Justice & Home Affairs
52mentions · last 12 months↓
View full analysis →Established under Standing Order 122A, the Home Affairs Committee scrutinises the work of the Home Office and associated bodies including the police, immigration enforcement, and security agencies. The committee sits in the House of Commons as a departmental select committee and regularly takes oral evidence from ministers, officials, and external witnesses. Members examined SOCA's neighbourhood crime and enforcement approach in April 2026, exploring how crime prevention operates at local level. The committee conducted a sustained inquiry into digital identity policy and right-to-work checks across three separate sessions in January, February and March 2026, investigating implementation challenges and implications for employers and workers. Recent inquiries also covered Home Office immigration routes and the Routes to Settlement scheme for children and workers, alongside scrutiny of Metropolitan Police reform and protest policing. In January 2026 the committee examined the cross-departmental counter-extremism strategy, assessing how government agencies coordinate on this priority area.
25 sessions published in the last 12 months · busiest week: w/c 19 Jan (2 sessions)
Click any cell in the heatmap to see the sessions held that day and the insights extracted from them.
318 insights
14 Jul 2026
The Committee examined Sir Andy Marsh, the Government’s preferred candidate for HMICFRS, on how he would lead inspections across policing and fire and rescue, maintain independence, and adapt the inspectorate to major reform. He set out support for stronger inspectorate powers, more data-driven and community-focused inspections, and a more explicit role in driving leadership improvement, ethical AI use, and transparent performance reporting. He also acknowledged past failings at the College of Policing, including disclaimed accounts, and said he would use the lessons to strengthen financial and operational discipline. The discussion also covered policing reform, chief constable accountability, fire and rescue culture, standards-setting, governance, and whether the inspectorate should scrutinise contentious issues such as two-tier policing and local trust deficits.
07 Jul 2026
The committees scrutinised the PSNI and Home Office response to racist disorder in Belfast, including policing capacity, misinformation, paramilitary involvement, community fear, and the adequacy of the £4 million UK Government uplift against rising PSNI costs. They also examined irregular migration via the Common Travel Area (CTA), with ministers and enforcement leaders stressing an intelligence-led approach, more data sharing with Ireland, and a planned disproportionate resource increase for Northern Ireland, while admitting major data and biometric gaps remain. The Government’s line was that the CTA is a UK-wide vulnerability exploited by organised crime, but not a ‘crisis’, and that the priority is to close data gaps, strengthen cross-border cooperation, and support community cohesion without hardening the border.
01 Jul 2026
The Committee examined how the illegal drugs market drives violence, exploitation, acquisitive crime and neighbourhood harm, with particular focus on county lines, online drugs markets, fast parcel deliveries, and the role of local intelligence. Witnesses broadly supported the From Harm to Hope strategy’s direction but criticised weak implementation, short-term funding, and lack of prevention investment. There was strong emphasis on the need for better partnership working across policing, public health, trading standards and government, alongside concerns about regionalisation, police reform, and regulatory gaps in online platforms and high street shops selling illicit or mislabelled products.
16 Jun 2026
The Committee scrutinised how serious and organised crime is operating through high-street businesses and retail, especially illicit tobacco, vapes, counterfeit goods, money laundering, and organised shop theft. Witnesses from trading standards, retailers and policing described widespread exploitation of empty premises, weak front-end checks, online marketplaces and intelligence gaps. Key positions and commitments included calls for long-term funding for trading standards, stronger powers such as longer closure orders and better accountability for online marketplaces, and improved multi-agency intelligence and enforcement.
09 Jun 2026
The Committee scrutinised Clearsprings’ operation of Crowborough large-site asylum accommodation and the Home Office’s policy for large sites, dispersal, and contract reform. Clearsprings said Crowborough had been adapted using lessons from Napier and Wethersfield, with stronger staffing, governance, subcontractor checks, and a maximum 82-day stay built into the contract. Ministers defended large sites as safer than hotels, part of a wider strategy to reduce demand and hotel use, but accepted the Home Office had mishandled early engagement on Crowborough and that the current contracts are not the ideal end state. The Home Office confirmed Crowborough had cost £7.5 million so far, expected its per-bed cost to be broadly in line with Wethersfield, promised publication of site-specific costs in annual accounts, and said it would implement a fuller subcontractor assurance framework within months. There was sustained challenge over transparency, value for money, local authority consultation, asylum-support withdrawal rules, and whether the large-site model genuinely reduces costs or merely shifts accommodation around.
19 May 2026
The Home Affairs Committee interrogated the independent inquiry into Grooming Gangs, focusing on governance, independence from government, pace, funding, scope, and data-gathering. Witnesses stressed political independence, cross-party collaboration, and a victim/survivor-centred approach. They outlined a 3-year, £65m plan with concurrent national and local inquiries, staged criteria publication by 13 July, and strong data collection, including mandated data where possible, plus mechanisms with Beaconport and tech-sector hearings. They signalled a rolling interim-report approach and a charter for victims/survivors, with expected Government engagement and accountability for delivery of prior inquiries’ recommendations.
01 Jul 2026