First elected: 1st May 1997
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.
If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.
If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).
Apply for the UK to join the European Union as a full member as soon as possible
Sign this petition Gov Responded - 19 Nov 2024 Debated on - 24 Mar 2025 View John Hayes's petition debate contributionsI believe joining the EU would boost the economy, increase global influence, improve collaboration and provide stability & freedom. I believe that Brexit hasn't brought any tangible benefit and there is no future prospect of any, that the UK has changed its mind and that this should be recognised.
These initiatives were driven by John Hayes, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
John Hayes has not been granted any Urgent Questions
John Hayes has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Terminal Illness (Relief of Pain) Bill 2024-26
Sponsor - Edward Leigh (Con)
Cladding Remediation Works (Code of Practice) Bill 2022-23
Sponsor - Tom Hunt (Con)
Banking Services (Post Offices) Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Duncan Baker (Con)
Conveyancing Standards Bill 2019-21
Sponsor - Marco Longhi (Con)
The Commission is unable to give the exact proportion of procured food that is sourced in the UK due to the size and volume of goods procured. However, when contracts are put out to tender, they stipulate that preference will be given to bidders with robust environmental and local sourcing policies, and those with strong links to British farming organisations such as the English Farming and Food Partnership, and the Red Tractor scheme.
The vast majority of fresh products, such as meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, bread, ice cream, and most fruit and vegetables when in season are sourced from within the UK. This includes a commitment to ensure that menus showcase seasonal variation and that in-season produce be highlighted to customers, as well as championing local producers.
The number of heat pumps installed on the Parliamentary estate over the past three years is as follows:
2022: 10 heat pumps
2023: 41 heat pumps
2024: 18 heat pumps
Most of these heat pumps have been configured to provide cooling for comms rooms. A comms room (short for communications room) is a dedicated space within a building that houses critical networking and telecommunications equipment. Its primary purpose is to manage data exchange, connectivity, and communication infrastructure for an organisation. In Parliament we call these rooms Secondary Distribution Points (SDPs). Comms rooms are a common feature in most buildings with a reasonable level of IT infrastructure. Air conditioning (provided by a heat pump system) is often used to maintain stable temperatures to prevent overheating and malfunction of the IT equipment.
Where heat pumps are proposed on the Parliamentary estate the system design is interrogated to ensure that the noise generated is not excessive and suitable for the context in which it is located.
Like all other equipment, system components and machines on the estate, heat pumps consume electricity. The design of any proposed heat pump on the estate will be interrogated to confirm that the electrical supply proposed for the heat pump is suitable and can be met by the estate’s electrical infrastructure.
The number of heat pumps installed on the Parliamentary estate over the past three years is as follows:
2022: 10 heat pumps
2023: 41 heat pumps
2024: 18 heat pumps
Most of these heat pumps have been configured to provide cooling for comms rooms. A comms room (short for communications room) is a dedicated space within a building that houses critical networking and telecommunications equipment. Its primary purpose is to manage data exchange, connectivity, and communication infrastructure for an organisation. In Parliament we call these rooms Secondary Distribution Points (SDPs). Comms rooms are a common feature in most buildings with a reasonable level of IT infrastructure. Air conditioning (provided by a heat pump system) is often used to maintain stable temperatures to prevent overheating and malfunction of the IT equipment.
Where heat pumps are proposed on the Parliamentary estate the system design is interrogated to ensure that the noise generated is not excessive and suitable for the context in which it is located.
Like all other equipment, system components and machines on the estate, heat pumps consume electricity. The design of any proposed heat pump on the estate will be interrogated to confirm that the electrical supply proposed for the heat pump is suitable and can be met by the estate’s electrical infrastructure.
The Office for Equality and Opportunity does not have its own definition of gender identity.
All staff at the Equality and Human Rights Commission are working to advance equality through their statutory remit. No staff are specifically employed in full-time equivalent diversity, equality and inclusion roles.
There is currently a total of 7 full time equivalent staff within the Race Equality Unit.
Overall staff figures for the Office for Equality and Opportunity total 133.8 Full Time Equivalents, of which the Race Equality Unit total 6 FTE, the Disability Unit total 19.8 FTE and the Women and Equalities Unit total 36.5 FTE. This excludes any temporary time limited resource from wider Cabinet Office.
