Written questions by Obese-Jecty.

With reference to the Prime Minister’s comment that You will see 3,000 neighbourhood police officers on your streets by March in his speech on 1st December 2025, what recent progress has she made in delivering those additional officers.

We have made £200 million available in 2025/26 to support the first steps towards delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of this parliament, including up to 3000 additional neighbourhood officers by the end of March 2026.The Government has committed to publishing neighbourhood policing numbers every six months to align with the official police workforce statistics, with the next update due at the end of January 2026 setting out the numbers in neighbourhood policing roles as at the end of September 2025.

What is the size of the total absconder pool in the most recent period for which reporting is available.

The information requested is not currently available from published statistics.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.

What payments to asylum seekers are delivered via the Asylum Support Payments contract.

The Home Office has a legal obligation to meet the essential living needs of destitute asylum seekers. Support is usually provided in the form of accommodation and a weekly allowance, which is reviewed each year to ensure it covers essential living needs.The standard weekly level of allowance for individuals in self-catered accommodation will remain at £49.18. For individuals in catered accommodation, the standard weekly allowance is £9.95.Additional support is also available to pregnant women, young children, and individuals who can show they have exceptional needs.

Which elements of the Asylum Support Accommodation Programme are a) sustainable and b) scalable.

One of the primary drivers behind the Asylum Support Accommodation Programme is to ensure a new model is both sustainable and scalable, with the flexibility required to respond to changes in demand. The work centred around Future Asylum Contract Transformation (FACT), and the replacement of the current Asylum Accommodation Support Contracts (AASC), will ensure that new arrangements meet the requirements for sustainability and scalability.

What steps her Department took following the approval of the Asylum Support Accommodation Programme Delivery Model Assessment final report by the programme board on 30 June 2025.

Following the Delivery Model Assessment (DMA), the Asylum Support Accommodation Programme has been focussed on the high-level design of an operating model that uses recommendations from the DMA, alongside more recent market engagement. This process has now moved into a detailed design phase, to develop an operating model that is ready for implementation, whilst continuously validating the approach.

If she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the number and proportion of asylum seekers who previously entered the UK on a) a visa or b) other leave with relevant documentation, including the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to visit the UK since 2024.

This government has already taken action to stem the surge in asylum claims from visa holders, including record numbers of credibility interviews and mandating a genuine study requirement for short term student routes. The number of student visa holders claiming asylum has reduced every quarter since this government took office.By changing our protection offer, we are making it fairer for those who comply with the Rules. A person who enters the UK on a visa and continues to qualify will be on a faster route to settlement if they remain on that route, rather than claiming asylum. Claiming asylum will no longer provide the advantages that it does under the current system.

What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the number and proportion of people claiming asylum who entered the UK on a work visa.

This government has already taken action to stem the surge in asylum claims from visa holders, including record numbers of credibility interviews and mandating a genuine study requirement for short term student routes. The number of student visa holders claiming asylum has reduced every quarter since this government took office.By changing our protection offer, we are making it fairer for those who comply with the Rules. A person who enters the UK on a visa and continues to qualify will be on a faster route to settlement if they remain on that route, rather than claiming asylum. Claiming asylum will no longer provide the advantages that it does under the current system.

Whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of replacing the Asylum Support Payments contract as part of the Asylum Support Accommodation Programme.

The Asylum Support Payment (ASP) contract was originally included in the Asylum Support Accommodation Programme (ASAP). However, the ASP contract did not terminate at the same time as ASAP, so a decision was taken to descope it. This does not mean this will not be considered in the future.

What assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the number and proportion of Bangladeshi asylum seekers who arrived in the UK on a) visas or b) other leave in the year to June 2025.

This government has already taken action to stem the surge in asylum claims from visa holders, including record numbers of credibility interviews and mandating a genuine study requirement for short term student routes. The number of student visa holders claiming asylum has reduced every quarter since this government took office.By changing our protection offer, we are making it fairer for those who comply with the Rules. A person who enters the UK on a visa and continues to qualify will be on a faster route to settlement if they remain on that route, rather than claiming asylum. Claiming asylum will no longer provide the advantages that it does under the current system.

What progress has she made in implementing the Police National Database programme.

The Police National Database (PND) has been operational for almost 15 years and continues to provide vital intelligence to policing and law enforcement. The replacement of the PND remains a core consideration for the Home Office and policing.The Home Office is currently considering a variety of options for future delivery of the PND transformation programme and further information will be issued once a decision has been taken.

What the Law Enforcement Data Service programme products are.

Further to my answer (20 October 2025) on the delivery progress made on the Law Enforcement Data Service (LEDS); there are five products within LEDS. There are Person, Vehicles, Drivers, Property and Audit.

With reference to her Department's publication entitled How many people claim asylum in the UK?, published on 21 August 2025, what assessment has she made of the potential implications for her policies of the number of asylum applications received from people with a study visa.

This government has already taken action to stem the surge in asylum claims from visa holders, including record numbers of credibility interviews and mandating a genuine study requirement for short term student routes. The number of student visa holders claiming asylum has reduced every quarter since this government took office.By changing our protection offer, we are making it fairer for those who comply with the Rules. A person who enters the UK on a visa and continues to qualify will be on a faster route to settlement if they remain on that route, rather than claiming asylum. Claiming asylum will no longer provide the advantages that it does under the current system.

Under the Immigration Platform Technologies programme, what are the three integrated modern technology services that have been delivered.

