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Home Office in the media

This blog post was published under the 2015-2024 Conservative Administration

https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/10/09/home-office-in-the-media-wednesday-9-october/

Home Office in the media: Wednesday 9 October

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Leading stories

Home Office in the media

Today's leading stories include the allocation of additional police officers, and passport renewals ahead of the UK's departure from the EU.

Police recruitment

There is coverage of the announcement on the allocation of the first cohort of the 20,000 additional police officers.

Sky report that the Home Secretary has announced that every police force in England and Wales has been set a recruitment target as part of a national drive to take on 20,000 new officers.

During the first wave of the scheme's roll-out, the Home Office says it will provide £750 million to support all 43 forces to recruit around 6,000 officers by the end of 2020/21.

On broadcast, Minister for Policing Kit Malthouse was interviewed on BBC Breakfast, 5 Live, Sky News, LBC and Talk Radio.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

The public are clear they want to see more police officers on their streets, whether they live in the city or the countryside.

This is the people’s priority and it is exactly what the Government is delivering.

Every single police force in England and Wales will be able to recruit additional officers this year to help keep all of our communities safer.

Passport renewals

The Express reports that holidaymakers with less than six months on their passports have a tight deadline to renew - or face being barred from European destinations.

According to the paper, in a no-deal Brexit, rules for visitors from non-EU countries would apply in the Schengen Area, including Italy and Spain, meaning that passports must have at least six months’ validity and that there may be new limits on how old a British passport can be.

The paper reports that Her Majesty's Passport Office says that renewals can take up to three weeks, therefore travellers need to renew this week in order to ensure they meet the 31 October deadline.

A Home Office spokesperson said:

In the event of no deal, new rules would apply when travelling on a British passport to most European countries and some people may need to renew their passport earlier than planned.

HM Passport Office will have the appropriate resources in place to handle the extra renewal applications, in addition to its normal volumes.

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