Written questions by Timothy.

Which companies supply police ICT systems; and how many (a) contracts have been awarded to and (b) systems are managed by each company.

The Home Office does not centrally collect all of the information requested. Obtaining and verifying this information for the purposes of answering these questions could only be done at disproportionate cost.However, the Hon Member may be interested to read the Home Secretary's speech to the National Police Chiefs' Council and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners' annual conference on 19 November 2024, where she set out her vision on police reform and efficiency, including the potential savings to be achieved through greater collaboration on IT contracts. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretarys-vision-for-police-reform

How many ICT systems are used across police forces in England and Wales.

The Home Office does not centrally collect all of the information requested. Obtaining and verifying this information for the purposes of answering these questions could only be done at disproportionate cost.However, the Hon Member may be interested to read the Home Secretary's speech to the National Police Chiefs' Council and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners' annual conference on 19 November 2024, where she set out her vision on police reform and efficiency, including the potential savings to be achieved through greater collaboration on IT contracts. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretarys-vision-for-police-reform

What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Child Maintenance Service in reaching targets set under its service level standards in each year since 2020.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has four official Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), each with a standard measure for 1) assessment accuracy, 2) application clearances, 3) change of circumstances clearances and 4) Collect and Pay compliance. Information on the accuracy of CMS assessments, which has a standard level of >99%, is published in the annual CMS Client Funds Account, and since 2020 has shown a consistent level of 99.4%, increasing for the latest year available (2023/24) to 99.5% . The published quarterly CMS statistics provide information on application clearances, change of circumstances clearances and Collect and Pay compliance, with the latest data available for quarter ending December 2024, and these are shown in the table below. Quarterly Child Maintenance Service Key Performance Indicators for Applications, Change of Circumstances and Collect & Pay Compliance, April 2020 to December 2024 Applications - cleared within 12 weeks Standard 90%Change of Circumstances - cleared within 28 days Standard 80%Collect and Pay compliance - paying parent paid some maintenance Standard 67%Apr - Jun 2080%87%74%Jul - Sep 2095%83%72%Oct – Dec 2094%78%72%Jan - Mar 2191%80%72%Apr - Jun 2189%78%74%Jul - Sep 2190%75%72%Oct – Dec 2187%76%68%Jan - Mar 2287%84%63%Apr - Jun 2285%79%64%Jul - Sep 2289%73%64%Oct – Dec 2290%77%65%Jan - Mar 2389%78%65%Apr - Jun 2387%77%67%Jul - Sep 2387%72%69%Oct – Dec 2387%74%68%Jan - Mar 2487%76%69%Apr - Jun 2485%77%69%Jul - Sep 2490%79%68%Oct – Dec 24[x][x]68% Source: CMS statistics, Stat-Xplore Notes:[x] denotes that figures for the most recent quarter will not be available until the next publication.Application clearance figures are available in Table 1 of the latest CMS National tables.Change of circumstances clearance figures are available in Table 8 of the latest CMS National tables.Collect and Pay compliance figures are calculated using the CMS Paying Parents dataset on Stat-Xplore and are reported in the ‘Paying Parents and the Collect and Pay service’ section of each quarterly bulletin.During the quarter ending June 2020, the Child Maintenance Service was affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and the resultant changes to the Department’s operational priorities. During this period, new applications to Child Maintenance Service will have experienced a reduced level of service and will have been provided with an indicative calculation of maintenance only, which is not considered a clearance for this table. In addition, the COVID-19 outbreak may have reduced the demand for new Child Service Maintenance arrangements. This also means that only priority changes of circumstance would have been progressed during this period. Since 2020, as part of the DWP Service Modernisation Programme, the CMS has been undergoing extensive improvements to increase the quality and range of online services available to separated parents. This program has transformed how customers can interact with CMS, providing them with the choice to make contact through digital routes while ensuring that assistance is available for those who need additional support and non-digital customers via the telephone service. These improvements have allowed case workers to focus more on actioning their work. The wide-reaching programme aims to continue to reform and modernise CMS services with increased effectiveness and efficiency.Additionally, the CMS has amended its service to allow Direct Pay arrangements to quickly move to Collect and Pay when the Paying Parent is not paying or when Direct Pay is no longer appropriate. 14,000 arrangements moved from Direct Pay to Collect and Pay in the quarter ending December 2024 meaning CMS are collecting money for children quicker. In the quarter ending December 2024, over 1 million children were covered by CMS arrangements, an increase of 61,000 from the quarter ending December 2023.

Which companies supplied police ICT systems in each year since 2010; and what the value of contracts awarded to those companies was.

