Home Office

The Government views any allegation of misuse of INTERPOL’s systems very seriously and works closely with INTERPOL to ensure the legitimacy of the Red Notice system.

Any State that is found to be wilfully abusing and misusing the INTERPOL system should be held to account to the fullest extent. This is even more important for any states that are already under corrective measures.

The Home Office works with INTERPOL and the National Crime Agency (NCA), which acts as the UK’s National Central Bureau (NCB) for INTERPOL, to monitor the effectiveness of existing safeguards.

We encourage INTERPOL to uphold international human rights obligations and we won’t hesitate to recommend further reforms to INTERPOL as necessary.

The Government views any allegation of misuse of INTERPOL’s systems very seriously and works closely with INTERPOL to ensure the legitimacy of the Red Notice system.

Any State that is found to be wilfully abusing and misusing the INTERPOL system should be held to account to the fullest extent. This is even more important for any states that are already under corrective measures.

The Home Office works with INTERPOL and the National Crime Agency (NCA), which acts as the UK’s National Central Bureau (NCB) for INTERPOL, to monitor the effectiveness of existing safeguards.

We encourage INTERPOL to uphold international human rights obligations and we won’t hesitate to recommend further reforms to INTERPOL as necessary.

There are 22 different weapons prohibited as offensive weapons, and they include items such as knuckledusters, curved swords and truncheons. This legislation is kept under constant review and on 24 September 2024 we added zombie-style knives and zombie-style machetes to the list, and more recently, from 1 August 2025 we banned ninja swords. It is illegal to sell, manufacture, import or possess these weapons. It is currently possible to own specifically prohibited weapons if a legal defence applies, such as the weapon is owned for sporting purposes, is made by hand according to certain specifications, is of historical importance, or if it’s owned for the purpose of making it available to a museum.

On 16 December 2026 the Government launched a public consultation on plans to introduce a comprehensive licensing scheme for those who sell knives or other bladed articles, including importers, retailers and private sellers, making them subject to strict regulations and conditions. The consultation closes on 24 February and is available on GOV.UK: Licensing for knife sales - GOV.UK. This follows recommendations made in Commander Clayman’s Independent End-to-End Review of Online Knife Sales to introduce a registration scheme for knife sellers and an ‘import licensing scheme to prohibit unlicensed importation of knives and prohibited weapons’.

The Home Office does not comment on specific groups.

It is up to each department to carry out due diligence when choosing to engage with any organisation or individual and, if asked, we will advise and share information to help others inform their decisions.

The Government takes the protective security of diplomatic missions extremely seriously.

The UK’s protective security system is rigorous and proportionate, but it would not be appropriate to comment in detail on those arrangements.

The Home Office does not publish data on immigration enforcement visits broken down by residential and commercial properties.

Although operational systems include an indicator of the type of address visited this level of detail is not currently included in our published statistics.

Information on enforcement visits and illegal working enforcement visits can be found at Illegal working and enforcement activity to the end of September 2025 - GOV.UK, giving the total number of number of enforcement visits.

The Home Office has engaged with Highland Council, as well as other local stakeholders including the Police, NHS, Scottish Fire & Rescue Service and others since plans were announced in October 2025.

The department will continue to engage regularly with all statutory partners as plans are progressed. Key information about the plans discussed with local partners can be found on the factsheet Cameron Barracks, Inverness: factsheet - GOV.UK, which will be updated as further information becomes available.

The Home Office will monitor and evaluate the impact of any cooperation with China by assessing operational outcomes against the UK’s Transnational Crime and Illegal Migration threat picture, drawing on performance indicators and intelligence from UK operational partners to determine the reduction in associated harms.

In December 2025 Report Fraud replaced Action Fraud, introducing improved reporting tools, stronger analytical capability, and enhanced victim support to ensure reports are acted on and victims receive clearer guidance and follow‑up. Performance oversight has also been strengthened through better management information and a new performance dashboard, enabling the City of London Police and the Home Office to monitor outcomes and identify emerging fraud threats.

To support the investigation of fraud, around 400 specialist investigators have been recruited to the new National Fraud Squad, which takes a proactive, intelligence‑led approach to identifying and disrupting serious fraudsters. Report Fraud also provides improved intelligence to police forces to assist with case investigations.

