Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) the expanded use of financial guarantees modelled on the International Finance Facility on Education and (b) other new forms of development finance as part of the agenda for the G20 summit.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Guarantees can be an effective way for shareholders to expand lending from the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).
The UK has committed guarantees, including through the International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd), that are unlocking $6 billion of additional MDB finance for Africa and Asia and $12 billion for Ukraine.
IFFEd is a powerful mechanism for unlocking additional finance and will be considered alongside other options in the UK's future use of guarantees.
At the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Annual Meetings, the Foreign Secretary set out the UK's ambition to use its G20 Presidency to drive action on debt, mobilise greater private investment, strengthen resilience to shocks and improve support for fragile states.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what consideration has been given by his Department to the adequacy of safety standards for consumers using kitchen knives.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The Department has not specifically considered regulations on kitchen knife design. However, all consumer products must be safe under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use. Manufacturers, importers and businesses must ensure kitchen knives are safe and provide appropriate safety information and warnings. Trading Standards, Environmental Health in Northern Ireland and the Office for Product Safety and Standards can investigate unsafe products and require proportionate corrective action, including recalls. The Government has also consulted on modernising the product safety framework to strengthen consumer protection and tackle unsafe products sold online.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what consideration has been given by his Department to regulations to improve kitchen knives design to ensure consumer safety.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The Department has not specifically considered regulations on kitchen knife design. However, all consumer products must be safe under normal or reasonably foreseeable conditions of use. Manufacturers, importers and businesses must ensure kitchen knives are safe and provide appropriate safety information and warnings. Trading Standards, Environmental Health in Northern Ireland and the Office for Product Safety and Standards can investigate unsafe products and require proportionate corrective action, including recalls. The Government has also consulted on modernising the product safety framework to strengthen consumer protection and tackle unsafe products sold online.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what consideration has been given to a public safety campaign on the risks of kitchen knives being misused.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Knife crime is a national concern. The Government is committed to halving knife crime over the next decade and published Protecting Lives, Building Hope: A Plan to Halve Knife Crime in April 2026. The plan sets out a cross-government approach focused on prevention, early intervention, enforcement and reducing reoffending.
The Home Office works with manufacturers and retailers of knives, as well as campaigners for knife safety, to improve the safety of how everyday items such as the kitchen knife are marketed and sold. On 8 October 2026 I held a summit on the safe sale and display of knives in shops, encouraging responsible retailer practice such as locked display cabinets. I am pleased that many leading retailers are already making such changes.
In the Crime and Policing Act 2026, we introduced Ronan’s Law, which includes stricter age verification requirements on knife sellers and a requirement for retailers to report bulk knife sales. We also introduced a new offence of possessing an offensive weapon with intent for violence, which means that no matter if the weapon in possession is legal or not, if there is intent to cause violence, it is a crime.
To get dangerous knives off our streets, the Home Office has undertaken three knife and weapons surrender schemes since 2024. This year the scheme ran between 3 and 31 August 2026, and the figures will be published in due course.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce domestic violence with knives.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
'Freedom from Violence and Abuse: a cross-government strategy to build a safer society for women and girls', sets out a range of commitments to tackle domestic abuse, including:
In April, the government published the Halving Knife Crime Plan, which sets out how we will use all available levers across government to halve knife crime within a decade. The Plan combines early intervention, targeted prevention and robust enforcement, including over £66 million for Serious Violence Reduction Programmes in 2026/27. Through the Serious Violence Duty, local partners must work together to prevent serious violence, with local strategies considering domestic abuse.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with local authorities in England about consumer disposal and recycling of unwanted kitchen knives.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department is working with local authorities and other partners to improve information for householders on the safe disposal and recycling of unwanted kitchen knives. This work recognises that arrangements currently vary locally, including the use of household waste recycling centres and dedicated knife surrender facilities. We are working with the Home Office, WRAP and local authority partners to develop consistent guidance and improve access to information on appropriate local disposal routes.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what advice the police provide on the disposal of knives that are not the target of surrender schemes.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is an operational matter for police forces on what advice they provide on the disposal of knives.
However, the Home Office has issued guidance to support its recent knife surrender schemes, and this is informed by best practice in police forces. The guidance advises members of the public to ensure that if they are travelling with any knives for disposal that they are not carried openly any time and are wrapped and placed in a sealed bag or box. Carrying bladed articles in public without a good reason or lawful authority is an offence.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much Official Development Assistance was spent from the Home Office budget in each of the 2024/25 and 2025/26 fiscal years; and how much of each amount was reported in the 2024 and 2025 calendar ODA statistics.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
For 2024/25 the fiscal year spend was £2266m
For 2025/26 the fiscal year spend was £2203m
For 2024 the calendar year spend was £2390m
For 2025 the calendar year spend was £2064m
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of police forces using e-scooters or e-bikes to tackle local anti-social behaviour and crime; and what guidance is provided to police forces on procuring tactical e-vehicles.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The deployment of operational tactics and equipment, including the use of e-bikes and e-scooters, is an operational matter for individual chief constables, who are best placed to assess local policing needs and respond to crime and anti-social behaviour in their communities.
The Home Office has not made a specific assessment of the effectiveness of police forces' use of e-bikes or e-scooters to tackle anti-social behaviour and crime. However, some forces have adopted e-bikes and other capabilities such as drones as part of their neighbourhood policing response and tactics to tackle anti-social behaviour to provide officers with greater mobility and access to areas that may be difficult to patrol using conventional police vehicles.
The Government has strengthened police powers to tackle the anti-social use of vehicles. Section 8 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026, removed the requirement for the police to issue a warning before they can seize a vehicle being used anti-socially. The Government also reduced vehicle disposal timeframes to seven days in July 2026, helping to reduce the time offenders can reclaim vehicles and continue to cause nuisance.
Responsibility for the procurement of operational vehicles and equipment rests with individual police forces. The Home Office does not issue specific guidance on the procurement of tactical e-vehicles. Forces are expected to ensure that any procurement activity complies with relevant legislation, national procurement frameworks and local governance arrangements.
Asked by: David Taylor (Labour - Hemel Hempstead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the feasibility of publishing non-sensitive inspection summaries for establishments licensed to breed animals for scientific procedures.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has no plans to introduce the routine publication of audit or inspection summaries for licensed establishments.
The Government is committed to openness and transparency and publishes a range of information about animals in science regulation. This includes: annual statistics, non-technical summaries of all licensed projects, an annual regulator’s report that includes the outcomes of all non-compliance investigations, Guidance on the Operation of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act and the Code of Practice for the care and accommodation of animals used in science. Further, the Government publishes its responses to recommendations from the independent Animals in Science Committee on how the animals in science regulatory system can be continuously strengthened. This Government has also committed to the collection and publication of additional statistics on the breeding and genotyping of animals for scientific procedures which will be conducted in 2027.