Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to help ensure the effective prosecution of people smugglers.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
People smuggling is a deplorable transnational crime, and anyone involved in this dangerous trade will face the full force of the law. The Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill is nearing Royal Assent and will give law enforcement agencies the toughest powers yet to take down criminal smuggling gangs
The Bill will introduce new offences to help tackle offending, such as criminalising the creation of material advertising unlawful immigration services online, the endangerment offence, and the power to seize electronic devices. It will also implement interim Serious Crime Prevention Orders to disrupt and deter organised crime, including people smuggling.
Due to the cross-border nature of these crimes, international collaboration remains essential to disrupt criminal supply chains and networks. This Government is working hard to fix the borders crisis, which is why we agreed a landmark deal with France, where we have returned migrants, as well as increasing international cooperation with Germany and other countries. In line with this, the CPS has increased cooperation with international partners to improve information sharing and evidence gathering for prosecutions.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police front counters were closed between 2010 and 2024.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not collect data on the number of police front counters in use across all police forces, nor on closures.
Decisions regarding the management of the police estate, including public access counters at police stations, is a matter for Chief Constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (or equivalents). They are best placed to make these decisions based on their knowledge of local need, experience, and in line with their existing budget.
A key part of the Government’s Safer Streets Mission is focused on restoring neighbourhood policing, and rebuilding trust and confidence in policing, The commitments set out in the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee are now making a considerable difference to the service communities receive from their neighbourhood policing teams. We have also provided £200 million in Financial Year 2025/26 to support the first steps of delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of the Parliament. This increase in neighbourhood policing, alongside the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, will strengthen the connections between the police and the communities they serve.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the value is of outstanding (a) loans and (b) debts liable to the UK from lower-income countries.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The value of outstanding debt from Low Income Countries to the UK is approximately £2.1bn as of August 2024.
This data is publicly available in the ‘Report on outstanding debt owed by other countries to His Majesty’s Government in 2024’, published on gov.uk in December 2024. Low Income Countries are defined in this response using the Development Assistance Committee list of Least Developed Countries from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.