Written questions by Brown-Fuller.

Whether she has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the Licensing Act 2003.

The Government regularly engages with a wide range of stakeholders to keep the Licensing Act 2003 under review and is confident that it continues to provide a clear and effective legislative framework for regulating licensable activities.The Government published a new National Licensing Policy Framework in November to provide further guidance to applicants and local licensing authorities on striking the right balance between providing safeguards to prevent nuisance, crime and disorder while promoting growth and recognising the contribution licensed premises make to our hospitality sector and to thriving night-time economies.We continue to work closely with licensing practitioners to ensure the regime remains fit for purpose and responds to emerging challenges. Using the powers already in place within the regime we will shortly be legislating for national licensing hours extensions to allow fans to celebrate England and Scotland team successes at the men’s football World Cup this summer.

What steps her Department is being taken to accelerate the Priority Service for employers and employees using the Certificate of Sponsorship Scheme.

Priority Service decisions are typically made within five working days once payment is received, significantly faster than our current service level agreement for standard applications.This expedites requests for additional undefined certificate of sponsorship (CoS) allocations and annual CoS allocation changes and we have already this year increased the availability of the priority service by 20% with a view to increasing further throughout the financial year.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the impact of temporary visa status on the ability of students from Ukraine residing in the UK to gain places at UK universities.

The Ukraine Schemes reflect a generous and meaningful commitment to support those displaced by the conflict. Since the full-scale invasion began, the UK has provided sanctuary to over 310,000 Ukrainians and their family members.Those granted permission under the Ukraine Schemes wishing to commence Higher Education (HE) are eligible to apply as home-fee students but HE institutions in England are autonomous bodies and are responsible for setting their own admissions criteria. Further guidance on individual providers’ evidential requirements should be obtained from the relevant HE institution.The Government recognises the importance of providing long-term certainty for Ukrainians living in the UK beyond the lifetime of UPE. Work is underway across Government on future arrangements and a further statement setting out the long-term position, including for those in education, will be issued later this year.The Government continues to keep the Ukraine Schemes and the evolving situation in Ukraine under close and active review.

Whether her Department holds data on the number of children that go missing by region every year.

The Home Office does not hold this data centrally.Information about current missing persons incidents is held by individual police forces.The National Crime Agency’s UK Missing Persons Unit holds the national database for all missing incidents that are unresolved after 72hours, allowing the police to have access to missing persons information across force boundaries. In addition, annual missing persons statistics, broken down to police force level, are published by the National Crime Agency’s Missing Person’s Unit in its annual data report which can be found here: Downloads - National Crime Agency

Whether she has made a recent assessment of the requirements for EU nationals married to UK national to apply and pay for visas to live in the UK.

The deadline for EU, other EEA and Swiss citizens resident in the UK by the end of the transition period (11pm on 31 December 2020) to apply to the EUSS was 30 June 2021, but they can make a late application if there are reasonable grounds for the delay. That is the case regardless of whether or not they are a spouse or civil partner of a British citizen.Where an EU national is not within scope of the EUSS, EU nationals wishing to join a British or settled partner in the UK must apply for a family visa under the Immigration Rules. The family Immigration Rules ensure those who are seeking to establish or maintain their family life in the UK are in a genuine and subsisting relationship, financially independent and able to speak English. Those applying to join a British or settled partner in the UK must pay the application fee although fee waivers are available for certain specified human rights applications.

What assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of resourcing of information sharing between police forces in stalking cases; and what steps he is taking to improve this process.

The Government is committed to tackling stalking as part of its mission to halve violence against women and girls in the next decade. While the handling and investigation of cases is an operational matter for policing, it is vital that they have effective information sharing protocols in place between forces. This is important in stalking cases where robustly managing perpetrators and supporting victims as early as possible is essential for reducing harm.To enable this, police forces have information sharing procedures in place underpinned by the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice on information sharing. This helps ensure the timely and lawful sharing of information in stalking cases.To improve the overall police response to violence against women and girls and child sexual abuse, the Home Office has invested £13.1 million funding to launch a new National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection (NCVPP). This funding includes an uplift of nearly £2 million to enable policing to better target these crimes, including through better information sharing.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of recounting experiences during police complaint procedures on (a) victims and (b) survivors of stalking.

This Government recognises the devastating impact stalking can have on victims and survivors, and that they may be retraumatised by recounting their experiences.In submitting a complaint, it can be necessary for a complainant to recount some of the episodes which gave rise to their complaints. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) sets the standards for the handling of police complaints and have issued guidance to support police in acting with sensitivity and using appropriate language when communicating with victims of violence against women and girls.We are committed to taking further action to tackle stalking. That is why we are legislating in the Crime and Policing Bill to issue multi-agency statutory guidance on stalking for agencies (including the police) and announced on 22 October that a specialist barrister has been appointed to lead a review of stalking legislation to ensure it is fit for purpose.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing AI solutions to minimise the need for the police to redact case files shared with the CPS.

