Written questions by Anderson.

What information her Department holds on the number of reported incidents of (a) assault and (b) abuse against lone retail workers in each of the last three years.

The Home Office publishes data on the number of incidents of violent crime and public order offences (including assaults and verbal abuse) recorded by the police in England and Wales. The latest data can be found here:Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UKIt is not currently possible to identify which of these incidents were committed against retail workers during the course of their work, as these incidents fall under categories of crime, such as assault.In the Crime and Policing Bill, we are bringing forward a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect the hardworking and dedicated staff that work in stores.The offence will be allocated a specific Home Office Crime Recording Rule, which will help provide a more complete picture of the problem, in turn informing future policy decisions and enabling the police to respond accordingly.The Home Office has also published estimates from the Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) on the proportion of retail premises which experienced at least one incident of assault or threat. This data can be found here, and includes those premises which did not report the incident to the police: Crime against businesses statistics - GOV.UK

For what purposes their Department has used artificial intelligence in the last year.

AI is being used for a range of purposes in the Home Office to improve business delivery as part of overall digital improvements in the department with well-established systems such as e-Gates, to allow entry at the Border; in our passport service, to support online applications; triage tools, which route cases to the appropriate teams; and the Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) Classifier, which helps police officers grade child sexual abuse material (CSAM) more swiftly and reduces their exposure time to harmful contentThe Home Office continues to introduce AI tools, including the rollout of Microsoft Copilot to assist in day-to-day activities. We have also provided bespoke tools to specific teams to support asylum decision making.We are also running several AI trials to test their potential for wider productivity and quality improvements in existing business processes.

If she will make it her policy to prevent irregular migrants who are living in hotels from being able to go out into the community freely.

Asylum seekers living in asylum accommodation are not detained and are free to come and go from their accommodation as they wish.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of releasing the location of asylum seeker accommodation at the local authority level.

The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of supported asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found at Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK.

What search procedures are conducted on migrants immediately upon arrival from a small boat.

All migrants arriving by small boats are subject to physical searches upon arrival, and clothing is removed and replaced as part of initial reception processing.Some small weapons – for example, knives – have occasionally been seized as a result of those searches over the past seven years, but we have no record of any attempts to struggle illicit drugs into the UK via this route or any firearms.

How many and what proportion of applicants for (a) asylum or (b) refugee status who have had their application refused have been granted humanitarian leave to remain in the last 2 years.

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on outcomes of claims, including those granted humanitarian leave, is published in table Asy_D02 of the asylum detailed datasets. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to 2025 Q2 (April to June).

What assessment she has made of the potential risk of Class A drug smuggling across the English Channel in migrant small boats.

All migrants arriving by small boats are subject to physical searches upon arrival, and clothing is removed and replaced as part of initial reception processing.Some small weapons – for example, knives – have occasionally been seized as a result of those searches over the past seven years, but we have no record of any attempts to struggle illicit drugs into the UK via this route or any firearms.

How many migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats have been found carrying (a) drugs and (b) weapons upon arrival in the UK in the last year.

All migrants arriving by small boats are subject to physical searches upon arrival, and clothing is removed and replaced as part of initial reception processing.Some small weapons – for example, knives – have occasionally been seized as a result of those searches over the past seven years, but we have no record of any attempts to struggle illicit drugs into the UK via this route or any firearms.

What criteria the Government has when choosing appropriate hotels for asylum seeker accommodation.

I refer the Hon Member to the Answer I gave to Question 71421 on 4 September.

If she will make it her policy to house irregular migrants only in secure detention centres.

Immigration detention plays a key role in maintaining effective immigration controls and securing the UK’s borders. The Home Office detains people initially for examination purposes and for the purpose of removing people who have no right to remain in the UK but refuse to leave voluntarily. A person may be detained for a period that the Secretary of State reasonably considers necessary to carry out the examination or removal, make a decision, or directions to be given.There is limited detained accommodation. The Home Office currently operates seven Immigration Removal Centres, three residential Short-Term Holding Facilities and one Pre-Departure Accommodation for families. These house a mixture of time-served foreign national offenders and immigration offenders. A number of factors go into deciding who to detain and determining whether detention is appropriate. All decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.Separately, the Home Secretary is legally required to support those seeking asylum in the UK who would otherwise be destitute. This obligation is fulfilled through the provision of appropriate non-detained accommodation. The Home Office remains committed to reducing reliance on hotel accommodation and is actively pursuing alternative solutions to meet our statutory obligations.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of illegal cross-Channel migration on the safety of women and girls living in the UK.

The Government’s Plan for Change sets out our ambition to secure borders and control immigration. We have introduced the Border Security Asylum and Immigration Bill which will give law enforcement counter terror-style powers to identify and disrupt people smuggling gangs. It will introduce a new measure whereby those who commit sexual offences which give rise to the notification requirement in Schedule 3 of the Sexual offences Act 2023 will be excluded from being granted asylum protections in the UK.We recognise the devastating impact of sexual violence on victims and our communities and are absolutely committed to tackling sexual offences with a manifesto mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade. We will deliver a cross-government transformative approach to relentlessly pursue all VAWG perpetrators in this country, under-pinned by a new strategy which we aim to publish in the autumn.

