Written questions by Hayes.

Whether her Department permits (1) Ministers, (2) Special advisers and (3) officials to use (a) Chat GPT, (b) Google Gemini, (c) Claude, (d) Deepseek and (e) Grok as part of their official duties.

Awaiting answer.

Whether her Department uses AI tools to help determine asylum decisions.

Awaiting answer.

How many people have been refused Electronic Travel Authorisation on the basis that their presence may not be conducive to the public good since 2024.

Awaiting answer.

How much her Department has spent on advertising on podcasts in each of the last three years.

Awaiting answer.

When her Department will announce details of a licensing scheme for existing crossbow owners.

The Government response to the call for evidence on crossbow controls conducted by the Home Office from 14 February to 9 April 2024 was published on 19 March this year. This set out the Government’s intention to introduce a new licensing scheme for existing crossbow owners and also a prohibition on sales of crossbows. We will be consulting on the details of that licensing scheme and the prohibition on sales in due course.

When her Department plans to undertake a consultation on banning the sale of crossbows.

The Government response to the call for evidence on crossbow controls conducted by the Home Office from 14 February to 9 April 2024 was published on 19 March this year. This set out the Government’s intention to introduce a new licensing scheme for existing crossbow owners and also a prohibition on sales of crossbows. We will be consulting on the details of that licensing scheme and the prohibition on sales in due course.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that survivors of domestic abuse are able to move from refuge accommodation into suitable permanent housing.

Awaiting answer.

What steps her Department is taking to ensure that the identities of those convicted of animal abuse are available to the police when responding to call outs relating to domestic abuse.

Awaiting answer.

How many people have been (a) intercepted and (b) arrested since January 2025 in relation to smuggling illegal migrants into the UK.

Awaiting answer.

How many people have been convicted of creating or posting material online which promotes small boats crossings or services to facilitate illegal migration.

Awaiting answer.

How many people have been denied refugee status since 2023 as a result of being on the sex offenders register.

Awaiting answer.

What is the total cost to the public purse of contracts awarded to Corporate Travel Management since July 2024 in relation to accommodation for asylum seekers.

Awaiting answer.

How many properties a) her department and b) Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd have acquired in England for asylum dispersal since July 2024.

Awaiting answer.

What target figure for asylum dispersal has been given for a) South Holland District and b) South Kesteven district.

Awaiting answer.

What steps she is taking to support border and immigration officials to deal with people coming to the UK with possible cases of the Ebola virus.

Awaiting answer.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the resources available to Lincolnshire police to tackle rural crime.

This Government is introducing the most radical and comprehensive policing reforms in nearly 200 years. We will modernise policing in this country – equipping it to tackle more sophisticated, online, and cross-border crimes (like wildlife crime and organised equipment theft), while also restoring neighbourhood policing.With the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee every neighbourhood, rural or urban, now gets named and contactable officers dedicated to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour locally. Every rural area will also be covered by a Local Policing Area under a commander responsible for emergency response, local crime investigation and neighbourhood policing. They will be set targets to ensure they answer 90% of 999 calls within 10 seconds and attend 90% of the most serious incidents within 20 minutes in rural areas.Last financial year (FY25/26) we provided £800,000 of funding to the National Rural Crime Unit and the National Wildlife Crime Unit, and we will be providing the same level of funding in 26/27. These capabilities play key roles in helping police across the UK tackle organised theft and disrupt serious and organised crime groups, which can pose unique challenges for policing in large and isolated rural areas.The Government recognises that there can be challenges in responding to rural crime, which is why we worked closely with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) to deliver the next iteration of their Rural and Wildlife Crime strategy and sets out operational and organisational policing priorities in respect of tackling those crimes that predominantly affect our rural communities.

Whether it is her policy that police forces in England use facial recognition technology during protests.

The police have a responsibility to monitor a protest if serious disorder is expected and to keep the public safe.Facial recognition must be used in a way that complies with the legal framework which includes human rights, equality and data protection laws, national guidance, a code of practice and forces’ own published policies. This means that all deployments must be for a policing purpose and be necessary, proportionate, and fair.

What recent steps she has taken to tackle sham marriages.

Awaiting answer.

If she will publish the list of training programmes used by civil servants in her Department since 2020.

There is no single authoritative source that captures all locally commissioned or bespoke training activity across the Department.

If she will take steps to reduce the number of illegal tobacco and vaping products on sale in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

The Government is committed to reducing the number of illicit tobacco and vaping products on sale nationally. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has a robust strategy to tackle the illicit tobacco trade ‘Stubbing Out the Problem’. HMRC works closely with National and Local Trading Standards to disrupt the illicit tobacco trade at retail level through Operation CeCe, which has since it began in January 2021removed more than 74 million illicit cigarettes, 19,750kg of hand-rolling tobacco and almost 175kg of shisha products from sale. HMRC has also introduced a strengthened sanctions regime for breaches of the UK Tobacco Track and Trace System to combat illicit tobacco sales. This granted new powers to Trading Standards, enabling them to refer cases to HMRC where they find evidence of high street retailers selling tobacco products that do not comply with the System. HMRC can then then investigate and issue civil sanctions, including penalties of up to £10,000. £100 million of new ‘smokefree’ funding has been allocated over 5 years to boost existing HMRC and Border Force enforcement capability.Between April 2023 and March 2024, HMRC and Border Force seized 1.36bn cigarettes and 92,435kg of hand-rolling tobacco. As with tobacco, there is a cross-government approach to reducing the number of illegal vapes. The vaping equivalent of Operation CeCe - Operation Joseph led to the seizure of over 1 million illegal vapes in 2023-24, the last full year for which statistics are available. HMRC are working closely with both Trading Standards and Border Force to develop a robust compliance approach for the introduction of Vaping Products Duty (VPD) on 1 October 2026. VPD is a new excise duty on vaping products, which will introduce additional compliance powers and controls across the vaping supply chain. This includes the introduction of a Vaping Duty Stamps (VDS) scheme, which will require highly secure stamps to be placed on all duty paid goods, supporting enforcement agencies and customers to identify illegal products. HMRC are recruiting over 300 staff to strengthen this compliance approach and deliver VPD.