Asked by: Julie Minns (Labour - Carlisle)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the commitments in the Men and Boys Explanatory Note to the Government’s Freedom from Violence and Abuse Strategy are implemented by police forces, particularly the requirement that male and boy victims are integrated into the response to those crimes.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The ‘Men and Boys Explanatory Note’ explains how the Strategy considers and addresses the needs of men and boys in detail. It underlines how the strategy speaks to men and boys, by addressing the key issues that the male victims’ sector has raised with us as priorities for change. All victims, including men and boys, are considered and integrated into our response throughout the Strategy and our metrics to halve these crimes.
The National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection will play a central role in delivering the VAWG Strategy, providing national coordination to ensure police commitments are implemented consistently across all forces and strengthening the police response to these crimes for all victims, including men and boys.
The VAWG Strategy is a 10-year, adaptive plan, designed to evolve in response to changing contexts. It is underpinned by a 3-year Action Plan and we will provide regular updates on progress as we deliver on our commitments.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the removal of funding from the Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Unit on dedicated national policing funding for modern slavery activity.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We understand concerns about the lack of dedicated funding for the specialist Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Programme from April 2026, which has historically sat under the National Police Chief Council’s Modern Slavery and Organised Immigration Crime Lead.
The modern slavery programme was established in 2017 as a transformation programme, with the long‑term intention of embedding modern slavery expertise and best practice into policing as business as usual. It has been instrumental in improving the law enforcement response to modern slavery, with more investigations and more prosecutions now than when the programme began.
As with all transformation programmes, it is appropriate that it concludes once core objectives have been achieved. It is owing to the success of the programme, with forces better equipped to tackle modern slavery, that we must now ensure a consistent and standardised response to modern slavery across all forces to drive performance and hold the police accountable. This is in line with the Government’s wider ambitions to reform policing as set out in the White Paper, "From Local to National: A New Model for Policing".
In its final year of funding, under the Ministerial Modern Slavery Action Plan for 2025/26, the modern slavery programme has developed a framework for investigating modern slavery, capturing the expertise and lessons learnt from the past eight years of the programme. The framework and related guidance material will be made available to all officers in England and Wales through an online knowledge hub and has been incorporated into the College of Policing’s Applied Professional Practice on Modern Slavery. This will ensure that policing retains a nationally consistent standard for modern slavery investigations and a clear basis for sustaining capability once the programme concludes.
The department will continue to work with police forces across England and Wales to support a strong, coordinated approach to identifying, disrupting, and tackling modern slavery, and to oversee an orderly transition as the central modern slavery policing capability comes to a close.
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 3 March 2026, to question 116395 on Female Genital Mutilation and Forced Marriage, whether male victims of forced marriage are included within the scope of the national prevalence estimate.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Published in December 2025, “Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls” committed to conducting an additional study to explore the viability of the approach recommended by the University of Birmingham in producing a national prevalence estimate for forced marriage and FGM.
The government is clear that whilst forced marriage disproportionately impacts women and girls, it also impacts men and boys. Whilst the study is still ongoing, any national prevalence estimate for forced marriage would include male victims.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made towards its target of ending the use of hotels to accommodate asylum seekers over the course of this Parliament.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Exiting all asylum hotels as soon as possible is one of the Government’s top priorities and must be executed through a controlled, managed and orderly plan of work. This plan involves reducing inflow, speeding up caseworking, maximising utilisation of our estate, continuing to increase returns and exploring the use of large sites as suitable alternative accommodation.
We have already made significant progress. At the end of December 2025, 30,657 asylum seekers (29) were in hotel accommodation, 19% lower than at the end of December 2024. The number of hotels in use as asylum accommodation remains significantly below hotel usage at its peak under the previous government in summer 2023, when more than 400 hotels were in use. As of 4th January, there are 197 hotels in use and we will not rest until we close every single one.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 9 February 2026 to Question 110416 on Government Departments: Publicity, whether she plans to remove the HM reference in the public branding of (a) HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services and (b) HM Passport Office.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Section 54(1) of the Police Act 1996 sets out that Inspectors are known as HM Inspectors of Constabulary and there are no plans to change this.
There are no plans for HM Passport Office to remove the “HM” reference from its public branding.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how does the Home Office learn of, or uncover, incidents of transnational repression.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
We continually assess potential threats in the UK and draw on a multisource model to build a comprehensive picture of that threat.
