Home Office

This Government is determined to crack down on snatch theft and other crimes, including those facilitated by mopeds and e-bikes, that make people feel unsafe in our communities.

The police have a suite of powers available to them to tackle the illegal use of vehicles including e-bikes and the Government expects police to deploy them appropriately.

The Crime and Policing Bill will give police greater powers to clamp down on anti-social behaviour involving vehicles including e-bikes, with officers no longer required to issue a warning before seizure. This will allow police to put an immediate stop to offending.

The Government has committed in its English Devolution White Paper to transfer policing functions to Mayors of Strategic Authorities wherever boundaries of the mayoral and policing areas align, by default, subject to Royal Assent to provisions in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill.

This Government will abolish PCCs across England and Wales at the end of their term in 2028 and police governance functions will be transferred to mayors wherever possible, or to elected council leaders where it is not.

The Home Secretary has an ambitious police reform agenda, which will include measures to drive down waste and cut bureaucracy so that the police can focus on issues that matter to the public and cut crime in our communities. Further detail will be set out in the Police Reform White Paper, which is due to be published in early 2026.

The Government is actively considering the introduction of further controls around crossbows.

This follows a call for evidence on strengthening controls on crossbows on public safety grounds, which ran from 14 February to 9 April 2024, and tested ideas for whether there should be some form of licensing regime that would provide further controls on the use, ownership and supply of crossbows including whether sellers should be licensed in some way.

We will publish the Government’s response to the call for evidence shortly, which will include what action we intend to take.

In its final report to government, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse recognised that in limited circumstances, a different approach to mandatory reporting may sometimes be necessary when considering sexual activity between teenagers – for example, kissing (where a reporter otherwise has no concerns about the situation).

Section 75 of the Bill therefore provides reporters with some leeway on how to proceed where a child is over thirteen and in a consensual relationship with another young person. It does not mean a situation involving underage sexual activity should be met by indifference or inaction by those in positions of responsibility for children.

Guidance accompanying the commencement of the duty will make clear that sexual relationships involving teenagers under the age of consent should be referred to a relevant agency for advice and support where appropriate.

The Home Office was not informed of the decision by Birmingham City Council’s Safety Advisory Group, following a risk assessment by West Midlands Police to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans prior to its public announcement.

The Home Office routinely engages with international partners as part of its departmental interests in policing, border security and immigration. Officials have met with Dutch counterparts in recent weeks on these matters, as part of efforts to ensure full transparency around the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the fixture against Aston Villa in November. Ministers have not directly engaged with Ministers from the Netherlands on this matter.

The Home Office was not informed of the decision by Birmingham City Council’s Safety Advisory Group, following a risk assessment by West Midlands Police to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans prior to its public announcement.

The Home Office routinely engages with international partners as part of its departmental interests in policing, border security and immigration. Officials have met with Dutch counterparts in recent weeks on these matters, as part of efforts to ensure full transparency around the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending the fixture against Aston Villa in November. Ministers have not directly engaged with Ministers from the Netherlands on this matter.

Our approach to delivery in 2025-26 has been designed to deliver an initial increase to the neighbourhood policing workforce in a manner that is flexible and can be adapted to the local context and varied crime demands. This means the precise workforce mix is a local decision.

The Government has committed to publishing neighbourhood policing numbers every six months, to align with the official police workforce statistics. The next update is due at the end of January 2026, which will set out the numbers in neighbourhood policing roles as at the end of September 2025.

We will set out more information on the approach to future delivery in due course.

The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee set out commitments for police forces to implement, by July 2025, and by the end of Parliament. Forces are now delivering on the Guarantee across England and Wales to ensure consistent and high-quality neighbourhood policing. This includes every force now having named, contactable officers dedicated to addressing the issues facing their communities, neighbourhood officers spending the majority of their time in their communities, responding to neighbourhood queries within 72 hours and all forces having an ASB lead.

Additionally, the Government has made £200 million available in 2025/26 to support the first steps of delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales, including up to 3000 additional neighbourhood officers by March 2026.

The Government regularly engages with partners on matters relating to the Licensing Act 2003 and the sale and supply of alcohol, including with Drinkaware.

We will continue to do so as we take forward reforms to the licensing regime.

