Home Office

Violence prevention is crucial to achieving our ambition of halving knife crime and making our streets safer.

The 2026/27 Police Funding Settlement included an allocation of £66.6m for Serious Violence Reduction Programmes.

This funding will be used to maintain our network of 20 Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) in the areas of England and Wales which are experiencing over 80% of knife crime; support public sector bodies to fulfil their statutory requirements under the Serious Violence Duty and continue the promising work of the Young Futures Panel pilots, which are identifying young people at risk of being drawn into crime and intervening earlier with positive, diversionary support.

The Places of Worship Protective Security Scheme is open to places of worship from all faith communities, except for Muslim and Jewish sites, which are supported through separate schemes. Muslim organisations are therefore not eligible for the Places of Worship Protective Security Scheme. Instead, mosques and their associated faith community centres can access protective security measures through the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme.

However, between 2016 and the launch of the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme in 2023, Muslim communities were eligible to apply to the Places of Worship Protective Security Scheme.

To protect the integrity of the scheme and ensure the continued safety of vulnerable sites, the Home Office does not publish data on processing of applications or the specific offers made to individual sites. Releasing this information could inadvertently disclose sensitive details about faith communities and their security arrangements.

As part of this Government’s commitment to protect the rights to freedom of expression and assembly, in May 2025 the Home Office began conducting post-legislative scrutiny of the Public Order Act 2023.

The post-legislative scrutiny of this Public Order Act 2023 is ongoing and once completed, the command paper will be sent to the Home Affairs Select Committee in accordance with the guidance on established post legislative scrutiny. In parallel the Home Secretary has commissioned Lord Macdonald of River Glaven KC to conduct a review of public order and hate crime legislation which will be concluded by the end of Spring.

According to the Youth Endowment Fund toolkit, the available studies suggest that A&E navigator programmes could have a high impact on preventing further involvement in violence.

The majority of Violence Reduction Units in England and Wales deliver A&E navigator programmes. We will continue to learn from the ongoing delivery of A&E navigators to ensure victims of violence and exploitation are effectively supported.

The Government shares concerns over the misuse of catapults, whether against people, property or wildlife.

There are a wide range of laws in place to punish those who misuse catapults. The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of tools and powers that they can use to respond to anti-social behaviour involving catapults. This includes Community Protection Warnings and Notices and Public Spaces Protection Orders (PSPOs). The Prevention of Crime Act 1953 creates the offence of carrying an offensive weapon in a public place and there are significant penalties under the Offences against the Person Act 1861 if a person is deliberately harmed.

Specific to animals and birds, the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 protects all wild birds and some wild animals in England and Wales. It is illegal under this Act to deliberately attempt to kill, injure, or harm protected species of wild birds. There are a range of other offences found in further legislation to protect wild animals from cruelty such as the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 and the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Significant sanctions are available to judges to hand down to those convicted of crimes under these Acts.

We have noted proposals for new restrictions, and we are actively considering what more might be done around enforcement.

The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities from local forces so they can focus on tackling issues of key concern to communities, such as dealing with bike theft. The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will ensure that every community in England and Wales will have named and contactable officers dealing with local issues, and that neighbourhood teams spend the majority of their time in their communities providing visible patrols and engaging with local communities and businesses.

In addition, we are also providing the police with new powers to support their response. The Crime and Policing Bill, now at Committee Stage in the House of Lords, will ensure that Officers can enter and search premises where stolen items – such as GPS-tracked bicycles – are reasonably believed to have been stolen and located, and where it is not reasonably practicable to obtain a court warrant. This will significantly enhance the ability of the police to act swiftly and effectively in recovering stolen property.

This Government is introducing the most radical and comprehensive policing reforms in nearly 200 years. We will modernise policing in this country – equipping it to tackle more sophisticated, online, and cross-border crimes (like wildlife crime and organised equipment theft), while also restoring neighbourhood policing.

We are on track to hit 3,000 more neighbourhood officers in March – and our target remains 13k by the end of the parliament. With the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee every neighbourhood, rural or urban, now gets a named contactable officer and a response to non-urgent queries in 72 hours. Every rural area will also be covered by a Local Policing Area under a commander responsible for emergency response, local crime investigation and neighbourhood policing. They will be set targets to ensure they answer 90% of 999 calls within 10 seconds and attend 90% of the most serious incidents within 20 minutes in rural areas.

