Asked by: Brian Leishman (Independent - Alloa and Grangemouth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the Prime Minister discussed the proscription of Palestine Action with President Trump on (a) 10 and (b) 30 March 2025.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the read-outs of the discussion with President Trump on 10 (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-call-with-president-trump-of-the-united-states-10-march-2025) and 30 March (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-call-with-president-trump-of-the-united-states-30-march-2025) published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Brian Leishman (Independent - Alloa and Grangemouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the potential impact that the Principles of Process Safety Leadership for the offshore UK Continental Shelf energy industry agreed between the Health and Safety Executive and offshore oil and gas industry representatives on the management of safety critical maintenance programmes at contractor level.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Principles of Process Safety Leadership programme for the offshore UK Continental Shelf energy industry was focused on improving process safety leadership for offshore oil and gas installation operators. Safety critical maintenance programmes at contractor level are managed by these oil and gas operators.
There has been sustained focus on offshore oil and gas operators since the pandemic including an annual request to report to Health and Safety Executive, their overall maintenance backlog position, including deferred workscopes. There has been an improving trend in these backlog numbers over the past four years. An agreed set of industry KPIs is now in place and a Maintenance Backlog Task/Finish Group was established to address the challenges including sharing good practice in the delivery of maintenance work.
Asked by: Brian Leishman (Independent - Alloa and Grangemouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which oil and gas (a) duty holders and (b) installations on the UK Continental Shelf were subject to enforcement action by the Health and Safety Executive in relation to the management of safety critical maintenance work in each year between 2022-23 and 2024-25.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As a result of the review of maintenance backlog data and targeted offshore installation and HQ interventions over the recent years Improvement Notices have been served on the following installation operators (for both single and multiple installations). These are accessible on Health and Safety Executives’s enforcement database:
For 2022/23:
Ithaca Alba
Eni Douglas
CNR multiple installations
Perenco multiple installations
Total Gryphon
Harbour Armada
For 2023/24:
Repsol Auk
Total Dunbar
Apache multiple installations
For 2024/25:
Total Culzean
Dana Triton
Asked by: Brian Leishman (Independent - Alloa and Grangemouth)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of replacing domestically refined oil with imported oil at Grangemouth on the UK's balance of payments.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We do not expect a substantial impact as Grangemouth already imported more than 90% of its crude oil in 2023.
Asked by: Brian Leishman (Independent - Alloa and Grangemouth)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has had discussions with Ineos on the country of origin of the crude oil it intends to import into the Grangemouth refinery.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Brian Leishman (Independent - Alloa and Grangemouth)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what discussions he has had with the oil and gas industry on the effectiveness of the industry's processes for developing safety standards for offshore oil and gas workers.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Brian Leishman (Independent - Alloa and Grangemouth)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what discussions he has had with the oil and gas industry on the effectiveness of the industry's checks for valid safety certification among prospective offshore workers.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Details of Ministers' and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Brian Leishman (Independent - Alloa and Grangemouth)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what process his Department has for (a) storing and (b) otherwise retaining surveillance footage taken by Royal Air Force planes over Gaza since December 2023.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence has policies and protocols which provide direction for the storage and retention of operational intelligence. I am unable to comment further due to operational security.
Asked by: Brian Leishman (Independent - Alloa and Grangemouth)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has (a) lost, (b) deleted and (c) otherwise destroyed any surveillance footage taken by Royal Air Force planes over Gaza since December 2023.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question 57027, and reiterate that I cannot comment on detailed intelligence matters nor disclose details of Ministry of Defence internal policies for the storage and retention of operational intelligence.
Asked by: Brian Leishman (Independent - Alloa and Grangemouth)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2025 to Question 52683 on International Humanitarian Law, what the name is of the third-party contractor providing information and analysis to the International Humanitarian Law cell; and how much his Department paid to this contractor since January 2024.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office provides funding for the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), an independent not for profit organisation that specialises in using open-source methodologies to verify digital content (e.g. footage, images) from conflict settings. We support CIR's work in a number of conflict settings, including the Middle East, via a central accountable grant agreement. We have provided £715,000 of funding for their work on the Middle East since January 2024.