Written questions by Obese-Jecty.

How many (a) warranted police officers, (b) Police Community Support Officers and (c) special constables have been recruited since February 2023.

The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the number of police workers joining the police service in the ‘Police Workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.Information on the number of Police Officers, Police Community Support Officers and Special Constables joining the police service between the years ending 31 March 2007 to 2024 can be found in the ‘Joiners Open Data Table’ here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/669a9161fc8e12ac3edb0081/open-data-table-police-workforce-joiners-240724.ods.Information for the period 1st April 2024 to 31st March 2025 is due to be published in Summer 2025.

With reference to her Written Statement of 19 November 2024 on Police Reform, HCWS232, what her definition of a community is.

As part of the Government’s Safer Streets mission, the Home Secretary has made a clear commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing through the introduction of a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. More detail will be set out in due course.

What progress she has made on recruitment of (a) warranted police officers, (b) Police Community Support Officers and (c) Special Constables.

This Government is committed to ensuring police forces are supported to tackle crime effectively.The latest Home Office statistics for the overall Police Workforce show a 1.2% increase when compared to the previous year. The total paid police workforce in the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales was 236,588 full-time equivalents (FTE) as at 31 March 2024; an increase of 2,752 FTE, compared to 233,836 FTE as at 31 March 2023. This includes 147,746 FTE police officers (up 0.2% on 147,434 in March 2023); and 81,303 FTE police staff and designated officers (up 3.4% on 78,596 in March 2023).As part of the Government’s Safer Streets mission, the Home Secretary has made a clear commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing through the introduction of a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. This includes delivering an additional 13,000 police officers, PCSOs and special constables in neighbourhood policing roles. More detail on the Guarantee will be set out in the coming weeks.

With reference to her Written Statement of 19 November 2024 on Police Reform, HCWS232, how the increase in the core grant for police forces will be divided up.

On 19th November, the Home Secretary announced that central government funding for policing will increase by half a billion pounds; this includes an increase of over £260m in the core grant for police forces, and additional funding for neighbourhood policing, the NCA and counter terrorism.Force level funding allocations for the financial year 2025-26 will be confirmed at the police funding settlement.

How many (a) enforced, (b) voluntary and (c) port returns have taken place each month since July 2024.

The Home Office published an ad-hoc release “Returns from the UK between July and October 2024” on 4 November 2024 containing data on enforced and voluntary returns between 5 July and 28 October 2024.The Home Office also publishes data on returns in the “Immigration System Statistics” quarterly release. Quarterly data on returns by return type group can be found in Ret_D01 of the “Returns detailed datasets”. Monthly returns data is not available. The latest data is for June 2024, with data up to September 2024 to be published on 28 November.Further information on future scheduled Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the “Research and statistics calendar”.

With reference to paragraph 4.20 of Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, published on 30 October 2024, by how much the core government grant for police forces will be increased for Cambridgeshire Constabulary.

The Budget confirmed that the core government grant for police forces will increase. Further details and force level allocations will be set out at the provisional settlement in December.

Whether the Border Security Command will recruit staff directly.

The Border Security Command (BSC) has been launched and will sit as a new bespoke command led by Martin Hewitt and within the Home Office, working collaboratively with colleagues across the department and beyond. Staff will have the same opportunities for career progression as all other Home Office staff in their respective agencies and Department.Capabilities from across the Home Office have come together to build the foundational operating model of BSC. Wider recruitment is ongoing as part of the broader organisational design and any external opportunities for the BSC will be advertised on Civil Service Jobs as per existing processes.The BSC will be appropriately resourced to ensure we can disrupt organised criminal gangs and respond to a range of threats across the border security system. The Command will collaborate with a wide range of agencies, recruiting hundreds of new specialist staff across these organisations, including investigators, to smash the criminal gangs and strengthen our borders. Our new Border Security Command is gearing up so that we can dismantle the criminal smuggling gangs who undermine our border security and put lives at risk.

What the in-year budget for the Border Security Command is for 2024-25.

The Home Secretary announced on 17 September up to £75 million in new investment for the Border Security Command. This will deliver cutting edge new technology, extra officers and further covert capabilities across the system. The BSC will be appropriately resourced to ensure we can disrupt organised criminal gangs and respond to a range of threats to border security.

What the Border Security Command’s (a) target and (b) timeline is for reducing the number of people entering the country via small boat.