This financial year (FY25/26) we are providing £800,000 of funding to the National Rural Crime Unit and the National Wildlife Crime Unit, and we will be providing the same level of funding in 26/27. These capabilities play key roles in helping police across the UK tackle organised theft and disrupt serious and organised crime groups, which can pose unique challenges for policing in large and isolated rural areas.

The Government recognises that there can be challenges in responding to rural crime, which is why we worked closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) to deliver the next iteration of their Rural and Wildlife Crime strategy and sets out operational and organisational policing priorities in respect of tackling those crimes that predominantly affect our rural communities.

The numbers of unannounced audits conducted are reported in the published Animals in Science Regulation Unit (ASRU) Annual Reports.

The Annual Report for 2024 can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/animals-in-science-regulation-unit-annual-report-2024

ASRU has planned to increase the number of unannounced audits as part of its work to strength regulatory oversight. ASRU has also increased its number of inspectors, enabling a greater volume of risk-based audits across the system.

Announced and unannounced audits play an important role in providing regulatory assurance. Audit numbers are only one indicator of the level of regulatory oversight; the quality, depth and scope of audits are central to assessing compliance effectively.

There is no distinct offence category or grouping that captures rural crimes separately from other offences. Currently any centrally held data on crimes recorded by the police and the investigative outcomes of crimes will not be broken down into rural crime.

I refer my Honourable friend to the response published on 19 March and suggest that he consider writing to the College of Policing and the Independent Office for Police Conduct concerning their statutory obligations to respond to the respective coroners who published the PFD reports in these cases.

The police have a suite of powers under the Road Traffic Act 1988 and Police Reform Act 2002 to seize e-scooters and e‑bikes being used illegally or antisocially, including ‑for offences such as riding on the pavement and in pedestrian areas.

We are strengthening enforcement through the Crime and Policing Bill, by removing the requirement for police to issue a warning before seizing vehicles used antisocially. We have also consulted on measures to allow police to dispose of seized vehicles, including e-scooters and e-bikes, more quickly, helping to tackle dangerous and anti-social behaviour impacting communities.

Enforcement of road traffic law is an operational matter for Chief Officers, who decide how to deploy resources in line with local policing priorities.

The answer for UIN 110947 was given on 19^th March 2026.

We fully recognise the serious and growing threat that freight crime poses to businesses, drivers, and the wider economy. The Government does not fund NaVCIS. Instead NaVCIS is funded by the industry, including finance and leasing companies, insurers and hauliers.

NaVCIS is a national policing unit that provides dedicated specialist intelligence, and it engages with a range of partners to tackle organised vehicle crime.The Governance arrangements for NaVCIS are a matter for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

We fully recognise the serious and growing threat that freight crime poses to businesses, drivers, and the wider economy. The Government does not fund NaVCIS. Instead NaVCIS is funded by the industry, including finance and leasing companies, insurers and hauliers.

NaVCIS is a national policing unit that provides dedicated specialist intelligence, and it engages with a range of partners to tackle organised vehicle crime.The Governance arrangements for NaVCIS are a matter for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

We fully recognise the serious and growing threat that freight crime poses to businesses, drivers, and the wider economy. The Government does not fund NaVCIS. Instead NaVCIS is funded by the industry, including finance and leasing companies, insurers and hauliers.

NaVCIS is a national policing unit that provides dedicated specialist intelligence, and it engages with a range of partners to tackle organised vehicle crime.The Governance arrangements for NaVCIS are a matter for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

Police Call Handlers are not required to have working knowledge of What Three Words and the Nato Phonetic Alphabet. This is an operational matter for Chief Constables.

For matters regarding the Fire Service, I would direct my Rt Hon friend to the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government, which is responsible for fire policy.

Everyone deserves to feel safe both in public and online. In addition to existing offences for the sharing of intimate images, we have introduced offences to the Crime and Policing Bill of taking an intimate image and installing equipment with the intent to take intimate images, without consent or reasonable belief of consent. These offences cover images which show the victim in an intimate state, and would capture some content on a public street, such as photographs taken up clothing that show underwear or nudity.

