Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2025 to Question 82334 on Home Office: Facilities Agreements, whether there has been a change to facility time arrangements in her Department since July 2024; and if she will make an assessment of the reasons for the change in the (a) cost and (b) number of facility time staff.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
There have not been any changes to facility time arrangements in the Home Office since July 2024.
There will always be fluctuations from one year to another in terms of the number of employees elected as trade union reps and the amount of facility time they use to undertake their duties.
These fluctuations will be driven by a range of factors, such as vacancies on trade union committees being filled, the number of consultation exercises the employer needs to engage the unions on and the level of personal casework (e.g. grievances and disciplinaries) where trade union representatives may be supporting individual employees.
Asked by: Baroness Falkner of Margravine (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Home Office has declined to lay before Parliament a draft statutory code submitted by an arm's-length body between January 2015 and December 2025, where that code has not been subject to litigation.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
For all Home Office administratively classified arm’s length bodies, with the exception of National Crime Agency and Investigatory Powers Tribunal, the Home Office has not declined to lay before Parliament any draft statutory codes submitted in the time frame given, where that code has not been subject to litigation.
For National Crime Agency and Investigatory Powers Tribunal a reasonable search has failed to locate the requested information in the time available.
Asked by: Lord Truscott (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Hanson of Flint on 26 February (HL14639), how many fixed penalty notices have been issued to cyclists and scooter riders for (1) jumping red lights, and (2) riding on pavements, in England in the past 12 months; and whether they have plans to introduce legislation to reduce those practices.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect or hold specific data on the number of fixed penalty notices issued to cyclists or scooter riders.
The Home Office’s annual publication Police Powers and Procedures: Roads Policing - the most recent edition of which is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-roads-policing-to-december-2023 - provides statistics on fixed penalty notices and other outcomes for motoring offences, all of which apply exclusively to motor-vehicle drivers. Cyclists are therefore excluded from the scope of the published figures.
It is an offence for a cyclist to jump a red light and to cycle on a pavement, and the Government is determined to go further to make our streets safer for pedestrians by introducing new cycling offences through the Crime and Policing Bill, which will tackle instances where victims have been killed or seriously injured by irresponsible cyclists, ensuring parity of enforcement powers against dangerous behaviour on our roads, for all road users.
The Crime and Policing Bill will also give police greater powers to clamp down on anti-social behaviour involving e-scooters, with officers no longer required to issue a warning before seizure. This will allow police to put an immediate stop to offending.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department holds data on the number of children that go missing by region every year.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold this data centrally.
Information about current missing persons incidents is held by individual police forces.
The National Crime Agency’s UK Missing Persons Unit holds the national database for all missing incidents that are unresolved after 72hours, allowing the police to have access to missing persons information across force boundaries. In addition, annual missing persons statistics, broken down to police force level, are published by the National Crime Agency’s Missing Person’s Unit in its annual data report which can be found here: Downloads - National Crime Agency
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 animal testing on animal welfare.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government takes the welfare of animals used in science extremely seriously. The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) is the UK’s framework governing the use of animals in research. ASPA enables the limited use of animals in science for societal, environmental or animal benefit. It provides a strict system of controls, rigorously and robustly enforced by the GB Regulator, to ensure animals are only used where necessary and where the expected benefits justify the harms.
ASPA requires application of the principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement (the 3Rs) and mandates licensing for establishments, individuals and research projects. A project can only be authorised following a harm-benefit analysis, and all applications undergo ethical and scientific review, including by local Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Bodies, before submission to the Regulator.
Longer term, the Government is fully committed to reducing the use of animals in science. In November 2025, the Government published, Replacing animals in science which sets a programme to accelerate the development, validation, and uptake of alternative methods while maintaining high standards of scientific rigour and public safety.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a fee for project licence applications under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 based on the estimated number of procedures and using the funds generated to support the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government has recently announced £75 million of further investment in accelerating the development, validation and uptake of non-animal alternative methods.
As set out in the Replacing Animals in Science strategy, published in November 2025, the Government will create a preclinical translational models hub and a UK Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (UKCVAM).
This is in addition to the current funding of the NC3Rs.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many licences were rejected for procedures using the rabbit pyrogen test since the publication of the Replacing Animals in Science strategy.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since the publication of the Animals in Science Strategy on 11 November the Home Office has not received any applications for licences that seek authorisation for procedures using the rabbit pyrogen test.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will have discussions with UK industrial hemp producers regarding removing current restrictions on its production and use in UK constructions.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Cannabis is a Class B controlled drug and can only be cultivated under Home Office licence. The Home Office operates two licensing regimes in respect of cannabis cultivation. The standard cannabis cultivation regime permits the use of the controlled parts of the plant (e.g., leaves and flowers) and the cultivation of high-THC varieties indoors. There must be a lawful purpose, such as pharmaceutical production. The industrial hemp regime permits the cultivation of low-THC varieties to use the non-controlled parts of the plant (mature stalk and seeds), but not the controlled parts of the plant (e.g. flowers and leaves). The Government has introduced two reforms to make it easier for farmers to cultivate industrial hemp. In January 2025, the rules on site sensitively were removed. The duration of licences granted from January 2026 has been extended from three years to six years, with no additional fees, to help businesses plan. The Home Office works closely with DEFRA to ensure a balance between proportionate regulation of cannabis cultivation and provision of opportunity for UK businesses around the use of hemp. As part of this work, officials from both departments have met with UK hemp producers.
Asked by: Jonathan Hinder (Labour - Pendle and Clitheroe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of police funding was derived from the police precept in (a) 1996 and (b) 2006.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Due to significant changes in the structure of police funding and policing in England and Wales in the financial year ending March 2016, it is difficult to make a direct comparison of the proportion of total police funding that was derived from police precept over the requested period of time.
However, the overall level of police precept in 1996-97 was £832.8 million and in 2006-07 was £2,639.5 million.
Further historical information regarding police funding for England and Wales is available at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/central-government-police-funding
Asked by: Lord Cameron of Lochiel (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their announcement on 14 January that they will introduce legislation to give the Home Secretary powers to force the retirement, resignation, or suspension of chief constables on performance grounds, whether any chief constable removed using such powers would still be entitled to a settlement agreement.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
As the Home Secretary said to the House on 14 January and published in the white paper “From Local to National: A New Model for Policing” published on 26 January, when a Chief Constable is responsible for a damaging failure of leadership, the public rightly expect the Home Secretary to act. This Government intends to restore their ability to do so and will soon reintroduce the Home Secretary’s power to dismiss Chief Constables.
There is no statutory entitlement to any settlement beyond the normal pay and pension entitlement that an individual has accrued. Any further settlement would be a matter for the Local Policing Body to determine.
The detail of the measures to give effect to the White paper commitments will be contained in legislation which we intend to bring forward when Parliamentary time allows.