The right to peaceful protest is a vital part of our democracy, and people are free to gather and express their views, provided they do so within the law.

The government has published a human rights memorandum on the measures in the Crime and Policing Bill, here: ECHRMemo.pdf

The memorandum provides a detailed consideration of each provision’s compatibility with Convention rights.

An equalities impact assessment for these measures in the Bill will be published in due course, this will assess the potential impact of the measures on those with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010, including age.

The Home Office works closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s to address any concerns about information sharing between the department and police forces.

Following the horrific attack on a synagogue in Manchester on 2 October, the Home Secretary launched an independent review of public order and hate crime legislation on 5 October. The Review will be led by Lord Ken Macdonald KC of River Glaven, supported by former Assistant Chief Constable Owen Weatherill

The review will ensure police powers remain fit for purpose, are used consistently, and strike the right balance between the right to freedom of expression and peaceful protest, and the need to prevent disorder and keep communities safe.

The review is engaging directly with stakeholders and experts across a full range of sectors, faith groups and perspectives. The panel has not been asked to consider the Government’s proposed definition of Islamophobia, but it will be open to the independent chair of the review to determine the extent to which he might wish to do so in order to meet the terms of reference for the review.

a) The Anthony Grainger Inquiry published its report on 11 July 2019.

b) The Litvinenko Inquiry published its final report on 21 January 2016.

c) The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) closed under section 14 of the Inquiries Act on 31 March 2023.

The Government is clear that visible policing is essential to restoring public confidence in the police. To support this aim, for 2025/26, £376.8 million will be available to forces to support officer numbers. This funding will be distributed as follows:

• £270.1 million will be ringfenced funding, which PCCs will be able to access, as in previous years, by demonstrating that they have met their officer headcount targets.

• £106.7 million will be paid to forces who received additional recruitment allocations in 2023/24 and 2024/25. This funding will be provided as an additional recruitment top up grant. It will be unconditional, and the funding distributed according to how much additional recruitment forces were allocated.

The retention of police officers is a priority for the Home Office and the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Experienced officers are incredibly valuable which is why forces should be using effective evidence-based strategies to manage retention and progression of existing officers. Voluntary resignations rates for police officers remain low at 3.2% compared to other sectors.

As at 31 March 2025, 90.3% of police officers worked in frontline roles (including visible operational frontline and non-visible frontline roles; excluding National Policing, unknown, and ‘Other’ functions), the same proportion as the previous year.

Forces are operationally independent, and the deployment of officers remains an operational decision for Chief Constables.

The Home Office has regular discussions with the police and other partners on protecting retail workers and tackling shop theft.

The Home Office and Department for Business and Trade recently held a joint meeting of the Retail Crime Forum and Retail Sector Council, attended by representatives from policing and the retail sector, which included discussion on the ‘Tackling Retail Crime Together Strategy’. The strategy was jointly developed by the police and industry and aims to provide a collaborative and evidence-based approach to preventing retail crime, including abuse and violence against retail workers.

Through the Crime and Policing Bill, we are bringing in a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores. We are also removing the legislation which makes shop theft of and below £200 a summary-only offence, sending a clear message that any level of shop theft is illegal and will be taken seriously.

The Home Office launched a public consultation on 04/12/2025 on the use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies.

The responses received will inform the creation of a bespoke legal framework and oversight for the use of biometric, facial recognition and similar technologies.

One aspect the consultation looks at is the oversight of biometric data storage and retention across law enforcement agencies.

We have made £200 million available in 2025/26 to support the first steps towards delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of this parliament, including up to 3000 additional neighbourhood officers by the end of March 2026.

The Government has committed to publishing neighbourhood policing numbers every six months to align with the official police workforce statistics, with the next update due at the end of January 2026 setting out the numbers in neighbourhood policing roles as at the end of September 2025.

Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a top priority for this Government with a manifesto mission to halve VAWG in a decade. We will deliver a cross-government transformative approach to halving VAWG, underpinned by a new VAWG strategy, which we aim to publish as soon as possible.

The Home Office has invested £13.1 million this year to establish the new National Policing Centre for VAWG and Public Protection (NCVPP) to improve the police response to VAWG and child sexual abuse. The NCVPP is continuing to drive forward the transformational work of Operation Soteria ensuring officers build the strongest possible, victim-centred, suspect-focused, context-led cases.

The Home Office works closely with police forces on improving the quality of police recorded crime data, including for crimes under the VAWG heading, as well as drawing on data from the Crime Survey for England & Wales (CSEW).

The Home Office are also carefully considering the findings and recommendations from the Angiolini Inquiry's Part 2 First Report which has examined the prevention of sexually motivated crimes against women in public spaces.