The three integrated modern technology services that were delivered by IPT are: Access UK – Accessed via GOV.UK, this single online application service for all visa and immigration services allows our customers to complete their application, book an appointment, and pay for their service. It has taken large volumes of paper out of the system and integrates with Atlas, the caseworking system, preventing errors being made in the completion of applications. The Department uses Access to provide application services to all our core immigration routes including building emergency routes for crisis events such as Ukraine or Afghanistan.Atlas – This modern, resilient system is now the core immigration caseworking tool for HO. Atlas supports electronic documents, thereby taking significant amounts of paper out of the system. Because of increased automation, there are reduced handling costs, improved speed of processing and increased reliability of service.Person Identity Product – The Person Identity Product (PIP) is now the unified provider of all person related data services for Immigration Technology, showing the historic case information, co-ordinating the recording of Person & Identity related data, searching for an individual’s details, matching associated data and presenting data back to the end user. Please see 6 September 2022: Immigration Platform Technologies (IPT) Programme Accounting Officer Assessment - GOV.UK for further details.

What recent progress has she made in delivering the Emergency Services Mobile Communications programme.

Following the completion of two major re-procurements, the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) awarded the Mobile Services contract to BT/EE and the User Services contract to IBM in November and December 2024 respectively.The programme has completed a revised Programme Business Case which has been endorsed by the Senior Users of the 3 Emergency Services and those of the devolved nations. The Programme Business Case is expected to complete departmental and treasury approvals in early 2026. Our user community continues to be closely engaged in planning the deployment and rollout of the service and the safe transition from Airwave to ESN. Early adoption of a service ready solution is on track for early 2028 with a further target for complete transition from Airwave by the end of 2029.The main build of ESN masts to provide mobile coverage is largely complete - of a total of the extra 1047 masts due to be built, 987 are completed and operationally live. This is already providing a benefit to the public by enabling over one thousand additional 999 calls every month to be made in areas where previously there was no coverage. Work continues at pace to provide network access in areas where localised coverage is needed; these include densely populated communities, as well as sports stadiums, and shopping centres.The programme’s priority is to achieve the right balance between credible plans that ensures user confidence and the need to deliver ESN as quickly and safely as possible to enable the shutdown of Airwave.

Pursuant to the question of 10 September 2025 to Question 74120 on Armed Forces: Commonwealth, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of the requirement for her Department to record the number of foreign and commonwealth service personnel who have paid for visas upon discharge on the number of foreign and commonwealth personnel staying in the UK after leaving the armed forces.

Non-UK service personnel who have completed four years’ service in the Armed Forces are eligible to apply for settlement in the UK under Appendix HM Armed Forces of the Immigration Rules. This route provides a pathway to settlement for non-UK service members and their dependants.

What recent progress she has made in implementing the Asylum Transformation Programme.

The Asylum Transformation Programme is focused on improving the asylum journey by streamlining, simplifying and digitalising processes to speed up decision making and establishing an asylum accommodation system with the right capacity and optimum cost. The programme was formally established in 2022 and since that time has delivered a number of planned initiatives and will continue to deliver until programme closure. Recent Project delivery includes but is not limited to; AI tooling in Asylum case working, a two-way communication portal for legal representatives and the Home Office, improvement to age assessment data management and processes, and tooling that provides greater visibility of asylum accommodation availability across the estate.

What progress has she made on the design and pilot of AI tools to support asylum case working as part of the Asylum Transformation Programme.

The Asylum Case Summarisation (ACS) tool uses artificial intelligence (AI) to summarise asylum interview transcripts. The Asylum Policy Search (APS) tool is an AI search assistant that finds and summarises country policy information. The tools were designed as an aid for decision-makers to improve efficiency but do not, and cannot, replace any part of the decision-making process. APS has been rolled out and is accessible to all Asylum decision makers and ACS is in advances stages of development with a full roll out planned in the new year. Further tooling is being worked on including an asylum letter writing assistant for caseworkers.

With reference to the news story entitled ‘Honour’-based abuse crackdown in raft of new measures, published on 26 August 2025, by when she plans to pilot a prevalence study into ‘honour’-based abuse.

'Honour’-based abuse is a serious form of abuse that nobody should have to experience. This is why we are tackling it through our mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade.To prevent and respond effectively to forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) it is essential that we understand the prevalence of these crimes.Building on the feasibility study conducted by the University of Birmingham in 2023/24, the Home Office has commissioned a pilot research project to support the development of a national prevalence estimate for forced marriage and female genital mutilation. This work is already underway.

With reference to her Department's news story entitled Honour-based abuse crackdown in raft of new measures, published on the 26 August 2025, how many of the 2,755 honour-based abuse related offences recorded by police in England and Wales related to cases in which (a) men and (b) boys were victims.

'Honour’-based abuse is a serious form of abuse that nobody should have to experience. This is why we are tackling it through our mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade.To prevent and respond effectively to forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) it is essential that we understand the prevalence of these crimes.Building on the feasibility study conducted by the University of Birmingham in 2023/24, the Home Office has commissioned a pilot research project to support the development of a national prevalence estimate for forced marriage and female genital mutilation. This work is already underway.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the proportion of Pakistani asylum seekers that have arrived via a) visas or b) other leave in the year to June 2025 on the asylum system.

This government has already taken action to stem the surge in asylum claims from visa holders, including record numbers of credibility interviews and mandating a genuine study requirement for short term student routes. The number of student visa holders claiming asylum has reduced every quarter since this government took office.