Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many places of worship of religion have applied for funding through the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme since 2016.

The Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme provides physical protective security measures, such as CCTV, intruder alarms and secure perimeter fencing to places of worship and associated faith community centres that are particularly vulnerable to religiously or racially motivated hate crime in England and Wales.

In the first seven years of the scheme between 2016 and 2022, the Home Office approved protective security measures at 523 places of worship across England and Wales: 225 mosques, 201 churches, 47 gurdwaras, 38 Hindu temples, and 12 places of worship of other faiths.

The Home Office is currently processing applications for this year’s scheme with a view to informing applicants of the outcome in the near future.