The National Police Hate Crime Coordinator is Chief Constable Mark Hobrough of Gwent Police, who serves as the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Hate Crime.

We are working with the police and the automotive industry, to ensure the strongest response possible to all types of vehicle crime.

The Home Office meets regularly with the National Vehicle Crime Reduction Partnership and with industry to discuss how government can help tackle the serious problem of vehicle crime. We also support the police-led National Vehicle Crime Working Group which focusses on prevention and deterrence of theft of, and from, vehicles. This includes training police officers on the methods used to steal vehicles, encouraging vehicle owners to secure their vehicles, and working with industry to address vulnerabilities in vehicles including the theft of catalytic converters.

Additionally in the Crime and Policing Bill we are banning the electronic devices used to steal vehicles, providing a valuable tool to prevent the theft of vehicles.

The Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 was introduced to reverse an upward trend in the level of metal theft through better regulation of the metal recycling sector, making it more difficult to dispose of stolen metal including catalytic converters.

Policing and Crime Boards will bring together elected council leaders to oversee the force in their area. They are likely to include upper tier local authority council leaders as well as independent co-opted members, who will bring unique skills and expertise.

We propose that they will be supported by a Policing and Crime lead who will provide day-to-day oversight of the force. We are working closely with a range of stakeholders on the design and implementation of Policing and Crime Boards, with Transition Working Groups to commence in January.

We plan to legislate to abolish Police and Crime Commissioners and create Policing and Crime Boards, when parliamentary time allows.

The Home Office publishes information annually on the number of firearm and shotgun certificate applications refused in England and Wales in the statistical publication on firearm and shotgun certificates. The latest available data is for the year ending 31 March 2025 and can be accessed at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/firearm-certificates-in-england-and-wales

The number of firearm and shotgun certificate applications that were refused in England and Wales for the year ending 31 March 2025, as well as previous years, can be found in data tables 1 and 3.

Earlier this year, the Independent Reviewer for State Threats Legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, published a review evaluating what powers under terrorism legislation could be emulated to tackle state-based security threats to the UK. Mr Hall KC recommended introducing a State Threats Proscription-style Tool that would be effective in disrupting state-linked organisations.

Design of the tool will be informed by Mr Hall’s review and will focus on disrupting and deterring the most egregious state and proxy organisations carrying out hostile activity against the UK.

The Government are committed to taking forward this proposal as soon as Parliamentary time allows.

The specific data requested is not available in an accessible format but below are the relevant statistics taken from Border Force’s transparency data.

Of the 897,695 queue samples measured across the UK in 2025, 97.9% of queues were within Border Force’s service standards above the 95% target. These service standards are 25 mins EU/EEA and 45 mins non-EU/EEA.

For further transparency data, including 2024, please refer to the below GOV.UK link.

Migration transparency data - GOV.UK

The £15.3bn figure was cited in a NAO report from May this year, it relates to a broad estimate of spend on accommodation contracts across the period 2019 to 2029, not the next 10 years. Actual Asylum spend is published in our Annual Report and Accounts, and as per the Spending Review we are committed to bring spend down by £1.1bn a year by 28/29.

The requested data is not held centrally in a reportable format.

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.

We are committed to reducing Violence against Women and Girls.

The Immigration White Paper, published in May 2025, committed to retain safeguards to protect the vulnerable, including settlement rights for victims of domestic violence and abuse.

The current public consultation on the proposed earned settlement scheme seeks views on the proposal that vulnerable groups, including victims of domestic violence and abuse, should retain their ability to settle without being subject to a minimum qualifying period.

On 20 November, we launched a public consultation on our proposed earned settlement model.

The command paper accompanying that consultation puts forward a general requirement to have earnt at least £12,570 per annum for three years in order to settle in the UK.

The consultation directly asks for views on whether certain individuals or cohorts should be exempted from that general requirement.

Full details of the earned settlement model will be finalised following the public consultation.

UKVI does not publish data on visas sponsored by individual sponsors.

The Government’s approach is to link migration policy and visa controls to skills and labour market policies, so that immigration is not used as an alternative to training or tackling workforce problems in the UK.  This approach will be important to enabling delivery of the Government’s broader agenda.

Employers can continue to recruit workers for occupations at RQF level 6 and on the Temporary Shortage List but they will need to meet the current requirements of the Skilled Worker route.

Addressing cash-based money laundering is one of the strategic priorities of the National Economic Crime Centre, which sits within the National Crime Agency. In March 2025, the NECC led a three-week intensification campaign (Operation MACHINIZE) against barbershops and other cash intensive businesses which saw 380 premises visited, 84 warrants, 35 arrests, and the seizure of illicit goods.

