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 is she taking to help reduce the number of GPS thefts from tractors on farms.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is committed to tackling rural crime, safeguarding rural areas through stronger measures to prevent equipment theft and strengthened neighbourhood policing.
We are committed to implementing the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, which aims to prevent the theft and re-sale of high-value equipment, particularly for use in an agricultural setting. We hope to introduce the necessary secondary legislation later this year.
This financial year we are providing the first Home Office funding since 2023 for the National Rural Crime Unit, a national policing unit which help forces tackle rural crime priorities and is a great example of farmers and police working together at national and local level including tackling equipment theft.
Additionally, the Crime and Policing Bill will introduce 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.
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 non-crime hate incidents have been investigated by police forces in England and Wales in each of the last two years.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer I gave on 18 February 2025 to his Question UIN 30042.
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 plans to continue the Talent Catalogue beyond the Displaced Talent Mobility Pilot.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The Home Office’s Displaced Talent Mobility Pilot ended on 1 November 2024. The Talent Catalogue used during the pilot was wholly owned and operated by Talent Beyond Boundaries, the non-profit organisation who were the delivery partner for the pilot.
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 much funding has been allocated to community safety initiatives in Lincolnshire in the last three years.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
As the locally elected representative for policing in their area, it is for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to decide on the allocation of funding to community safety initiatives, based on the priorities set out in their Police and Crime Plans.
Lincolnshire Police will receive up to £174.5 million in 2025-26, an increase of up to £10.3 million when compared to the 2024-25 funding settlement. This equates to a 6.2% cash increase and 3.8% real terms increase in funding.
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 she is taking to help disrupt county lines operations in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
To deliver our pledge to halve knife crime in the next decade, it is crucial that we tackle the drug gangs that run county lines through violence and exploitation. That is why we are investing £42m this financial year (25/26) in the County Lines Programme, to target exploitative drug dealing gangs whilst breaking the organised crime groups behind this trade.
Between July 2024 and March 2025, law enforcement activity through the County Lines Programme taskforces has resulted in more than 1,200 deal lines closed, 2,000 arrests (including the arrest and subsequent charge of over 800 deal line holders) and 2,100 safeguarding referrals of children and vulnerable people. Over 320 children and young people also received dedicated specialist support through the County Lines Programme support service in that time.
While the the majority of lines originate from the areas covered by the Metropolitan Police Service, West Midlands Police, Merseyside Police, and Greater Manchester Police, county lines is a national issue which affects all forces. That is why, through the Home Office-funded County Lines Programme, we fund the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre to monitor the intelligence picture and co-ordinate the national law enforcement response. The County Lines Programme taskforces regularly conduct joint operations with other forces, and we have established a dedicated fund which provides local forces with additional funding to tackle county lines, including Lincolnshire Police.
The National County Lines Coordination Centre (NCLCC) also regularly coordinates weeks of intensive action against county lines gangs, which all police forces take part in. The most recent of these took place 25 November to 1 December 2024. During this period, law enforcement activity delivered by Lincolnshire Police resulted in 18 individual arrests, and £10,000 in cash and £33,000 worth of drugs being seized.
As committed to in the Government’s manifesto, we have introduced a new offence of child criminal exploitation in the Crime and Policing Bill to go after the gangs who are luring children into violent crime. We are also introducing a new criminal offence of ‘coerced internal concealment’ as an amendment to the Bill, which will crack down on the dangerous practice of anyone, including gang leaders, who forces people to hide items inside their bodies to avoid detection often as part of horrendous and exploitative drugs trade.
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 hotels her Department has purchased for the temporary accommodation of asylum seekers since January 2025.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
None.
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 people have been (a) arrested and (b) prosecuted for riding e-scooters on (i) public roads and (i) pavements in each of the last three years.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The data requested is not held centrally.
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 deportation orders have been issued to illegal immigrants residing in Lincolnshire in each of the last three years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The requested information is not available from published statistics and could only be collated for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
This Government pledged to deliver the highest rate of removals since 2018 and this target has been surpassed, with a surge in returns activity since the election leading to almost 30,000 people with no right to be in the UK being removed.
Of the total returns since 5 July 2024, 4,436 were of foreign national offenders (FNOs). This is an increase of 14% compared to the 3,879 FNO returns in the same period 12 months prior.
Work is currently underway to publish more detailed information on FNOs subject to deportation. Further information on this work can be found at: Statistics on foreign national offenders and the immigration system - GOV.UK.
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, if she will make it her policy to confiscate the assets of people found to be working illegally.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
We work to prevent individuals from making financial gains as a result of their criminal activities and will seek to seize such assets where possible; to this end, section 24 of the UK Borders Act 2007 (which came into force on 1 July 2010) gives immigration officers the specific power to seize cash from offenders, bringing them into line with police officers in this respect.
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, if she will make it her policy that the people manning the engines of asylum boats are refused asylum.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
Under existing legislation, an individual convicted of a particularly serious crime, resulting in a custodial sentence of 12 months or more, and who is considered a danger to the UK, will be denied asylum and will be considered for removal from the UK.
With the passage of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, the maximum sentence for facilitating a breach of immigration law, or “facilitation”, was raised to life in prison. Small boats pilots fall into this category of offender so aggravated cases, where there is an elevated level of harm and / or culpability identified, will likely receive a sentence in excess of 12 months. In cases where there is insufficient evidence to secure a facilitation charge, it is highly likely that a prosecution for illegal arrival will be sought. Similarly, in higher-end cases, the sentence for this will also likely be over 12 months on conviction.