Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of the Joint Unit For Waste Crime.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No formal assessment has been made but the Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) recently published its annual report for 2024-25 here. A copy is attached to this answer.
Since 2020, the JUWC has worked with over 130 partner organisations and led or attended over 300 multi-agency days of action resulting in over 170 associated arrests. In recent years, the JUWC has made significant progress aligning its approach to other criminal justice agencies to target organised crime groups. The work of the JUWC has received cross government support and the model is respected internationally.
We have increased the Environment Agency’s (EA) total budget for 2025-26, including the amount available to tackle waste crime. This will enable the EA to increase its frontline criminal enforcement resource in the JUWC and area environmental crime teams by 43 full time staff. This resource will be targeted at activities identified as waste crime priorities using enforcement activity data and criminal intelligence.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits of low-Earth-orbit satellite technologies in supporting (1) military communications capabilities and (2) communications resilience.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The UK Ministry of Defence has adopted the use of low-earth orbit satellite technologies to augment and supplement its sovereign military geostationary communications satellites in support of deployed operations and training exercises. There are significant benefits of low-earth orbit satellites as part of a hybrid approach, including ease of use, fast throughput and rapid deployment. These benefits need to be balanced against security, assurance and vulnerability considerations. Resilience of Defence satellite communications is achieved through a multi-orbit approach, of which low-Earth orbit satellites forms one element.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what opportunities there are for businesses based in North East England to secure work as a result of the decision of the government of Norway to purchase Type 26 frigates from BAE Systems.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Norwegian Government’s announcement on 31 August 2025, that it had selected the UK as a strategic partner for their acquisition of Type 26 warships, will sustain around 4,000 jobs across the UK’s supply chain until well into the 2030s.
This is the largest ever UK warship export deal by value and it is expected to provide a £10 billion boost to the UK economy and support more than 400 British companies across all regions, including the north east of England. It is a huge vote of confidence in the UK’s defence industry and supply chains, which are supported by small and medium enterprises.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of plans to build new munitions factories announced through the Strategic Defence Review, what consideration they have given to locations in North East England for the site of one of these factories.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Strategic Defence Review committed to build at least six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is currently developing a plan to deliver this commitment alongside our wider Defence Industrial Strategy, delivering long-term investment to boost UK growth and generating skilled UK jobs and export opportunities. The MOD is carefully considering arrangements for those factories including potential locations, and more detail will be set out in due course. It is currently considered to be premature to discuss specific proposals or sites until the necessary preparatory work has concluded.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, when they plan to make a decision about the sites of the new munitions factories which were announced through the Strategic Defence Review; and when they will make a further announcement about their location.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Strategic Defence Review committed to build at least six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is currently developing a plan to deliver this commitment alongside our wider Defence Industrial Strategy, delivering long-term investment to boost UK growth and generating skilled UK jobs and export opportunities. The MOD is carefully considering arrangements for those factories including potential locations, and more detail will be set out in due course. It is currently considered to be premature to discuss specific proposals or sites until the necessary preparatory work has concluded.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions (1) Ministers and (2) officials have had with Ofcom regarding the modernisation of satellite regulations at the International Telecommunication Union; and what assessment they have made of the potential of such modernisation to enhance the UK’s security capabilities.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Ofcom represents the UK at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The Government works closely with Ofcom to ensure international satellite regulations align with UK technology and policy goals, and that strategic priorities are reflected in international negotiations.
In the proposed Statement of Strategic Priorities, the Government expects Ofcom to lead in shaping the international spectrum framework to support UK space services.
As reflected in the Space Regulatory Review, officials are working to embed national security and interest considerations proportionately across all licensable space activities, including space spectrum.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment that have made of the role that low-Earth-orbit satellite broadband technologies will play in its recently updated Resilience Action Plan.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Resilience Action Plan sets out the Government’s strategic vision for a stronger, more resilient nation. It recognises that resilience across all sectors, including telecoms, is vital to withstanding and recovering from an increasingly wide range of risks.
Low Earth-orbit satellite technology has an increasing role in telecoms resilience. For example, in instances where terrestrial networks might fail, Low Earth Orbit satellite connections can be rapidly deployed to provide broadband coverage.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions there have been for landfill tax fraud in each of the past four years.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of prosecutions for a wide range of offences in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, which can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics. However, it is not possible to separately identify prosecutions for landfill tax fraud as the data does not include a specific offence relating to it.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions have resulted from the work of the Joint Waste Crime Unit since 2020.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This data is not held centrally by the Government. The cross-agency nature of Joint Unit for Waste Crime’s (JUWC) operations means that interventions and activities will be carried out for a range of different offences. Outcomes, including prosecutions, will be pursued by different agencies (including police) to different end-results. Alongside operations that lead to arrests, a major focus of the JUWC's work is the prevention and disruption of waste crime through other methods.
Asked by: Lord Beamish (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government on what occasions the Secretary of State for the Department of Business and Trade has met, spoken with or corresponded with representatives of Fujitsu, since July 2024.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch
Details of the meetings held by Ministers of the Department for Business and Trade and its predecessor the Department for International trade are available on transparency pages of gov.uk and are released as part of the Government’s transparency agenda.