Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help protect children from criminal exploitation in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Tackling the criminal exploitation of children is an important strand of our work to halve knife crime under the Safer Streets Mission. Prevention and early intervention to stop young people being drawn into crime is an integral part of that mission including those being exploited by county lines gangs and those involved in violent crime.
We are introducing a new offence of child criminal exploitation in the Crime and Policing Bill to increase convictions against exploiters, deter gangs from enlisting children, and improve identification of victims. Alongside the offence, we are creating a new regime for CCE prevention orders to prevent exploitative conduct committed by adults against children from occurring or re-occurring
Through the County Lines Programme, we will continue to target exploitative drug dealing gangs and disrupt the organised crime groups behind this trade. Between July and September 2024, policing activity delivered through the County Lines Programme resulted in over 400 deal lines being closed, the arrest and charge of over 200 deal line holders, 500 arrests and 800 safeguarding referrals of children and vulnerable people. Through the Programme, we also fund specialist support for children and young people caught up in county lines and child criminal exploitation. More than 280 children and young people have received dedicated specialist support through our county lines support service since July 2024
While the majority of lines originate from the areas covered by the Metropolitan Police Service, West Midlands Police, Merseyside Police, and Greater Manchester Police, the county lines trade is a national issue. This is why, through the Home Office-funded County Lines Programme, we fund the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre to monitor the intelligence picture, identify and share effective practice, and co-ordinate the national law enforcement response. In addition, we have a dedicated surge fund which provides local forces with additional funding to tackle county lines, including Surrey Police.
As part of the Programme, the National County Lines Coordination Centre regularly coordinates weeks of intensive action against county lines gangs, which all police forces take part in. The most recent of these took place between 25 November to 1 December 2024, during which Surrey Police made 18 arrests and seized 2 drug lines, 55 bladed articles and 4 firearms.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce sexual assault incidents in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling rape and sexual offences is a key part of our mission to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG). To meet this ambition, we will deliver a cross-government, transformative approach, underpinned by a new VAWG Strategy, which we are aiming to publish this summer.
We will continue to work with law enforcement agencies to ensure that the right powers are available for them to tackle sexual crimes, bring perpetrators to justice and manage sex offenders.
In addition, we are investing £13.1m for a new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection to transform the police response across England and Wales and help deliver our commitment for strengthened specialist VAWG training, ensuring consistent protection for victims and that perpetrators are relentlessly pursued.
We have also made several commitments to transform the criminal justice response to sexual offences. This includes rolling out, later this year, free, independent legal advisers for victims of adult rape to help uphold their legal rights, and fast-tracking rape cases.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with police forces on improving (a) public guidance and (b) awareness around (i) garage security and (ii) burglary prevention in Surrey.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Through our Safer Streets Mission, we are determined to crack down on burglary and other crimes that make people feel unsafe in our communities.
In 2024/25, the Home Office funded the Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (PCPI) to provide a burglary prevention course for police officers to improve understanding about home security. The course helps inform the advice and guidance police forces across England and Wales provide to members of the public.
More broadly, the Government is delivering on our commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing. Through our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, there will be 13,000 additional police officers and police community support officers in neighbourhood policing roles by the end of the Parliament, with each neighbourhood having named, contactable officers dealing with local issues by July of this year.
As set out in the final Police Funding Settlement, published on 30 January, overall funding for policing will total up to £19.6 billion in 2025-26, an increase of up to £1.1 billion when compared to the 2024-25 settlement. This includes £200 million for neighbourhood policing. Surrey Police will receive up to £328.3 million in funding in 2025-26, an increase of up to £19.7 million when compared to the 2024-5 police settlement equating to a 6.4% cash increase.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce garage burglaries in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Through our Safer Streets Mission, we are determined to crack down on burglary and other crimes that make people feel unsafe in our communities.
In 2024/25, the Home Office funded the Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (PCPI) to provide a burglary prevention course for police officers to improve understanding about home security. The course helps inform the advice and guidance police forces across England and Wales provide to members of the public.
More broadly, the Government is delivering on our commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing. Through our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, there will be 13,000 additional police officers and police community support officers in neighbourhood policing roles by the end of the Parliament, with each neighbourhood having named, contactable officers dealing with local issues by July of this year.
As set out in the final Police Funding Settlement, published on 30 January, overall funding for policing will total up to £19.6 billion in 2025-26, an increase of up to £1.1 billion when compared to the 2024-25 settlement. This includes £200 million for neighbourhood policing. Surrey Police will receive up to £328.3 million in funding in 2025-26, an increase of up to £19.7 million when compared to the 2024-5 police settlement equating to a 6.4% cash increase.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent unauthorised activity around asylum accommodation sites in Surrey.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office keeps all aspects of the immigration system under regular review, in consultation with a wide range of experts and stakeholders.
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 adequacy of support available to staff in asylum accommodation who experience harassment in Surrey.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office keeps all aspects of the immigration system under regular review, in consultation with a wide range of experts and stakeholders.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
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 merits of using injunctions to protect asylum accommodation.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office keeps all aspects of the immigration system under regular review, in consultation with a wide range of experts and stakeholders.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions her Department has had with police forces on safeguarding asylum accommodation in Surrey.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office keeps all aspects of the immigration system under regular review, in consultation with a wide range of experts and stakeholders.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the public safety risk around asylum hotels.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office keeps all aspects of the immigration system under regular review, in consultation with a wide range of experts and stakeholders.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to reduce knife crime in Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Halving knife crime over the next decade is a key part of the Government’s Safer Streets Mission.
We have already taken radical action to get dangerous knives off Britain’s streets, including implementing a ban on the sale and possession of zombie-style knives and zombie-style machetes, and introducing new legislation to ban ninja swords which will come into effect from 1 August.
We have also announced “Ronan’s Law” following an independent review into online knife sales by Commander Stephen Clayman, which sets out a range of measures including strengthened age verification and delivery checks and a requirement on retailers to report bulk sales to the police.
With measures in the Crime and Policing Bill 2025, we are increasing the penalties for illegal sales of knives, creating a new offence of possessing a knife with the intention to commit unlawful violence and are giving the police a new power to seize knives when they believe they are likely to be used in connection with unlawful violence.
The Young Futures Programme is another key part of the Safer Streets Mission and the Government’s ambition to halve knife crime over the next decade. Under this programme the Government will intervene earlier to ensure children and young people who are vulnerable to being drawn into crime are identified and offered support in a more systematic way.
In Surrey, the government has allocated £1m for the Police and Crime Commissioner for the Hotspot Action Fund in 2025-2026 to deliver high visibility patrolling and problem-oriented policing tactics in the areas with the highest densities of knife crime and Anti-Social Behaviour (‘hotspots’).