This was followed by a second phase of activity (Operation MACHINIZE 2) throughout October which involved every UK police force and Regional Organised Crime Unit, Home Office Immigration Enforcement, Trading Standards, HM Revenue & Customs and Companies House. The operation saw: 2734 premises visited and raided, 924 individuals arrested, over £10.7m of suspected criminal proceeds seized and over £2.7m worth of illicit commodities destroyed.

The Home Office is working closely with partners to use the learning from this operation to build on and develop long-term solutions.

The Government supports the wider adoption of facial recognition technology across all police forces.

Although there is a legal basis for police use of facial recognition, we want to bring forward a new bespoke legal framework, to build public trust and enable the wider, responsible use of facial recognition across police forces. To help shape this, the Home Office launched a public consultation on 04/12/2025 on the use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies. The consultation responses we receive will inform the development of this new bespoke framework.

In terms of existing coverage, retrospective facial recognition is already used by all UK police forces. There are over 25,000 searches carried out each month on the Police National Database (PND) to help identify suspects after an incident or event.

Live facial recognition is used on a regular basis by some forces and is available to all forces via a small national capability made up of 10 mobile units.

The Home Office invested £12.6 million in facial recognition last year, with £2.8 million spent on national live facial recognition capabilities

This year, £6.6 million is being spent supporting the adoption, evaluation, and responsible rollout of facial recognition technology. This includes £3.9 million for the development of a new, national facial matching service.

On 21 August each year, the nation will come together in remembrance and recognition of victims and survivors of terrorism.

The National Day will acknowledge and support victims and survivors of terrorism.

The Government will continue to closely engage victims and survivors ahead the inaugural event in 2026, to shape national day plans and ensure their needs are met.

Prevent aims to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. It works to ensure that people who are susceptible to radicalisation are offered appropriate interventions and support, and that communities are protected against radicalising influences.

The number of referrals to the Prevent programme that concern children, grouped by age for the financial year 2024/25 has been published in the latest annual Prevent statistics publication: Individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent Programme, April 2024 to March 2025 - GOV.UK. Data can be found on Table 4 within the annual data tables accompanying the publication.

The number of referrals to the Prevent programme that concern children, grouped by age and financial year since 2016/17 has been published in the annual 2023/24 Prevent statistics publication: Individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent Programme, April 2023 to March 2024 - GOV.UK. Data can be found on Table 4 within the annual data tables accompanying the publication.

For the year 2015/16, the official statistics publication reports that there were 4274 referrals for individuals under 20 years old (56% of all referrals). A break down specifically of referrals for children is not available for this year. The statistics can be found here: Individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent Programme, April 2015 to March 2016.

The number of referrals reported includes individuals who had been referred more than once during the year. The number of individuals referred is not routinely reported in the official statistics.

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 will strengthen protective security and preparedness by requiring those responsible for certain premises and events, including those run by charities and voluntary groups, to consider how they would respond to a terrorist attack.

Whether the Act applies to particular premises or events will depend on several factors. Premises may be in scope if they consist of at least one building, are wholly or mainly used for one or more of the uses specified in Schedule 1, and 200 or more people can reasonably be expected to be present at the premises at the same time.

Events may be in scope if they take place in a building or on land, 800 or more people are reasonably expected to be present at the same time, and it is accessible to members of the public with measures in place to check that attendees satisfy a condition of entry (e.g. that they have paid, have a ticket or pass, or are members or guests of a club, association or similar body).

Therefore, smaller events or those not limited by such access control may not be in scope.

The Government recognises the importance of non-profit and volunteer-run events and is committed to supporting those responsible to prepare for the Act’s commencement, which will not be before April 2027.

As part of this support, the Home Office will publish statutory guidance before the Act comes into force. This guidance will assist those responsible to understand the Act’s requirements and will be designed to be easy to follow, requiring no particular expertise nor the use of third-party suppliers.

The person responsible for an event or premises that falls within scope of the Act will need to determine which procedures and/or measures are reasonably practicable. One size will not fit all, and the Act’s reasonably practicable requirement will enable businesses to consider what is proportionate to their circumstances.

For these reasons, the Government does not consider financial support necessary to deliver the Act’s requirements.

Further information on the Act, including on what constitutes a qualifying event or a qualifying premises, may be found in factsheets on Gov.UK - Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025: factsheets - GOV.UK.

Foreign interference in British politics is a growing danger to our democracy, and it is imperative that we tackle this problem.

