Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the affordability of firearms licences and renewals for (a) game keepers and (b) veterinarians.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 5 February 2025, increased fees came into effect for firearms licensing applications processed by police forces. This gave effect to a commitment in the Government’s manifesto.
A full impact assessment was published alongside the Firearms (Variation of Fees) Order 2025, the Statutory Instrument that brought the new fees into effect.
The impact assessment covers the impact of increased fees on game keepers and veterinarians. Any future changes to firearms licensing will be subject to further impact assessments in the normal way.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
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 changes to employer National Insurance contributions on police recruitment.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The 2025-26 final police funding settlement provides funding of up to £19.6 billion for the policing system in England and Wales. This is an overall increase of up to £1.1 billion when compared to the 2024-25 and represents a 6% cash increase and 3.5% real terms increase in funding.
This includes an additional £230.3 million of funding for territorial police forces to cover the costs of the increases to National Insurance Contributions.
The Government is committed to ensuring police forces are supported to effectively tackle crime. That’s why we have committed £200 million to kickstart the recruitment of 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs in communities across the country.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle modern slavery in illegal hand carwashes.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is committed to tackling modern slavery across all sectors, including hand car washes.
The Responsible Car Wash Scheme, partly funded by the Home Office, sought to enhance compliance, and investigate non-compliance in the car wash sector. As part of the scheme, a Car Wash Code of Practice was developed in collaboration with the sector to test the effectiveness of different interventions in raising standards.
As the scheme has concluded, the Government is assessing these evaluations to understand how both to bolster compliance, and support sector-led initiatives. The Government and enforcement bodies, such as the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, continue to support industry initiatives aimed at improving standards, while also cracking down on individual carwash operators employing and exploiting illegal workers.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support police forces to purchase equipment for tackling rural crime.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is an operational matter for policing to determine how they use the resources they have been allocated in order to carry out their duties, taking into account local priorities.
The Provisional Police Funding Settlement announced funding of up to £19.5 billion for 2025-26, an increase of up to £1 billion, or 5.5% in cash terms, from last year’s settlement.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help Police and Crime Commissioners tackle (a) rural crime and (b) agricultural theft.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government is committed to reducing crime and disorder in rural areas, given the devastating impact rural crime can have on communities. Under our reforms, rural communities will be safeguarded, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing and stronger measures to prevent farm theft and fly-tipping.
We are also 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.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the sufficiency of funding to the National Police Air Service.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The National Police Air Service (NPAS) provides borderless, round-the-clock, crewed police air support across England and Wales.
The Home Office supports NPAS through the provision of an annual capital grant. For the Financial Year 2024/25, this grant is £11.46m. The NPAS revenue budget is funded through contributions from police forces. For Financial Year 2024/25 this budget is £49.6m.
Funding for future financial years will be agreed as part of the ongoing Spending Review.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether additional funding will be provided to Police and Crime Commissioners (a) to deliver above-inflation pay rises and (b) long term.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Police officer pay is determined by the Home Secretary, following advice from the independent Police Remuneration Review Body and Senior Salaries Review Body. On 29 July, the Government announced it had accepted the Review Bodies’ recommendations to award all ranks and pay points a consolidated increase of 4.75% with effect from 1 September 2024.
To support forces with the cost of the pay award, the Home Office is providing additional funding of £175m in 2024/25. Funding for 2025/26 will be announced in the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) increase prosecution rates for perpetrators of rural crime and (b) protect victims of those crimes.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises the importance of tackling rural crime. We are committed to safeguarding rural communities, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing, and stronger laws to prevent farm theft and fly-tippers.
We are also 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 rural settings.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025 provides a framework through which policing, and its partners, can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues which predominantly affect rural communities.
The Home Office funded the establishment of the National Rural Crime Unit. The unit takes the lead on improving co-ordination and partnership working between police forces and rural communities. This provides police forces with specialist operational support in their responses to rural crime, such as the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, fly tipping, fuel theft and equine crime. The unit also helps in sharing best practice and encouraging regional and national approaches.
The Home Office also directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit to provide intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to forces and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime, which can affect rural areas.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle (a) the theft of high value agricultural machinery and (b) other rural crime.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises the importance of tackling rural crime. We are committed to safeguarding rural communities, with tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, strengthened neighbourhood policing, and stronger laws to prevent farm theft and fly-tippers.
We are also 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.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025 provides a framework through which policing, and its partners can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues which predominantly affect rural communities.
The National Rural Crime Unit, which the Home Office funded the establishment of, takes the lead on improving co-ordination and partnership working, which provides police forces with specialist operational support in their responses to rural crime, such as the theft of farming or construction machinery, livestock theft, fly tipping, fuel theft and equine crime, as well as through sharing best practice and encouraging regional and national approaches.
The Home Office also directly funds the National Wildlife Crime Unit to provide intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to forces and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime, which can affect rural areas.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many youth hubs South Shropshire constituency will receive from the plan to establish a new network of youth hubs.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is committed to intervening early to stop young people being drawn into crime with an ambition to half knife crime in a decade, accompanied by a new, increased focus on crime prevention.
Fundamental to this will be the delivery of our Youth Futures programme, which will include the rollout of youth hubs across England and Wales. We want to work with the police, partners and local communities to design and deliver these hubs. That will include decisions on the exact location of hubs to ensure they are in the local areas that will benefit most.