Report Fraud Victim Services (RFVS) provides a focused and targeted service to victims of fraud and cyber‑crime, delivering a consistent, high‑quality national standard of care across England and Wales. RFVS now supports all 43 police forces at Level 1 (non‑vulnerable victim care) and at the enhanced Level 2 service for vulnerable victims. Since 2018, RFVS has supported over 1,018,000 victims of fraud (as of October 2025), prevented nearly £14 million from being lost to fraud, and helped victims recover over £6.1 million since January 2021.

The Government is conducting an ongoing review of the Computer Misuse Act (CMA). The Home Office will update on proposals taken forward in due course.

It has been the long-standing policy of successive governments not to comment on intelligence matters.

To maintain the highest standards of accuracy, the Home Office prefers to refer to published data, as this has been subject to rigorous quality assurance under National Statistics protocols prior to publication. Information about the effectiveness of Operation Gull is not available in our published data

Our published national data on enforcement activity is available at the following link and includes data on detected irregular arrivals to the UK: Immigration system statistics, year ending September 2025 - GOV.UK

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.

The cost to the taxpayers of Great Britain for Airwave is as follows:

2021/22 £293.66m

2022/23 £318.55m

2023/24 £197.01m

2024/25 £153.48m

As the financial accounts for 2025/26 have not been finalised or audited yet, we cannot provide expenditure for that period.

The costing information relates to England, Scotland and Wales Police Core only, as Home Office does not have visibility of Airwave costs borne directly by other Funding Sponsor Bodies.

As the Emergency Services Network is currently not operational, it is not possible to provide these costs.

Leveraging EE’s Commercial Network of circa 20,000 masts, the main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage across Great Britain is largely complete. Of the additional 1047 ESN masts due to be built, 987 are completed and
operationally live. Specifically, an additional 13 new sites have been built in Shropshire, with 1 of these sited in the constituency of North Shropshire.

Across Great Britain, this is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.

ESMCP’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

The Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for managing the Emergency Services Network (ESN). ESN is a critical communications system and will replace the current Airwave service used by the emergency services in Great Britain.

ESN is currently in the delivery phase, during which ESMCP will implement systems, platforms, processes, hardware and software to be ready and assured for deployment. Current delivery timelines are from January 2025 to 2027 with phased deployment planned to begin in 2027 to emergency services users. The target date for transition to be completed is 31 December 2029 after which Airwave will be safely shut down.

ESN is a capability which is still under development and as such it is not operational. The products and services under development have been tested at several public events such as Notting Hill Carnival, Glastonbury and London New Year’s Eve Celebrations to validate progress and inform the next stages of the programme.

This is not a data set held by the Home Office’s Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme centrally. Such Data is owned and managed by individual forces across the three emergency services and the devolved nations of Scotland and Wales.

As in all Police force areas in Great Britain, the Home Office contract with Airwave provides for hand-portable coverage in built-up areas and vehicle coverage on all major and minor roads, including all rural areas.

Police forces can then elect to further enhance coverage in their areas if deemed necessary to meet their own specific operational needs. West Mercia Police have contracted further areas of hand-portable coverage from Airwave using this option.

Shropshire and North Shropshire are covered by West Mercia Police, together with Worcestershire and Herefordshire. Collectively, availability of the Airwave radio network across West Mercia throughout 2025 was strong.

The contractual target for Airwave network availability for all police forces is 99.74% each month. In 2025 monthly network availability across the 89 Airwave sites in West Mercia varied between 99.79% and 100%, with an overall mean average across the 12 months of 99.94%.

Each quarter a tri-party meeting is held between West Mercia Police, the Home Office, and Motorola to review the quality and availability of the Airwave network, along with any other Airwave related issues. During 2025 there were no major Airwave service issues raised by West Mercia Police.

The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces, so they focus on tackling local issues, like fighting town centre crime.

Our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee is already making a difference. For too long, people have not seen police patrolling their streets. We will have 3,000 more neighbourhood officers by March this year. The Metropolitan Police Service’s projected growth over 2025 to 2026 will be 420 police officers (FTE) and 50 Police Community Support Officers (FTE). We are giving them the powers they need, including making it a specific offence to assault retail workers and ending the treatment of theft under the value of £200 as a summary-only offence.

We are equipping the police to fight the organised crime gangs that are often responsible for driving shop theft across the country. Our £5m investment into OPAL (a specialist policing unit) will supercharge intelligence-led policing to identify offenders, disrupt the tactics used to target shops, and bring more criminals to justice.

We have also delivered on our manifesto pledge: every police force in England and Wales now has a dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour, who will work with communities to develop an action plan to tackle ASB. We are also strengthening the powers to tackle ASB. Our new Respect Orders will give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to tackle the most relentless ASB offenders.

