Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to (a) tackle fly tipping and (b) help local authorities to (i) prevent and (ii) prosecute fly tipping.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The PM’s Anti-social Behaviour Action Plan sets out how we will help councils take tougher action against those who fly-tip. We significantly raised the upper limit of on-the-spot fines in July, to £1,000 for fly-tipping and £600 for householders who give their waste to an unauthorised carrier. We have also increased transparency on the use of these fines by publishing league tables on fly-tipping enforcement and consulted stakeholders on ringfencing the money raised from fines for enforcement and clean up activity.
This builds on the £1.2m Defra has provided in grant funding to help more than 30 councils implement projects cracking down on fly-tipping, including Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council who received £23,000 to purchase CCTV equipment. We intend to launch another grant opportunity for councils later this year.
With the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group, we are developing a toolkit to help councils and others tackle fly-tipping. So far, the group has published a guide on how to present robust cases to court and a new framework which sets out how to set up and run effective local partnerships. The toolkit, and other resources, are available online at https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/national-fly-tipping-prevention-group.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help ensure that (a) river and (b) coastal communities are protected from floods this year.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is investing a record £5.2 billion in the flood and coastal erosion risk management capital programme running from 2021 to 2027, which will provide better protection from all sources of flooding. At the end of March 2023, the Environment Agency (EA) estimated that approximately £1.5 billion of this funding has been invested with around 60,000 properties better protected through over 200 completed schemes.
In addition, the Government is investing £200 million between 2021 and 2027 in the Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation programme to support more than 25 local areas to trial innovative approaches for improving resilience for their communities. This includes £36 million support for communities in areas at significant risk of coastal erosion to transition and adapt to a changing climate.
The EA works in partnership with the Met Office as part of the Flood Forecasting Centre to provide flood warning information direct to those who have registered to receive these, as well as a five-day flood forecast through their Check for flooding service.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department plans to take steps to create a Government app for electric vehicle charging which has access to all charging point providers sites.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is driving innovation in the charge point market in order to best support consumers. This would be hindered by mandating a single app.
The Government has instead laid The Public Charge Points Regulations 2023, which will mandate payment roaming at all public charge points. Drivers will then be able to pay for multiple chargepoint networks through one app or smartcard. This will enable streamlined payments across charging networks, without the need for multiple apps.
The Governments expects the market to eventually converge on a few apps that cover the majority of the public charging network.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department is taking to improve road safety for all road users; and what plans he has to help reduce the number of road (a) accidents and (b) fatalities.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Britain’s roads are some of the safest in the world, but we are always looking at ways to help keep drivers and all road users safe. In June 2018 the Department announced £100 million of funding for the Top 50 most dangerous ‘A’ roads in England, to date £147.5 million has been allocated throughout a series of rounds over the last 6 years.
This project works closely with the Local Authorities and the Road Safety Foundation, providing tailored safety interventions specific to each road’s risk, encouraging safe system principles and improving infrastructure for more active travel. This scheme is expected to save 1500 lives over the next 20 years and is already improving safety for all road users.
The Highway Code was updated on 29 January 2022, the changes will lead to improvements in road safety as they encourage more mutual respect and consideration for all road users.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to help ensure that banks are not able to deny banking services to people because of their political beliefs.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has been unequivocal in its view that payment accounts should not be terminated on grounds relating to users’ exercising of their right to lawful freedom of expression or political beliefs. The Government strongly supports this fundamental right afforded to all people in British society. Regulation 18 of the Payments Accounts Regulations 2015 bans this so-called ‘debanking’ of people for their political views in relation to discrimination against UK consumers when they access a payment account provided by a credit institution.
The Government published a policy statement on 21 July that set out its plans to strengthen requirements relating to payment contract terminations. These changes will require reasons for termination to be given and increase the minimum notice period in cases of contract termination to 90 days (subject to limited exceptions) – giving customers more time to challenge a decision through the Financial Ombudsman Service or find a replacement bank.
