Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the reliability of ANPR data in (a) preventing and (b) detecting (i) road traffic and (ii) wider criminal offences.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
ANPR is a valuable tool to help the police tackle crime and keep the road safe. We keep the effectiveness of police and law enforcement use of ANPR under regular review, to ensure it remains a robust tool for identifying vehicles of interest to the police and drivers who break the law. Reads in the National ANPR Service are usually accompanied by a close-up image of the number plate (plate patch) and an overview image of the vehicle to enable users to corroborate the data.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how inaccuracies in vehicle databases are accounted for when ANPR data is used in policing decisions.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
ANPR is a valuable tool to help the police tackle crime and keep the road safe. We keep the effectiveness of police and law enforcement use of ANPR under regular review, to ensure it remains a robust tool for identifying vehicles of interest to the police and drivers who break the law. Reads in the National ANPR Service are usually accompanied by a close-up image of the number plate (plate patch) and an overview image of the vehicle to enable users to corroborate the data.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help tackle the use of Royal Mail to transport illegal drugs into the UK.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Illegal drugs have a devastating impact on the health of individuals and communities. Deaths relating to drug misuse in England and Wales rose to 3,736 in 2024, with a total annual cost to society of over £20 billion.
The Home Office and operational partners are working to disrupt the supply chain of illegal drugs across all trafficking modes into the UK. Our disruptive approach to illegal drug smuggling prioritises engagement with international partners, coupled with pursuing the criminals behind drug trafficking, and activity to seize drugs at the border.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to review the police funding formula before the next comprehensive spending review.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Secretary considers the distribution of funding each year to ensure decisions promote police efficiency, effectiveness and support the Government’s wider programme of reform.
Further details regarding police funding for 2026-27 will be set out in the upcoming Final Police Funding Settlement.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce knife crime in rural areas.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are already making clear progress against our ambition to halve knife crime. In our first year, police-recorded knife crime offences fell by 5%, the first reduction in four years.
Knife homicides have also fallen by almost 20% over the last year, and we have seen a 10% reduction in hospital admissions for stabbings.
Whilst most knife crime occurs in urban centres, our national target to halve knife crime and whole society approach will reach every area. Our approach to tackling knife crime is centred around targeted interventions and enforcement, tough new legislation to remove dangerous weapons from our streets and working across government to tackle the root causes of knife crime where they are needed most.
We have banned zombie knives and ninja swords and are holding online sellers criminally responsible removing almost 60,000 knives from streets in England and Wales. We are taking a range of action in the Crime and Policing Bill to strengthen legislation on knives.
New crime mapping tools are already allowing us to identify highly specific knife crime hotspots and focus police and community safety resources where they are needed most. Further investment in cutting-edge capabilities, such as knife detection technology, improved data platforms, and live facial recognition will further enhance our ability to target knife crime.
Our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel by the end of this Parliament, including up to 3,000 by March 2026. It will also ensure that every community, including rural communities, has named and contactable officers they can turn to.
This Government is clear that when you report a crime, it should be properly investigated with victims having faith that justice will be delivered, and criminals will be punished – no matter where you live. Rural communities can be assured that visible, neighbourhood policing is returning to our communities.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many civil servants employed by their Department work in roles primarily focused on (a) transgender policy, (b) diversity, (c) equity and (d) inclusion; and at what annual salary cost.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
There are no roles primarily focused on transgender policy.
Within central HR there are 18 roles primarily focused on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) - a total of 16.06 FTE.
The total aggregate annual salary cost based on the latest reporting period for Jan 25/26 is: £918,348.60.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of her Department's asylum accommodation contract terms and schedules relating to services and unit costs were redacted; and on what grounds those redactions were made.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office’s asylum contracts are publicly available on Contracts Finder. Copies of the contracts, including redactions, are available at the below links.
Commercially sensitive information (including pricing details) and information related to performance management of services (including service credits) are redacted to allow the Home Office to obtain maximum value during the lifetime of its contracts.
The Home Office has no current plans to publish any further information related to its asylum contracts, other than the information already publicly available.