The Home Office does not centrally collect all of the information requested. Obtaining and verifying this information for the purposes of answering these questions could only be done at disproportionate cost.However, the Hon Member may be interested to read the Home Secretary's speech to the National Police Chiefs' Council and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners' annual conference on 19 November 2024, where she set out her vision on police reform and efficiency, including the potential savings to be achieved through greater collaboration on IT contracts. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretarys-vision-for-police-reform

How many different suppliers there are for ICT systems used across police forces in England and Wales.

The Home Office does not centrally collect all of the information requested. Obtaining and verifying this information for the purposes of answering these questions could only be done at disproportionate cost.However, the Hon Member may be interested to read the Home Secretary's speech to the National Police Chiefs' Council and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners' annual conference on 19 November 2024, where she set out her vision on police reform and efficiency, including the potential savings to be achieved through greater collaboration on IT contracts. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretarys-vision-for-police-reform

Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to enable parents the right to access their deceased child’s social media data.

The government is committed to ensuring families feel that the system is on their side when tragedies happen. In these cases, the Online Safety Act provides for Ofcom to require information from services on a child’s online activity at a coroner’s request. To strengthen this, the Data (Use and Access) Bill seeks to establish a data preservation process requiring companies to preserve such relevant information at a coroner’s request.The Online Safety Act will also require categorised services to be transparent with parents regarding a company’s data disclosure processes, following the death of a child.

What steps she is taking to tackle antisemitism in universities.

This government is deeply concerned about the continued, unacceptably high, prevalence of antisemitism in universities. We have confirmed £7 million in funding to address antisemitism in education, and the Office for Students will be introducing a new registration condition from August that will require universities to act against all forms of harassment, including antisemitism.Furthermore, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education will soon host a round table with leading vice-chancellors from across the country to discuss what more can be done collectively, and at all levels, to make our universities a safe and inclusive environment for all.

What estimate her Department has made of the cost to (a) businesses and (b) public services of building charging points for electric vehicles in each year between 2025 and 2035.

As of May 2025, there are 79,326 publicly available charging devices, up 30% on this time last year. We expect the majority of public chargepoints to be delivered by the private sector, with industry announcing over £6bn in charging infrastructure investment before 2030. Government investment will continue to address market failures and accelerate the rollout of public charging infrastructure. Government confirmed in the Autumn Budget further investment of over £200 million in 2025-26 to accelerate EV chargepoint rollout across the country.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of US tariffs on (a) manufactured components and (b) raw materials for the domestic production of electric vehicles.

The Secretary of State and I frequently engage with stakeholders to discuss automotive sector issues, including the potential impacts of US tariffs on manufactured components and raw materials for domestic EV production. On May 8, a landmark economic deal with the US was announced, protecting jobs in key sectors such as automotive. This deal reduces tariffs on UK car exports from 27.5% to 10%, which is positive news for British car manufacturers. We are also providing additional support for the sector; the 2024 Autumn Budget allocated over £2 billion for zero-emission vehicle manufacturing and supply chains.

What information her Department holds on the number of charging points scheduled to be built in each year from 2025 to 2035.

As of 1 May 2025, there are 79,326 publicly available charging devices, up 30% on this time last year. We expect the majority of public chargepoints to be delivered by the private sector, with industry announcing over £6bn in charging infrastructure investment before 2030.While the Government does not hold data on the number of chargepoints scheduled to be built annually, Government investment will continue to accelerate the rollout of charging infrastructure. Over 100,000 local chargepoints are expected to be delivered through the £381m Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund alone, alongside grants to support the installation of chargepoints in certain residential and commercial properties as well as businesses, charities and public sector organisations.

What steps his Department is taking to ensure all solar developments do not include components linked to forced or slave labour.

The Government is committed to eradicating forced labour in supply chains, and we expect solar developers to do everything in their power to remove any instances of it that they find. Legislation and guidance are already in place to help businesses take action against modern slavery. However, we are working across government to see where we can go further, keeping all potential policy options under review. We are closely monitoring the industry-led supply chain assurance scheme, the Solar Stewardship Initiative. Further information on the actions needed to develop supply chains that are resilient and free from forced labour will be set out in the Solar Roadmap, to be published shortly.

Whether his plans to introduce independent (a) oversight and (b) accountability mechanisms to monitor solar development supply chains.

Legislation and guidance are already in place to help businesses and contracting authorities to oversee supply chains. Further information on the actions needed to develop sustainable supply chains will be set out in the Solar Roadmap, due to be published shortly.

What estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) manufactured components and (b) raw materials imported from China for the domestic production of electric vehicles in the last five years.