Anyone should be able to privately pray when at work or accessing services and the religion or belief protections in the Equality Act 2010 (the Act) already ensure this. The Act does not take precedence over other civil or criminal law. Accordingly, amendment of the Act in this regard would not be appropriate.
This Government is committed to working with the police and other partners to address the blight of wildlife crime in Lincolnshire and across the country.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has fourteen Areas (regional teams) across England and Wales – the CPS East Midlands Area serves the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and Nottinghamshire including the cities of Nottingham, Derby, and Leicester, and the county of Rutland.
More broadly, we have announced that the CPS will receive an additional £49m to support victims of crime and transform the services they provide to the public.
We are introducing tougher measures to clamp down on anti-social behaviour, stronger neighbourhood policing, and robust laws to prevent farm theft and fly-tippers.
We are recruiting 13,000 more neighbourhood police and police community support officers across England and Wales.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025 provides a framework through which policing, and its partners, can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues which predominantly affect rural communities.
CPS prosecutors also work closely with local police officers and officers from the National Wildlife Crime Unit to tackle all types of rural crime.
The CPS also provides legal guidance on wildlife, rural, and heritage crime, which is available to all its prosecutors to assist them in dealing with these cases. It also provides specialist training to ensure that its prosecutors have the expert knowledge needed to prosecute these crimes.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
The Government Legal Department is making limited use of generative AI (“Gen AI”) powered by large language models. Since December 2024, GLD has been running a trial of Microsoft’s M365 Copilot, which now has 100 participants and will shortly increase to 150. GLD’s AI Programme is considering where AI may be used and provide tangible benefits within specific work areas and processes, including proposed testing of online legal research tools with Gen AI-based capabilities.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is exploring new and existing technologies, including AI, to enhance efficiency. AI has the potential to support the CPS day-to-day in the delivery of justice. I am keen to explore the opportunities for efficiency that this new technology can bring, being mindful of ethical considerations.
A pilot of Microsoft Copilot concluded in August 2024, with approximately over 400 staff across the organisation given access to Copilot to assist them in everyday tasks such as summarising emails, creating PowerPoint presentations, and analysing excel data.
The scheme established that that Copilot reduced the amount of time it took staff to complete administrative and day-to-day tasks and has the capacity to save thousands of hours across the organisation.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
During the past 12 months, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been trialling the use of Technology Assisted Review (TAR), utilising AI, on a live criminal case. The trial demonstrated that TAR could help meet legal disclosure obligations more efficiently.
The trial adhered to relevant disclosure guidelines and officials are still making the decisions on what is in fact relevant and what is disclosed.
Following the success of the trial, the SFO is planning to use TAR in more SFO cases in the future.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country
Ministers have not used AI in the Department in their roles as Law Officers.
A small number of officials within the Department have been piloting the use of a Microsoft 365 application ‘CoPilot’ which can be used to summarise content and meetings, assisting with drafting content and interrogating information. ChatGPT has also previously been used in this manner.
Paragraph 21.27 of Erskine May states:
“By long-standing convention, observed by successive Governments, the fact of, and substance of advice from, the law officers of the Crown is not disclosed outside government. This convention is referred to in paragraph [5.14] of the Ministerial Code [updated on 6 November 2024]. The purpose of this convention is to enable the Government to obtain frank and full legal advice in confidence.”
This is known as the Law Officers’ Convention and it applies to your question.
The Places for Growth Programme has been gathering data on relocation of Government roles from London since September 2021. Since then, latest published data shows 21,002 roles have been relocated from London. By year:
3,999 roles were relocated in 2021.
7,113 roles were relocated in 2022.
7,171 roles were relocated in 2023.
2,719 roles were relocated in Quarter 1 of 2024 (the latest published data).
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 7th March is attached.
The Race To The Top (RTTT) grade 6/7 Network was a collaborative volunteer network which no longer exists. The RTTT does not hold a budget, but a department can choose to provide support where there is a business case to do so. We are not aware of any such financial support. We are not aware of any cost to the public purse of the Race To The Top Grade 6/7 Network since 2020. We do not hold any records prior to this date. The RTTT network was created in 2018.
