Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of stop and searches resulted in the seizure of (a) Class A drugs and (b) Class B drugs in each of the last three years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The data requested is not held centrally.
The Home Office collects and publishes data on the number of stop and searches for drugs. The latest data is available here: Stop and search, arrests, and mental health detentions, March 2025 - GOV.UK
However, data on the class of drug searched for is not collected, nor is information on the type of drugs seized following a stop and search.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department is monitoring the number of ID-linked data breaches following the implementation of the Online Safety Act 2023.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is responsible for monitoring and enforcing the application of data protection legislation in the UK. As the independent regulator of the Online Safety Act (OSA), Ofcom may refer matters to the ICO if it has concerns that a provider has not complied with its obligations under data protection law.
The ICO has several powers under the data protection legislation to tackle the unlawful processing of personal data, including the power to serve substantial civil monetary penalties for serious breaches of the legislation. Details of the ICO’s enforcement activity can be found on its website.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many websites have been blocked by Internet service providers for failure to comply with the Online Safety Act 2023.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As the independent regulator for online safety, Ofcom is responsible for enforcing the Online Safety Act.
Ofcom has a range of strong enforcement powers. These include imposing fines of up to £18 million, or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, and in the most severe cases, applying to the courts to initiate business disruption measures.
Ofcom is actively enforcing the regime, and we are clear that they have our full backing to take whatever action is necessary to keep people safe online. Ofcom continues to monitor compliance and publish updates on enforcement activity.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if civil servants in the Government Communications Service are tasked with monitoring social media posts.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government Communication Service (GCS) monitors publicly available media posts, under strict controls, to measure communication effectiveness, understand public narratives, and address potential mis/disinformation.
GCS does not access private information or monitor individuals, but collects, stores, and processes data from public social media posts.
Reports may include examples of high-performing public content relevant to government priorities, and adheres to a published Privacy Notice (link below) outlining the legal basis for monitoring.
GCS uses commercially available automated and AI tools, such as Storyzy, procured via the civil service framework, for information environment analysis; no external contractors are used.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support community based preventative services for elderly people in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The 10-Year Health Plan sets out our vision for a Neighbourhood Health Service. The Neighbourhood Health Service will embody our new preventative principle that care should happen as locally as it can, digitally by default, in a person’s home if possible, in a neighbourhood health centre when needed, and only in a hospital if necessary.
We have launched wave one of the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation Programme (NNHIP) in 43 areas across England, including North East Lincolnshire. The NNHIP is supporting systems across the country in driving innovation and integration at a local level, to improve the care they provide to their communities.
We expect neighbourhood teams and services to be designed in a way that reflects the specific needs of local populations, and which could include services for elderly people. While the focus on personalised, coordinated care will be consistent, that will mean the service will look different in rural communities such as Lincolnshire, coastal towns, or deprived inner cities.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to support local enforcement action against antisocial vehicle use in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.
Our Crime and Policing Bill will give the police greater powers to clamp down on all vehicles in anti-social behaviour with officers no longer required to issue a warning before seizing these vehicles.
The Government has consulted on proposals to allow the police to dispose of seized vehicles which have been used anti-socially quicker. The consultation closed on 8 July and we will publish the outcome in due course.
Combined, our measures will help tackle the scourge of vehicles ridden anti-socially in Lincolnshire by sending a clear message to would be offenders and local communities that this behaviour will not be tolerated
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (1) individuals and (2) organisations have been (a) investigated and (b) prosecuted for fraud in relation to COVID-19 funds since 2020.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC have interpreted ‘COVID-19 funds’ as the ‘HMRC administered COVID-19 support schemes’, including Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), Eat Out to Help Out (EOHO), the Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) (previously the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy until 2023) administered Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), and Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS).
Although you have requested the data be broken down into individuals and organisations, HMRC do not hold the data at that level of detail. SEISS claims relate to individuals, whereas CJRS involves payroll, however, CJRS may also fall within the Income Tax (IT) or Corporation Tax (CT) regime. To add complexity, all charges for recovery of overpayments on the HMRC schemes are raised under IT legislation.
By the end of March 2025, HMRC had opened 53 criminal investigations into suspected fraud within the schemes and made a total of 99 arrests. There have been 4 convictions so far. Further ongoing criminal investigation activity has yet to be concluded within the criminal justice system and is subject to those timescales.
In this timeframe, HMRC also carried out more than 47,000 compliance checks using civil powers, where the amount claimed was out of step with other information. The risk that the claim was incorrect may have been due to a range of reasons from an honest mistake through to fraud.
DBT has worked with enforcement partners to tackle fraud linked to COVID-19 loan schemes. This includes the National Investigation Service (NATIS) and the Insolvency Service (INSS). To date, the Insolvency Service has obtained disqualifications against 2,595 directors, bankruptcy restrictions against 381 individuals and 82 successful criminal convictions in respect of COVID-19 financial support scheme misconduct. The Agency has also helped to secure more than £6 million in compensation related to COVID-19 financial support scheme abuse. Since 2020, NATIS has opened a total of 254 investigations covering both individuals and organisations. NATIS has secured 14 convictions up to November 2025.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to support patients with pulmonary fibrosis in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is for the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board, working closely with National Health Service providers and other stakeholders, to commission services to meet the needs to their population and deliver value for the taxpayer.
I understand that a range of services, across primary and secondary care, are in place in Lincolnshire to support the diagnosis, treatment, and management of patients with pulmonary fibrosis, including at the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of patients in (1) Lincolnshire and (2) England have waited for (a) 90 and (b) 150 days for brain tumour test results in each of the last three years.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England publishes waiting time data from referral to being informed of a cancer diagnosis or having it ruled out for brain and central nervous system. This is the 28-day Faster Diagnosis Standard. This includes the waiting time data for patients in Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board and in England.
This data is publicly available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/cancer-waiting-times/
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to support the road haulage industry in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
National support for the road haulage industry includes joint investment with industry in lorry parking and driver welfare facilities of up to £35.7m, including Lincolnshire. This is in addition to up to £30 million joint investment by National Highways and industry to improve lorry parking on the strategic road network. Further National Highways funding is planned for the third road investment strategy (RIS3) as part of the Customer and Community Designated Funds, subject to confirmation of National Highways’ RIS3 settlement.
Support for the sector’s decarbonisation includes the Plug-in Truck Grant which provides a contribution to the upfront purchase costs of zero emission vehicles, the Zero Emission HGV and Infrastructure Demonstrator (ZEHID) programme, which is now closed to new applicants, but is providing up to £200m to fund hundreds of ZE HGVs and their associated recharging and refuelling sites and the Depot Charging Scheme which closes on the 28 November 2025, and will support HGV, van and coach fleet operators with the cost of installing charging infrastructure at depot sites.
Qualifying Operators in Lincolnshire have had the opportunity to apply for national schemes.