Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle organised acquisitive rural crime.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are improving the protections for rural communities, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft. This financial year the Home Office will be providing the first Government funding since 2023 for the National Rural Crime Unit (£365,000) as well as continuing funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit (£450,000).
The National Wildlife Crime Unit has a far-reaching impact, assisting in detecting high-profile and high-value crimes including serious organised crime. This includes disrupting organised crime groups. Funding the National Rural Crime Unit enables it to continue to increase collaboration across police forces, harnessing the latest technology and data to target the serious organised crime groups involved in crimes like equipment theft from farms.
Through the Crime and Policing Bill we are introducing a new power for the police to enter and search premises to which items have been electronically tracked by GPS or other means, where the items are reasonably believed to have been stolen and are on those premises, and where it has not been reasonably practicable to obtain a warrant from a court.
Additionally, we are committed to the implementation of the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act and fully support its intentions to tackle the theft and re-sale of All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), quad bikes and GPS systems.
There can be challenges in responding to rural crime. That is why we have worked closely with the NPCC to deliver their updated Rural and Wildlife Crime Strategy for 2025-2028. The strategy sets out operational and organisational policing priorities in respect of tackling crimes that predominantly affect rural communities.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of occasions the police has (a) investigated and (b) charged abortion practitioners in relation to abortions suspected to have taken place on the basis of sex in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of notifiable offences and their investigative outcomes recorded by the police in England and Wales. This includes the number of offences of procuring illegal abortion and intentional destruction of a viable unborn child. This information is published as official statistics each quarter and the latest information, to the year ending June 2025, can be accessed here:
Information is not held on whether the abortion took place on the basis of sex or the status of the individual charged.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of individuals referred to the Prevent programme in the last three years were found to not be at risk of radicalisation.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The table below provides the number and proportion of individuals referred to the Prevent programme over the last three years who were assessed as ‘requiring no further action’.
Table 1: Proportion of individuals found to not be at risk of radicalisation by year |
|
|
|
| 2022/23 | 2023/24 | 2024/25 |
Prevent Referrals | 6,817 | 6,922 | 8,778 |
Prevent Referrals requiring no further action, Total | 1,172 | 1,339 | 2,636 |
Proportion of individuals found to not be at risk of radicalisation | 17% | 19% | 30% |
Note: The proportion of individuals assessed as not at risk of radicalisation is calculated as the number of Prevent referrals requiring no further action divided by the total number of Prevent referrals.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether people deemed to be from under-represented groups are subject to different vetting procedures as part of the hiring process for police officers in England.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
All applicants joining the police as officers or staff are subject to the same rigorous checks and vetting procedures to ensure that only the most suitable candidates are selected. This is set out in the College of Policing’s vetting code of practice and its vetting authorised professional practice (APP).
The Home Secretary has commissioned His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to inspect the MPS on their recruitment and vetting practices and asked them to provide an assessment in relation to other forces in England and Wales.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers retired due to ill health in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the number of police officers leaving the police service and their reasons for leaving, including medical retirements, as at 31 March each year, in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.
Information on the number of police officers leaving the police service by reason for leaving, including medical retirements, between the years ending 31 March 2007 and 2025 can be found in the ‘Leavers Open Data Table’ here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/687a364d312ee8a5f0806b7c/open-data-table-police-workforce-leavers-230725.ods
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers hired in the last ten years in England underwent standard vetting procedures prior to their hiring.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold data centrally on the vetting of new recruits over the last ten years. This information is held by each individual police force.
Following the Metropolitan Police Service’s (MPS) Operation Jorica review, the Home Secretary has commissioned His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to inspect them on their recruitment and vetting practices and asked them to provide an assessment in relation to other forces in England and Wales.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of civil servants in his Department are (a) on temporary contract and (b) consultants.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Information on the number of civil servants employed on temporary contracts is published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics as part of the quarterly Public Sector Employment statistics. Information can be accessed for September 2025 at the following web address:
Departmental expenditure on consultancy is published within the Annual Report and Accounts. The latest report for FY 2024/25 can be found at the following web address:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of creating a single crossbow licensing authority for England and Wales.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is actively considering the introduction of further controls around crossbows.
This follows a call for evidence on strengthening controls on crossbows on public safety grounds, which ran from 14 February to 9 April 2024, and tested ideas for whether there should be some form of licensing regime that would provide further controls on the use, ownership and supply of crossbows including whether sellers should be licensed in some way.
We will publish the Government’s response to the call for evidence shortly, which will include what action we intend to take.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many full time equivalent staff in her Department have been employed for the purpose of making social media content in each of the past three years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Responsibility for the Home Office's social media content sits primarily with the Home Office digital team. Each team member works across numerous projects & briefs. No one is solely employed to make just social media content.
The FTE for the digital team can be broken down as follows:
FTE 2023 - 7
FTE 2024 - 10
FTE 2025 - 9
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in the levels of recruitment and retention in Lincolnshire Police in the past 10 years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Forces are expected to manage their recruitment and retention activities to ensure that they meet officer headcount targets linked to funding arrangements set out in the Police Funding Settlement.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of joiners and leavers in England and Wales, on an annual basis, in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales
Information on the number of joiners to the police service, by police force area and worker type, between the years ending 31 March 2007 and 31 March 2025 can be found in the Joiners Open Data table here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/687a363b312ee8a5f0806b7b/open-data-table-police-workforce-joiners-230725.ods
Information on the number of leavers from the police service, by police force area and worker type, between the years ending 31 March 2007 and 31 March 2025 can be found in the Leavers Open Data table here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/687a364d312ee8a5f0806b7c/open-data-table-police-workforce-leavers-230725.ods
Information on the length of service of police officer leavers, by police force area, between the years ending 31 March 2024 and 31 March 2025 can be found in the Length of Service Open Data table here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/687a36caa5561a5a7e726b7d/open-data-table-police-workforce-length-of-service-230725.ods