The Government works closely with law enforcement, government departments, international partners, civil society and affected individuals to strengthen our understanding of reporting trends and methodologies, identify patterns of behaviour, and ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent transnational repression (TNR). A dedicated team has now been established within the Home Office to coordinate this work and act as a focal point across HMG.
The Government will continue to deepen its understanding of TNR and ensure that the systems used to detect, deter and counter this activity remain effective and proportionate.
Anyone who believes they are a victim of state-directed activity should report incidents or suspicious activity to the police via 101, at a local police station, or 999 in emergencies.
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, with reference to her Department’s press release entitled Refugee protection to be reviewed every 30 months, published on 2 March 2026, what estimate she has made of the proportionate reduction in asylum applications that would arise from these changes.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Any adult or accompanied child who claims asylum on or after 2 March 2026 and is granted refugee status or humanitarian protection will be given ‘Core Protection’, for a period of 30 months. This change is intended to reduce the pull factors behind high numbers of asylum claims, by moving towards a more temporary refugee status with regular reviews.
Importantly, the core protection model encourages refugees to switch into a new, bespoke work and study route to access family reunion and settlement rights with new fees and conditions in accordance with the rules of that route. This will enable them to earn down their length of time before they can settle in the UK from 20 years. It also allows the Government to exert more control over those entering the UK.
While the Government has not set any formal target for a reduction in asylum claims, experience in other countries, including Denmark, suggests that less generous and less permanent protection can reduce application numbers over time. Our focus remains on making the system fairer, providing protection only for as long as it is needed, and encouraging people to use safe and legal routes.
Asked by: Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there has been an increase in the average waiting times to a decision on indefinite leave to remain and visa extension applications by Turkish European Communities Association Agreement business person holders since September 2025; and if so, what is the reason for that increase.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
There is a 6 month processing time for straightforward applications made by Turkish business persons under the European Communities Association Agreement. There has been no change to this service standard. Individual applications may take longer to decide when additional steps are required, including requests for further information, checks with other government departments and detailed investigations concerning the businesses being relied on in the application.
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, with reference to her Department’s press release entitled Refugee protection to be reviewed every 30 months, published on 2 March 2026, what estimate she has made of the number of people applying for asylum under the new safe and legal routes announced in that press release.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We will work with the UN Refugee Agency, community groups and other partners to identify refugees and displaced people who can either study, work or are supported by a community group in the UK. As set out in the Restoring Order and Control statement, these routes will be capped. The number of individuals that will arrive under each capped route is subject to further policy development. Work is underway to operationalise these new routes and further details will be provided in due course.
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, with reference to her Department’s press release entitled Refugee protection to be reviewed every 30 months, published on 2 March 2026, what criteria will be used to determine whether a refugee’s home country is deemed safe at the 30-month review point; and how often such determinations will be publicly reported.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Secretary’s announcement on 2 March marks a significant change in direction away from an assumption of offering permanent protection, and is the first step towards the introduction of the “core protection” model announced last November.
The change to reduce refugee permission to stay to 30 months will apply to adults and families, including accompanied asylum-seeking children who claim asylum or make further submissions on or after 2 March 2026. There will be transitional provisions for people who submitted an asylum claim before 2 March 2026, so that existing rules continue to apply. We will not seek to revoke or amend existing leave that has already been granted.
Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) who claim asylum or make further submissions on or after 2 March 2026 are not in scope of this Rules change. UASC granted protection status will receive 5 years’ leave, including former UASC who have turned age 18 before being granted protection status. This position on UASC who claim asylum or make further submissions on or after 2 March 2026 will remain whilst the Government considers the appropriate long-term policy for this group.
On Core Protection, a refugee will have no automatic right to bring family to the UK. Refugees will be able to switch into a new, bespoke work and study route to access family reunion and settlement rights with new fees and conditions in accordance with the rules of that route.
Not everyone who has been granted protection will undergo a review of their protection needs when renewing their status. Only those who remain on Core Protection, and do not switch into the Protection Work and Study route, will be subject to this review. People who do integrate will be able to obtain greater certainty about their future in the UK.
This Government has never operated a policy of automatic settlement for refugees granted limited permission. Settlement in the UK is a privilege, not a right. The need for protection is not always permanent, and therefore it is right that we re-assess whether individuals still require protection before granting them further permission to stay or settlement in the UK. It has been a long-standing position that safe return reviews must be conducted when considering settlement protection applications.
Every case will be considered on its own merits, taking into account evidence that a person provided as part of their claim, and the latest objective country information. Where it is concluded that the person is no longer at risk on return, their protection status may be revoked and they may be removed.