The British Transport Police (BTP) commenced a six-month pilot of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) at certain railway stations in February 2026. The purpose of every deployment is to identify and apprehend individuals wanted for serious crimes.

BTP have reported that to date (a) no offenders have been matched to watchlists, (b) one individual has been stopped by police but this was a false alert which was resolved quickly and (c) no individuals have been arrested specifically following use of facial recognition technology.

BTP have reported 13 arrests linked to the deployment of LFR so far during the pilot, and the locations see a reduced level of crime whilst LFR is in use.

The following railway stations have had LFR deployed:

As I have said to the Noble Lord in previous answers, we are aware of the cases referenced in these questions. The UK maintains a constructive and longstanding relationship with Bahrain, enabling frank discussion on a range of issues including human rights. We recognise the important role of the Special Investigation Unit within Bahrain's oversight framework and note that an officer has been sentenced in relation to the death of Sayed Mohammed al-Mousawi.

The Gulf Strategy Fund (GSF) programme for the financial year 2025/26 supported a wide range of UK strategic objectives in Bahrain. This included support to security institutions in progressing community justice reforms and exploring avenues of cooperation to counter money laundering and terrorist-financing. All GSF programming is subject to rigorous assessments to ensure it meets with human rights obligations and our values.

The Government welcomes the Children’s Commissioner’s report, Police powers and children – strip searching and use of force, and takes its recommendations seriously.

Strip search is one of the most intrusive powers available to the police and its use must be lawful, fair, respectful and without unlawful discrimination. We recognise that any strip search of a child can be traumatic, particularly where safeguards are not followed, and that the welfare and safeguarding of children must remain paramount. There will, however, be occasions where a strip search is necessary to prevent or detect crime, or to protect the individual, police officers or the public.

The report highlights progress, including reductions in the number of strip searches of children and improvements in data transparency, but also raises important concerns about the consistent application of safeguards, repeat searches, racial disproportionality and the use of force.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on strip searches in police custody and strip searches following stop and search as part of the Police Powers and Procedures statistical series: [Police powers and procedures England and Wales. (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-powers-and-procedures-england-and-wales).

The Government is carefully considering the Children’s Commissioner’s findings and recommendations. We are taking forward work to strengthen safeguards for children and vulnerable people, improve accountability and oversight, and provide greater clarity and consistency for police. This work is being progressed with relevant partners across Government and policing as part of wider consideration of the legal, operational and safeguarding framework for police search powers. We will continue to engage with the Children’s Commissioner, policing partners and other stakeholders as this work progresses.

Law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom make use of a range of domestic and international information sources when preventing, detecting and investigating crime, including information provided from European law enforcement databases. However, neither the Home Office nor UK law enforcement agencies routinely record whether an arrest or charge has resulted from information obtained from a specific law enforcement database.

The Home Office therefore does not hold figures for the number of individuals arrested and charged in the United Kingdom on the basis of information provided from European law enforcement databases between 2010 and 2019.

The Home Office publishes data on hate crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales, including the total number of offences by Police Force Area (found here: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK). This provides insight into geographic variation overall, as well as by the strand of hostility motivating the offence. Detailed breakdowns, by Police Force Area, for hate crime offences targeted at Jewish people are not published.

Data on arrests and prosecutions are held operationally by police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service and are not routinely published in a way that allows consistent assessment of regional variation for antisemitic offences. Accordingly, no central assessment of variation has been made.

Officials at our High Commission in Colombo are monitoring this case, and the British High Commissioner raised it with the Sri Lankan authorities on 4 June.

The UK remains firmly committed to protecting human rights in Sri Lanka, including securing truth, justice and accountability for past abuses against the Tamil community and other minority groups. We also continue to press the Sri Lankan Government, bilaterally and at the UN Human Rights Council, for meaningful progress and urge them to uphold their commitments to international human rights standards.

In particular, we have consistently raised concerns about the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act in Sri Lanka, and urged its repeal and replacement in line with international law and safeguards.

The Home Office publishes data on illegal working enforcement activity, including the number of visits and arrests conducted by Immigration Enforcement teams by region.

The number of illegal working enforcement visits increased from over 6,000 in 2019 to almost 13,000 in 2025 while the number of arrests from these visits has increased from over 3,000 in 2019 to around 9,000 in 2025.

This data is published on GOV.UK alongside illegal working enforcement statistics: A full regional breakdown of illegal working visits and arrets for each year is available on GOV.UK:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/returns-from-the-uk-and-illegal-working-activity-since-july-2024/illegal-working-and-enforcement-activity-to-the-end-of-december-2025

We have invested £40 million in new security measures to clamp down on contraband that fuels violence behind bars - including £10 million on anti-drone measures, such as window replacements, external window grilles and specialist netting.

His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has adopted a multi-faceted approach to the problem, which includes physical security countermeasures, exploring technological developments, exploiting intelligence, strengthening legislation and working across Government and with international partners on this global issue. HMPPS will continue to adapt its counter-drone security measures to ensure we keep pace with the evolving threat.