We have also provided funding to intensify Project Vigilant across police forces to keep women safe in public spaces. Project Vigilant involves specially trained plain clothed officers observing individuals in public, mostly in the night-time economy, to identify those exhibiting predatory behaviours. Uniformed officers are then called in to disrupt their behaviour, which could include filming women without their consent.

From 1 April, measures under the Protection from Sex-Based Harassment in Public Act 2023 will come into force. Depending on the facts of the case, this could include where the intent of covert filming is to cause harassment, alarm or distress because of the victim’s sex.

To go further, in Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls we committed to launching a call for evidence on online misogynistic image-based abuse, and the extent to which there are new behaviours which may not be captured by existing criminal offences. This will allow us to consider whether any further change is needed to future proof the law.

On the 14th February, the government tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to extend existing aggravated offences under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 to ensure equal protection across the protected characteristics of race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, transgender identity and sex.

The police are operationally independent and responsible for investigating alleged offences, working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to build cases that meet the evidential and public interest tests. A range of offences may apply depending on the circumstances, including under the Public Order Act 1986 and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and where hostility based on sexual orientation is proven, courts may apply statutory sentencing uplifts.

Where particular evidence cannot be admitted or relied upon in court, the police are expected to pursue all reasonable lines of enquiry using admissible material, and to seek early investigative advice from the Crown Prosecution Service where appropriate. Where the evidential threshold for a charge is not met, the police can still take steps to protect victims, including the use of bail conditions and other protective measures where the relevant legal tests are satisfied.

Victims of hate crime are entitled to support under the Victims’ Code, including being kept informed of progress and signposted to appropriate services. The Government continues to fund local and national victim support services and works closely with policing partners, the Crown Prosecution Service and the College of Policing to promote consistent, evidence-led responses to hate-motivated incidents so that victims are protected and offenders are brought to justice wherever possible.

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) issued an accelerated cause of concern notice to the Chief Constables of the three forces involved in the tripartite firearms licensing arrangement involving Bedfordshire Police, Cambridgeshire Constabulary and Hertfordshire Constabulary on 9 January 2026. The notice requested that the three Chief Constables set out in an action plan how they intended to address the issues set out in the notice within 28 working days.

The three Chief Constables responded to HMICFRS within the specified deadline and the content of their response to the Inspectorate, who are independent of Government, was not shared with the Home Office.

RAND Europe’s process evaluation and feasibility impact study of the Young Futures Panel pilots is ongoing and will be sent for independent peer review by academics with relevant expertise in due course.

The Government has extended the Ukraine Permission Extension (UPE) by a further 24 months to provide stability and security for those who still need sanctuary in the UK due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The additional 24‑month extension under the UPE scheme will open to applications from 8 April 2026, in line with the relevant changes to the Immigration Rules.

Eligible individuals whose current Ukraine scheme permission is due to expire will be able to apply to the UPE scheme up to 90 days before expiry. The widened 90‑day application window applies both to first‑time UPE applications and to subsequent applications for the additional 24‑month extension.

Applying at any point within this window will not reduce the total period of permission granted, and any remaining valid permission will be added to the new grant.

The Home Office will increase existing English language requirements for economic migrants and introduce new English language requirements for dependants of those coming under economic routes.

These measures support the integration of those coming here to work here (and their families) into UK communities, as well; as ensuring that those coming to work here are less vulnerable to abuse and exploitation in the workplace.

We recognise that the enforcement of ETAs by carriers is a significant change, and so we have taken steps including the provision of additional temporary guidance on possible alternative documentation, and have put in place around the clock support for carriers to respond to these changes. The Member may wish to refer to the Written Ministerial Statement issued on 25 February for further detail.

Where changes to fee legislation are made, Impact Assessments are produced which identify potential impacts resulting from the changes.

The published Impact Assessment includes discussion of the impacts of the fees that are due to increase from 8 April 2026: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2026/44/pdfs/ukia_20260044_en.pdf

The Home Office has always provided for exceptions to the need to pay application fees in a number of specific circumstances. These include affordability-based waivers for entry clearance and leave to remain on family and human rights routes. In such cases, where an application is made on a family or human rights route and supported by clear and compelling evidence of unaffordability, either the Immigration Health Surcharge or both the visa fee and Surcharge may be waived. A fee waiver application must be submitted in-time and prior to the immigration application. Information on eligibility for Fee Waiver applications can be found on GOV.UK at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/visa-fee-waiver-in-uk

The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

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 Government is carefully considering the implications of the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of sex within the Equality Act in the context of what needs and is proportionate to record for a policing purpose and the Annual Data Requirement will be updated in due course.

