Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many calls were made to police to report incidents of domestic abuse over the Christmas period in December 2024 and 2025.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office collects information from the police on the number of domestic abuse-related incidents from police forces in England and Wales on a quarterly basis. However, these data cannot be further broken down by specific time periods, such as weeks or months.
The latest published data, for the year ending March 2025, are available here: Domestic abuse prevalence and victim characteristics - Office for National Statistics
Asked by: Adrian Ramsay (Green Party - Waveney Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Freedom From Violence and Abuse Strategy, what plans her Department has to ensure the incidence of online abuse is captured in the monitoring of achieving the aim to halve violence against women and girls within a decade.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We will monitor progress of the Freedom From Violence and Abuse Strategy through a performance framework, details of which are included on pages 69-70 of the Strategy.
The performance framework includes a sub-metric on the prevalence of online harms.
We will report on the development and latest trends in our measures as part of our annual progress reports.
Asked by: Carla Denyer (Green Party - Bristol Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her planned timetable is for reviewing the legal framework for domestic abuse.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office is conducting a scoping review into the legal framework of domestic abuse to ensure it captures the experience of adolescents, which will conclude this year.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps are being taken to improve safety in night clubs especially around spiking.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Spiking is an appalling crime that undermines the public’s right to feel safe when out and about.
We are implementing a robust set of actions to improve safety in the night time economy:
In line with our manifesto commitment, the Government has introduced new legislation on spiking, as part of the Crime and Policing Bill, to strengthen the response to these incidents.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure that police training on violence against women and girls includes training on technology-facilitated abuse.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office has already invested £13.1 million this year into the new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection (NCVPP). This funding includes an additional £2 million to deliver a comprehensive package of training enhancements across public protection. Through the NCVPP, we are working closely with the College of Policing to develop strengthened, specialist training for officers across all operational levels - frontline, specialist, and leadership. Grounded in academic research and behaviour change science, new training programmes will ensure that all officers are well equipped to investigate these crimes and provide support to victims. This includes the development of new modules to equip officers with the skills to investigate technology-facilitated and online harm.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she intends to publish guidance for (a) the Police and (b) the public on protests outside life science facilities using animals in research.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The right to peaceful protest is a fundamental part of our democratic society. It is a long-standing tradition in this country that people are free to gather and to demonstrate their views, provided that they do so within the law.
There is no statutory requirement for the Home Office to produce guidance for this instrument. However, the Home Office will work with the National Police Chiefs Council and the College of Policing as the regulations are implemented to ensure forces understand their operational responsibilities.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of illegal migration on risks to the public.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Border Security Command (BSC) whose work is imperative not only to stop criminals from entering the UK via small boats in the first place but to stop anyone from making these dangerous journeys. This is why the BSC is working with partners internationally to tackle and disrupt organised immigration crime gangs.
All individuals arriving in the UK via small boats undergo a comprehensive screening process. This is designed to gather key information about each person, including any indicators of criminality.
As part of this process, the Home Office collects biometric data—such as facial images and fingerprints—to verify identity. These biometrics are checked against Home Office systems and other law enforcement databases, including Interpol’s wanted list. This enables us to identify individuals, assess whether they pose a risk to public safety, and determine any breaches of immigration law. These checks are essential to maintaining a secure, fair, and effective immigration system.
In line with the Refugee Convention, refugee status will be denied to those who have committed serious crimes, pose a danger to the community, or present a threat to national security.
For further details on security checks during the asylum screening process, please refer to Gov.UK.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the scale of illegal migration to the UK.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes statistics on detected arrivals via illegal routes to the UK in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on detected arrivals by illegal routes is published in table Irr_D01 of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK detailed datasets’, with the latest data up to the end of September 2025.
The Government has taken significant steps to address illegal migration and its Plan for Change sets out our ambition to secure borders and control immigration. We are committed to tackling illegal migration and the criminal networks which facilitate it. Since July 2024, nearly 50,000 individuals without lawful status have been returned from the UK. Our agreement with France means that those arriving by small boats can be detained and returned to France.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign nationals have had their visas revoked since 2010, broken down by type of grounds for refusal.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office do not currently publish data in relation to decisions to cancel permission to enter or permission to stay. The information requested can’t be obtained without disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Rosena Allin-Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of UK asylum and visa policies, in the context of Iranian nationals potentially seeking refuge.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK has a proud history of providing protection and we continue to welcome refugees and people in need through our safe and legal routes. However, there is no provision within our Immigration Rules for someone to be allowed to travel to the UK to seek asylum or temporary refuge. Whilst we sympathise with people in many difficult situations around the world, we are not bound to consider asylum claims from the very large numbers of people overseas who might like to come here. Those who need international protection should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach – that is the fastest route to safety.
Our visa policy is kept under review. Iran is a visa national country, and we will assess any visa applications against the relevant immigration rules in the normal way.