Through our Summer Initiative police forces and local authorities increased patrols in town centres, tackling retail crime and anti-social behaviour as part of the Government’s Plan for Change to make our streets safer. Our Winter of Action, which ran from 1 December 2025 to 31 January 2026, built on this, with an additional focus on repeat offenders and protecting women and girls at night. The full list of locations the Metropolitan Police Service focused on as part of the Winter of Action can be found here: Winter of Action: location list - GOV.UK

Building from the Winter of Action, we are working with forces and local partners to identify and tackle the most prolific retail offenders - where a few individuals can drive a large proportion of the local crime problem.

Together with the police, we are sending a message: crime and anti-social behaviour will be punished.

This Government have set an ambitious but essential target to halve knife crime over this decade and we are making progress: since the start of this Parliament, knife crime has fallen by 8% and knife homicides are down by 27%.

To achieve this ambition we are engaging with partners across the system both to address knife crime and address the root causes of knife crime. This includes local authorities who play a vital role.

This role is formalised within the Serious Violence Duty which places a statutory requirement on a range of public sector bodies, including local authorities, to work collaboratively, analyse the local problem, and put in place a strategy to prevent and reduce serious violence. Community Safety Partnerships, led by the local authority and whose partners match those subject to the Serious Violence Duty must also comply with these requirements.

The Home Office had discussions and worked with relevant local authorities to deliver the extended knife surrender arrangements which the Government ran in July 2025 and covered various locations in London, West Midlands and Greater Manchester. The extended surrender arrangements involved the use of a mobile surrender van and 37 bespoke weapons surrender bins and a total of a 3,570 knives and weapons were surrendered through these arrangements.

The Home Office maintain regular discussions with local authorities through Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) and Young Futures Panels partnership arrangements to support the effective delivery of services to prevent knife crime among young people.

This Government recognises the devastating impact economic abuse can have on victims, even long after a relationship ends. ‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls’, published on 18 December 2025, outlined a package of commitments to tackle economic abuse.

This included a commitment from His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) to work with Credit Reference Agencies, lenders and the third sector to improve the way coerced debt is reflected on victim-survivors’ credit files with the aim of making it easier for them to access financial products in the future. This commitment was also included in HMT’s recent Financial Inclusion Strategy which considered economic abuse as a key theme, in recognition of the particular challenges victim-survivors can face in accessing financial products and services.

We are working closely with the Welsh Government, Welsh local government, police forces and other partners to ensure new governance arrangements provide strong and effective local governance for Wales, recognising the distinct nature of local and regional arrangements. The Policing Minister regularly speaks to the Welsh Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Jane Hutt, and attended the Policing Partnership Board for Wales on 18 December.

We have established a specific transition working group to consider future governance arrangements in Wales as part of our Police Governance Reform project, and we will continue to work collaboratively with Welsh stakeholders on the design and implementation of these arrangements.

‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls’, published on 18 December 2025, sets out our commitment to improving the employer response to violence against women and girls (VAWG). Work is underway to encourage employers to maximise employment opportunities and provide support for those experiencing domestic abuse in the workplace. This includes:

• Updating existing guidance for employers on workplace support for domestic abuse victims and survivors and expanding it to cover all VAWG victims and survivors.
• Encouraging employers to ensure that their staff receive sufficient training on VAWG and to implement robust policies and processes on responding to victims and survivors, and perpetrators of VAWG, in the workplace.
• Encouraging employers to become members of expert networks such as the Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse and the Employers Domestic Abuse Covenant.
• Conducting an annual survey of employers’ policies and training on VAWG.

We are working across government to deliver commitments on employers’ response to domestic abuse, including through a cross-government Ministerial Group that has shaped the development of the Strategy and will oversee its implementation.

This is further supported by a Strategy Advisory Board of external expert stakeholders who will help to hold the Government to account on delivery.

We committed in the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy ‘to make it impossible for children in the UK to take, share or view a nude image’, and that ‘we are working constructively with companies to make this a reality’. This engagement will be targeted and carried out with the urgency that the issue deserves.

We want device operating systems to be doing more to protect their child users. Applying nudity detection technology more comprehensively across the operating system can prevent nude imagery from being taken, shared or viewed on the phone at all. This intervention is about preventing the harm from happening by blocking the imagery entirely. Preventing the creation and sharing of self-generated indecent imagery (SGII) would undermine grooming and sextortion models, where imagery is extorted out of the child by offenders.

