Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of shoplifting.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The level of shop theft remains unacceptable. But our action to restore neighbourhood policing is making a difference – including delivering more than 3,100 additional police officers and PCSOs into neighbourhood roles since March 2025.
There are signs the tide is turning, with a small fall in shop theft offences by 1% in the year ending December 2025 compared with the previous year. This is compared with increases of nearly 30% in the period before the election.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department holds data on instances in which police forces have declined to investigate alleged serious criminal offences, including fraud, money laundering or organised crime, on the grounds of resource limitations or internal case-triage decisions; and whether any national guidance exists governing how such decisions should be made.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Operational decisions on case investigations are matters for operationally independent police forces. The Home Office does not issue guidance directing police forces on whether individual cases should or should not be investigated.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance is available to local authorities under the licensing regime to restrict the operating hours of retail premises where there is evidence of persistent antisocial behaviour linked to those premises.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Secretary of State issues statutory guidance under section 182 of the Act to support licensing authorities in the discharge of their functions - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/explanatory-memorandum-revised-guidance-issued-under-s-182-of-licensing-act-2003.
This includes guidance on the process to follow if evidence becomes available that a licensed premises is failing to uphold one of four licensing objectives, two of which relate to the prevention of crime and disorder and the prevention of public nuisance.
If concerns are raised about a particular premises, the licensing authority may conduct a review of the premises’ licence and take appropriate action up to and including revoking the licence.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons on the interaction between specialist veterinary training pathways and the Skilled Worker visa salary requirements.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office regularly engages across Whitehall departments on the immigration system, including Department for Food and Rural Affairs and the Food Standards Agency, on areas such as salary and broader route requirements.
Those working towards professional registration and qualification can qualify for a reduced salary requirement under the new entrant provision in the Skilled Worker immigration route.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department holds for each police force on the time taken to resolve complaints brought in relation to policing standards and policy.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold complete data on the time taken to resolve police complaints.
As overseers of the police complaints system in England and Wales, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) collect and publish data on public complaints, including information on the time taken to finalise complaint allegations.
Published information can be found at:
https://www.policeconduct.gov.uk/our-work/research-and-statistics/police-complaints-statistics
Breakdowns of timeliness by allegation type (nature of allegation) are not published.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
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 impact of reducing the physical fitness standards required of serving police officers on (a) public safety and (b) operational effectiveness.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Chief Constables are able to locally determine the standards and assessment at recruitment for physical fitness of police officers. At the same time, chief officers have a statutory duty of care to their officers, and the public, and they must, therefore, satisfy themselves that officers can be deployed safely in a role and fulfil the duties of a police officer.
The College of Policing holds guidance to support forces on the implementation of fitness testing and standards for officers. Work is underway, led by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College, to commence a review of the current demands of operational policing to inform future decisions on fitness standards at recruitment.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much funding her Department has allocated to support (a) leisure, (b) recreation and (c) entertainment activities for people accommodated in asylum contingency hotels since July 2024.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Home Office publishes information on asylum expenditure in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts at HO annual reports and accounts - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of violent crime on community cohesion in high-incidence areas.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government recognises the devasting effects of violence on communities, that is why we work closely with community groups, including through the Coalition to Tackle Knife Crime to understand the impacts and help shape the Government’s plan to halve knife crime in ten years.
To support communities in high-incidence areas, the Government has made £47m available for Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) to continue their valuable work in 2025/26. VRUs bring together local partners to understand and tackle the drivers of serious violence in their area. They facilitate the sharing of data across organisational boundaries to build a collective understanding of the root causes of violence locally.
Additionally, the Government has awarded £66.3m in 25/26 to all 43 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales for the Hot Spot Action Fund. This funding is for high-visibility patrolling in the areas with the highest densities (‘hotspots’) of knife crime and anti-social behaviour, as well as problem-oriented policing to tackle the longer-term drivers of crime.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of recorded violent crimes resulted in a (a) charge and (b) summons in the last 12 months.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of violence against the person offences, and their investigative outcomes, including those assigned a charge/summons outcome, recorded by the police in England and Wales, on a quarterly basis. The latest information, to the year ending March 2025, has been published on 24th July, and can be accessed here:
It is not possible to separately identify charges and summonses.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the proportion of violent crime that is linked to gang activity.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The ONS Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and Home Office police recorded crime data contains information on violent crime and is published by the ONS (Crime in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics and the nature of violent crime: appendix tables - Office for National Statistics).