Antisemitism has no place in our society, including at rallies, and the Government is committed to tackling it in all its forms.

The police have a range of powers under public order legislation to deal with threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour intended to stir up hatred on the grounds of race or religion and decisions on prosecutions are for the independent Crown Prosecution Service.

The government is committed to ensuring there are consistent, high standards in police training and leadership to help maintain public trust and confidence. That is why the Home Office continues to fund the College of Policing to deliver support to forces and improvements to leadership and training standards through the National Police Leadership Centre.

The College of Policing sets national guidance and standards for policing in England and Wales, including publishing Authorised Professional Practice on hate crime. This Authorised Professional Practice provides guidance on how police should respond to hate crimes and promotes a proportionate and consistent approach that upholds the rights of victims and protects free speech. While the College sets the overall framework, individual police forces are responsible for determining their own local delivery of training.

Police forces are operationally independent, but we expect them to use these standards, tools and guidance, and to work closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure robust charging decisions and prosecutions in cases of antisemitic hate crime.

The Home Secretary launched an independent review of public order and hate crime legislation on 5 October. The Review is being led by Lord Ken Macdonald KC of River Glaven, supported by former Assistant Chief Constable Owen Weatherill.

The review will ensure police powers remain fit for purpose, are used consistently, and strike the right balance between the right to freedom of expression and peaceful protest, and the need to prevent disorder and keep communities safe.

It will address whether the existing legislation is effective and proportionate, whether it adequately protects communities from intimidation and hate and whether it strikes a fair and sustainable balance between the right to freedom of expression and peaceful protest, and the need to prevent disorder and keep communities safe.

The review is currently underway and is expected to conclude in Spring 2026.

Passport photographs are not being enrolled into biometric databases accessible for live facial recognition searches. However, His Majesty’s Passport Office (HMPO) may conduct retrospective facial recognition searches against the passport database, on behalf of police forces, in relation to serious cases e.g. sexual offences, violent offences, serious and organised crime, or those that are of a national security interest. Guidance on this practice, and an Equality Impact Assessment has been published on the GOV.UK site.

When deploying facial recognition technology, police forces must comply with existing legislation including the Human Rights Act 1998, Equality Act 2010, Data Protection Act 2018, Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, as well as their own published policies. For live facial recognition, police forces must also follow the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on Live Facial Recognition. Forces also need to comply with the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice, which is supplemented by published policing policies.

On 4 December the Government launched a consultation on law enforcement use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies. We are consulting on a new legal framework to create consistent, durable rules and appropriate safeguards for biometrics and facial recognition. This framework will aim to strike the right balance between public protection and privacy.

Passport photographs are not being enrolled into biometric databases accessible for live facial recognition searches. However, His Majesty’s Passport Office (HMPO) may conduct retrospective facial recognition searches against the passport database, on behalf of police forces, in relation to serious cases e.g. sexual offences, violent offences, serious and organised crime, or those that are of a national security interest. Guidance on this practice, and an Equality Impact Assessment has been published on the GOV.UK site.

When deploying facial recognition technology, police forces must comply with existing legislation including the Human Rights Act 1998, Equality Act 2010, Data Protection Act 2018, Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, as well as their own published policies. For live facial recognition, police forces must also follow the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on Live Facial Recognition. Forces also need to comply with the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice, which is supplemented by published policing policies.

On 4 December the Government launched a consultation on law enforcement use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies. We are consulting on a new legal framework to create consistent, durable rules and appropriate safeguards for biometrics and facial recognition. This framework will aim to strike the right balance between public protection and privacy.

A Police Reform White Paper is being developed in partnership with policing. This is a comprehensive package of reform to policing in England and Wales that will strip out duplication and waste and ensure policing can keep up with the fast-changing nature of crime.

This is a once-in-a-generation moment for policing, and it is important that the reforms reflect the Home Secretary’s ambition. We will publish the White Paper in early 2026.

The Home Office does not hold information on the number of police officers and staff currently on restricted duties pending an investigation for misconduct.

The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee (NPG) commitments, which were met in July 2025, were delivered in line with police forces’ existing neighbourhood structures based on local needs shaped by a range of factors, including geography, crime types, urban or rural context, and population size and density. The NPG confirms by the end of this Parliament, we will work with forces and local councils to define neighbourhood areas to be locally recognisable and practical for policing.