This intervention will also prevent children from being exposed to harmful content, building on similar protections already enacted through the Online Safety Act. Exposure to harmful content – especially pornography – at such an impressionable age can feed misogynistic views and give distorted views of healthy relationships.

We will provide an update on this work as soon as possible. If voluntary action from industry is not sufficient, we will not hesitate to consider other means.

It is the long-standing policy of successive UK Governments not to comment either on individual cases or operational intelligence.We are monitoring the situation in North-East Syria closely and working with partners, including the Global Coalition against Daesh, to mitigate shared national security risks.

The Border Security Command (BSC) works with partners across Government and further afield to disrupt the smuggling gang networks who facilitate small boat crossings, and to help bring those responsible to justice.

Since 2023, the BSC and National Crime Agency (NCA) have contributed to the seizure of over 950 small boats and engines related to Channel crossings.

The BSC and NCA work with a range of international partners to seize equipment, including Europol, Bulgaria, Belgium, France, and Germany. We do not routinely confirm the location of seizures publicly.

The Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Ministerial Board met on Tuesday 27^th January and will continue to meet regularly.

Home Office Ministers look forward to engaging with Parliament on the working of the government in implementing our Strategy ‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse’, our supporting Action Plan, and our ambition to halve VAWG within a decade. This will include annual progress reports which will be published.

The Immigration White Paper set out the principle that settlement should be earned through contribution to the UK economy and society. The publication, ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, built on this principle and laid out proposals for the earned settlement model. It stated that we will raise the standard qualifying period for settlement from five years to ten years and everyone who wishes to settle in this country will need to meet mandatory requirements, including a clean criminal record and strong English language skills.

The consultation on the earned settlement model was launched on 20 November 2025 and will close on 12 February 2026.

The Government remains steadfast in its support for members of the Hong Kong community in the UK. BN(O) visa holders will attract a five-year reduction in the qualifying period for settlement, meaning they will continue to be able to settle in the UK after five years’ residence, subject to meeting the mandatory requirements.

The consultation seeks views from Hong Kongers on the proposals, including whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement.

Details of the earned settlement scheme will be finalised following the close of that consultation. In the meantime, the current rules for settlement under the BN(O) route will continue to apply.

The Immigration White Paper set out the principle that settlement should be earned through contribution to the UK economy and society. The publication, ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, built on this principle and laid out proposals for the earned settlement model. It stated that we will raise the standard qualifying period for settlement from five years to ten years and everyone who wishes to settle in this country will need to meet mandatory requirements, including a clean criminal record and strong English language skills.

The consultation on the earned settlement model was launched on 20 November 2025 and will close on 12 February 2026.

The Government remains steadfast in its support for members of the Hong Kong community in the UK. BN(O) visa holders will attract a five-year reduction in the qualifying period for settlement, meaning they will continue to be able to settle in the UK after five years’ residence, subject to meeting the mandatory requirements.

The consultation seeks views from Hong Kongers on the proposals, including whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement.

Details of the earned settlement scheme will be finalised following the close of that consultation. In the meantime, the current rules for settlement under the BN(O) route will continue to apply.

The earned settlement model, proposed in ’A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

The Government remains steadfast in its support for members of the Hong Kong community in the UK. BN(O) visa holders will attract a five-year reduction in the qualifying period for settlement, meaning they will continue to be able to settle in the UK after five years’ residence, subject to meeting the mandatory requirements.

The consultation seeks views from Hong Kongers on the proposals, including whether there should be exemptions from the mandatory economic contribution.

Details of mandatory requirements, including those relating to personal income threshold, will be finalised following the close of that consultation. In the meantime, the current rules for settlement under the BN(O) route will continue to apply.

The earned settlement model, proposed in ’A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

The Government remains steadfast in its support for members of the Hong Kong community in the UK. BN(O) visa holders will attract a five-year reduction in the qualifying period for settlement, meaning they will continue to be able to settle in the UK after five years’ residence, subject to meeting the mandatory requirements.

The consultation seeks views from Hong Kongers on the proposals, including whether there should be exemptions from the mandatory economic contribution.

Details of mandatory requirements, including those relating to personal income threshold, will be finalised following the close of that consultation. In the meantime, the current rules for settlement under the BN(O) route will continue to apply.

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of people claiming asylum after holding a study visa as their most recent category of leave prior to claiming asylum is published in table Asy_D01a of the ‘Asylum claims and decisions detailed datasets’. The latest data relates to the year ending September 2025. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook.

