Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what recent steps she has taken to support the prosecution of alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin has opened more than 100,000 files into alleged crimes which he intends to take through the Ukrainian courts.
I remain in regular contact with Prosecutor General Kostin. Alongside UK legal experts from inside and outside government, I am supporting the work of the Office of the Prosecutor General and the International Criminal Court to ensure allegations of war crimes are fully and fairly investigated, by independent, effective and robust legal mechanisms.
The UK is also a founding member of the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group, alongside the US and the EU, which works in the region with Ukraine to coordinate and provide additional support to Ukraine’s domestic prosecutions. We have also ensured to provide training and advisory support to Ukrainian judges and prosecutors across the region.
The UK is committed to ensuring that those responsible for atrocities are held to account for their actions.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps is Department is taking to support (a) industry and (b) academia to engage in the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by James Heappey
The UK is a strong supporter of the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA). The European Regional Office is hosted at the Imperial College Innovation Hub at White City (twinned with a hub in Tallinn, Estonia). The pilot DIANA ‘Challenge Programmes’ were actively promoted to the UK industry and academic communities via UK Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) networks, and over 200 UK-based entities applied. The successful participants are expected to be announced later in October, and the Department will continue to support UK industry and academia to engage with the DIANA pilot programmes, when they begin in early 2024.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to increase the number of air traffic controllers.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The recruitment of air traffic controllers is a commercial matter for the private businesses that operate air traffic control services.
However, the Department is working with industry and other Government Departments, as part of the Generation Aviation programme, to support medium and long term recruitment.
This work includes the promotion of air traffic controller careers, and co-operation with industry and the Department for Education to review current apprenticeship standards so as to encourage greater uptake.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the security situation in northern Kosovo in the context of the recent violence near the village of Banjska.
Answered by James Heappey
The UK strongly condemns the violent attack on Kosovo Police in northern Kosovo on 24 September. The attack involved a large group of organised and well-resourced gunmen. The situation is calm but fragile. The facts of the incident are being established by the Kosovan authorities. At NATO’s request the UK deployed our Strategic Reserve Force to increase KFOR’s ability to support a safe and secure environment. Our forces in country continue to monitor the situation carefully. Both Serbia and Kosovo must refrain from actions that add to current tensions. Dialogue is key for finding long term mutually acceptable solutions and protecting the gains of the last decade.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Government plans to increase its provision of long-range precision strike weapons, (b) artillery, (c) air defence equipment, (d) armoured vehicles and (e) other forms of military support to Ukraine.
Answered by James Heappey
The UK is committed to working with our allies and partners to meet Ukraine's defensive requirements, now and in the future. Priority areas for support in the coming months include air defence to protect Ukraine's critical national infrastructure during the winter, further artillery ammunition, and support to help Ukraine sustain the capabilities already provided, including to recover and repair equipment used in its counter-offensive. Since 2015, over 50,000 Ukrainian personnel have been trained by the UK.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to page 11 of the Defence Command Paper 2023, published in July 2023, what recent progress his Department has made on supporting integrated working practices between different branches of the UK Armed Forces.
Answered by James Heappey
Integration was a key theme of the Integrated Review 21 and the IR Refresh 23. In the Defence Command Paper 23 we confirmed the priority placed on Integration across Defence and the Armed Forces, and announced the establishment of the Integration Design Authority (IDA). The logic of integration is to make more of finite resources within a more competitive world in which speed of adaptation can provide decisive advantage. The pursuit of integration is led by Strategic Command and is being embedded as a whole Defence activity, working alongside the single Services. We constantly check our approach through analysing lessons learnt from conflicts, such as that in Ukraine.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has had discussions with his (a) Lithuanian and (b) Polish counterparts on the potential merits of increasing the number of UK troops on rotational deployment to the Suwalki gap.
Answered by James Heappey
The Defence Secretary has not had any discussion with his Lithuanian or Polish counterparts as there are no UK troops on rotational deployment to the Suwalki gap.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help prevent protestors from disrupting sporting events.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
We must protect the right to peaceful protest, but that does not give licence to a vocal minority to spoil events that millions of us enjoy.
The Home Secretary and the Culture Secretary have chaired productive discussions, with sports, police and government united against preventing further disruption of this kind. The Government has taken action to support the police in their efforts to prevent disruption at major sporting events, including giving them more powers through the Public Order Act 2023. This criminalised actions like ‘locking on’, allowing police to stop and search protesters for items like padlocks and superglue if they suspect they are setting out to cause disruption. We will continue to support sports organisations in their planning as necessary.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent progress her Department has made on connecting innovation ecosystems under the Japan-UK Strategic Economic Policy and Trade Dialogue; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Supported by the Strategic Economic Policy and Trade Dialogue, there is significant work underway across a number of departments and agencies in the UK and Japan to connect our respective innovation ecosystems. This includes organising pitch events, business matching sessions, information exchanges and supporting delegations of innovative start-ups to visit our respective markets. We are also working with external partners. In June, my department announced a new contract awarded to Oxfordshire-based Intralink to run the new UK-Asia Pacific Tech Growth Programme as part of the UK’s Digital Trade Network (DTN). This will help UK tech companies and entrepreneurs to trade across Asia Pacific, with Japan a key market.
Asked by: Mark Logan (Conservative - Bolton North East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a scheme to facilitate the installation of heat pumps in suitable homes with the cost structured as a long-term property linked loan as a means to promote the adoption of clean energy technologies.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Catalysing a market for green finance, which can help meet the costs of retrofit, is a Departmental priority. The Green Home Finance Accelerator is making £20m available to support the testing of innovative solutions. Twenty-six projects were awarded grants for initial development work. One, led by Leeds City Council, explored options for property linked finance. Twenty-three of these projects, including Leeds, recently applied to progress to pilot. Successful applicants will be announced shortly. Assessments of potential will be made once the pilots conclude.
Additionally, the Government has raised grants under the Boiler Upgrade Scheme to £7,500 to support households to replace fossil fuel boilers with low-carbon air-source heat pumps.