The Civil Service LGBT+ staff network is a volunteer collaborative group of Civil Service staff. The LGBT+ network does not hold a budget, but a department can choose to provide support where there is a business case to do so. We are not aware of any such financial support. There has been no cost to the public purse of the LGBT+ network since 2020. We do not hold any records prior to this date. The LGBT+ network was created in 2003.
A:gender was founded in 2003. As a staff network, it is a volunteer collaborative group of Civil Service staff. We do not hold final central records for any funding prior to 2020. Based on the information the Cabinet Office holds, funding was provided from 2020-2021 to 2023-2024. No funding was provided in 2024-25.
Data from the Equality, Diversity and Expenditure (EDI) Review will be published in due course. This will include the overall spend from 2020 onwards for cross CS EDI networks, which will incorporate any a:gender expenditure.
The Government has a robust set of security policies in place to oversee how information is handled, within our buildings, on our IT, and by our staff.
We keep these policies under constant review to ensure they are applicable to new technologies.
The Government's Generative AI framework outlines that only corporately assured Generative AI tools should be used to process HMG information. Everyone who works in government has a duty of confidentiality and a responsibility to safeguard any government information or data that they process, access or share, and all government departments are required to meet a range of mandatory security standards.
Details of all contracts valued above £12,000 and awarded by central government under the Public Contracts Regulation 2015 are published on Contracts Finder. The Procurement Act 2023 requires contracting authorities to publish more information on tenders and contracts let, and this will be stored on the central digital platform, Find a Tender, enabling greater transparency going forward.
In addition to extensions available under Fujitsu’s existing contracts, Contracts Finder provides details of seven new Fujitsu contracts since July 2024. All of these contracts were with existing customers and in line with Fujitsu’s bid approach. Three of these contracts were direct awards of services that Fujitsu was already providing and were done to ensure continuity of public services, whilst competitive procurements are being set up, as appropriate.
In January 2024, Fujitsu said it would withdraw from bidding for contracts for work with new Government customers until the Post Office Horizon Inquiry concludes or with prior consultation and support from such new customers. Fujitsu also said it would only bid for work with existing Government customers where it already has an existing relationship with them, or where there is an agreed need for Fujitsu’s skills and capabilities.
Fujitsu's bid approach is detailed in this letter, deposited in Parliament. For more details, please see here.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 3rd March is attached.
To date the Government has not held information on where publicly procured food is sourced from.
Starting right away, for the first time ever, this government will review the food currently bought in the public sector to determine the standards that it is meeting, where it is bought from and look to introduce monitoring for transparency and accountability within those supply chains to ultimately get the best food for the consumer.
This work will be a significant first step to inform any future changes to public sector food procurement policies as we want to help make it an equal playing field for British producers to bid into the £5 billion spent each year on public sector catering contracts.
No Cabinet Office officials attended the World Economic Forum 2025.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
The Redbox AI service provided by Cabinet Office is the primary service the GPA has used over the last few months.The Government Property Agency has used artificial intelligence primarily to summarise content such as policy documents and meetings.
Subject to Spending Review (SR), the GPA plans to explore how AI can be used to create efficiencies and improvements in how property is managed, such as validation of building design specifications, preventive maintenance, optimising building use and improving energy efficiency.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
The Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) vision is to integrate AI tools and models into its operational fabric, to deliver insights to commercial decision makers, make CCS simpler, quicker and easier to use, and create efficiencies.
CCS is currently experimenting with AI-driven solutions in development environments to improve customer access and usability of its services. Pending successful testing and evaluation, CCS plans to integrate these tools into our services and processes.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 24 January is attached.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.
The Government draws on a range of resources, published on GOV.UK, to inform our AI usage. For example, the Generative AI Framework, the Ethics, Transparency and Accountability Framework, the Data Ethics Framework, the AI Opportunities Action Plan and the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard.
The department also has access to the Central Digital & Data Office, based in the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology, for expert advice.
As the Prime Minister made clear in his speech last week at the launch of the Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan, AI can be used to radically improve public services, and we are determined to harness its potential.
