Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to stop British citizens from travelling to France to participate in far right activities.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This government is bearing down on small boat crossings. We have stopped 40,000 crossing attempts since this Government came into office through our joint work with the French. We have detained and removed almost 50,000 people who were here illegally. Our pilot deal with the French means those who arrive on small boats are now being sent back.
The entry and exit of citizens into/from the UK is the responsibility of border control/passenger Policy.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the per-person, per-night cost was for hotel accommodation used for illegal migrants in 2025 by region and supplier.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We do not report and hold data at this granularity and would only be obtainable at disproportionate cost.
The Home Office publishes information on asylum expenditure in the Home Office annual report and accounts: 2024 to 2025 - GOV.UK
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken with police forces to tackle shoplifting in a) England and b) Romford constituency.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Charges for shop theft rose by 25% (up to 107,090 charges) in the year ending June 2025. As this was a higher rate of increase than the rise in shop thefts recorded (13%), this led to an increase in the charge rate from 17.7% to 19.1%.
This Government is committed to restoring visible, responsive neighbourhood policing with 3,000 additional officers in neighbourhood policing roles by spring this year.
In the Crime and Policing Bill, we are bringing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores and we are removing the legislation which makes shop theft of and below £200 a summary-only offence, sending a clear message that any level of shop theft is illegal and will be taken seriously.
The Home Office has regular discussions with the police and other partners on protecting retail workers and tackling shop theft.
We are also providing over £7 million over the next three years to support the police and retailers tackle retail crime, including continuing to fund a specialist policing team – in partnership with the retail sector - to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many priority service applications for visas are processed within 5 working days; and how many super priority service applications are processed by the end of the next working day.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This information is published in table VSI_02 (column L) of the UK Visa & Immigration Transparency Data. This shows the proportion of applications processed in line with the 5 working days service standard for priority application, and next working day service standard for super priority applications. Cases which are defined as non-straightforward due to their complexity sit outside the service standard and are therefore excluded from these figures.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that citizenship application fees are affordable for children who need to regularise their immigration status.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Children seeking to register as a British citizen will have the fee waived if they are able to credibly demonstrate that they cannot afford the fee. In addition, where an application has been made by or on behalf of a child who is looked after by a Local Authority, no fee is payable and it is not necessary for the child’s financial circumstances to be evidenced.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken with police forces to tackle a) physical and b) verbal abuse against retail workers.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Charges for shop theft rose by 25% (up to 107,090 charges) in the year ending June 2025. As this was a higher rate of increase than the rise in shop thefts recorded (13%), this led to an increase in the charge rate from 17.7% to 19.1%.
This Government is committed to restoring visible, responsive neighbourhood policing with 3,000 additional officers in neighbourhood policing roles by spring this year.
In the Crime and Policing Bill, we are bringing a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores and we are removing the legislation which makes shop theft of and below £200 a summary-only offence, sending a clear message that any level of shop theft is illegal and will be taken seriously.
The Home Office has regular discussions with the police and other partners on protecting retail workers and tackling shop theft.
We are also providing over £7 million over the next three years to support the police and retailers tackle retail crime, including continuing to fund a specialist policing team – in partnership with the retail sector - to better understand the tactics used by organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
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 proposed increase in English language requirements to B2 level on Hong Kong families using the British National (Overseas) visa route where household members have varying levels of educational attainment.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government remains steadfast in its support for members of the Hong Kong community in the UK.
BN(O) visa holders will attract a 5-year reduction in the qualifying period for settlement, meaning they will continue to be able to settle in the UK after 5 years’ residence, subject to meeting the mandatory requirements.
We are seeking views on earned settlement through the public consultation A Fairer Pathway to Settlement and will continue to listen to the views of Hong Kongers. Details of the earned settlement model will be finalised following that consultation. An impact assessment will be developed alongside the finalised policy and published in due course.
In the meantime, the current rules for settlement under the BN(O) route will continue to apply, including the current B1 English language requirement.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals have had their No Recourse to Public Funds status withdrawn since July 2024, broken down by month.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on changes of conditions on GOV.UK within the Immigration and protection data: July to September 2025, available in tabs CoC_01 to CoC_07 of the Migration Transparency Data dataset.
When an individual is considered for assessment of Change of Conditions, various No Recourse to Public Funds conditions are checked, with ‘destitution’ being one of these conditions.
The specific information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the number of neighbourhood police officers in Eastleigh.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Every community deserves visible, pro-active and accessible neighbourhood policing with officers tackling the issues that matter to them. That is why £200 million has been made available in 2025/26 to support the first steps towards delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel by the end of this Parliament. Of the £200 million available, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary were allocated £5,187,776 with a projected growth of 65 FTE neighbourhood police officers in 2025/26.
Published management information shows as at 30 September 2025, Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary have grown by 99 FTE neighbourhood policing officers since March 2025. It is important that forces continue to boost visible policing and ensure the workforce is shaped to meet modern crime demands.
Asked by: Iqbal Mohamed (Independent - Dewsbury and Batley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of current charging thresholds for domestic abuse-related common assault offences on the ability of the police to bring timely charges.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We remain committed to supporting the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and police in exploring how expanding police-led charging decisions for specific domestic abuse cases can improve outcomes for domestic abuse victims and survivors.
The Home Office has been working closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the CPS to expand police charging authority to include certain domestic abuse (DA) flagged offences, aligning with the ambitions of the Government’s Manifesto Commitments.
As set out in the recent Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, the Government will work with the CPS and police to strengthen access to justice for victims and survivors of domestic abuse. This includes reviewing the time limits for charging domestic abuse-related summary offences and considering whether greater flexibility could help reduce the number of timed-out cases.