The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is working closely with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to improve the support available through Jobcentre Plus for people interested in Armed Forces careers.

Local relationships already exist between Jobcentres, Armed Forces Careers Offices and Armed Forces Champions. Building on the agreement announced in February 2026, DWP and MOD are working to strengthen how these relationships support jobseekers to access clear information about Armed Forces roles, training routes and career opportunities, including in engineering, cyber, healthcare and logistics.

DWP and MOD are developing the practical implementation of this approach, including specialist training for work coaches and closer working between Jobcentres, Armed Forces Careers Offices and Armed Forces Champions with the approach being piloted in the West Midlands. This will help ensure jobseekers receive more informed and consistent advice about Armed Forces opportunities through the Jobcentre Plus network.

This supports the ambition set out in the Defence Investment Plan to strengthen routes into Armed Forces careers. DWP and MOD will use learning from pilot activity to inform wider delivery and support informed career conversations with jobseekers.

Foodbanks are independent, charitable organisations and the Department for Work and Pensions does not have any role in their operation and therefore does not hold data on the number of foodbanks in operation.

The Government recognises that the level of household food insecurity in the UK is unacceptable. We have already announced action to expand free school meals, support parents with the cost of healthy food outside of school and transform our food system to ensure it delivers access to affordable, healthy food.  Our plan to Make Work Pay is part of the mission to grow the economy, raise living standards across the country and create opportunities for all.

To further support struggling households, £742 million of funding was provided to enable the extension of the Household Support Fund from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 in England, plus additional funding for the Devolved Governments through the Barnett formula to be spent at their discretion.

From 1 April 2026, we are introducing a new Crisis and Resilience Fund in England. This fund aims to enable local authorities to provide preventative support to communities as well as assisting people when faced with a financial crisis, to support our ambition to end mass dependence on emergency food parcels.

The Government has also taken further action to support low-income households including through the increase in the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025, boosting the pay of 3 million workers.

The department’s official statistics on food bank use are published via the annual Households Below Average Income (HBAI) statistics, Households below average income (HBAI) statistics - GOV.UK using data from the Family Resources Survey (FRS), Family Resources Survey - GOV.UK. They measure whether a household has used a food bank in the past 30 days or 12 months.

Respondents are asked whether they have used a food bank in the past 30 days/12 months. The questionnaire instructions make it clear that informal support with food supplies via family and friends and vouchers provided by local authorities and other organisations that are not food banks should not be counted as food bank use.

The Department does not hold data on the number of pre-existing foodbanks that have been brought into official statistics.

Statistics on food bank use are published annually in the Households Below Average Income statistics report and are only available from 2021/22 onwards. The most recent publication is available here: Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2024 - GOV.UK.

We are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service across Great Britain that will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and support to help them to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers. We are taking a test and learn approach to developing the new service including incorporating the learnings from other tests and trials underway. We will continue our work with local government, including Strategic Authorities, and Devolved Governments as we design, test, and trial the service.

Earlier this year we launched our first Jobs and Careers Service Pathfinder based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. The Pathfinder is our first step in testing elements of the new service based on the 5 pillars set out within the Get Britain Working White Paper that underpin the delivery of the new Jobs and Careers Service. It will also look at how the new service can integrate with other local services. This will support us to develop a new service that is locally tailored and embedded, designed to meet the different needs of local labour markets, local people and local employers. Further Pathfinders, including ones that are focused on support for young people and those with health conditions, will be launched this year.

We have also started testing a new Get Britain Working Coaching Academy. Once in place, this will offer further training for a range of our colleagues to deliver high-quality coaching conversations for customers, focused on goal setting and action planning, as part of our commitment to enhancing the way we interact with people. We currently have two large scale trials in progress testing changes to how we currently operate. The first, to test providing support for people by telephone and video as well as face to face appointments. The second, to test whether meeting unemployed people less frequently in a Jobcentre would have an impact on their work outcomes and whether this approach is more beneficial for particular groups. We will incorporate learnings from these and other tests and trials to inform the design of the new service and how the new service could operate differently.

Drone technology is developing at a rapid pace and decisions on operational equipment are made independently by police forces, who are best placed to assess their own operational needs.

The Home Office and operational partners are working closely across government, including with the UK Civil Aviation Authority and Department for Transport, to support police use of drones and explore the benefits that future drones’ capabilities may provide to police operations. This includes standardising police operations, trialling innovative use of drones to improve police productivity, and supporting the progression of a future operating model for police aviation.

Our approach to delivery in 2025/25, which will be year 1 of a 4-year programme, is designed to deliver an initial increase to the neighbourhood policing workforce in a manner that is flexible, and can be adapted to the local context and the varied crime demands a force faces. The precise workforce mix proposed in 2025/26 was therefore a local decision.

All forces, including Cambridgeshire Constabulary, have agreed neighbourhood policing delivery plans. Cambridgeshire Constabulary has been allocated £2,065,069 and will deliver an increase of 30 police officers, 7 PCSOs and 13 special constables by 31 March 2026. Force-level recruitment projections are also published here: Neighbourhood policing grant allocations and projections: 2025 to 2026 - GOV.UK.

Additionally, this financial year we are providing Home Office funding since 2023 for the National Rural Crime Unit. The unit aims to help police forces tackle rural crime priorities through the provision of specialist operational support, as well as through sharing best practice and encouraging regional and national approaches to tackling rural crime.