The police are operationally independent of Government and it is for individual forces to determine what is recorded in a particular scenario, in line with the law and relevant operational guidance.

The College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council will shortly publish their review of non-crime hate incidents.

Mobile phone theft blights communities, and we are determined to do more to tackle it.

Law enforcement partners are delivering robust action to drive down the numbers of these thefts. In London, mobile phone theft has fallen by 10,000 offences in the past year – a reduction of 12.3%.

We also want to see further action aimed at breaking the business model that drives phone theft, by reducing the value of a stolen device. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is continuing to work closely with these partners on technical solutions aimed at achieving this. The Home Office is supporting these efforts. At present, our preferred approach remains allowing time for this collaborative work to continue, so that potential solutions to be developed and tested appropriately.

At the recent International Mobile Phone Crime Conference, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan police set a deadline of 1 June for industry to bring forward further concrete commitments. If meaningful progress cannot be made, the Home Office will look to consider any necessary action.

The Government has received Jonathan Fisher KC’s second report and will publish it, along with a government response, in due course.

Fraud and cybercrime are deeply interconnected. The Office of National Statistics estimates that in year ending March 2024, nearly half of all frauds were online-enabled.

The government’s Fraud Strategy (2026-2029) sets out the latest trends and evolving drivers of online fraud. Criminals routinely hijack online channels to socially engineer people into sending money directly, through fraudulent adverts or through convincing fraudulent emails and text messages. Criminals exploit data breaches, and use phishing techniques, to obtain personal information to takeover online accounts directly. We have also seen the growth of ‘fraud-as-a-service’ marketplaces, which lower the barrier to entry for new criminals.

The government is aware that criminals have adopted generative AI as a tool to increase the scale and sophistication of attacks, as well to bypass company’s security procedures to impersonate customers for account takeovers. Measuring these types of attacks is a challenge as often victims will be unaware of whether AI has been used. While reports of AI enabled fraud are increasing, they still account for a fraction of all Report Fraud cases (0.2% in 2025); but it is almost certain that the true number of AI enabled frauds is much higher.

We encourage anyone to report instances of online fraud to Report Fraud, the UK’s dedicated fraud reporting service, and visit the Stop! Think Fraud website for information on how they can stay safe from fraud.

The UK–UAE Partnership to Tackle Illicit Financial Flows is focused on strengthening cooperation on illicit finance, fraud, asset recovery and the return of the proceeds of crime.

Since the partnership was established in 2021, the UK and UAE have worked together to enhance operational collaboration, improve information sharing, and build stronger structures to support joint law enforcement activity.

However, the Home Office is not able to comment on or make assessments regarding individual cases.

The Government takes the issue of fraudulent activity arising on social media and online platforms very seriously. The Office of National Statistics estimates that, in year ending March 2024, nearly half of all frauds were online-enabled.

The department does not currently collect data on the financial losses from victims of fraud through social media channels directly. However, there have been 228,141 reports to Report Fraud of cyber-enabled fraud in 2025, totalling approximately £1.9 billion of losses. The government has also estimated that the total socio-economic cost of fraud to the UK was £14.4 billion between 2023-2024.

Whilst the Government does not collect this type of data directly, as part of the recently published Fraud Strategy, the Government has committed to working with industry, including social media and online platforms, to develop metrics, with the purpose being to improve transparency and accountability and track sectors’ performance in tackling fraud.

We encourage anyone to report instances of online fraud to Report Fraud, the UK’s dedicated fraud reporting service, and visit the Stop! Think Fraud website for information on how they can stay safe from fraud.

The FIRS public register ensures that, for the first time, we have transparency about foreign state-directed political influence activities. The aim of this register is to better inform the public as to the scale and extent of foreign influence in UK political affairs and our democratic processes.

There is full guidance online that sets out what needs to be registered, and what of the information provided at registration will be published on the register https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foreign-influence-registration-scheme-registration-and-public-register

The value of the contract and/or work being undertaken will not appear on the public register. However, information that will be published includes the nature and form of the arrangement being registered, the name of the foreign power in the arrangement, a description of the types of activities to be carried out and the purpose and sought outcome of those activities.

