Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Chinese nationals have gained a visa through the Graduate Route in each year since 2021, broken down by (a) undergraduates, and (b) postgraduates.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested is not available from published statistics; nor do we break down the data as requested and we are unable to answer without disproportionate cost.
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 is the total capital cost to the government of customs check posts since the UK EU withdrawal.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Earl Attlee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether West Yorkshire Police has been supplied, or been wholly or partially funded for, any cars or light vehicles by His Majesty's Government directly, indirectly, or through agents or sub-contractors in connection with or via the Transpennine Route Upgrade project.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police forces in England and Wales are operationally independent of Government. Decisions on the procurement or allocation of resources, including vehicles, are matters for Chief Constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners or equivalents and are not matters the Home Office would routinely be involved in.
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, what assessment she has made of the potential security risks associated with rapid increases in temporary recruitment in the delivery sector during peak shopping periods.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has not made such an assessment. It is for companies in the delivery sector to act to ensure their employees are of good standing, and that appropriate and proportionate background checks are undertaken where this is deemed to be necessary.
In relation to Royal Mail, Ofcom’s regulatory framework places obligations on them, as the universal service provider, in relation to recruitment, training of employees (including temporary workers) and on security of the mail processes for employees. This does not apply to other delivery operators.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help improve the capability of police officers in West Dorset to support people experiencing a mental health crisis.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The College of Policing set the professional standards for police in England and Wales. The College’s core guidance includes the initial training for officers under the Policing Education Qualifications Framework which incorporates autism, learning disabilities, mental health including their powers under section 135 and 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983, and vulnerabilities. Through this, officers are taught to assess vulnerability and amend their approaches as required.
The College further promotes the need for frameworks to assess vulnerability, to aid in consistent identification, support decision making, and to trigger appropriate safeguarding action. Such principles and practices are set out in a number of college products, including the Detention and Custody Authorised Professional Practice.
Police officers are not mental health experts, neither are they expected to be. However, the training available to police officers in respect of mental ill health or other vulnerabilities is aimed at equipping them to identify potential issues and to know when interventions from partner agencies and health professionals may be needed.
Policing is operationally independent, and it is a matter for the chief constables of each force to decide which additional training their officers should undertake and to set and enforce standards, giving them the flexibility to address their own local challenges, needs and priorities. They are inspected biannually by His Majesties Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) whose role is to independently report on the efficiency and effectiveness of police forces, including inspecting how forces protect vulnerable people.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the proposed reforms to shotgun licensing on (a) rural hotels, (b) pubs and (c) tourism businesses reliant on shooting activity.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to undertaking a public consultation on whether to strengthen the controls on shotguns, including possible closer alignment with the controls on other firearms. This was set out in the Government response to the 2023 firearms licensing consultation, published on 13 February this year. Once the consultation is launched, we would welcome views from all interested parties, including from those who live and work in rural communities and shotgun holders.
We will carefully consider all of the views put forward during the consultation before taking any decision on whether and what changes may be necessary in the interests of public safety. The Government will provide an assessment of the impact of any changes we bring forward, including to the business community in rural areas, at the relevant time.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has modelled the potential impact on levels of employment of stricter conditions on shotgun certificate holders.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to undertaking a public consultation on whether to strengthen the controls on shotguns, including possible closer alignment with the controls on other firearms. This was set out in the Government response to the 2023 firearms licensing consultation, published on 13 February this year. Once the consultation is launched, we would welcome views from all interested parties, including from those who live and work in rural communities and shotgun holders.
We will carefully consider all of the views put forward during the consultation before taking any decision on whether and what changes may be necessary in the interests of public safety. The Government will provide an assessment of the impact of any changes we bring forward, including to the business community in rural areas, at the relevant time.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officer suicides were recorded in the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of suicides attended by police or the number of police suicides.
Data on suicides by occupation have previously been published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/adhocs/2726suicidebyoccupationinenglandandwales2023and2024provisional.
A National Action Plan for Suicide Prevention and Postvention in policing has been launched, which aims to reduce rates among the police workforce as well as enhancing data recording. The plan, which includes ensuring adequate training for the police workforce, emphasises a supportive environment that promotes mental health and combats stigma to ensure that those affected by suicide or suicidal thoughts can access appropriate and timely support.
Asked by: Danny Chambers (Liberal Democrat - Winchester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many suicides were attended by police in the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of suicides attended by police or the number of police suicides.
Data on suicides by occupation have previously been published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/adhocs/2726suicidebyoccupationinenglandandwales2023and2024provisional.
A National Action Plan for Suicide Prevention and Postvention in policing has been launched, which aims to reduce rates among the police workforce as well as enhancing data recording. The plan, which includes ensuring adequate training for the police workforce, emphasises a supportive environment that promotes mental health and combats stigma to ensure that those affected by suicide or suicidal thoughts can access appropriate and timely support.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 14 November 2025, to Question 86767, on Counter-terrorism: expenditure, what was the policy reason for the number of local authorities receiving Prevent funding being reduced from 30 to 28.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The number of local authorities (LAs) that receive Home Office funding has varied over the years from 20 in 2012 to 44 areas at its peak in 2021, which was just under 25% of all single-tier and upper tier LAs in England and Wales. Irrespective of funding, the Prevent duty places a statutory responsibility on all LAs in England, Scotland and Wales to have due regard to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism.
Evidence suggests that the threat from radicalisation is no longer contained to a relatively small number of LAs and that it is increasingly diffuse with more complex cases. Factors such as an increase in online radicalisation has led to risk and threat no longer being contained within administrative boundaries and an LA does not need to be high threat to be high risk.
In recognition of the evolving threat and risk, Prevent has evolved its delivery model to a regional model providing increased support to all local authorities. We now have a team of region based expert Home Office Prevent Advisers; this network of Prevent Advisers (PAs) work hand-in-hand with partners across England, Scotland and Wales to offer support and raise Prevent delivery standards within local areas.
The funding model does acknowledge that there are some areas with increased threat and risk, and so We currently provide dedicated Prevent funding to 28 LAs that are assessed as managing a higher level of threat and risk, relative to other LAs, to help them go above and beyond the requirements of the Prevent duty. Determining the number of LAs that receive dedicated funding takes account of internal funding allocations for the local delivery of Prevent, and other operational considerations.
The regional model also takes into account, the recommendations of the Independent Review of Prevent (IRP), The IRP also noted that the number of funded areas should be reduced to between 15-20 local authorities.
In line with this, outside of London, we now fund 20 local authorities. However, in London it is more challenging to assess the threat and risk relative to other parts of the country because the high number of LAs - i.e 32 London Boroughs and the City of London - disaggregates the threat and risk. Our current model therefore considers Greater London as a whole and we fund eight London Boroughs on the basis that they are managing a higher threat and risk, they are performing well and are geographically placed to give us cross-Greater London coverage.