There is no published breakdown available on whether an individual claimed asylum before or after their visa expired.

The earned settlement model, proposed in ’A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

Details of mandatory requirements, including those relating to the personal income threshold, will be finalised following that consultation.

The final model will also be subject to economic and equality impact assessment, which we have committed to publish in due course.

An eVisa is a digital record of a person's identity and their immigration permission in the UK, and any conditions which apply. As with biometric residence permits (BRPs), it is issued to enable a person to prove their status when travelling to the UK, including via third countries, and when living in the UK.

The transition from physical BRPs to eVisas does not create a risk for those travelling through mainland China or Hong Kong. Hong Kong BN(O) visa holders do not need to present their eVisa for this travel, since they do not require a UK immigration status for this purpose.

The earned settlement model, proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, announced changes to the mandatory requirements and qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain. It is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

The consultation is open to anyone including multiple members of the same household. Each response must be submitted separately. People can request alternative formats of the consultation or report technical issues by contacting EarnedSettlementConsultationQueries@homeoffice.gov.uk.

The earned settlement model, proposed in ‘A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, announced changes to the mandatory requirements and qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain. It is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

As part of this consultation, we are seeking views on the potential impact of the proposed changes on different groups, including those working in sectors such as social care. Details of the earned settlement model will be finalised following that consultation.

The final proposals will also be subject to full economic and equality impact assessments, which we have committed to publish in due course.

The Home Office has received 1888 complaints about the electronic visa system from 1 July 2024 when it first categorised this issue to 31 January 2026.

This comprises 1785 Stage 1 and 103 Stage 2 complaints.

The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas by visa route, including Visitor visas, and nationality in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on visa applications refused are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the detailed entry clearance visas dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data is from January 2005 up to the end of September 2025.

Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.

The earned settlement model, proposed in ’A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

Time spent in routes that currently count towards settlement after 5 years will continue to count towards the new standard qualifying period.

The consultation seeks views on whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement. Protections will be put in place where appropriate.

Details of the earned settlement model will be finalised following the consultation and will be subject to economic and equality impact assessments, which we have committed to publish in due course.

The MAC’s recommendations are being considered in detail alongside the work being carried out as a result of the Immigration White Paper (Restoring control over the immigration system: white paper - GOV.UK) which made clear that family migration would be reformed to tackle the over complex family immigration arrangements, including the financial requirements.

However, there is no set date for when we will publish a response to the MAC report.

The earned settlement model, proposed in ’A Fairer Pathway to Settlement’, is currently subject to a public consultation, running until 12 February 2026.

The consultation seeks views on whether there should be transitional arrangements for those already on a pathway to settlement, such as those currently on ECAA visas. In the meantime, the current rules for settlement under the ECAA route will continue to apply.

Details of the earned settlement model will be finalised following the consultation.

The Home Office provides a variety of services to facilitate the processing of all asylum claims, irrespective of nationality. This includes provision of interpreters, interviewing officers, decision makers, and legal representation on an entitlement basis. We have a legal obligation, as set out in the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, to support asylum seekers (including any dependants) who would otherwise be destitute, with support payments and accommodation. No separate assessment of the adequacy of services for processing of asylum claims from Somali nationals has been completed.

We signpost to additional sources of support and advice as appropriate, including via the Asylum Safeguarding Hub. The Information booklet about your asylum application is provided to all asylum claimants and includes both telephone numbers and website addresses of various organisations that assist asylum seekers with specific needs. Migrant Help are also funded to provide independent support and advice to all asylum claimants about the asylum process in the UK and accessing relevant services.

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the 'Immigration System Statistics' and the ‘Migration Transparency Data’ releases.

Data on the number of asylum claims awaiting an initial decision by duration is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum claims and decisions detailed datasets’ and data on the percentage of applications processed within 6 months is published in table ASY_01 of the ‘Immigration and Protection data’. The latest data relates to as at 30 September 2025. For further information on the data, see the notes pages of the tables.

Data on the average processing times of claims is not currently published. Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the 'Immigration System Statistics' and the ‘Migration Transparency Data’ releases.

Data on the number of asylum claims awaiting an initial decision by duration is published in table Asy_D03 of the ‘Asylum claims and decisions detailed datasets’ and data on the percentage of applications processed within 6 months is published in table ASY_01 of the ‘Immigration and Protection data’. The latest data relates to as at 30 September 2025. For further information on the data, see the notes pages of the tables.

Data on the average processing times of claims is not currently published. Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.