Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to page 22 of the Police reform white paper, From Local to National: A New Model for Policing (CP1489), how can local residents find out who their named, contactable officer is.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee is ensuring a more consistent standard of neighbourhood policing across England and Wales. Every neighbourhood has named, and contactable officers dedicated to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour locally, with forces increasing patrols in town centres and other hotspots based on local demand and intelligence.
Details of all named, contactable officers can be found on force websites, where the public are able to type in their postcode to find out about their neighbourhood policing team and area, local policing priorities and how to contact their neighbourhood teams.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2026 to Question 104669 on Business Rates, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the increases in Rateable Values for (a) hotels and (b) pubs from the 2026 revaluation on the liability of those businesses for business rates from the BID levies.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Business Improvement District (BID) levies are set locally through ballot approved proposals and are not automatically affected by revaluations or new multipliers. Therefore, any adjustment is a matter for the individual BID under its governing arrangements.
The Government recognises the important role that BIDs play in improving the local trading environment in high streets and town centres. Through the Pride in Place strategy, the Government has committed to strengthening BIDs by modernising existing arrangements, raising standards, and granting new powers for the establishment of property owner BIDs throughout England.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of betting shops on town centre vitality.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Some high streets have become increasingly dominated by certain types of premises – including gambling establishments – which don’t always meet the needs of their communities. According to the Gambling Commission, the number of adult gaming centres (AGCs) rose by 7% between 2022 and 2024, with additional data showing that AGCs are most concentrated in areas of higher deprivation.
My Department will take action to tackle the number of gambling premises in vulnerable areas by introducing Cumulative Impact Assessments in gambling licensing when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Reform UK - Romford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken with relevant authorities to help tackle crime in town centres across greater London.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The central aim of our police reforms is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces, so they focus on tackling local issues, like fighting town centre crime.
Our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee is already making a difference. For too long, people have not seen police patrolling their streets. We will have 3,000 more neighbourhood officers by March this year. The Metropolitan Police Service’s projected growth over 2025 to 2026 will be 420 police officers (FTE) and 50 Police Community Support Officers (FTE). We are giving them the powers they need, including making it a specific offence to assault retail workers and ending the treatment of theft under the value of £200 as a summary-only offence.
We are equipping the police to fight the organised crime gangs that are often responsible for driving shop theft across the country. Our £5m investment into OPAL (a specialist policing unit) will supercharge intelligence-led policing to identify offenders, disrupt the tactics used to target shops, and bring more criminals to justice.
We have also delivered on our manifesto pledge: every police force in England and Wales now has a dedicated lead officer for anti-social behaviour, who will work with communities to develop an action plan to tackle ASB. We are also strengthening the powers to tackle ASB. Our new Respect Orders will give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to tackle the most relentless ASB offenders.
Through our Summer Initiative police forces and local authorities increased patrols in town centres, tackling retail crime and anti-social behaviour as part of the Government’s Plan for Change to make our streets safer. Our Winter of Action, which ran from 1 December 2025 to 31 January 2026, built on this, with an additional focus on repeat offenders and protecting women and girls at night. The full list of locations the Metropolitan Police Service focused on as part of the Winter of Action can be found here: Winter of Action: location list - GOV.UK
Building from the Winter of Action, we are working with forces and local partners to identify and tackle the most prolific retail offenders - where a few individuals can drive a large proportion of the local crime problem.
Together with the police, we are sending a message: crime and anti-social behaviour will be punished.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure neighbourhood policing teams have sufficient resources to carry out preventative work to deter knife carrying in Surrey.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The latest data published on 29 January [Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK] shows that there has been a 7% reduction in overall police recorded knife offences in Surrey in the last 5 years (from 499 offences in year ending March 2020 to 465 offences in year ending September 2025).
Neighbourhood policing plays a vital role in our mission to halve knife crime by helping to prevent violence to keep communities safe. The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver 13,000 additional policing personnel in neighbourhood roles across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament.
As at 31 March 2025, Surrey Police had 191 full-time equivalent (FTE) Neighbourhood Policing (NHP) officers, comprising 128 FTE police officers and 64 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs). Based on their £2,588,427 allocation from the Neighbourhood Policing Grant, Surrey Police are projected to grow by 25 FTE NHP police officers in 2025-26. As at 30 September 2025, Surrey Police have grown by 11 FTE Neighbourhood Policing officers out of a delivery plan target of 25 FTE.
Every neighbourhood has named, and contactable officers dedicated to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour locally, with forces increasing patrols in town centres and other hotspots based on local demand and intelligence.
This strengthened, visible neighbourhood presence supports earlier intervention, builds community confidence, and helps reduce the risk of young people becoming involved in violence.
The Serious Violence Duty also plays an important role in preventing knife crime in Surrey. It brings key local partners together, including policing, health, education and local authorities, to prevent and reduce serious violence in a joined up, evidence-led way. The Home Office has made £546,000 available to Surrey in 2025/26 to deliver the Duty, funding a wide range of interventions that support Surrey Police in responding to knife crime among under 18s, including support for Op Shield and Surrey’s Primary Intervention Programme for youth related serious violence.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of knife-enabled crime in Surrey Police’s force area over the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The latest data published on 29 January [Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK] shows that there has been a 7% reduction in overall police recorded knife offences in Surrey in the last 5 years (from 499 offences in year ending March 2020 to 465 offences in year ending September 2025).
Neighbourhood policing plays a vital role in our mission to halve knife crime by helping to prevent violence to keep communities safe. The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver 13,000 additional policing personnel in neighbourhood roles across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament.