The Home Office does not comment on specific groups. As announced in the Protecting What Matters publication on the 9^th March, we are currently updating and embedding the 2024 engagement principles which will assist public bodies to not confer legitimacy, funding or influence on extremist groups. Responsibility for decisions and due diligence around who departments engage with sits with those departments and the appropriate policy areas.

It is for individual government departments to decide to use these principles, or their own due diligence processes around engagement. If asked, we will advise and share information to help inform their decisions. We will also be producing an annual ‘State of Extremism’ report which will also support public sector staff to tackle extremism. The first iteration of this will be published by the end of 2026.

Our Disruptions team, which horizon scans for extremist influence and events, will be expanded with additional resource to disrupt extremist networks at a national and local level. We will be refreshing our reporting mechanisms that will allow local partners to refer their concerns directly to us.

The Government’s focus is to use existing mechanisms to analyse, prevent and disrupt the spread of high-harm extremist ideologies that can lead to community division and to radicalisation into terrorism, particularly those that radicalise others but deliberately operate below CT thresholds.

There are a wide range of offences and powers that can be used to counter the threat from extremism and we are working to maximise their use. These include powers to regulate charities; broadcasting and education; immigration powers; and offences such as encouragement of terrorism and public order offences.

The Home Office works with a range of national and local partners to deliver this work, ensuring timely sharing of information so where there is evidence of purposeful actions that are potentially radicalising others into terrorism or violence, proportionate disruptive action can be considered.

Equipment theft, including the theft of GPS systems, can have devastating consequences for countryside communities and the agricultural sector.

That is why we are committed to the implementation of the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 and fully support its intentions to prevent the theft and re-sale of All-Terrain Vehicles, quad bikes and GPS systems.

The legislation will require new ATVs, quad bikes and GPS systems to be forensically marked and registered on an appropriate database. We will introduce the necessary secondary legislation when parliamentary time allows.

Equipment theft, including the theft of GPS systems, can have devastating consequences for countryside communities and the agricultural sector.

That is why we are committed to the implementation of the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 and fully support its intentions to prevent the theft and re-sale of All-Terrain Vehicles, quad bikes and GPS systems.

The legislation will require new ATVs, quad bikes and GPS systems to be forensically marked and registered on an appropriate database. We will introduce the necessary secondary legislation when parliamentary time allows.

The police and local authorities are required to act in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 and their obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights. The powers available to the police apply to anyone residing on land without consent and refusing to leave where the statutory conditions for enforcement are met, regardless of race or ethnicity, or any other protected characteristic. Enforcement powers must always be exercised fairly and in a way that respects the rights of all individuals.

The government keeps all legislation in this area under regular review to powers remain effective and proportionate. Operational decisions on the use of these powers rest with the police, working closely with local authorities.

The Home Office does not publish details of spending on special severance payments separately.

The Home Office does publish overall special payments spending and details of this for the previous three financial years can be found through the links below.

Pages 190-191 (pages 198-199 on the reader)

Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2024 to 2025

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Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2023 to 2024

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Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 2022-2023

I have met with those leading the campaign for a new award and I am working on proposals. Ultimately, any official award is a gift from the Government on behalf of His Majesty The King.

The Home Office has not made an assessment on the costs to police forces for administering roadside drug-impartment tests under section 4 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and drug driving testing under section 5A of the Road Traffic Act 1988.

There are no current plans by government to introduce national guidance governing the movement of abnormal loads.

Statistics about the use of animals in scientific procedures in 2025, including beagles and non-human primates, will be published later this year as Accredited Official Statistics.

The Home Office publishes annual statistics on the use of animals in science which contain information on the number of procedures conducted, including breakdowns by species of animals (including beagles). The statistics report both the total number of procedures conducted and the number of animals used for the first time in a given year. Data are collected and published on an annual basis and are not disaggregated by licence approvals at the point of authorisation.

In addition, the Home Office publishes non-technical summaries for every project licence granted under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. These are published quarterly and include information on the species and the number of animals expected to be used over the lifetime of the project licence.

This Government remains firmly committed to working towards the phasing out of animals in science. The strategy, ‘Replacing animals in science’, sets specific targets to reduce the use of dogs and non-human primates by 2030, while ensuring the UK continues to support safe and effective scientific and medical research.