Asked by: Jen Craft (Labour - Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps (a) her Department and (b) its public bodies are taking to (i) develop and (ii) use artificial intelligence approaches to British Sign Language.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Providing BSL translations of pre-recorded audio and video content on public services is a legislative Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AAA criterion. As outlined in the Government Service Standard, all digital government services must as a minimum meet Level AA. AAA is best practice.
Through the Service Standard and Service Assessments, the Government Digital Service encourages departments to incorporate BSL into service design. In May this year DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency) launched the UK Government’s first British Sign Language (BSL) online translation service for candidates booking their theory test online. DVSA held a series of user research session with BSL users, with one participant calling the service ‘life-changing’.
There are opportunities to use AI to accelerate the creation of accessible content across public services. If public bodies trial the use of AI in approaches to BSL, they would be required to conform with both WCAG and the Service Standard, and must conduct research with disabled people, including Deaf users and where appropriate to the service provision, those who use sign language or a sign language interpreter to interact with the service.
Regardless of if AI generated, services must also make sure any BSL video is culturally appropriate by working with the BSL community, testing it, or getting feedback.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what consultation has taken place with (a) Police and Crime Commissioners and (b) police staff associations on the establishment of the proposed National Centre of Policing.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has been working with policing partners on police reform, including through the Joint Police Reform Team.
This has included engagement with local police chiefs, police and crime commissioners and staff associations. We will publish the White Paper later this year.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help reduce business crime.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We encourage retailers to join their local Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) or Business Improvement District (BID) to support local community efforts to reduce crimes, including business crime.
We are providing over £7 million over the next three years to support the police and retailers tackle retail crime, £2 million of which has been specifically allocated to the police-led National Business Crime Centre (NBCC). NBCC provide a valuable resource for both police and businesses to learn, share and support each other to prevent and combat crime. This funding will help tackle the crimes most affecting businesses today.
We also supported the recent Safer Business Action week (SaBA) organised by the NBCC. SaBA weeks are a joint initiative by police, business, private security, Business Crime Reduction Partnerships and Business Improvement Districts, who work in together and focus resources into a designated location, creating a significant impact to reduce crime.
The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will also ensure that every community in England and Wales will have named and contactable officers dealing with local issues, and that neighbourhood teams spend the majority of their time in their communities providing visible patrols and engaging with local communities and businesses. This will be supported by the delivery of up to an additional 3000 officers into neighbourhood teams by Spring next year, as part of our ambition to deliver 13,000 neighbourhood officers into police forces across England and Wales by the end of this parliament.
Additionally, the Home Secretary recently announced a “Winter of Action”, building on the success of our Safer Streets Summer campaign to tackle town centre crime including shop theft and anti-social behaviour.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the Annual statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain 2024, published on 23 October, which included 250 procedures reported as the forced swim test, what steps they are taking to end the use of this test.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
As of March 2024, the Home Office no longer grants project licences for use of the FST as a model of depression. This position is in line with recommendations from a report on the Forced Swim Test by the independent Animals in Science Committee ASC),
The Home Office Regulator has reviewed all licences authorising the use of the Forced Swim Test (FST) under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. The number of project licences that authorises the FST in Great Britain has decreased from nine to a current total of only three licences. All of these licences are due to expire by 2028.
Taking into account the ASC’s recommendations, the FST does potentially have some use in narrowly defined research contexts where there are no non-animal alternatives currently available: screening for antidepressant efficacy and studying the neurobiology of stress. The Home Office will only authorise testing in these specific circumstances and where there is robust, legitimate scientific justification.
Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to set a timeline for phasing out the use of the forced swim test in their strategy to support the development, validation and uptake of non-animal methods.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
As of March 2024, the Home Office no longer grants project licences for use of the FST as a model of depression. This position is in line with recommendations from a report on the Forced Swim Test by the independent Animals in Science Committee ASC),
The Home Office Regulator has reviewed all licences authorising the use of the Forced Swim Test (FST) under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. The number of project licences that authorises the FST in Great Britain has decreased from nine to a current total of only three licences. All of these licences are due to expire by 2028.