The Border Security Command is providing cross-system strategic leadership to tackle Organise Immigration Crime, and wider border security threats. The small boat crisis, fuelled by dangerous criminal smuggler gangs, is undermining our security, and is costing lives. Criminal smuggling gangs are making millions out of these crossings and the Border Security Command, and whole system, will tackle the root of the problem by going after these dangerous criminals and bringing them to justice.

How many new youth hubs will be located in Huntingdon constituency.

The Government is committed to rolling out a new YF programme including a network of Young Futures Hubs which will bring together services to help improve the way young people can access the support they need.We will be engaging with local communities, the police, charities, and other key partners to support the design of the hubs and explore options for their delivery. This will include considerations of the most suitable locations as well as how best to engage with those young people who would benefit most from their support.

From what year is the population data used to calculate the police allocation formula.

The Home Office publishes a Police Grant Report on an annual basis. The Report sets out the Home Secretary’s determination, made under section 46(2) of the Police Act 1996, of:the aggregate amount of grants for police purposes paid under Section 46, and;the amount of grant paid to pay each local policing body in England and Wales under the same section.The Report includes a definition of the indicators used to calculate Police Main Grant, including population. A copy of the most recent Report for 2024-25 has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses and can be found online:Police Grant Report (England and Wales) 2024-25 (publishing.service.gov.uk)

With reference to the page entitled Asylum support on gov.uk, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the information under the heading Cash support on the number of people seeking asylum in the UK; and what recent assessment she has made of the factors leading people to claim asylum in the UK.

The prevailing evidence indicates there is a diversity of factors that influence asylum seeker decision-making in seeking to travel in the UK. This government is focused on restoring order to the asylum system.

How many additional staff will be required in (a) Government Departments and (b) Border Security Command for that organisation to reach full operational (i) readiness and (ii) effectiveness.

The Border Security Command (BSC) has been launched and will sit as a new bespoke command led by Martin Hewitt and within the Home Office, working collaboratively with colleagues across the department and beyond. Staff will have the same opportunities for career progression as all other Home Office staff in their respective agencies and Department.Capabilities from across the Home Office have come together to build the foundational operating model of BSC. Wider recruitment is ongoing as part of the broader organisational design and any external opportunities for the BSC will be advertised on Civil Service Jobs as per existing processes.The BSC will be appropriately resourced to ensure we can disrupt organised criminal gangs and respond to a range of threats across the border security system. The Command will collaborate with a wide range of agencies, recruiting hundreds of new specialist staff across these organisations, including investigators, to smash the criminal gangs and strengthen our borders. Our new Border Security Command is gearing up so that we can dismantle the criminal smuggling gangs who undermine our border security and put lives at risk.

What opportunities for career progression will be available to staff in Border Security Command.

The Border Security Command (BSC) has been launched and will sit as a new bespoke command led by Martin Hewitt and within the Home Office, working collaboratively with colleagues across the department and beyond. Staff will have the same opportunities for career progression as all other Home Office staff in their respective agencies and Department.Capabilities from across the Home Office have come together to build the foundational operating model of BSC. Wider recruitment is ongoing as part of the broader organisational design and any external opportunities for the BSC will be advertised on Civil Service Jobs as per existing processes.The BSC will be appropriately resourced to ensure we can disrupt organised criminal gangs and respond to a range of threats across the border security system. The Command will collaborate with a wide range of agencies, recruiting hundreds of new specialist staff across these organisations, including investigators, to smash the criminal gangs and strengthen our borders. Our new Border Security Command is gearing up so that we can dismantle the criminal smuggling gangs who undermine our border security and put lives at risk.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring social media platforms to remove gang scoreboards of (a) knife crimes and (b) other assaults.

Under the Government’s Safer Streets Mission, we have committed to ambitious plans to halve knife crime in a decade. As part of this ambition, we are committed to going after the gangs who incite and commit violence on our streets.The use of social media platforms by Urban Street Gangs to keep ‘scoreboards’ of serious acts of violence is inhumane and will not be tolerated.Under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom will have significant powers to help stem the spread of content on social media that incites violence or threats to kill. Once fully implemented, the Online Safety Act will require platforms to take robust action to address illegal content.We are clear that tech companies must take proactive action to embed public safety in their system designs and prevent users encountering harmful material on their platforms. To ensure companies comply with the legislation, Ofcom will have powers to issues large fines of up to 10% of annual qualifying turnover.