Information on the requested contracts is available below:
Serco - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract NW - Contracts Finder, AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract MEE - Contracts Finder
Mears - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract NEYH - Contracts Finder, AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract Scotland - Contracts Finder, AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract NI - Contracts Finder
CRH - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract Wales - Contracts Finder, AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract South - Contracts Finder
CTM -CCTM22A01 Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services Contract - Contracts Finder, Contract for the Provision of Asylum Accommodation and Travel Services - Contracts Finder
PFS - Support Payment Card - Contracts Finder
Migrant Help - AIRE - Advice Issue Reporting and Elligibility - Contracts Finder
Mitie Limited - Provision of Security Services at Home Office Contingency Accommodation - Contracts Finder
British Refugee Council - Independent Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children (UASCs) Support Service - Contracts Finder
thebigword Group Limited - Language Services - Translation & Interpretation - Contracts Finder
VF Services (UK) Limited - Contract for the provision of Home Office and Asylum Interviews - Contracts Finder
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 plans to publish in full the service specifications, unit prices, and key performance indicators attached to asylum accommodation contracts that operated in 2025.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office’s asylum contracts are publicly available on Contracts Finder. Copies of the contracts, including redactions, are available at the below links.
Commercially sensitive information (including pricing details) and information related to performance management of services (including service credits) are redacted to allow the Home Office to obtain maximum value during the lifetime of its contracts.
The Home Office has no current plans to publish any further information related to its asylum contracts, other than the information already publicly available.
Information on the requested contracts is available below:
Serco - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract NW - Contracts Finder, AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract MEE - Contracts Finder
Mears - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract NEYH - Contracts Finder, AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract Scotland - Contracts Finder, AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract NI - Contracts Finder
CRH - AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract Wales - Contracts Finder, AASC - Asylum Accommodation & Support Services Contract South - Contracts Finder
CTM -CCTM22A01 Provision of Bridging Accommodation and Travel Services Contract - Contracts Finder, Contract for the Provision of Asylum Accommodation and Travel Services - Contracts Finder
PFS - Support Payment Card - Contracts Finder
Migrant Help - AIRE - Advice Issue Reporting and Elligibility - Contracts Finder
Mitie Limited - Provision of Security Services at Home Office Contingency Accommodation - Contracts Finder
British Refugee Council - Independent Unaccompanied Asylum-seeking Children (UASCs) Support Service - Contracts Finder
thebigword Group Limited - Language Services - Translation & Interpretation - Contracts Finder
VF Services (UK) Limited - Contract for the provision of Home Office and Asylum Interviews - Contracts Finder
Asked by: Euan Stainbank (Labour - Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help ensure that new asylum seeker accommodation is equitably dispersed between the regions and nations of the United Kingdom.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The department operates a Full Dispersal model which works to ensure that asylum accommodation is equitably and fairly spread out across regions and nations of the United Kingdom, meaning that a small number of local authorities are not unduly burdened.
To facilitate this, we have developed Asylum Accommodation Plans in partnership with Local Government which set out our approach to the procurement and occupancy of Dispersal Accommodation across the UK.
The Plans are underpinned by an indexing model which weights three key overarching factors. Indexing provides a flexible, transparent evidence-based for the dispersal of the national asylum-seeking population to ensure equity remains at the core. The overarching factors are:
These three factors ensure the plans are evidence- based and strike a balance between equity and availability, as well as for the first time considering various pressures in local areas which we have worked on with The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The plans and indexing are reviewed regularly to ensure the plans are flexible to changing external factors.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the introduction of buffer zones around asylum accommodation.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office keeps the security of asylum accommodation sites under continual review, and the safety of asylum seekers and the local communities in which accommodation is located will always be our priority.
While the Home Office recognises the merit in measures that help ensure safe access to accommodation, there are no clear powers within existing legislation that would enable the Secretary of State to create buffer zones around asylum accommodation. Local authorities may impose Public Spaces Protection Orders under section 59 of the Anti‑social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, and the police have powers under section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, but these powers do not extend to the Secretary of State.
The Home Office continues to work closely with police, security teams, local authorities and other partners to ensure all accommodation sites are managed safely and securely. These stakeholders regularly attend Multi‑Agency Forums to provide updates and address concerns, including issues relating to protests or public order.