Neighbourhood policing teams are spending the majority of their time within their communities, undertaking patrols and actively engaging with residents and businesses to tackle issues that matter to their communities, such as anti-social behaviour. Police forces are increasing town centre patrols based on local demand and intelligence.

£200 million has been made available in 2025-26 to support the first steps towards delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament, including up to 3,000 additional neighbourhood officers by the end of March 2026.

Our approach to delivery in 2025-26 has been designed to deliver an initial increase to the neighbourhood policing workforce in a manner that is flexible and can be adapted to the local context and varied crime demands. This means the precise workforce mix is a local decision.

Full details of the Neighbourhood Policing Grant allocations and projections for 2025-26 can be found here:Neighbourhood policing grant allocations - GOV.UK

The Government has committed to publishing neighbourhood policing numbers every six months, to align with the official police workforce statistics. The next update is due at the end of January 2026, which will set out the numbers in neighbourhood policing roles as at the end of September 2025.

There are no mandatory reporting requirements for police forces to notify the Home Office when they deploy live facial recognition (LFR) technology. However, transparency is an important safeguard, and the College of Policing’s national guidance requires forces to give public notice of LFR deployments, making use of their website and social media.

In addition, forces must ensure that clear signage is displayed in areas where LFR is in operation, so the public is aware they are entering a facial recognition area. These measures help maintain public trust and compliance with legal obligations.

The Government is committed to giving the police the resources it needs to tackle crime. In 2025-26, the police funding settlement provided £19.6bn of funding for the policing system, an increase of £1.2bn compared to 24-25. At the spending review the chancellor announced a real terms increase in police funding.

In addition, a Police Reform White Paper is being developed in partnership with policing. This is a comprehensive package of reform to policing in England and Wales that will strip out duplication and waste and ensure policing can keep up with the fast-changing nature of crime. This will be published early 2026.

The issuing of firearms certificates, resourcing of firearms licensing teams and the efficiency of police forces is a matter for individual Chief Officers of Police and Police and Crime Commissioners.

The Government has taken action to increase the fees for firearms and shotgun licensing applications that are charged by police forces. On 5 February 2025, increased fees came into effect to provide full-cost recovery for firearms licensing applications processed by police forces. The extra income from fees will help police forces, including Surrey Police, to better resource and train their firearms licensing teams. This was the first increase in fees for 10 years since 2015 and we intend to conduct more regular reviews of fees in the future.

In the interests of consistency and transparency, the National Policing Chiefs Council (NPCC) Lead for Firearms Licensing is now publishing quarterly performance data for firearms licensing teams in all police forces. This includes a new performance target for forces to complete applications for the grant or renewal of firearm and shotgun certificates within four months. 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.

The Home Office does not hold data on the number of people scanned following the police’s use of facial recognition technology.

Where police forces are using live facial recognition technology (LFR), the number of arrests made following each deployment are published on their respective websites. For example, the data for Essex Police’s deployments are here Live facial recognition | Essex Police

and the Metropolitan Police has published a Live Facial Recognition Annual Report.

I firmly reject the statement issued by the South Yorkshire Police Federation.

The unlawful killing of 97 people at Hillsborough 36 years ago remains a stain on our nation’s history, and publication of the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s (IOPC) report serves as a stark reminder of one of the most significant failings in policing the country has ever seen.

The conduct and criminal investigations were undertaken with the best of intentions and in the wider public interest.

It is extremely frustrating that none of these officers will face disciplinary action, as all of them had retired before the legislation that is now in place. This legislation means that police officers cannot evade misconduct proceedings by retiring or resigning, so these failings can never be repeated.

The IOPC’s report is clear there was a lack of candour from the officers involved. Thanks to the tireless campaigning of the families and survivors of Hillsborough, this Government is introducing the Hillsborough Law [Public Office (Accountability) Bill] which will place a legal duty of candour on public servants and authorities.

The Home Office does not hold data on the number of convictions made following the police’s use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology.  Where police forces are using live facial recognition technology, the number of arrests made following each deployment are published on their respective websites.

Facial recognition technology is a powerful and effective tool for policing, helping them locate wanted offenders, including those missing for years, and monitor individuals subject to court-imposed conditions, such as registered sex offenders.