The changes announced in our Elections Strategy will keep our elections secure by boosting transparency and accountability in politics, closing down loopholes for foreign funding, and significantly increasing penalties by giving the Electoral Commission the power to impose fines up to £500,000 per offence.

The Joint Election Security and Preparedness Unit develops and distributes candidate security guidance ahead of every election. This includes best practice on personal and physical security; information on the role of the police; cyber security; and routes for candidates to report online abuse. The refreshed guidance will be distributed in January.

The guidance will include a link to recently published NPSA guidance to protect democratic institutions from foreign interference and espionage threats.

Election preparedness is a priority for the Defending Democracy Taskforce which established the Joint Election Security and Preparedness (JESP) Unit as a permanent function which sits jointly between Cabinet Office and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). JESP is dedicated to protecting UK elections and referendums and coordinating work across government to respond to issues including foreign interference, protective security, and cyber threats as they emerge.

The Government, working with City of London Police, has recently replaced Action Fraud with a new and improved national police reporting service for fraud and cybercrime. The new service (Report Fraud) went live on 4 December. Report Fraud will provide better intelligence to support police and other partners with responding to online fraud and scams.

In addition, the Government has completed recruitment of the National Fraud Squad (NFS) of specialist posts, led by the NCA and City of London Police. The NFS will take a proactive, intelligence-led approach to identifying and disrupting the most serious fraudsters operating in the online space and targeting the UK public.

The Home Office has also undertaken a comprehensive review of the fraud training and skills landscape - we will implement the recommendations from this to ensure officers have the right skillset to respond to online fraud and scams.

More broadly, under the Online Safety Act, companies in scope must now tackle fraudulent content at source, or face the possibility of significant fines from the regulator.

The Government will set out a comprehensive Fraud Strategy early in the New Year. It will include measures to both protect consumers and disrupt criminal networks and ensure that the UK remains the most difficult environment possible for fraudsters to operate in.

The individual sums provided to each local authority that received dedicated Home Office funds for Prevent in financial year 2024/25 was provided as part of the response to PQ 86768 of 14 November 2025.

Funding for posts and dedicated projects is allocated as part of an annual bidding process, with funding allocations informed by factors including the amount of funding available, the level of threat, the level of funding provided for Prevent posts in the previous financial year, and inflation-related increases.

It is our long-standing policy not to comment on intelligence and security matters, including whether or not an organisation is under consideration for proscription.

To proscribe an organisation the Home Secretary must have a reasonable belief that it is currently concerned in terrorism, and it must be necessary and proportionate to do so. This means the organisation participates or commits; prepares for; promotes, encourages, or unlawfully glorifies; or is in some way otherwise concerned in terrorism. The Home Secretary may then exercise her discretion to proscribe an organisation and will consider all the relevant factors in deciding whether to do so.

The College of Policing sets standards for police training and development, including the national policing curriculum and accreditations for those who work in high risk or specialist roles. It also works with police forces to support standards of ongoing training and development.

On 2 February 2025, we announced a step-change in approach to the way that policing responds to VAWG crimes, through a new National Policing Centre for VAWG and Public Protection. The new centre launched in April 2025, and we are investing £13.1 million pounds this financial year (25/26). This funding includes an uplift of nearly £2 million to enable policing to better target these crimes – including online VAWG - demonstrating the government’s steadfast commitment to halving violence against women and girls in a decade.

The new Centre provides coordinated, national leadership within policing to tackle VAWG and child sexual abuse. Centralising policing expertise to tackle these crimes will drive national coordination, with the development of strengthened specialist training for officers across the country ensuring they offer consistent protection for victims and relentlessly pursue of these vile crimes.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms are required to take steps to remove content where it is illegal, including violent material, to protect users and our communities from online harms.

Ofcom have set out their expectations for platforms to adhere to: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/open-letter-to-uk-online-service-providers/

The government funds an online hate crime reporting portal - True Vision - that was designed so that victims of all types of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report.

The government also funds the National Online Hate Crime Hub which supports individual local police forces in dealing specifically with online hate crime – the Hub provides expert advice to police forces to support them in investigating these abhorrent offences.

The Government is supportive of police carriage and administration of naloxone - a lifesaving medicine that reverses the effects of opioid overdose.

The latest available data on which police forces carry naloxone can be found here: Police carriage of naloxone - monitoring data - GOV.UK.

The NPCC and the Home Office are in ongoing dialogue with all police forces on this topic.

The Home Office publishes data on the number of asylum seekers at a regional and local level. The department does not publish data at a property level, but at a person level.

The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of supported asylum seekers. These statistics can be found at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.