Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had recent discussions with Dorset Police on trends in the number of volunteer groups that patrol local streets.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is delivering our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, putting 13,000 additional police personnel into neighbourhood roles, ensuring everyone has a named and contactable officer, enquiries are responded to within 72 hours and officers are conducting visible patrols.
The Government’s Police Reform White Paper announced the most significant reforms to policing in 200 years. We have committed to increasing the number of volunteers in neighbourhood policing, including special constables. We will do this by working with policing to attract new special constables, improving and streamlining the recruitment process and better integrating special constables into wider policing. We would encourage anyone who wishes to give back to their community and support local policing to consider formally volunteering with the police.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of licensing volunteer groups that patrol local streets.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is delivering our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, putting 13,000 additional police personnel into neighbourhood roles, ensuring everyone has a named and contactable officer, enquiries are responded to within 72 hours and officers are conducting visible patrols.
The Government’s Police Reform White Paper announced the most significant reforms to policing in 200 years. We have committed to increasing the number of volunteers in neighbourhood policing, including special constables. We will do this by working with policing to attract new special constables, improving and streamlining the recruitment process and better integrating special constables into wider policing. We would encourage anyone who wishes to give back to their community and support local policing to consider formally volunteering with the police.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has issued guidance to Dorset Police on volunteer groups that patrol local streets.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is delivering our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, putting 13,000 additional police personnel into neighbourhood roles, ensuring everyone has a named and contactable officer, enquiries are responded to within 72 hours and officers are conducting visible patrols.
The Government’s Police Reform White Paper announced the most significant reforms to policing in 200 years. We have committed to increasing the number of volunteers in neighbourhood policing, including special constables. We will do this by working with policing to attract new special constables, improving and streamlining the recruitment process and better integrating special constables into wider policing. We would encourage anyone who wishes to give back to their community and support local policing to consider formally volunteering with the police.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the number of volunteer groups that patrol local streets.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is delivering our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, putting 13,000 additional police personnel into neighbourhood roles, ensuring everyone has a named and contactable officer, enquiries are responded to within 72 hours and officers are conducting visible patrols.
The Government’s Police Reform White Paper announced the most significant reforms to policing in 200 years. We have committed to increasing the number of volunteers in neighbourhood policing, including special constables. We will do this by working with policing to attract new special constables, improving and streamlining the recruitment process and better integrating special constables into wider policing. We would encourage anyone who wishes to give back to their community and support local policing to consider formally volunteering with the police.
Asked by: Claire Coutinho (Conservative - East Surrey)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether (a) her Department and (b) the arms length bodies sponsored by her Department are compliant with the Supreme Court ruling in the case of For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025].
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We have set out our expectation that all duty bearers, including Departments and arm’s-length bodies, follow the law as clarified by the Supreme Court ruling and seek specialist legal advice where necessary. The Prime Minister has underlined this recently.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has submitted a draft Code of Practice on services, public functions and associations to Ministers, and we are reviewing it with the care it deserves. This will provide further guidance to duty bearers.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of the annual cost to police forces of (a) administering roadside drug-impairment tests and (b) drug-driving testing; what steps she is taking to reduce the per-test cost of such testing for police forces; and what funding and support is available to police forces to help reduce drug-driving without reducing the number of tests carried out.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government’s Road Safety Strategy, launched in January 2026, includes a consultation on a range of motoring offences including the drink and drug driving testing framework. The government will continue to support the police to ensure they have the tools needed to keep road users safe.
The Home Office has not made an assessment on the costs to police forces for administering roadside drug-impartment tests and drug driving testing.
Total funding to police forces in 2026-27 will be up to £18.4 billion, an increase of up to £796 million compared to the 2025-26 police funding settlement. It is for PCCs and Chief Constables to determine how to allocate this funding to best support operational requirements.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure fraud offences affecting small businesses are properly investigated in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Fraud is a serious and growing threat to businesses, including small businesses, and the Government is committed to ensuring that fraud offences are properly investigated and prevented.
The Government has taken steps to ensure that Fraud is reflected in local policing priorities. This includes improving reporting through the new Report Fraud service and strengthening law enforcement capability through the National Fraud Squad.
Police forces in England and Wales will now be assessed on an ongoing basis on their fraud response as part of His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services Police Effectiveness, Efficiency and Legitimacy Framework.
The national Stop! Think Fraud campaign, provides practical advice to help people and businesses protect themselves. In addition, we have published a dedicated checklist for small businesses to help small firms reduce their exposure to fraud.
Fraud often begins with a cyber-attack. The Government funds a network of regional Cyber Resilience Centres across England and Wales, which provide trusted, tailored advice and support to businesses.
The Government will soon publish a new Fraud Strategy which will outline further measures to tackle fraud against business.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of Report Fraud.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Home Office regularly reviews the performance of Report Fraud to ensure the service is delivering improved outcomes for victims and strengthening the national response to fraud. The new service offers better management information to track and monitor service performance and a new performance dashboard to monitor outcomes and identify emerging fraud threats.
Recent data from the service shows that in December 2025 alone, eleven thousand more calls were answered compared to December 2024.
Furthermore, cases sent to police forces in January 2026 were at a higher level than January 2025. However, data is not yet available on the proportion of these cases sent to forces that are being taken forward by forces for investigation.
Since Report Fraud has gone live in December 2025, the service has been able to assist victims in recovering £1.8 million. Data from Report Fraud in January 2026 alone shows victims had a call satisfaction of 92%, Webchat satisfaction of 100%, and chatbot satisfaction of 90%.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 92 of the Strategic Defence Review, published on 2 June 2025, how many (a) public engagements and (b) private meetings Ministers in their Department have undertaken related to the national conversation on defence and security.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Home Office Ministers have regular discussions with officials, external experts and ministerial colleagues on a range of issues, including national security, defence and resilience, and associated public communications.
As set out in the Strategic Defence Review, the national conversation will be a multi-year engagement designed to embed a whole-of-society approach, where Government, businesses, and the public all play a part in strengthening our resilience. This addresses the risks we face, including threats below and above the threshold of an armed attack. The Home Office is actively supporting this work.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the UK-UAE Illicit Finance Partnership Agreement.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK–UAE Illicit Finance Partnership is overseen at Ministerial level, including through an annual Illicit Finance Ministerial Dialogue which reviews effectiveness.
The UK-UAE Illicit Finance Dialogue in September 2025 was successful in reaffirming both countries' commitment to tackling illicit finance flows, strengthening joint efforts across operational, policy, and strategic outcomes in the Partnership.