The use of LFR is increasing and delivering excellent results. Between January 2024 and September 2025, the Met Police reported over 1,300 arrests for offences including, rape, domestic abuse, knife crime, GBH and robbery, following live facial recognition deployments. They also arrested more than 100 registered sex offenders found in breach of their conditions.

Police forces have assessed LFR to be cost-effective due to the ability to identify suspects at a speed that wouldn’t be possible by the vast majority of officers working without its assistance. The Met have found LFR to be three times more effective than existing tactics in identifying individuals they needed to speak to and the government believes that this technology is making a real difference in keeping communities safe.

The Home Office is also funding a national evaluation to understand the impact of facial recognition on police and crime outcomes, and its relationship to public trust and confidence.

The Home Office does not hold data on the number of convictions made following the police’s use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology.  Where police forces are using live facial recognition technology, the number of arrests made following each deployment are published on their respective websites.

Facial recognition technology is a powerful and effective tool for policing, helping them locate wanted offenders, including those missing for years, and monitor individuals subject to court-imposed conditions, such as registered sex offenders.

The use of LFR is increasing and delivering excellent results. Between January 2024 and September 2025, the Met Police reported over 1,300 arrests for offences including, rape, domestic abuse, knife crime, GBH and robbery, following live facial recognition deployments. They also arrested more than 100 registered sex offenders found in breach of their conditions.

Police forces have assessed LFR to be cost-effective due to the ability to identify suspects at a speed that wouldn’t be possible by the vast majority of officers working without its assistance. The Met have found LFR to be three times more effective than existing tactics in identifying individuals they needed to speak to and the government believes that this technology is making a real difference in keeping communities safe.

The Home Office is also funding a national evaluation to understand the impact of facial recognition on police and crime outcomes, and its relationship to public trust and confidence.

The Home Office does not hold data on the number of convictions made following the police’s use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology.  Where police forces are using live facial recognition technology, the number of arrests made following each deployment are published on their respective websites.

Facial recognition technology is a powerful and effective tool for policing, helping them locate wanted offenders, including those missing for years, and monitor individuals subject to court-imposed conditions, such as registered sex offenders.

The use of LFR is increasing and delivering excellent results. Between January 2024 and September 2025, the Met Police reported over 1,300 arrests for offences including, rape, domestic abuse, knife crime, GBH and robbery, following live facial recognition deployments. They also arrested more than 100 registered sex offenders found in breach of their conditions.

Police forces have assessed LFR to be cost-effective due to the ability to identify suspects at a speed that wouldn’t be possible by the vast majority of officers working without its assistance. The Met have found LFR to be three times more effective than existing tactics in identifying individuals they needed to speak to and the government believes that this technology is making a real difference in keeping communities safe.

The Home Office is also funding a national evaluation to understand the impact of facial recognition on police and crime outcomes, and its relationship to public trust and confidence.

The unlawful killing of 97 people at Hillsborough 36 years ago remains a stain on our nation’s history, and publication of the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s (IOPC) report serves as a stark reminder of one of the most significant failings in policing the country has ever seen.

The IOPC’s report is clear there was a lack of candour from the police officers involved. Thanks to the tireless campaigning of the families and survivors of the Hillsborough disaster, this Government is introducing the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, otherwise known as the Hillsborough Law. This landmark legislation will place a new legal duty of candour on all public servants and authorities, requiring them to act truthfully and to fully support inquests, investigations and inquiries. It will also bring clarity to the offence of Misconduct in Public Office by placing it on a statutory footing, introduce a new criminal offence of misleading the public, and provide legal aid for victims of disasters and state-related deaths.

Whilst it is extremely frustrating that none of the police officers named in the IOPC’s report will face disciplinary action, the Policing and Crime Act 2017 now ensures that police officers cannot evade misconduct proceedings by retiring or resigning, meaning this failing can never be repeated.

These measures directly respond to the failings identified by the IOPC and ensure that, if a similar situation were to arise today, those responsible would be held to account.

The Postal Services Act 2011 designates Ofcom as the independent regulator for the postal sector, with the powers to impose and enforce regulatory requirements on postal operators. In its review of postal regulation in 2022, Ofcom committed to ongoing monitoring of operators’ performance and keep under review the need for additional regulation to protect consumers.

