Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has plans to help ensure that all strip searches of children have an appropriate adult present.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 requires that when a child is strip searched an appropriate adult must be present except in cases where delay would pose a risk of serious harm, or where the child specifically requests otherwise and the appropriate adult agrees. This safeguard is necessary to protect the welfare and dignity of children, whilst also providing the police necessary powers to keep the public safe.
For the year ending March 2025, the Home Office published data for the first time, on whether an appropriate adult was present for the full strip search of a child under stop and search powers (Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK). Analysis of this type of data helps to increase transparency and enable effective oversight of the use of these powers.
The government remains committed to its manifesto commitment to introduce new legal safeguards around strip-searching children and young people.
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: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a police hotline for reporting incidents of political intimidation towards (a) Hong Kongers and (b) others in the UK by the Chinese Communist Party.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The first duty of this Government is to keep the country safe. Any attempt by any foreign state to intimidate, harass or harm individuals in the UK will never be tolerated, irrespective of where the threat emanates.
The Defending Democracy Taskforce’s review of TNR, carried out with Counter Terrorism Policing, examined how best to encourage reporting and ensure cases are taken seriously and handled appropriately.
Existing reporting functions are efficient, effective, and well recognised, with trained officers and staff handling crime reports 24/7. This enables immediate police deployment in emergencies and provides clear routes to escalate potential state‑linked incidents to Counter Terrorism Policing for expert assessment and victim support.
State threats training is being rolled out across all 45 territorial forces, including upskilling 999 call handlers on TNR, to strengthen frontline identification and response.
Anyone who believes they are a victim of state‑directed activity should report to the police via 101, 999, or at a local station. Allegations of unlawful activity will be handled sensitively, treated seriously, and swiftly investigated in line with UK law.
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 assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of not resolving the status of children in care before turning 18 on their development.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Secretary set out in the Immigration White Paper published on 12 May that the Home Office will ensure children who have been in the UK for some time, turn 18 and discover they do not have status, are fully supported and able to regularise their status and settle where appropriate. This will also include a clear pathway for those children in care and care leavers.
Policy development is ongoing, but as part of this, separate targeted engagement will take place with external stakeholders to help us to understand the challenges in this area and develop a policy solution which supports children in care without status while upholding the need to have a robust and coherent migration system. Children who have claimed asylum are dealt with under separate provisions.
A range of reforms are underway across the immigration and asylum system, and the development of a clear pathway to settlement for children in care and care leavers must be considered alongside these changes.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will publish data on the number of ‘change of circumstances’ applications received last year from people with No Recourse to Public Funds status due to homelessness, and how many applicants gained access to public funds as a result.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Information on change of conditions is published at Migration transparency data - GOV.UK in the Immigration and protection 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: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people her Department’s Homelessness escalation service has helped move from No Recourse to Public Funds to having access to public funds in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The requested information is not currently included in published migration data, so we are unable to provide this.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of introducing Sectioning Support Officers to the NHS to reduce police officer time spent in hospitals.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Any decisions relating to staffing in the NHS is a matter for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England.
The Right Care Right Person approach is an approach designed to end inappropriate and avoidable police involvement in cases where people have health and/or social care needs and help ensure that people receive support from the right person, with the right skills, training, and experience to best meet their needs.
The National Partnership Agreement (NPA), signed in July 2023 by Government, NHS England and national policing bodies, sets out the principles of Right Care Right Person and how they can jointly deliver the best care to communities. The NPA sets out that local areas should work towards handovers of care between the police and mental health services taking place within one hour as specified in local plans. This one hour handover will reduce the amount of time spent by police officers with mental health patients in hospital.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps with the Metropolitan Police to move officers and staff out of the capital whose responsibilities are (a) national and (b) not wholly London-focused.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Decisions on the location of officers and staff in the Metropolitan Police Service are an operational matter for the Commissioner. This includes resources that support existing national units.
Any future proposals on structural reform to policing in England and Wales will be set out in the upcoming white paper on police reform.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if her Department will hypothecate funding saved from hotel closures for legal aid to reduce the backlog of asylum claims.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
As per the Spending Review the Government has committed to delivering savings of £1.1bn by 28/29 from exiting hotels and these savings have been factored into the Home Office budget. The Spending Review settlement includes transformation funding to accelerate the transformation of the asylum system and end the costly use of asylum hotels in this Parliament by clearing the asylum backlog, increasing appeals capacity and continuing to return those with no right to be here. This will deliver the Plan for Change commitment to restore order to the asylum system.
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 ensure representatives of the People’s Republic of China employed in the (a) UK embassy, (b) consulate and (c) Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London do not engage in (i) supranational suppression and (ii) intimidation tactics against Hong Kongers now living in the UK.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The safety and security of Hong Kongers in the UK is of the upmost importance. The UK will always stand up for the rights of the people of Hong Kong.
We continually assess potential threats in the UK, and take protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms, and safety very seriously. Any attempt by any foreign state, including China, to intimidate, harass or harm individuals in the UK will not be tolerated.
Wherever we identify such threats, we will use any and all measures, including through our world-class intelligence services, to mitigate the risk to individuals.
The UK’s response to tackling state-directed threats is world leading. The National Security Act 2023 ensures that the appropriate tools and system-wide safeguards are in place to robustly counter state threats.
Guidance can be found on GOV.UK providing those who believe themselves to be at-risk of TNR with practical advice for their safety both physically and online.