Our approach to delivery in 2025/25, which will be year 1 of a 4-year programme, is designed to deliver an initial increase to the neighbourhood policing workforce in a manner that is flexible, and can be adapted to the local context and the varied crime demands a force faces. The precise workforce mix proposed in 2025/26 was therefore a local decision.

All forces, including Cambridgeshire Constabulary, have agreed neighbourhood policing delivery plans. Cambridgeshire Constabulary has been allocated £2,065,069 and will deliver an increase of 30 police officers, 7 PCSOs and 13 special constables by 31 March 2026. Force-level recruitment projections are also published here: Neighbourhood policing grant allocations and projections: 2025 to 2026 - GOV.UK.

Additionally, this financial year we are providing Home Office funding since 2023 for the National Rural Crime Unit. The unit aims to help police forces tackle rural crime priorities through the provision of specialist operational support, as well as through sharing best practice and encouraging regional and national approaches to tackling rural crime.

Decisions around the procurement of equipment, including armoured vehicles, are a matter for operationally independent Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners, or Mayoral equivalents and are made in line with the needs of their police force and their budget allocation.

We have been working closely with policing in the development of these important reforms. The new Joint Home Office and Policing Reform Team, which includes secondees from the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and other policing organisations, have been closely involved in helping to shape the police reform proposals and development of the White Paper.

We will provide an update in due course.

This Government has been clear that the health and wellbeing of our police workforce is a priority and we are committed to making improvements in wellbeing support through the Police Covenant.

We continue to fund the National Police Wellbeing Service (NPWS). The NPWS helps forces identify the areas of policing with the highest risk of impacting officer and staff mental health and developing work around building resilience. In addition, the NWPS are piloting a 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Support Line, providing urgent support for our police when they need it the most.

The NPWS have also created a national suicide action plan which aims to educate and support the workforce, reduce stress and improve data recording. They have also developed an evidenced-based trauma support model which is now available to forces.

This Government has been clear that the health and wellbeing of our police workforce is a priority and we are committed to making improvements in wellbeing support through the Police Covenant.

We continue to fund the National Police Wellbeing Service (NPWS). The NPWS helps forces identify the areas of policing with the highest risk of impacting officer and staff mental health and developing work around building resilience. In addition, the NWPS are piloting a 24/7 Mental Health Crisis Support Line, providing urgent support for our police when they need it the most.

The NPWS have also created a national suicide action plan which aims to educate and support the workforce, reduce stress and improve data recording. They have also developed an evidenced-based trauma support model which is now available to forces.

The Government has been clear that the health and wellbeing of our police is a top priority and that those who have faced traumatic incidents in the line of duty should receive the support they need to recover and continue serving. We continue to fund the National Police Wellbeing Service who have developed an evidenced-based trauma support model which is now available to forces.

It is the responsibility of individual Chief Officers to effectively manage their workforce, ensuring the appropriate health and wellbeing provisions are in place for their officers and staff.

The Home Office have provided funding for the College of Policing to deliver a new training provision, the Neighbourhood Policing Pathway (NPP), which will deliver specialist training to all neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs in England and Wales.

Since 5 December 2024, when My Rt Hon Friend, the Prime Minister, announced the Government’s Plan for Change, we have been working closely with the sector to draw up a new Police Performance Framework to ensure standards are upheld across the country. We have also been working to establish a new Unit within the Home Office, which will identify and support force-level improvements.

Further details will be published in the forthcoming Police Reform White Paper.

Since 5 December 2024, when My Rt Hon Friend, the Prime Minister, announced the Government’s Plan for Change, we have been working closely with the sector to draw up a new Police Performance Framework to ensure standards are upheld across the country. We have also been working to establish a new Unit within the Home Office, which will identify and support force-level improvements.

Further details will be published in the forthcoming Police Reform White Paper.

The Home Office has had no role in these discussions between the interested parties in relation to an ongoing land ownership dispute for a new access road to Hinchingbrooke Hospital.

The Home Office routinely collects and publishes data on arrests for notifiable offences, as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures’ statistical series. However, data is collected at offence group level only, therefore data for specific offences is not collected.

Additionally, the Home Office routinely collects and published data on motoring offences that resulted in court action in England and Wales on an annual basis, as part of the ‘Police powers and procedures: Roads policing’ statistical bulletin. The most recent data, up to 2023, is available here: Police powers and procedures: Roads policing, to December 2023 - GOV.UK

The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee was developed through close working with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and other policing leads including the commitment that neighbourhood queries will be responded to within 72 hours.

This Government wants town centres to be vibrant, welcoming places where businesses thrive and people feel safe and come to shop, socialise and live. What the Hon Member describes about town centres in Hertfordshire is absolutely unacceptable.

As part of the Government’s Plan for Change, and to support making the country’s streets safer, £66.3 million of Hotspot Action funding has been awarded to all 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales for 2025/26. Hertfordshire will receive £1 million of that funding.

In addition, under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, section 60AA permits officers on patrol to require the removal of face coverings over a 24 hour period, if an authorisation is in place, where there are grounds to believe criminal activity may take place in a particular area, and will last for 24 hours.

Furthermore, stop and search powers permit individuals to be stopped by officers if there are grounds to suspect they are going to commit offences, such as robbery and theft.

The implementation of a new Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee is also key to people feeling safe in their communities. The guarantee includes restoring patrols to town centres and delivering an additional 13,000 neighbourhood policing officers, PCSOs and special constables by the end of this parliament.