The Government currently has no plans to seek change to the statutory requirements, and it remains that matters relating to employment checks for delivery employees are for individual companies to consider. This is outside the remit of the Home Office.

The Postal Services Act 2011 designates Ofcom as the independent regulator for the postal sector, with the powers to impose and enforce regulatory requirements on postal operators. In its review of postal regulation in 2022, Ofcom committed to ongoing monitoring of operators’ performance and keep under review the need for additional regulation to protect consumers.

The Government currently has no plans to seek change to the statutory requirements, and it remains that matters relating to employment checks for delivery employees are for individual companies to consider. This is outside the remit of the Home Office.

The Government's Safer Streets Mission sets a clear expectation for policing to deliver safer communities and improved public confidence. We are committed to giving forces the resources they need to keep the public safe.

It is for Chief Constables and directly elected PCCs, and Mayors with PCC functions to make operational decisions based on their local knowledge and experience. This includes how best to allocate all the resources at their disposal to provide responses to emergency calls alongside all the other services and support they provide to communities.

The 2025-26 final police funding settlement provides up to £19.6 billion for the policing system in England and Wales. Total funding to police forces will be up to £17.6 billion, an increase of up to £1.2 billion compared to the 2024-25 police funding settlement - a significant increase, and more than the increase last year. This equates to a 7.1% cash increase, and 4.6% real terms increase in funding. This includes £376.8 million for officer maintenance and an additional £200 million to kickstart the first phase of 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles.

The security of the UK border remains our top priority, and this government is committed to strengthening border security. Border Force conducts robust security checks on those arriving into the UK, including 100% checks on all notified general aviation flights and spot checks at aerodromes to reinforce security.

Border Force allocates resources based on assessed risk, applying intelligence and targeting techniques. We have significantly reduced the number of aerodromes authorised to handle international or Common Travel Area flights by 85%, and anyone who fails to submit the required information prior to flying faces civil penalties.

Border Force has implemented a range of initiatives to address vulnerabilities. These include:

• Substantially reducing the number of aerodromes permitted to handle flights to and from the UK.

• Introducing a civil penalties regime for non-compliance with airfield designation requirements.

• Person details checked on all notified GA flights.

• The General Aviation (Persons on Board, Flight Information and Civil Penalties Regulations), which came into force on 6 April 2024, require that specified information about General Aviation flights and persons onboard must be submitted online and in advance of departure to Home Office Systems. Failure to comply with these requirements can result in civil penalty.

• Working closely with the National Crime Agency and the police to counter threats such as smuggling, immigration crime and terrorism at UK airfields has resulted in seizures of Class A Drugs (in total approx 130kgs) at small airfields and identification of undocumented arrivals, leading to multiple criminal convictions and working with partners to identify non-compliant GA flights.

• Regular Home Office engagement with the GA community representatives and cross-government partners.

£200 million has been made available in 2025-26 to support the first steps towards delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament, including up to 3,000 additional neighbourhood officers by the end of March 2026.

The Government has committed to publishing neighbourhood policing numbers every six months, to align with the official police workforce statistics. The next update is due at the end of January 2026, which will set out the numbers in neighbourhood policing roles as at the end of September 2025.

Responsibility for the Home Office's social media content sits primarily with the Home Office digital team. Each team member works across numerous projects & briefs. No one is solely employed to make just social media content.

The FTE for the digital team can be broken down as follows:

FTE 2023 - 7

FTE 2024 - 10

FTE 2025 - 9

All extradition requests received by the UK are subject to the same independent legal process for all requested individuals, with clear safeguards and protections set out in the Extradition Act 2003. The UK Government does not intervene in any of these judicial decisions.

The information sought is not collected and would only be available at disproportionate cost

All readily available information on HO EV vehicles and infrastructure was provided in response to UIN 87860.

All extradition requests received by the UK are subject to the same independent legal process for all requested individuals, with clear safeguards and protections set out in the Extradition Act 2003. The UK Government does not intervene in any of these judicial decisions.

