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: 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: 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: 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: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has been made of the adequacy of the governance arrangements applying to the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS), including its industry funding model.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We fully recognise the serious and growing threat that freight crime poses to businesses, drivers, and the wider economy.
The Government does not fund NaVCIS. Instead NaVCIS is funded by the industry, including finance and leasing companies, insurers and hauliers.
NaVCIS is a national policing unit that provides dedicated specialist intelligence, and it engages with a range of partners to tackle organised vehicle crime.
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Ministers have received information regarding funding arrangements for both fixed contributions and payments calculated by reference to the value of vehicles recovered.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Vehicle recovery Statutory fees are prescribed in secondary legislation under road traffic vehicle recovery powers.
The statutory framework provides for both fixed charges and variable payments that reflect the size, condition and recovery requirements of the vehicles involved.
The Home Office does not collect data on the fees collected by forces.
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: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will introduce age restrictions of 18 plus for the purchasing of catapults and slingshots.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government shares concerns over the misuse of catapults, whether against people, property or wildlife.
There is existing legislation relating to the carrying and use of offensive weapons, Anti-Social Behaviour and wildlife crime; however, the Government is aware of continuing concerns about the problems caused by catapults.
We have noted the proposals for new restrictions, including age restrictions, and we are actively considering all proposals as part of wider considerations of what more might be done around enforcement.
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.