Redaction is an important activity ensuring personal and sensitive information does not fall into the wrong hands. Any criminal justice process must ensure personal data is handled appropriately and lawfully, maintaining victim and witness confidence and public trust.However, we recognise the administrative burden this places on policing at the pre-charge stage, especially for those cases that do not proceed to charge. The Policing Productivity Review estimated that over 200,000 hours could be saved by not redacting cases that do not progress beyond the Crown Prosecution Service.Technology is key to reducing this burden, freeing up officer time for the frontline. For text redaction, automated tools are available on the market, which we understand that the majority of forces have now adopted, or are planning to implement.Audio visual redaction of material such as body worn video, CCTV and audio recordings remains a challenge, as tools rely on more complex AI models and the market is less mature. However, Home Office-funded engagement with forces and suppliers has shown that AI-enabled tools are now available which offer significant time savings on audio visual redaction, used as part of an efficient operational process. In FY 2025/26, the Home Office is funding an initiative to improve policing’s audio visual redaction technology and processes, and we have developed guidance for all forces on how to make audio visual redaction more efficient.We are also committed, working with criminal justice partners, to explore through process change how casefile redaction can be made as proportionate and efficient as possible, and will evaluate the impact of any changes.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of ending the requirement for police to redact casefiles that are passed to the Crown Prosecution Service on (a) response times and (b) victim outcomes.

Redaction is an important activity ensuring personal and sensitive information does not fall into the wrong hands. Any criminal justice process must ensure personal data is handled appropriately and lawfully, maintaining victim and witness confidence and public trust.However, we recognise the administrative burden this places on policing at the pre-charge stage, especially for those cases that do not proceed to charge. The Policing Productivity Review estimated that over 200,000 hours could be saved by not redacting cases that do not progress beyond the Crown Prosecution Service.Technology is key to reducing this burden, freeing up officer time for the frontline. For text redaction, automated tools are available on the market, which we understand that the majority of forces have now adopted, or are planning to implement.Audio visual redaction of material such as body worn video, CCTV and audio recordings remains a challenge, as tools rely on more complex AI models and the market is less mature. However, Home Office-funded engagement with forces and suppliers has shown that AI-enabled tools are now available which offer significant time savings on audio visual redaction, used as part of an efficient operational process. In FY 2025/26, the Home Office is funding an initiative to improve policing’s audio visual redaction technology and processes, and we have developed guidance for all forces on how to make audio visual redaction more efficient.We are also committed, working with criminal justice partners, to explore through process change how casefile redaction can be made as proportionate and efficient as possible, and will evaluate the impact of any changes.

Whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing schemes that that would reduce the cost of replacement passports to those in receipt of (a) state and (b) other pensions.

All income from passport fees is used to meet the cost of processing passport applications and delivering associated services, and any reduction in fees would need to be considered in terms of its impact on the funding of those services.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of excluding dental therapists from the skilled worker visa scheme on NHS dentistry provision.

On 12 May, we published our Immigration White Paper ‘Restoring Control over the Immigration System’, outlining our future approach to legal migration routes. The first set of immigration rules giving effect to the policies in the White Paper was published on 1 July, including raising the skills threshold to RQF 6 and we will publish an impact assessment of this change in due course.

If she will take steps to set up an independent body to process Disclosure and Barring Service checks with formalised processing time targets.

As an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body of the Home Office, the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is already an operationally independent body. It also already operates to formalised service standards of completing 85% of Basic check applications within 2 days, 85% of Standard check applications within 3 days, and 80% of Enhanced check applications within 14 days.Its latest performance against these service standards is available at DBS dataset 1: DBS checks, DBS Update Service, and disputes - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

How many breached Community Protection Notices issued to owners of dogs following attacks on cats led to prosecutions in (a) 2023 and (b) 2024.

The Home Office does not hold data in relation to the number of Community Protection Notices that have been issued to owners of dogs following attacks on cats and how many of these led to prosecutions.The Ministry of Justice publishes figures on the number of breached CPNs that result in a court fine. The data does not include the reasons for the CPN being issued. The most recent court outcomes data can be found in the ‘Outcomes by Offence data tool: June 2024’ here - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-june-2024

How many Community Protection Notices were issued to owners of dogs following attacks on cats in (a) 2023 and (b) 2024; and how many of those required the (i) use of leads, (ii) use of muzzles and (iii) securing of properties.

The Home Office does not hold data in relation to the number of Community Protection Notices that have been issued to owners of dogs following attacks on cats and how many of these led to prosecutions.The Ministry of Justice publishes figures on the number of breached CPNs that result in a court fine. The data does not include the reasons for the CPN being issued. The most recent court outcomes data can be found in the ‘Outcomes by Offence data tool: June 2024’ here - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-june-2024