Over the last five years the UK has, on average, annually imported China-origin goods worth a) £1.9bn of components (automotive parts, batteries, and motors) and b) £9.7m of minerals that are typically used for batteries and traction motors. These imports may have been used for non automotive uses. The Department does not have the precise value that went into UK automotive production. This information is commercial and therefore can only be provided by individual companies.

What information her Department holds on the number of charging points for electric vehicles that have been built in each year since 2015, broken down by local authority.

The information requested is not available. The Department does hold and publish the number of public electric vehicle charging devices in the UK by local authority as of the first day of the month each quarter from 2019 onwards. This information can be found in the attached table.

How much her Department has spent on contingency accommodation for (a) asylum seekers, (b) people granted asylum and (c) people in the country illegally in each year since 2020.

The Home Office publishes information on asylum expenditure in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts at Home Office annual report and accounts: 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK.

How many (a) police officers, (b) local councillors, (c) council officials and (d) social workers have been (i) investigated, (ii) arrested, and (iii) charged in connection to crimes committed by grooming gangs.

The Child Sexual Exploitation (or 'Grooming Gangs') Police Taskforce provides expert, on the ground support for local forces investigating child sexual abuse and exploitation, with a particular focus on complex and organised child sexual exploitation, including grooming gangs. Responsibility for those investigations remains with the relevant local police force, but the Taskforce continues to advise the relevant police force on how to manage any specific lines of investigation appropriately.The Taskforce supported forces in making 807 arrests for group-based child sexual exploitation in 2024. The data held centrally does not allow individual cases to be tracked through the criminal justice system.Further information on the Taskforce is available online at: https://www.hydrantprogramme.co.uk/cse-taskforce.

Communities and Local Government, how much her Department has spent on contingency accommodation for (a) asylum seekers, (b) those granted asylum, and (c) those in the country illegally in each year since 2020.

My department has not provided any funding for contingency accommodation for asylum seekers, those granted asylum or those in the country illegally as the Home Office has departmental responsibility for the asylum system and irregular migration.

What was the Child Maintenance Service helpline's performance in responding to phone calls against its service level standards.

The Child Maintenance Service are committed to delivering the best possible service to all customers. We continuously monitor telephony performance and through this fully recognise that call waiting times are at times longer than we would like. To address this, we are working extensively to improve the efficiency of our customer interactions through both telephone and digital channels. We introduced the Digital Assist Telephony Service September 2024, which has been a significant step forward in our mission to support and encourage customers to use our online services. We restructured our call routing October 2024 to make more caseworkers available to answer telephone calls. By promoting self-service options online and efficient call routing, we have freed up valuable resources to deliver a more responsive service and allow caseworkers more time to better assist customers who need to reach out to us via telephone. Additionally, we have extended the telephony service to 6pm on weekdays to meet demand. and our online services are available to all customers 24/7. The Department publishes quarterly statistics for the Child Maintenance Service and the latest statistics are currently available to December 2024. Table 12 of the latest National tables shows the percentage of calls to the CMS that were answered each quarter, from January 2015 to December 2024. Latest published quarterly telephony performance for the period Oct to December 2024 was 75% for Percentage of calls answered.

How many prosecutions have been carried out as a result of arrests made by the Grooming Gangs Taskforce.

The Child Sexual Exploitation (or 'Grooming Gangs') Police Taskforce provides expert, on the ground support for local forces investigating child sexual abuse and exploitation, with a particular focus on complex and organised child sexual exploitation, including grooming gangs. Responsibility for those investigations remains with the relevant local police force, but the Taskforce continues to advise the relevant police force on how to manage any specific lines of investigation appropriately.The Taskforce supported forces in making 807 arrests for group-based child sexual exploitation in 2024. The data held centrally does not allow individual cases to be tracked through the criminal justice system.Further information on the Taskforce is available online at: https://www.hydrantprogramme.co.uk/cse-taskforce.

What discussions (a) ministers, (b) special advisors and (c) officials in her Department have had with (i) Distribution Network Operators and (ii) National Grid on the power capacity of grid infrastructure to support charging points for electric vehicles.

In line with our ambitions for a zero emission car, van, and HGV fleet, the Government is working with industry to make all charging easy, fast and reliable. The Department for Transport regularly engages with Distribution Network Operators, and with National Grid on work related to accelerating the delivery of chargepoint infrastructure. This includes discussions on power capacity and grid infrastructure required to meet growing demand for EV charging. In March, I met with Distribution Network Operators, along with other industry groups, such as motorway service area operators and chargepoint operators, to understand industry’s perspective on improving charging on the Strategic Road Network (England’s motorways and major A roads).