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, pursuant to her Department’s new story entitled, Government leads global fight against deepfake threats, published on 5 February 2026, what metrics will be used to evaluate the success of the new deepfake detection evaluation framework.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The purpose of the new evaluation framework is to enable government and law enforcement to assess the performance, robustness and operational value of deepfake detection tools. The framework evaluates detection tools against a range of technical and operational criteria, including accuracy, false‑positive and false‑negative rates, resilience to adversarial attacks, and usability within high‑volume investigative workflows.
Success will be measured through the provision of clear, comparable performance metrics that support evidence‑based procurement decisions and ensure frontline users have access to the most effective technologies.
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 news story, Government leads global fight against deepfake threats, published on 5 February 2026, whether she plans to repeat the Deepfake Detection Challenge to continue testing the technical challenges of deepfake detection and identifying opportunities.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Deepfake Detection Challenge has enabled extensive engagement across government policy teams, operational users, and the wider national security community to understand current and emerging threats. The Government will continue to evaluate deepfake detection capabilities to ensure tools remain effective against emerging techniques, and operational users have up-to-date information for procurement decisions.
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 news story, Government leads global fight against deepfake threats, published on 5 February 2026, what steps she is taking to coordinate with he international counterparts to tackle deepfake generation targeted at British citizens abroad.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
There has been strong interest from international partners, many of whom participated in the recent Deepfake Detection Challenge live event. The Government will continue to work closely with these partners to share best practice, exchange technical insights and promote aligned approaches to the detection and mitigation of synthetic media threats.
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 news story, Government leads global fight against deepfake threats, published on 5 February 2026, is she will publish an evaluation of the deepfake detection framework.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The evaluation framework is a security‑sensitive tool designed to support government and law enforcement in protecting the public from synthetic media threats. Publishing the framework would risk revealing information that could be exploited by adversaries to bypass or undermine defensive measures. For this reason, the framework will not be published.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress she has made to help support the end to violence against women and girls, including what steps she took during the 6 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence in 2025.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
On 18th December 2025, this government published the ‘Freedom from Violence and Abuse; a cross-cutting strategy’, setting out our whole-system approach to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.
We have already begun implementing measures, such as rolling out Domestic Abuse Protection Orders, embedding domestic abuse specialists in police control rooms through Raneem’s Law, establishing a new National Policing Centre for VAWG and Public Protection with £13.1 million of funding, and appointing Richard Wright KC to lead the Stalking Legislation Review ensuring the criminal law on stalking is fit for purpose. This is alongside the work done by Ministers during the Sixteen Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, from 25th November to 10th December 2025, to meet with and support a range of stakeholders and events.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure illegal migrants accommodated in (a) hotels and (b) other government supported accommodation who leave that accommodation and do not report back within 72 hours are reported to UK Visas and Immigration and the police as having absconded except in pre-arranged and agreed exceptional circumstances.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office provides accommodation and support to destitute asylum seekers under statutory provisions such as Sections 95 and 98 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. This accommodation is non‑detained, and the Department does not have legal powers to keep individuals securely within it or limit the hours they may leave.
Some individuals may be on immigration bail, which is an alternative to detention and requires them to comply with one or more conditions. These may include residing at a specific address or reporting to the Home Office. Breach of a bail condition is a criminal offence and may result in detention or other enforcement action.
Absence from accommodation does not automatically mean a person has absconded. A person is only considered to have absconded if they fail to comply with their immigration bail conditions and the Home Office cannot re‑establish contact. A dedicated tracing team works closely with the police and other partners to locate such individuals.
Accommodation providers must report when service users are absent from their address, and the Home Office investigates these cases as possible breaches of asylum support conditions. If a person is found to have left their accommodation without good reason, their support may be discontinued. Providers are also expected to escalate concerns where someone may be at risk or potentially a victim of modern slavery.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to ensure illegal migrants accommodated in (a) hotels and (b) other government supported accommodation are (i) kept securely within that accommodation and (ii) limited in the number of hours they are permitted to leave that accommodation.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office provides accommodation and support to destitute asylum seekers under statutory provisions such as Sections 95 and 98 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. This accommodation is non‑detained, and the Department does not have legal powers to keep individuals securely within it or limit the hours they may leave.
Some individuals may be on immigration bail, which is an alternative to detention and requires them to comply with one or more conditions. These may include residing at a specific address or reporting to the Home Office. Breach of a bail condition is a criminal offence and may result in detention or other enforcement action.
Absence from accommodation does not automatically mean a person has absconded. A person is only considered to have absconded if they fail to comply with their immigration bail conditions and the Home Office cannot re‑establish contact. A dedicated tracing team works closely with the police and other partners to locate such individuals.
Accommodation providers must report when service users are absent from their address, and the Home Office investigates these cases as possible breaches of asylum support conditions. If a person is found to have left their accommodation without good reason, their support may be discontinued. Providers are also expected to escalate concerns where someone may be at risk or potentially a victim of modern slavery.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, who signs off asylum related contracts in her Department.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
Internal Home Office Commercial approvals are required before awarding contracts. In addition, Cabinet Office Spend Controls approvals are also required.
The guidance for Cabinet Office Spend Controls applies to commercial activities with a value of £20 million or more and is published on GOV.UK under Commercial Spend Controls (version 7).
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to the National Shipbuilding Strategy in the procurement of vessels for Border Force.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are continuing to engage suppliers on the basis of a UK-led build, using the Defence and Security provisions within the Procurement Act 2023 where appropriate. This approach is consistent with the government's commitment to back British businesses and a sustainable and successful shipbuilding and maritime technology sector and to ensure value for money and deliverability. My officials are working closely with the National Shipbuilding Office.
Asked by: Lord Moraes (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to address the increase in homelessness of refugee households; and what assessment they have made of the impact that the 28-day move-on period for asylum seekers given refugees status has on homelessness levels.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office is committed to supporting individuals granted leave to remain to successfully transition from asylum accommodation to mitigate the risk of homelessness.
This Government is aware of the need for a smooth transition between asylum accommodation and other accommodation. The Home Office is working to identify and implement efficiencies to support this process and mitigate the risk of homelessness.
The Home Office has also placed Asylum Move-On Liaison Officers in over 50 Local Authorities across the UK, working alongside the Migrant Help and NGOs to support individuals who will be leaving asylum accommodation, and ensure a successful transition.
An independent evaluation of the impact of the 56-day pilot has been completed. The evaluation gathered insights from local authorities, devolved governments, service providers, and voluntary sector partners.
It is important that we take the necessary time to review this evidence before making any longer-term policy decisions. This measured approach ensures that future arrangements are sustainable and continue to meet our statutory duties while supporting those granted asylum effectively.