Written questions by Holden.

What steps her Department is taking through (a) Young Futures Hubs and (b) Young Futures Prevention Partnerships to help tackle violence against women and girls.

The Government has set an ambitious target to halve VAWG in a decade. To achieve this, we must reduce the current levels of offending and reoffending but also prevent abuse from happening altogether.This focus on prevention also sits at the heart of the Young Futures Programme, which will establish a network of Young Futures Hubs and Young Futures Prevention Partnerships.Young Futures Prevention Partnerships will bring local partners together to ensure children at risk of being drawn into knife crime, anti-social behaviour and violence against women and girls are identified earlier and offered support in a more systematic way.Young Futures Hubs will bring together services to improve access to opportunities and support for young people at community level, promoting positive outcomes and enabling them to thrive.Officials across Government are working together, using evidence of what works, to start to shape how the Young Futures Hubs will work in practice.

If she will make an assessment of the potential contribution of youth services to the prevention of violence against women and girls.

The Government has set an ambitious target to halve VAWG in a decade. To achieve this, we must reduce the current levels of offending and reoffending but also prevent abuse from happening all together.The Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy will set out our strategic direction and concrete actions to deliver this ambition. We are considering a range of policy options across Government to prevent these crimes including education for young people around healthy relationships and consent, community interventions and tackling online VAWG.That includes looking at how we can work most effectively with youth services and through the Young Futures programme to deliver this ambition.

Whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on the potential merits of expanding the provisions of the Online Safety Act 2023 to help tackle violence against women and girls.

Tackling VAWG in all of its forms, including when it takes place online, is a top priority for this Government, and that's why we have set out an unprecedented mission to halve VAWG within a decade.The misuse of technology to abuse or harm others (including online) has a disproportionate impact on women and children and we know this is a significant and growing issue in the UK and worldwide.We will go further than before to deliver a cross-government transformative approach to halve all forms of violence against women and girls, underpinned by a new VAWG strategy to be published next year. In January 2025, the Government introduced new legislation which will make creating sexually explicit 'deepfake' images a criminal offence.The Online Safety Act designates material relating to child sexual exploitation and abuse as a priority offence. Platforms must put in place systems and processes to minimise and remove this content. The Illegal Harms Codes, laid before Parliament in December and coming into force from 17 March this year, sets out the steps companies must take to meet their duties under the Act to tackle this content."I regularly meet with Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to discuss these matters.My officials also engage regularly with DSIT and the Ministry of Justice to identify the most appropriate legislative vehicles to tackle technology-facilitated VAWG.

Pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2025 to Question 16332 on Undocumented Migrants, whether she plans to make an estimate of the number of people in the UK illegally.

By its very nature, it is not possible to know the exact size of the illegal migrant population, and so the Home Office under successive governments has not published any official estimates of the illegal migrant population. In June 2019, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a note on ‘Measuring illegal migration: our current view’.Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, the resources required to compile the statistics, as well as quality and availability of data.

How many (a) national and (b) local inquiries have been carried out into rape grooming gangs.

It is essential that we continue to learn from past failings on group-based Child Sexual Exploitation to improve and strengthen our ongoing response to grooming gangs offending.The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), led by Professor Alexis Jay, was conducted over seven years and engaged with more than 7,000 victims and survivors. None of the 20 recommendations from the final report were implemented by the previous Government. IICSA also conducted a dedicated two-year investigation into abuse by organised networks and published a report in February 2022. His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue (HMICFRS) published an inspection into the effectiveness of the police response to group-based Child Sexual Exploitation in December 2023. Local inquiries have also taken place in many local authority areas including Rotherham, Oldham, Rochdale, Bradford and Telford.

If she will make it her policy to remove the gender-neutral toilets in her Department in Marsham Street.

The current number and location of gender neutral toilets in the Home Office’s Marsham office was established under the previous government in October 2017, at a cost of £36,963.20, and has remained unchanged since that time.There are no plans to spend further public money on the reconfiguration of the Home Office’s toilets.