What steps her Department is taking to increase arrests relating to mobile phone theft.

Through our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee we will place thousands of additional police officers and police community support officers in neighbourhood policing roles to provide a more visible and effective service to the public, with each neighbourhood having a named, contactable officer dealing with local issues, including the theft of mobile phones and other personal items.On 6 February the Home Secretary brought together police, the National Crime Agency, the Mayor of London, leading tech companies and others to drive greater collaboration in breaking the business model of mobile phone thieves. The Summit resulted in clear commitments from attendees to work in partnership, including to significantly boost the sharing of data and intelligence on mobile phone theft to build a comprehensive picture of the problem, better understand the role of organised crime networks and identify the most effective means of tackling these crimes.In addition, the Crime and Policing Bill includes a measure to give police the power to enter and search premises for stolen property that has been electronically geo-location tracked to those premises, where it is not reasonably practicable to obtain a warrant without seriously prejudicing the entry and search purpose. This will significantly enhance the ability of the police to act swiftly and effectively.

Whether her Department holds data on the number of people who were (a) referred to the Prevent programme for an initial assessment and (b) did not live in the UK (i) 3 and (ii) 5 years ago in the latest period for which data is available.

Prevent aims to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. It works to ensure that people who are susceptible to radicalisation are offered appropriate interventions and support, and that communities are protected against radicalising influences.The Home Office produces annual statistics on GOV.UK and provides official statistics on the number of individuals recorded as having been referred to and supported through the Prevent programme in England and Wales, from 1 April to 31 March each year which can be found here: Individuals referred to and supported through the Prevent Programme statistics - GOV.UK.

In what region Afghans resettled through the Afghanistan Response Route have been located.

The regular quarterly Immigration System Statistics provide details on how many individuals have been resettled to the UK broken down by resettlement route, region and local authority area. The number of people resettled under the Afghanistan Resettlement Programme (which includes consolidated data on the ‘Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy,’ ‘Afghan Citizens Relocation Scheme’ and ‘Afghan Response Route’) can be accessed at tab ‘Reg_D02’ of the following table: Regional and local authority data on immigration groups, year ending June 2025.

How many people will become eligible for indefinite leave to remain in the next five years.

Eligibility for indefinite leave to remain is assessed upon application, by individual caseworkers, and as such, there are no fixed estimates of the number of individuals who will become eligible at any point.

What information they hold on the number of workdays that were completed remotely in their Department in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025 to date.

The Home Office operates in over 250 different workplaces across the UK as well as having a large number of mobile teams working in other locations.Heads of Department have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service. Office occupancy data for the period July - September has been published, with further publications to happen on a quarterly basis. The data is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-hq-occupancy-data

What steps her Department is taking to ensure women’s shelters are in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment in the case of For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers of 16 April 2025.

Duty bearers must follow the law and should take appropriate specialist legal advice where necessary.The EHRC has submitted the draft updated Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations to the Minister for Women and Equalities. This will provide guidance to service providers, including those who run women's shelters.The Government will consider the draft updated Code and, if the Minister approves it, lay it before Parliament.

What steps she is taking to ensure coordination between her Department and the Department for Work and Pensions when monitoring foreign nationals' eligibility for Universal Credit.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) applies strict compliance and benefit eligibility checks to all claimants regardless of their nationality. In addition to verifying a claimant’s identity, DWP always checks a person’s immigration status before paying them benefits if they are a foreign national. The DWP verify this information with the Home Office, including through automatic system-to-system checks, which the Home Office is increasingly rolling out to other Government departments and public authorities.The data made available through those system-to-system checks is specific to the need of each department and contains only the necessary information to inform their decision making.No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) is a standard condition applied to most categories of temporary immigration permission, which prevents those who are subject to immigration control from accessing certain services or benefits.Those who are in the UK without lawful status are also prevented from accessing public funds. This includes access to Universal Credit.

If she will make an estimate of the potential impact of the repurposing of hotels as asylum accommodation on the number of jobs in the accommodation sector in each of the last three years.

The Home Office has a legal obligation to provide destitute asylum seekers with accommodation and subsistence support whilst their application for asylum is being considered. The Home Office is committed to ensuring that destitute asylum seekers are housed in safe, secure and suitable accommodation, and that they are treated with dignity while their asylum claim is considered.There is no obligation for hotels to contract with Home Office accommodation providers. This Government is delivering on its pledge to close asylum hotels; drastically reducing taxpayer costs and giving control back to local communities.From over 400 asylum hotels open in summer 2023, costing almost £9 million a day, there are now less than 210, and we want them all closed by the end of this Parliament.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the penalties for antisocial drug smoking.

The maximum penalty for possession of a Class A drug is up to seven years in prison, an unlimited fine or both.The maximum penalty for possession of a Class B drug is up to five years in prison, an unlimited fine or both.