As at 31 March 2025, Surrey Police had 191 full-time equivalent (FTE) Neighbourhood Policing (NHP) officers, comprising 128 FTE police officers and 64 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs). Based on their £2,588,427 allocation from the Neighbourhood Policing Grant, Surrey Police are projected to grow by 25 FTE NHP police officers in 2025-26. As at 30 September 2025, Surrey Police have grown by 11 FTE Neighbourhood Policing officers out of a delivery plan target of 25 FTE.
Every neighbourhood has named, and contactable officers dedicated to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour locally, with forces increasing patrols in town centres and other hotspots based on local demand and intelligence.
This strengthened, visible neighbourhood presence supports earlier intervention, builds community confidence, and helps reduce the risk of young people becoming involved in violence.
The Serious Violence Duty also plays an important role in preventing knife crime in Surrey. It brings key local partners together, including policing, health, education and local authorities, to prevent and reduce serious violence in a joined up, evidence-led way. The Home Office has made £546,000 available to Surrey in 2025/26 to deliver the Duty, funding a wide range of interventions that support Surrey Police in responding to knife crime among under 18s, including support for Op Shield and Surrey’s Primary Intervention Programme for youth related serious violence.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional operational support has been provided to Surrey Police to respond to knife crime incidents involving under-18s.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The latest data published on 29 January [Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK] shows that there has been a 7% reduction in overall police recorded knife offences in Surrey in the last 5 years (from 499 offences in year ending March 2020 to 465 offences in year ending September 2025).
Neighbourhood policing plays a vital role in our mission to halve knife crime by helping to prevent violence to keep communities safe. The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will deliver 13,000 additional policing personnel in neighbourhood roles across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament.
As at 31 March 2025, Surrey Police had 191 full-time equivalent (FTE) Neighbourhood Policing (NHP) officers, comprising 128 FTE police officers and 64 Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs). Based on their £2,588,427 allocation from the Neighbourhood Policing Grant, Surrey Police are projected to grow by 25 FTE NHP police officers in 2025-26. As at 30 September 2025, Surrey Police have grown by 11 FTE Neighbourhood Policing officers out of a delivery plan target of 25 FTE.
Every neighbourhood has named, and contactable officers dedicated to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour locally, with forces increasing patrols in town centres and other hotspots based on local demand and intelligence.
This strengthened, visible neighbourhood presence supports earlier intervention, builds community confidence, and helps reduce the risk of young people becoming involved in violence.
The Serious Violence Duty also plays an important role in preventing knife crime in Surrey. It brings key local partners together, including policing, health, education and local authorities, to prevent and reduce serious violence in a joined up, evidence-led way. The Home Office has made £546,000 available to Surrey in 2025/26 to deliver the Duty, funding a wide range of interventions that support Surrey Police in responding to knife crime among under 18s, including support for Op Shield and Surrey’s Primary Intervention Programme for youth related serious violence.
Asked by: Alex McIntyre (Labour - Gloucester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle anti-social behaviour in Gloucester city centre.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Through the Crime and Policing Bill, we are strengthening the powers available to police and other relevant agencies to tackle ASB, including introducing new Respect Orders to give local agencies stronger enforcement capability to crack down on the most relentless ASB perpetrators.
Under the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, we are putting neighbourhood officers back into communities, both urban and rural, and restoring public confidence by bringing back community-led, visible policing. By the end of this parliament there will be 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales, including up to 3,000 additional neighbourhood officers by the end of March 2026. Gloucestershire Constabulary’s projected growth over 2025 to 2026 will be 23 police officers (FTE).
Gloucestershire Constabulary participated in the Safer Streets Summer Initiative, as part of activity to tackle anti-social behaviour, retail crime and street crime across six town centres. The force is currently participating in the Winter of Action, which builds on this work and covers twelve town centres, including Gloucester City Centre, with activity focused on anti-social behaviour, retail crime, offending linked to the night-time economy, and violence against women and girls. The full list of locations Gloucestershire has been focusing on as part of the Winter of Action can be found here: Winter of Action: location list - GOV.UK
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to remove asbestos from buildings in town centres.
Answered by Samantha Dixon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Building owners are responsible for managing safety and performance risks in their buildings, including asbestos, in a proportionate, risk based and evidence-based way. Duty holders must comply with the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, which require them to identify any asbestos, assess its condition, and determine the risk of exposure.
They must maintain an asbestos management plan that sets out how asbestos containing materials will be monitored or, where necessary, safely removed by a licensed contractor. In most cases, asbestos that is in good condition and unlikely to be disturbed is safer left in place and managed appropriately.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the UK’s primary regulator for asbestos. It enforces the regulations, operates the asbestos licensing regime, and provides technical guidance to support compliance.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of licensing laws for supporting rural and community pubs.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Hospitality businesses are vital to our communities, both in town centres and in rural areas. As well as providing local jobs and supporting local supply chains, they help create places where people want to live, work, visit and invest.
No assessment has been made specifically of the link between licensing laws and supporting rural and community pubs, however a wider reform programme is underway following the report of a Licensing Taskforce and consultation with stakeholders over the past year. The Government aims to support all hospitality businesses, by developing reforms which lead to a more responsive and enabling licensing system for hospitality and leisure businesses that also protects and safeguards communities.
As part of the licensing reforms programme a Call for Evidence closed in November with over 2,000 responses to a range of questions about changes that could be made to the licensing regime. Following that we published a new National Licensing Policy Framework (NLPF) for the hospitality sector, which set how the Licensing Act should be applied to support the growth of hospitality businesses and highlights examples of good practice.