Taking into account the ASC’s recommendations, the FST does potentially have some use in narrowly defined research contexts where there are no non-animal alternatives currently available: screening for antidepressant efficacy and studying the neurobiology of stress. The Home Office will only authorise testing in these specific circumstances and where there is robust, legitimate scientific justification.
Asked by: Alex Brewer (Liberal Democrat - North East Hampshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the names of (a) banks and (b) other organisations that fail to (i) prevent fraud and (ii) reimburse victims of fraud.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
We work closely with the financial sector to disrupt fraud at its source and prevent financial exploitation. We welcome the actions of the financial services industry in helping to prevent authorised push payment (APP) fraud. Data has also shown that banks are increasingly compensating victims following the introduction of mandatory reimbursement through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 (APP scams reimbursement dashboard for Q2 2025 | Payment Systems Regulator).
The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) oversees banks’ compliance with regards to mandatory reimbursement, and they will publish their third APP scams performance report, covering 2024, in December. The reports show the sending fraud rates and reimbursement rates of the 14 biggest banks in the UK, putting a spotlight on firms that are the highest receivers of fraud. Previous reports for 2023 and 2022 can be found here: APP fraud performance data | Payment Systems Regulator.
Asked by: Oliver Dowden (Conservative - Hertsmere)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of asylum accommodation contracts on the private rented housing market in Hertsmere constituency.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are working towards a more fair and equitable spread of asylum accommodation across the UK, working in partnership with Local Government through our Place Based engagement structures and asylum accommodation plans.
Under those plans and through that engagement structure, we consider a range of local factors including the housing market. Additionally, accommodation sourced through the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts has set requirements for providers to consult with local authorities before procuring each individual property. This consultation process allows local authorities to raise concerns about potential impacts of accommodation.
The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of supported asylum seekers accommodated by local authority area, not constituency. These statistics can be found in the Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK(opens in a new tab).
Asked by: Oliver Dowden (Conservative - Hertsmere)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers are being housed in homes of multiple occupation in Hertsmere constituency.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are working towards a more fair and equitable spread of asylum accommodation across the UK, working in partnership with Local Government through our Place Based engagement structures and asylum accommodation plans.
Under those plans and through that engagement structure, we consider a range of local factors including the housing market. Additionally, accommodation sourced through the Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts has set requirements for providers to consult with local authorities before procuring each individual property. This consultation process allows local authorities to raise concerns about potential impacts of accommodation.
The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of supported asylum seekers accommodated by local authority area, not constituency. These statistics can be found in the Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK(opens in a new tab).
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department maintains (a) internal statistical summaries and (b) dashboards recording the (i) number and (ii) cost of legal challenges to the one-in, one-out migrant returns scheme.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK-France Treaty is an innovative pilot designed to deter illegal migration across the Channel. Litigation related to this pilot was anticipated and we are concentrating resources on robustly defending this so that removals can continue as planned. As of 7 November, 94 individuals have been returned to France through this agreement.
The Home Office maintains records on legal challenges. Operational details on the pilot are sensitive, and we will not be disclosing such information as it could inadvertently assist the organised immigration crime gangs that are behind small boats crossings.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) pre-action protocol letters, (b) judicial review applications and (c) injunction requests have been received relating to the one-in, one-out migrant returns scheme agreed with France since 1 July 2025.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The UK-France Treaty is an innovative pilot designed to deter illegal migration across the Channel. Litigation related to this pilot was anticipated and we are concentrating resources on robustly defending this so that removals can continue as planned. As of 7 November, 94 individuals have been returned to France through this agreement.
The Home Office maintains records on legal challenges. Operational details on the pilot are sensitive, and we will not be disclosing such information as it could inadvertently assist the organised immigration crime gangs that are behind small boats crossings.