Written Question
Tuesday 9th December 2025
Asked by:
Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question
to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to improve oversight of biometric data storage and retention across law enforcement agencies.
Answered by Sarah Jones
- Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office launched a public consultation on 04/12/2025 on the use of biometrics, facial recognition and similar technologies.
The responses received will inform the creation of a bespoke legal framework and oversight for the use of biometric, facial recognition and similar technologies.
One aspect the consultation looks at is the oversight of biometric data storage and retention across law enforcement agencies.
Written Question
Tuesday 9th December 2025
Asked by:
Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question
to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has been made of the level of police recruitment and retention rates; and what steps she is taking to help constabularies maintain the number of frontline police officers.
Answered by Sarah Jones
- Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is clear that visible policing is essential to restoring public confidence in the police. To support this aim, for 2025/26, £376.8 million will be available to forces to support officer numbers. This funding will be distributed as follows:
- £270.1 million will be ringfenced funding, which PCCs will be able to access, as in previous years, by demonstrating that they have met their officer headcount targets.
- £106.7 million will be paid to forces who received additional recruitment allocations in 2023/24 and 2024/25. This funding will be provided as an additional recruitment top up grant. It will be unconditional, and the funding distributed according to how much additional recruitment forces were allocated.
The retention of police officers is a priority for the Home Office and the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Experienced officers are incredibly valuable which is why forces should be using effective evidence-based strategies to manage retention and progression of existing officers. Voluntary resignations rates for police officers remain low at 3.2% compared to other sectors.
As at 31 March 2025, 90.3% of police officers worked in frontline roles (including visible operational frontline and non-visible frontline roles; excluding National Policing, unknown, and ‘Other’ functions), the same proportion as the previous year.
Forces are operationally independent, and the deployment of officers remains an operational decision for Chief Constables.
Speech in Commons Chamber - Tue 02 Dec 2025
Angiolini Inquiry
"I thank the Minister for advance sight of her statement and for coming to the House to speak to the incredibly disturbing and damaging issues outlined in today’s report.
Over four years ago, the reprehensible abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard shocked us all. It forced the police to …..."Matt Vickers - View Speech
View all Matt Vickers (Con - Stockton West) contributions to the debate on: Angiolini Inquiry
Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 20 Nov 2025
Injury in Service Award
"Emergency service workers are the bedrock of society. They are the people who run towards danger while others run away, and they are there in our hour of need and deserve our utmost respect. I pay tribute to every emergency service worker across the country for the incredible job that …..."Matt Vickers - View Speech
View all Matt Vickers (Con - Stockton West) contributions to the debate on: Injury in Service Award
Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 19 Nov 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
"The Opposition join the Minister in thanking our colleagues in the other place for their work on and scrutiny of this Bill. I would like to thank my colleagues Lord Cameron of Lochiel and Lord Davies of Gower, as well as numerous members of the other place, including Lord Jackson, …..."Matt Vickers - View Speech
View all Matt Vickers (Con - Stockton West) contributions to the debate on: Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 19 Nov 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
"Is the Minister aware that in the nine months up to the election, the number of people in hotels fell by 47%? It has now gone up, and the number of people arriving in this country has gone up by 55%, while the number of those arriving in small boats …..."Matt Vickers - View Speech
View all Matt Vickers (Con - Stockton West) contributions to the debate on: Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 19 Nov 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
"Those people who arrived in this country illegally were going to Rwanda. Where are they now?..."Matt Vickers - View Speech
View all Matt Vickers (Con - Stockton West) contributions to the debate on: Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 19 Nov 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
"Will the Minister give way?..."Matt Vickers - View Speech
View all Matt Vickers (Con - Stockton West) contributions to the debate on: Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 19 Nov 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
"People out there are concerned about 30-year-olds trying to get into classrooms with 13-year-olds. They want to know how often it is being tried. Why have the Home Office and the Government stopped publishing the data around age verification?..."Matt Vickers - View Speech
View all Matt Vickers (Con - Stockton West) contributions to the debate on: Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
Speech in Commons Chamber - Wed 19 Nov 2025
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
"People out there are really concerned about people arriving illegally in this country claiming to be children, and the impact that that can have on our education and care settings. This Bill removes our ability to scientifically age-verify some of those people, but more than that, since this Government came …..."Matt Vickers - View Speech
View all Matt Vickers (Con - Stockton West) contributions to the debate on: Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill