Asked by: Edward Leigh (Conservative - Gainsborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to establish a community liaison group, to be attended by the Home Office and representatives of residents, including local MPs, councillors, Crowborough Shield & other community organisations, in relation to her department’s usage of Crowborough Training Camp as asylum accommodation.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has been and continues regular engagement with representatives from the local authority, the NHS, the Police, and local partners, via the Multi Agency Forum and its sub-groups. Regular meetings with the office of the local MP, Parish councillors, the Voluntary Community Sector and non-government organisations are commencing.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to (a) reopen the Places of Worship Protective Security Scheme and (b) introduce a similar scheme for all faiths.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Protecting the right of all faith communities to worship in peace and without fear is fundamental. That is why record funding of up to £5 million is available for physical protective security measures through the Places of Worship Protective Security Scheme in 2026/27.
The next application window for this scheme will open later this year. Sites of all faiths, except Jewish and Muslim, are already eligible for this scheme. Mosques, synagogues and their associated faith community centres and schools can receive protective security through the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme and the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant – more information on the Home Office schemes can be found on GOV.uk.
Additionally, the Home Office has launched a brand-new scheme, Faith Security Training (FST), to better protect faith communities in England and Wales.
FST, developed in partnership with policing and faith representatives, is a free scheme designed to help faith communities strengthen their security awareness and preparedness.
I would encourage faith communities looking to improve the security of their places of worship to attend the training.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help improve police responses to retail crime in rural areas.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces so they focus on tackling local issues, like fighting retail crime. All communities, including rural communities, will benefit from and are included in these reforms.
We are on track to deliver an additional 3,000 neighbourhood officers by March. We are giving them the powers they need, including making it a specific offence to assault retail workers and ending the treatment of theft under the value of £200 as a summary-only offence. Again, these changes are applicable to all types of communities, including those defined as rural.
With our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee every neighbourhood, rural or urban, now gets a named contactable officer, dedicated to addressing the issues facing their communities, including shop theft, and a response to non-urgent queries in 72 hours.
Reporting crime to the police is the first crucial step in ensuring an appropriate police response. The Government is supporting the police and retailers. This work will set consistent standards for identifying, assessing and tackling retail crime across police and industry.
We are also encouraging closer local partnerships between police and retailers, for example through Business Crime Reduction Partnerships, to help local police respond effectively to crimes reported.
We are already seeing a difference. Whilst it is unacceptable that shop theft offences continue to trend upward, this is at a slower rate than we have seen in recent years. Police recorded crime figures recorded 519,381 shoplifting offences for the year ending September 2025. This represents a 5% increase from the previous year. The number of charges for shop theft rose by 21% (up to 111,559 charges). The charge rate also increased from 17.9% to 20.1%. However, this remains well below that seen in 2015/16 (29.6%). The number of charges for shop theft have increased at a greater rate over the same period [up to 111,559 charges or 21%]. This increase in the charge rate from 17.9% to 20.1% shows police are taking these crimes seriously.
Asked by: John Milne (Liberal Democrat - Horsham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of existing mechanisms for reporting retail crime by businesses in rural areas.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces so they focus on tackling local issues, like fighting retail crime. All communities, including rural communities, will benefit from and are included in these reforms.
We are on track to deliver an additional 3,000 neighbourhood officers by March. We are giving them the powers they need, including making it a specific offence to assault retail workers and ending the treatment of theft under the value of £200 as a summary-only offence. Again, these changes are applicable to all types of communities, including those defined as rural.
With our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee every neighbourhood, rural or urban, now gets a named contactable officer, dedicated to addressing the issues facing their communities, including shop theft, and a response to non-urgent queries in 72 hours.
Reporting crime to the police is the first crucial step in ensuring an appropriate police response. The Government is supporting the police and retailers. This work will set consistent standards for identifying, assessing and tackling retail crime across police and industry.
We are also encouraging closer local partnerships between police and retailers, for example through Business Crime Reduction Partnerships, to help local police respond effectively to crimes reported.
