Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Public Order Act and the proposed designation of “life sciences” as key national infrastructure, what evidence was used to conclude that existing police powers are inadequate to address disruptive protest activity affecting life sciences sites, including animal research and testing facilities.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
On Thursday 27 November 2025, the Home Office laid an affirmative Statutory Instrument in Parliament to amend Section 7 and Section 8 of the Public Order Act 2023. This will amend the list of key national infrastructure within Section 7 of the Public Order Act 2023, to add the Life Sciences sector and define the Life Sciences sector in Section 8 of the Act.
To ensure these powers are workable and proportionate, the Home Office undertook targeted engagement with the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the Office for Life Sciences as the relevant government unit between the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and authorities with executive responsibility in their respective fields. This engagement provided a broad and comprehensive understanding of the challenges being managed by the Life Sciences Sector.
The government remains committed to safeguarding the right to peaceful protest while ensuring that public order and safety are maintained. The amendments to the Public Order Act 2023 reflect the balance between these priorities, responding directly to the evidence gathered from those responsible for maintaining public safety and order.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment the Department has made of whether funding arrangements for NaVCIS are adequate to meet levels of operational demand across the freight and logistics sector.
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 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: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to consult political parties on the methodology for the allocation of Conference Security Grant for 2026.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office will be conducting an internal review of departmental funding for Party Political Conferences, including allocations from the Conference Security Grant, to ensure public funds are used effectively. The Home Office will consult relevant stakeholders on these arrangements.
The UK government’s security system is rigorous and proportionate. It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, including disclosure of costs, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect future security operations.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has considered amending the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 to allow county councils to issue closure notices and apply directly for closure orders.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The closure power, under the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, enables police or local councils to quickly close premises which are causing or likely to cause nuisance or disorder.
County councils may already issue a closure notice and apply directly for closure orders in England and Wales providing that there is no district council in the area.
This Goverment keeps all legislative options under review.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what is the projected overall financial saving from abolishing the role of Police and Crime Commissioners.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government expects to save at least £100m in this Parliament as a result of abolishing Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs).
At least £20m per annum will be reinvested back into policing from 28/29, in addition to savings from cancelling future PCC elections which will be retained by the exchequer.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what is the size of the processing backlog for firearms licensing applications in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The issuing of firearms certificates, resourcing of firearms licensing teams and the efficiency of police forces, including tackling any backlogs, is a matter for individual Chief Officers of Police and Police and Crime Commissioners. Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Bedfordshire Police and Hertfordshire Constabulary, work together on firearms licensing as part of a tripartite arrangement between the forces and reports to each of the relevant Chief Officers.
However, with the agreement of Chief Officers, and in the interests of greater transparency, the National Policing Chiefs Council (NPCC) Lead for Firearms Licensing has since 2025 been publishing quarterly performance data for firearms licensing in all police forces in England and Wales. The data is published on the NPCC website at firearms-licensing-2526-q2-headlines.pdf. This data includes a new performance target for forces to complete applications for the grant or renewal of firearm and shotgun certificates within four months of receipt. We welcome this greater transparency and forces making improvements in performance, subject to ensuring public safety remains the priority and suitability checks are carried out properly.
There is also an ongoing firearms licensing thematic inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) that will report later this year. The thematic inspection is looking at a number of forces, and this includes the firearms licensing arrangements and performance in Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.
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, what recent estimates her Department has for the number of crimes committed against, or on the grounds of, (a) mosques, (b) synagogues, (c) churches in England and Wales in each year since 2020.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold information on whether police recorded crimes were committed against, or on the grounds, of places of worship.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many conditions have been imposed on pro-Palestine protests by police forces in the last 12 months under section 12 or section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986; and in how many cases cumulative disruption was cited as the justification.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on police use of conditions under sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, including how many public processions and public assemblies have conditions placed on them, the triggers for the conditions, and the type of condition. The latest published data is to March 2024 Home Office – Police protest powers, June 2022 to March 2024, England and Wales – December 2024, and the next release of data is provisionally scheduled for 5 February 2026.
Forces routinely publish where they apply conditions on demonstrations under Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 via their websites and social media.
Decisions on how to police demonstrations are an operational matter for the police, working within the legal framework of the Public Order Act 1986. Under sections 12 and 14 the police can place conditions on demonstrations to manage risks of serious public disorder, serious disruption to the life of the community or serious damage to property. Police can currently take cumulative disruption into account when considering placing conditions on a protest under the 1986 Act.
Through the Crime and Policing Bill we are amending sections 12 and 14 of the 1986 Act to introduce a duty for senior police officers to take cumulative disruption into account when assessing whether the serious disruption to the life of the community threshold is met. This provision will help protect communities from repeated disruption caused by protests and is an important step in ensuring everyone feels safe in this country, while protecting the right to peaceful protest.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many protests have resulted in (a) restrictions and (b) conditions imposed by the police under the doctrine of cumulative disruption since May 2025.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes data on police use of conditions under sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, including how many public processions and public assemblies have conditions placed on them, the triggers for the conditions, and the type of condition. The latest published data is to March 2024 Home Office – Police protest powers, June 2022 to March 2024, England and Wales – December 2024, and the next release of data is provisionally scheduled for 5 February 2026.
Forces routinely publish where they apply conditions on demonstrations under Sections 12 and 14 of the Public Order Act 1986 via their websites and social media.
Decisions on how to police demonstrations are an operational matter for the police, working within the legal framework of the Public Order Act 1986. Under sections 12 and 14 the police can place conditions on demonstrations to manage risks of serious public disorder, serious disruption to the life of the community or serious damage to property. Police can currently take cumulative disruption into account when considering placing conditions on a protest under the 1986 Act.
Through the Crime and Policing Bill we are amending sections 12 and 14 of the 1986 Act to introduce a duty for senior police officers to take cumulative disruption into account when assessing whether the serious disruption to the life of the community threshold is met. This provision will help protect communities from repeated disruption caused by protests and is an important step in ensuring everyone feels safe in this country, while protecting the right to peaceful protest.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the oral answer of 26 November 2025, Official Report, House of Lords, Column 1331, on West Midlands Police: Maccabi Tel Aviv Fans, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of giving directions under Section 40 of the Police Act 1996 to dismiss the Chief Constable of West Midlands Police.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office will make public the findings from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services on the information and intelligence used by West Midlands Police to assess and categorise the Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv match on 6 November, and how accurately this reflected intelligence received from the Netherlands Police, as soon as this is provided.
The Home Office does not hold any information on whether the Muslim Brotherhood or other organisations subject to government non-engagement shared information with West Midlands Police in relation to this match.
Similarly, the Home Office does not hold any information on discussions between West Midlands Police and the Metropolitan Police, MI5, Cabinet Office, or the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre in relation to this match.
A reply to the Honourable Member for West Suffolk’s letter of 2 January 2026 will be sent in due course.
Section 40 of the Police Act 1996 enables the Home Secretary to direct a PCC or Mayor where a force is failing, in exceptional circumstances.
The power for the Home Secretary to require a police authority to call on a Chief Constable to retire was removed through the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 and the power to dismiss Chief Constables now rests with Police and Crime Commissioners.
The Home Secretary has already taken action and commissioned HMICFRS to review the information and intelligence used by West Midlands Police.
The findings from this are due to be provided on 12 January.