Ministers and officials in the Cabinet Office have access to a range of technology solutions and platforms to undertake business activities, including AI tools, to improve efficiency and productivity. For example, the Cabinet Office uses an algorithm to automate the review of digital records in order to determine which records should be permanently preserved. The Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard entry can be found here.
Due to the cross-cutting nature of the Taskforce's work to develop an ambitious Child Poverty Strategy, the Taskforce is funded from existing departmental budgets.
Details of staff bonuses are published on an annual basis for each financial year. The data for 2023/24 is available on gov.uk. Data for 2024/25 will be published later this year, after the end of the financial year.
The department does not intend to publish this information, for the purpose of safeguarding national security.
We have reviewed the wide range of studies available on the benefits of hybrid working, which has been used to inform the expectation for 60% office attendance for Civil Servants. This expectation has not changed since the previous administration.
As of July 2024, 3,698 interim compensation payments have been paid to living infected persons and bereaved partners. This information is not made available on a regional basis. The process under which estates can apply for interim compensation payments opened on 24th October. We will provide an update on the number of applications in due course.
Details of ministers’ meetings with external organisations and individuals are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.
The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill is not about financial savings but is concerned with removing the outdated and indefensible right of the remaining hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Rt. Hon. Gentleman’s Question of 14 October is attached.
Data regarding the nationality of candidates working in Whitehall is not held centrally by the Cabinet Office.
All Mission Boards have met since 5 July 2024.
It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its committees - including mission boards - is not normally shared publicly.
Details of ministers’ meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK. The most recent publication of transparency data took place on 29th August 2024.
Details of ministers’ meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK. The most recent publication of transparency data took place on 29th August 2024.
Enforcement powers exist for local authorities to take action when fireworks are unsafe, sold illegally or misused. Local authorities and the police also have powers to tackle anti-social behaviour caused by the misuse of fireworks. It is for local areas to decide how best to deploy these powers, based on their circumstances.
New Respect Orders will enable police and local councils to enforce strict behavioural conditions on persistent perpetrators of antisocial behaviour - banning them from local town centres and neighbourhoods including high streets and parks. Offenders could be required to address causes of their behaviour through mandatory rehabilitative conditions.
The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”), formed in 2014, is committed to developing the next generation of competition and consumer protection professionals and recognises the importance of nurturing a diverse and skilled workforce. Through its apprenticeships programme, the CMA offers individuals the opportunity to gain both a recognised professional qualification and hands-on experience in various fields including business administration, law, economics and finance.
Since the CMA began offering apprenticeships in April 2016, 125 apprentices have been enrolled on CMA programmes, which is broken down by year below:
Year | Total |
2016 - 2017 | <10 |
2017 - 2018 | 13 |
2018 - 2019 | <10 |
2019 -2020 | 27 |
2020 - 2021 | 14 |
2021 - 2022 | 13 |
2022 - 2023 | 17 |
2023 - 2024 | 23 |
2024 - 2025 | 10 |
TOTAL | 125 |
DBT offers extensive support for food and drink businesses in Lincolnshire and the East Midlands. Our export offer includes educational programmes via the Export Academy, advice from International Trade Advisors, and a programme of global trade shows and missions. UK Export Finance provide access to export finance, with dedicated managers in the Midlands. DBT offers support for small businesses, including the Business Support Service, Gov.uk, Growth Hubs, Help to Grow: Management scheme and financial assistance through the British Business Bank.
The Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies (“CICs”) (“the Regulator”) plays a crucial role in maintaining the CIC model as an effective form of social enterprise. By exploiting the considerable overlap between the Regulator and Companies House, and the close working relationship that already exists between the two, the Government intends to fully integrate the Regulator’s functions into Companies House as part of wider plans to streamline the UK’s regulatory environment. As the Regulator is entirely funded by fees, there will be no saving to the public purse.
Appointments to the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council were made through direct ministerial appointment by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Council’s membership includes a diverse group of the UK’s top business leaders, policy experts and trade union leaders. Members have been appointed in a personal capacity and the Council will help to ensure our Industrial Strategy is informed by a broad and high-quality evidence base, and a diverse range of perspectives.