Pursuant to the Answer of 1 November 2024, to Question 10992, on Ministers: private property, whether the Minister for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention submitted a claim to the Department for the costs relating to the theft of her personal effects whilst on official duties at the Police Superintendents' Association conference in Kenilworth in September 2024.

The Minister for Policing, Fire and Crime Prevention has not submitted a claim to the Department for the costs relating to the theft of her personal effects whilst on official duties at the Police Superintendents' Association conference in Kenilworth in September 2024.

What estimate her Department has made of levels of net migration in (a) 2024-25, (b) 2025-26, (c) 2026-27, (d) 2027-28, (e) 2028-29 and (f) 2029-30.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

If she will reimburse police forces with the cost of proposed increases to employer national insurance contributions.

The Government will fully compensate police forces for the impact of the changes to National Insurance Employer contributions.Details on the allocation of this funding will be confirmed at the provisional police settlement in mid-December.

What steps she is taking to prevent the sale of dangerous knives online.

The Government is committed to strengthening the law around online sales which is why a rapid review is being conducted into the online sale and delivery of knives and how controls can be strengthened. The review is being taken forward by Commander Stephen Clayman, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for knife crime, at the invitation of the Home Secretary.The Government has a manifesto commitment and is consulting on proposals to introduce personal liability measures on senior executives of online platforms and marketplaces who fail to take action to remove illegal content relating to knives and offensive weapons. The consultation will run for 4 weeks until 11 December 2024.On 13 November 2024 we also launched a public consultation about the legal definition of Ninja swords. This consultation will also run until 11 December 2024.Ninja swords: legal definition and defences:www.gov.uk/government/consultations/ninja-swords-legal-definition-and-defencesSale of knives: executive sanctionswww.gov.uk/government/consultations/sale-of-knives-executive-sanctions

What guidance her Department issues to police forces on expressions of support for Hamas during protests.

The Government takes proscription offences extremely seriously. Hezbollah is proscribed in its entirety and once an organisation is proscribed, it is an offence to express support for the organisation. It is for the police to determine if an offence has been committed.The College of Policing is responsible for providing guidance to frontline officers to ensure all officers have the latest information, advice and support to deal with proscription offences. The College of Policing are operationally independent from Government.

What guidance her Department issues to police forces on expressions of support for Hezbollah during protests.

The Government takes proscription offences extremely seriously. Hezbollah is proscribed in its entirety and once an organisation is proscribed, it is an offence to express support for the organisation. It is for the police to determine if an offence has been committed.The College of Policing is responsible for providing guidance to frontline officers to ensure all officers have the latest information, advice and support to deal with proscription offences. The College of Policing are operationally independent from Government.

How many police officers are not able to have contact with the public due to ongoing misconduct investigations in each police force; and for how long the ten police officers who have not been able to have contact with the public for the longest period have been in this position.

The Home Office does not routinely collect data on the number of police officers who are prevented from having contact with the public due to on-going misconduct investigations, nor the length of time such restrictions have been in place The number of police officers subject to misconduct investigations in the financial year is published on an annual basis within the ‘Police misconduct, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-misconduct-statistics In addition, the number of officers who are suspended as at the 31 March in each financial year is published within the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales.

How many police officers have left each police force since 4 July 2024.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of police officers who leave the service in England and Wales, broken down by Police Force Area (PFA), on an annual basis 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.The latest information covers the period to 31 March 2024. Data from 4 July 2024 are not held centrally. The ‘Leavers Open Data Table’ that accompanies the main statistical release contains information on the number of police officers that left the police service, in each financial year, from the year ending March 2007 to March 2024, is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/669a917cce1fd0da7b59294f/open-data-table-police-workforce-leavers-240724.odsData for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 is due for publication in Summer 2025.

How many people were deported from the UK between November 1990 and May 1997.

Home Office statistics relating to deportation action are available through the National Archives, in the ‘Control of Immigration: Statistics’ biannual publications.