It is not possible to provide a breakdown of the proportion of the reduction in drone-related smuggling incidents that can be attributed to the installation of steel grilles. Similarly, the requested information in relation to arrests linked to prison drone activity is not available, as arrests and charges are matters for the police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Government is clear that all individuals in police custody must be treated safely, with dignity and in accordance with their individual needs, including those with medical conditions or disabilities.

The statutory framework governing detention and treatment is set out in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) and its Codes of Practice. These require that detainees are treated fairly and that reasonable steps are taken to identify and address any vulnerabilities, including health and welfare needs, throughout the period of detention and transport.

Operational guidance for police forces is provided through the College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice (APP), including its guidance on turn1search7. This makes clear that officers and designated escort staff are responsible for ensuring detainees continue to be treated in accordance with PACE during transport, and that appropriate training, supervision and risk management arrangements are in place.

The APP also emphasises the importance of identifying and responding to individual needs and vulnerabilities, including those arising from medical conditions or disabilities, as part of ongoing risk assessment and care.

It is for chief constables, as operationally independent leaders, to ensure their officers and staff apply this guidance appropriately in practice.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures’ statistical series, available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK

However, the data on arrests is collected by offence group only, for example ‘Violence against the person’. Data on arrests specifically for knife crime offences is not available.

Separately, the Home Office publishes official statistics on knife-enabled crime including how these offences were dealt with by the police. This information can be found in our Open Data Tables, available here: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables - GOV.UK

The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures’ statistical series, available here: Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK

However, data is collected by broader offence group for example ‘drug offences’ or ‘possession of weapons’, therefore data specifically on arrests relating to serious and organised crime is not available.

Additionally data is collected by Police Force Area, therefore further geographical details relating to arrests such as arrests made on high streets in rural areas is also not available.

As I said to the Noble Lord in my answer of 9 June to Question HL522, we are aware of the cases referenced in his questions, and we continue to encourage the thorough investigation of all cases where human rights concerns are raised.

The Home Office collects information on the number of notifiable offences, and their investigative outcomes, recorded by the police in England and Wales. This includes offences of Theft from a Motor Vehicle. However, we do not hold data on the types of vehicles involved in these offences.

In September 2025, the Home Office introduced a six-month pilot scheme implementing a ‘freight crime’ flag across two police forces – Cambridgeshire and Warwickshire. However, the resulting data generated from this pilot has not yet been quality assured by the Home Office.

Arrests data

The data is not held by the Home Office.

The Home Office collects and publishes data on arrests in England and Wales as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures’ statistical series, available here: Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK

However, data is collected by broader offence group, for example ‘Violence against the person’ or ‘Public order offences’, therefore data specifically on arrests for hate crimes is not available.

Convictions data

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions for a large range of offences at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics

Convictions for selected racial and religiously aggravated crimes can be identified by filtering on the HO offence code. Other offences contained within the Outcomes by Offences data tool may be related to hate crimes, including different strands of hate crimes, but are not identifiable from data held centrally.

CPS performance data which includes convictions data pertaining to hate crime flagged offences is available here CPS data summary Quarter 3 2025-2026 | The Crown Prosecution Service

The published offence-level data reflects the offence wording as set out in legislation. The published volumes will not include all racially or religiously motivated offences. In addition, other aggravating factors which contribute to the commissioning of an offence are not identifiable from the published MOJ convictions data.

The right hon. Gentleman knows full well that the NPCC, which is independent of Government, is rightly reviewing the wording of the “Police Anti-Racism Commitment” to ensure that there is no ambiguity or suggestion of differential treatment. [Interruption.] The right hon. Gentleman speaks from a sedentary position, but I say to him that I have taken more action on preventing differential treatment in the criminal justice system than he or his party ever did.

The “Police Anti-Racism Commitment”, a copy of which I have here, published in March 2025 by the National Police Chiefs’ Council, asks police to reverse engineer the same arrest rates for different ethnic groups, even though offending rates are different. It expressly calls for different racial groups to be treated differently, saying that people should not treat “everyone ‘the same’” or be “colour blind”. This is a formal policy requirement for two-tier policing. I have been raising this issue for over a year, and I have never had an answer, including from the Home Secretary last Tuesday. Let me try again: does she agree that this racist and dangerous policy document should be immediately withdrawn—yes or no?

Operation Ford is the policing support for locally elected representatives, including Metropolitan Mayors, Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Local Councillors.

Working with the police, the Home Office has established the Operation Ford Threat Assessment Centre to coordinate and collate intelligence to build a national picture of threats, including harassment and intimidation, against locally elected representatives across the UK.

The Home Office do not hold data on numbers of arrests, investigations, and charges directly related Operation Ford. Arrest and charge data is published at an aggregate level through the Home Office’s official crime statistics.