The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 introduced new and tougher criminal offences for those attempting to enter the UK illegally. Specifically, it raised the maximum penalty for illegal entry from 6 months to 4 years’ imprisonment, increased the maximum penalty for entering in breach of a deportation order to 5 years and introduced life sentences for those facilitating a breach of immigration law. Individual sentences handed down by the courts are a matter for the judiciary, having regard to the Sentencing Council’s General Guideline.

We will continue to keep these offences under review in light of feedback on their operation and evidence as to their impact.

The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee makes sure that every neighbourhood has named, contactable officers dedicated to addressing the issues facing their communities, including in Surrey Heath.

£200 million has been made available in 2025/26 to support the first steps of delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament, including up to 3,000 additional neighbourhood officers by the end of March 2026. Based on their £2,588,427 allocation from the Neighbourhood Policing Grant, Surrey Police are projected to grow by 25 FTE neighbourhood police officers in 2025/26.

The government is determined to tackle all forms of hate crime wherever in the country it occurs, and whoever is responsible for committing it.

We have a robust legislative framework in place to respond to hate crimes which target race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and transgender identity, and we back the police in taking strong action against the perpetrators of these heinous crimes.

The Home Secretary launched an independent review of public order and hate crime legislation on 5 October.  The review will ensure police powers remain fit for purpose, are used consistently, and strike the right balance between protecting the public and upholding the right to lawful protest.

It will address whether the existing legislation is effective and proportionate, whether it adequately protects communities from intimidation and hate and whether it strikes a fair and sustainable balance between the right to freedom of expression and peaceful protest, and the need to prevent disorder and keep communities safe.

In addition, the government funds an online hate crime reporting portal, True Vision, designed so victims of all types of hate crime do not have to visit a police station to report. The government also funds the National Online Hate Crime Hub, which supports individual local police forces in dealing specifically with online hate crime, providing expert advice to police to support them in investigating these abhorrent offences.

The Home Office undertakes a range of measures to ensure border security however, we do not comment on matters of intelligence.

It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security.

The UK’s counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, provides a comprehensive framework for tackling all forms of terrorism and is kept under constant review to ensure our approach remains fit for purpose in response to emerging risks and challenges.

As outlined in the publication of the most recent iteration of CONTEST, in July 2023, the primary domestic terrorist threat comes from Islamist terrorism, which accounts for about three quarters of MI5 caseload.

The threat we see today and in the coming years is more diverse, dynamic and complex. This includes a domestic threat which is less predictable and harder to detect. This is combined with an evolving threat from Islamist terrorist groups overseas, and an operating environment where accelerating advances in technology provide both opportunity and risk to our counter-terrorism efforts.

The Government has not undertaken a formal assessment of the isolated impact of stricter asylum policy measures introduced by the German government as part of the ‘migrationswende’ on Afghan asylum claims in the UK.

Afghan asylum claims to the UK are down 8% (September – September) from 2024-2025.

The Government does monitor global migration trends closely, including illegal migration into the UK via Europe. We have enhanced our close cooperation with European partners on this shared challenge, including with Germany via our Joint Action Plan, as members of the Calais Group and via EU agencies such as Europol and Frontex.

On 17 November 2025, the Home Secretary announced new measures in the asylum policy statement to Parliament, with the aim of reducing the pull factors which underpin illegal migration to the UK. Many of these measures are comparable to European counterparts and will restore order and control to the UK asylum system via EU agencies via EU agencies.

HM Passport Office policy already allows applications to be considered under compassionate grounds where there is a time-critical requirement arising from religious observance following a death. This includes the scattering of ashes or ritual and prayer ceremonies within a prescribed period.

To ensure staff apply the policy consistently, HM Passport Office is updating its internal guidance to state explicitly that these types of cases may meet the criteria for urgent consideration. Where travel for these purposes is planned but not subject to such time-sensitive requirements, standard processing times will apply.

Profit margins being exceeded are not broken down by specific constituencies.

Mears, who manage the Home Office’s asylum accommodation for Northern Ireland and other contracted regions, did exceed their profit margins. The Home Office is in the process of recouping the full amount owed, as part of the profit share mechanism within the contract.

The Home Office does not publish data on the utilisation of asylum accommodation. We aim to utilise our estate as fully as possible, however, as with all types of accommodation properties may be temporarily vacant for a variety of operational reasons, including the need for maintenance or refurbishment work, or while awaiting allocation to new occupants following the departure of previous residents.