We are already seeing a difference. Whilst it is unacceptable that shop theft offences continue to trend upward, this is at a slower rate than we have seen in recent years. Police recorded crime figures recorded 519,381 shoplifting offences for the year ending September 2025. This represents a 5% increase from the previous year. The number of charges for shop theft rose by 21% (up to 111,559 charges). The charge rate also increased from 17.9% to 20.1%. However, this remains well below that seen in 2015/16 (29.6%). The number of charges for shop theft have increased at a greater rate over the same period [up to 111,559 charges or 21%]. This increase in the charge rate from 17.9% to 20.1% shows police are taking these crimes seriously.
Asked by: Patrick Spencer (Independent - Central Suffolk and North Ipswich)
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 combining section 1 and 2 licenses on public safety.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is intending to consult on strengthening shotgun controls in due course. The Government response to the 2023 firearms licensing consultation, published in February 2025, included a commitment to having a consultation on strengthening the licensing controls on shotguns, in the interests of public safety.
We will also provide an impact assessment in relation to any changes that we bring forward after the consultation, in the normal way.
Asked by: Victoria Collins (Liberal Democrat - Harpenden and Berkhamsted)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications for refugee family reunion submitted before the route was temporarily suspended have been awaiting a decision for longer than the published service standard.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office temporarily paused the Refugee Family Reunion route from 4 September 2025, with applications submitted before that point continuing to be processed under the previous rules.
The number of Refugee Family Reunion applications submitted before the pause and awaiting a decision beyond the service standard is not available in published statistics and could only be collated and verified at disproportionate cost.
Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, considering a number of factors including user needs, as well as quality and availability of data.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will reconsider the termination of the temporary visa free access scheme for overseas seasonal sheep shearers from Australia and New Zealand.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
All Immigration Rules concessionary arrangements are temporary and subject to regular Ministerial review. The sheep shearing concession has been operating for 14 years and the sheep farming sector has made significant efforts to provide skills training within the domestic workforce.
To give sheep farmers two years to transition to new arrangements, and move away from using overseas shearers, the concession has been renewed for one more year. The concession will not be renewed in 2027 and will close for a final time on 30 June 2026.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many units of service family accommodation exist in the UK; and of these, what proportion have been made available for housing asylum seekers.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We do not house people in service accommodation. Any former military sites that we do use are not available to the Armed Services.
The UK government has a statutory obligation to support asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute. The government is determined to restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly, and fairly; and ensures the rules are properly enforced. We have committed to exiting hotels at the earliest opportunity, and in order to do this we need to stand up alternative accommodation which is better suited to this purpose.
As part of our commitment to close all asylum hotels, we are looking at a range of more appropriate sites including ex-military sites, so we can reduce the impact on communities. Decisions on the use of alternative asylum accommodation sites are made on a site-by-site basis.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many asylum seekers from Afghanistan and their families are currently housed in service family accommodation in the UK.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We do not house people in service accommodation. Any former military sites that we do use are not available to the Armed Services.
The UK government has a statutory obligation to support asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute. The government is determined to restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly, and fairly; and ensures the rules are properly enforced. We have committed to exiting hotels at the earliest opportunity, and in order to do this we need to stand up alternative accommodation which is better suited to this purpose.
As part of our commitment to close all asylum hotels, we are looking at a range of more appropriate sites including ex-military sites, so we can reduce the impact on communities. Decisions on the use of alternative asylum accommodation sites are made on a site-by-site basis.
Asked by: Baroness Buscombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many asylum seekers are currently housed in service family accommodation in the UK.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We do not house people in service accommodation. Any former military sites that we do use are not available to the Armed Services.
The UK government has a statutory obligation to support asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute. The government is determined to restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly, and fairly; and ensures the rules are properly enforced. We have committed to exiting hotels at the earliest opportunity, and in order to do this we need to stand up alternative accommodation which is better suited to this purpose.
As part of our commitment to close all asylum hotels, we are looking at a range of more appropriate sites including ex-military sites, so we can reduce the impact on communities. Decisions on the use of alternative asylum accommodation sites are made on a site-by-site basis.