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 much cryptocurrency her Department has seized from criminal activity in each of the last three years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government does not currently publish the amount of cryptocurrency restrained / recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
The Home office is reviewing plans to publish new statistics on Crypto assets as part of future annual stats bulletins on asset recovery in response to the new powers that came into effect in April 2024.
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. These reviews allow us to balance the production of our regular statistics whilst developing new statistics for future release.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that end-to-end encryption continues to protect personal privacy while enabling law enforcement to detect serious criminal activity.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government supports strong encryption, which protects our citizens online. However, this must not and need not be at the expense of public safety, which is this Government’s first priority.
Targeted investigatory powers allow the authorities to investigate terrorists, paedophiles and the most serious criminals and are subject to robust safeguards, including judicial authorisations and oversight to protect people’s privacy.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to consult businesses on firearm licencing.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government response to the 2023 firearms licensing consultation, published on 13 February this year, included a commitment to having a consultation specifically on strengthening the licensing controls on shotguns.
When launched we will welcome and carefully consider all the views put forward, including those from businesses.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many visa applications they (1) received from, and (2) approved for, Palestinians from the Israeli Occupied Palestinian Territories in (a) 2023, (b) 2024, and (c) 2025; and what percentage of these were from and for Palestinian Christians.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas, by nationality, in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’ [https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release]. Data on visa applications are published in table ‘Vis_D01’ whilst data on outcomes of visa applications are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the ‘detailed entry clearance visas dataset’[https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/immigration-system-statistics-data-tables#entry-clearance-visas-granted-outside-the-uk]. The latest data is from January 2005 up to the end of June 2025.
The Home Office does not routinely collect information on the religion of visa holders; therefore, it is not possible to identify how many applications or approvals were specifically from Christians.
Figures for visa applications for Jordanian and Occupied Palestinian Territories nationals can be seen in the table below. Please note that an outcome of a visa application may relate to an application raised in a previous year.
Jordan | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 (Jan - Jun) |
Applications | 16,837 | 9,196 | 9,068 |
Grants | 15,713 | 7,981 | 7,253 |
|
|
| |
Occupied Palestinian Territories | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 (Jan - Jun) |
Applications | 4,275 | 4,607 | 2,277 |
Grants | 3,015 | 2,881 | 1,338 |
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many visa applications they (1) received from, and (2) approved for, Jordanian nationals in (a) 2023, (b) 2024, and (c) 2025; and what percentage of these were from and for Jordanian Christians.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on entry clearance visas, by nationality, in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’ [https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release]. Data on visa applications are published in table ‘Vis_D01’ whilst data on outcomes of visa applications are published in table ‘Vis_D02’ of the ‘detailed entry clearance visas dataset’[https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/immigration-system-statistics-data-tables#entry-clearance-visas-granted-outside-the-uk]. The latest data is from January 2005 up to the end of June 2025.
The Home Office does not routinely collect information on the religion of visa holders; therefore, it is not possible to identify how many applications or approvals were specifically from Christians.
Figures for visa applications for Jordanian and Occupied Palestinian Territories nationals can be seen in the table below. Please note that an outcome of a visa application may relate to an application raised in a previous year.
Jordan | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 (Jan - Jun) |
Applications | 16,837 | 9,196 | 9,068 |
Grants | 15,713 | 7,981 | 7,253 |
|
|
| |
Occupied Palestinian Territories | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 (Jan - Jun) |
Applications | 4,275 | 4,607 | 2,277 |
Grants | 3,015 | 2,881 | 1,338 |
Asked by: Lord Alton of Liverpool (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the criteria used to determine whether an extradition request from Hong Kong is politically motivated, particularly where charges are presented as criminal offences; and what safeguards are in place to prevent the authorities in Hong Kong from misusing criminal law as a means of targeting political opponents and seeking their extradition.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government remains resolutely committed to ensuring that no individual is extradited from the United Kingdom for politically motivated purposes, including in cases where charges are presented as criminal offences. The Extradition Act provides statutory safeguards and judicial oversight. It is for an independent UK court to determine whether any request for extradition is made for the purpose of prosecuting or punishing an individual on account of their political opinions, or whether if extradited they might be prejudiced at their trial or punished, detained or restricted in their personal liberty by reason of their political opinions and, if it is, there is a statutory bar to the extradition.
The extradition process under the Extradition Act 2003 affords judicial oversight and includes the protections in the European Convention on Human Rights. In all UK extradition proceedings, the court considers whether the requested person's extradition would be compatible with their human rights. These are defined as Convention rights within the meaning of the Human Rights Act 1998. The court must order the requested person's discharge from their extradition proceedings if extradition would not be compatible with their Convention rights.
Asked by: Baroness Jenkin of Kennington (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention on 21 January (HC23523), how many Home Office staff are employed to discharge the obligations under the Equality Act 2010, and what are the job titles of those staff.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We refer Baronness Jenkin to the Written Answer provided on 19 February, PQ 30618.
This response clarified the number of FTE roles in the HR function within the central Equality, Diversity and Wellbeing Team which are specifically focused on discharging statutory duties under the Equality Act 2010. As stated in the Written Answer on 21 January 2025 to question 23523, roles may exist outside of the HR function which have some responsibilities relating to statutory obligations under the Equality Act 2010.
Due to the broad nature of responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 and number of roles and functions in the Home Office, it is not possible to provide a specific number and related job titles which could be relevant in relation to the question asked. Additionally, some parts of the Equality Act 2010 could be relevant and/or apply to all roles in the Home Office such as the general public sector equality duties listed under Section 149 of the act.
Asked by: Peter Fortune (Conservative - Bromley and Biggin Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help prevent protests from disrupting the activities of defence firms.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The management of protest activity is an operational matter for the police, who are independent of government.
While the Government is committed to protecting the public and businesses from serious disruption, ministers cannot intervene in individual cases or direct police decisions, including those relating to protests near defence firms. This operational independence is a fundamental principle of policing in the UK.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2025 to Question 71962 on Cambridgeshire Constabulary: Stun Guns, what is her planned timetable for taking a decision on whether to approve the Taser 10 for police use.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are considering the results of independent testing and assessments of the Taser 10, as you would expect, before taking a decision on whether to approve it for police use.
The government is committed to giving police the necessary tools to protect the public, prevent harm and save lives.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with police forces on the adequacy of police resources allocated to tackling fraud.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling fraud is a clear priority for this Government, and I am committed to working with police forces to ensure resources are in place to effectively combat this crime and support victims.
That is why we are publishing a new, expanded Fraud Strategy to strengthen our national response to this crime.