Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring police forces to record thefts (a) from and (b) of light commercial vehicles as distinct crime categories to enable accurate national monitoring of van-related offending.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has access to a monthly extract of data from the Police National Computer (PNC) which provides additional intelligence information on the type of vehicles stolen in England and Wales. Such data already enables the monitoring of offences involving the theft of light commercial vehicles and so no additional crime code is needed to identify such thefts.
When collecting data for national monitoring purposes there is always a tension between seeking to capture more detail to identify emerging threats, which are hidden within existing broad offence groupings, and adding to recording complexity and burden on the police.
The Theft Act covers a wide range of criminality, and the Home Office currently require the police to record such offences under some fairly broad groups such as Theft from a motor vehicle, aggravated vehicle taking, and Theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to issue guidance to police forces in England and Wales that rapists and suspected rapists are recorded as male in crime statistics.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is considering the implications of the Supreme Court ruling on the definition of sex within the Equality Act. The Government Statistical Service Harmonisation team, based in the Office for National Statistics, are also in the process of reviewing standards and guidance for statistical data on sex and on gender identity. Once this has concluded the Government will review current guidance to agencies that collect crime statistics across the criminal justice system.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the financial capacity of regional organised crime units to investigate modern slavery.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that law enforcement has there sources it needs to tackle crime effectively. Regional Organised Crime Units(ROCUs) are collaborations between three or more police forces and help support forces and partners to tackle serious and organised crime (SOC),including modern slavery.The Home Office provides c.30% of funding to supports the ROCUs intackling SOC, with the remaining c.70% coming from Police and Crime Commissioners in 2025-26. To improve the response to modern slavery, the Home Office also provides funding through the Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Unit, for regional coordinators, based in theROCUs that act as a bridge between the ROCU and forces to provide specialist advice and support on investigations. In addition to this, the Home Office-funded Tackling Organised Exploitation (TOEX) Programme is anintelligence capability that is increasing law enforcements capability to respond to organised exploitation, including modern slavery. As the spending review and subsequent allocations process is ongoing, funding for future years cannot be confirmed at this time.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2025 to Question 90289 on Offences against Children: Wales, if she will publish the correspondence with the First Minister of Wales.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
As noted in PQ 90290, the National Inquiry into Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse will cover England and Wales. The Home Secretary has written to the First Minister to confirm this. As the Hon Member will appreciate correspondence between the Home Secretary and the First Minister of Wales is confidential and I will not be publishing the letter.
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 her Department has taken to help reduce instances of matricide.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The scale of violence against women and girls (VAWG) is intolerable, and this Government has set out a mission to halve these crimes over the next decade.The Home Office is working to develop the evidence base on domestic abuse related deaths by funding the Domestic Homicide Project, which captures information all domestic abuse related deaths, including matricides, from all 43 police forces in England and Wales. The objective of this project is to improve our understanding of these cases and identify how the response to them can be improved. Further information about this research can be found at the following link: https://www.vkpp.org.uk/vkpp-work/domestic-homicide-project/. In addition, Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) offer a vital opportunity fornational and local agencies, local communities and society as a whole to learn lessons from domestic abuse related deaths, including cases of matricide. We are currently reforming the DHR process to ensure learning is effectively identified and implemented to improve systems and ultimately, prevent future deaths.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her will can provide (a) an update on the progress of the grooming gangs inquiry and (b) a timeline for the commencement of the different stages of the inquiry.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We are working urgently to establish the inquiry and Baroness Casey of Blackstock is supporting this process.Our immediate priority is appointing a Chair with the credibility and experience to lead the inquiry, ensuring a trauma-informed approach to engaging victims and survivors throughout - from its design to reporting. We aim to announce a Chair as soon as possible.Once a Chair is appointed, in line with the requirements of the Inquiries Act 2005, the Chair will play a central role in shaping the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference and will consult on a draft of these before they are finalised. It is the Terms of Reference that will determine the scope of the inquiry. Once inpost the Chair will set out an inquiry timeline based on the requirements of the Terms of Reference.
Asked by: Lord Murray of Blidworth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many meetings the departmental board of the Home Office has had since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office Annual Report and Accounts 24/25 includes information on how many times the Departmental Board met during that financial year. Information on the number of meetings held in the 25/26 financial year will be published in next year’s Annual Report and Accounts. Home Office Board met twice in the time mentioned.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many offenders awaiting (a) trial (b) sentencing were removed from the UK under a voluntary agreement prior to the completion of the legal process annually since 2015.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
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.
The Home Office publishes data on returns in the ‘Immigration System Statistics quarterly release’. Data on returns by return type can be found in Ret_01 of the ‘Returns summary tables’. This data covers the period 2010 to September 2025.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been (a) arrested and (b) convicted in relation to the sale of illegal vape products in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The data requested is not held by the Home Office.
The Home Office collect and publishes data on arrests as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series, available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK
However, data is collected by broader offence group and for notifiable offences only, therefore data on arrests for the sale of illegal vapes is not available.
Convictions is a matter for the Ministry of Justice.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the transition costs to the public purse of the proposed abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
There will be a small programme team in the Home Office to oversee the transition of police governance functions from Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to Strategic Authority Mayors or, where that is not possible, new Policing and Crime Boards. This will be resourced through the reprioritisation of existing resources.
The Home Office will work with Offices of PCCs and local authorities to assess local transition costs ahead of implementation in 2028. Following the approach taken for previous transfers of police governance in mayoral areas, costs are expected to be met locally through existing budgets.