In addition, the Chancellor has written to the FCA to request an urgent review into the matter of ‘de-banking’ more broadly. The FCA have agreed to undertake this review, and to share the evidence and findings with the Treasury. This will help inform whether further action is necessary to ensure nobody is being unfairly denied banking facilities.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes are deported.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We are absolutely committed to protecting the public by removing foreign criminals and are determined to do all we can to ensure that they cannot frustrate the removal process.
Last year, under the Nationality and Borders Act (NABA) 2022, we expanded the early removal scheme (ERS) for FNOs to allow them to be removed directly from prison from a maximum of 9 months to 12 months before the end of their custodial sentence.
Our new Prisoner Transfer Agreement with Albania came into force in May 2022, and we are working closely with other countries to speed up the removal of foreign national offenders, freeing up space in our prisons and reducing costs to the British taxpayer.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to allocate sufficient resources to the prevention of repeat offences.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This Government is tackling the causes of reoffending to keep our communities safe. Between 2010/11 and 2020/21, the overall proven reoffending rate has decreased from 31.6% to 24.4%.
We know that by helping offenders into skills training, work, and stable accommodation we can significantly reduce their likelihood of reoffending. Over the 3-year Spending Review, we are therefore investing in a range of interventions, including delivering our temporary accommodation service so that prison-leavers have a stable base on release, building stronger links with employers and offering more offenders the chance to work in prison and on release.
We are also delivering probation Commissioned Rehabilitative Services which provide offenders with tailored, community-based support to address areas of need associated with reoffending.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle slow-moving protests.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
It is unacceptable that protests should disrupt the hard-working people going about their daily business.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 is already in force. This raised the maximum penalty for wilful obstruction of the highway to 6 months’ imprisonment, a level 3 fine on the standard scale, or both.
The Public Order Act 2023, which received Royal Assent on 2 May, has also introduced new measures to improve the police’s ability to respond to highly disruptive protests. This includes the offence of interference with the use or operation of key national infrastructure, which, carries a maximum penalty of 12 months’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both on indictment or a maximum penalty of and, six months’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, or both, respectively on summary.
In addition, Parliament has approved a Statutory Instrument providing greater clarity to law enforcement on when conditions can be imposed on public processions causing serious disruption to the life of the community.
We will continue to work closely with the police going forwards to make sure they are able to make full use of these powers.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce burglary rates.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The latest Crime Survey for England and Wales, covering the year to March 2023, shows that domestic burglary has fallen by 55% since the year ending March 2010. We welcome this reduction, but we recognise the significant impact invasive crimes like burglary can have on individuals and the wider community, and we are keen that the number of these crimes is driven even lower.
As we made clear in the Beating Crime Plan, published in July 2021, our approach to tackling burglary focuses on evidenced-based and targeted interventions, such as the Safer Streets Fund. The Safer Streets Fund supports investment in street lighting, home security and other measures, to help prevent crimes such as domestic burglary occurring in the first place. Round 5 of the Fund was launched on 6 July.
This is underpinned by making sure police get the basics right, which is why we welcome the announcement made by the National Police Chiefs’ Council on 8 June that all 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales have been attending all home burglaries since March this year. We are working with police leaders to ensure forces are making their attendance data available to the public.
Furthermore, as part of this back-to-basics approach, police forces across England and Wales have committed to pursue all ‘reasonable lines of enquiry’ where there is a reasonable chance it could lead them to catching a perpetrator and solving a crime. This commitment, announced on 28 August, has been worked up and agreed by the Home Office, in tandem with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing.
And to ensure the police have the resources they need to implement this and tackle crimes like burglary, we have delivered on our commitment to recruit 20,000 additional officers by March 2023.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle changes in the level of bicycle thefts.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Crime Survey for England and Wales for year ending March 2023 shows that the level of bicycle theft offences has reduced by 51% since March 2010.
The Home Office works closely with the British Transport Police (BTP), the national lead for cycle theft, to tackle the theft of bicycles. BTP have launched the ‘double lock it’ campaign with police forces and organisations, providing advice to owners to help better protect their bicycles. Further information on the campaign and bicycle locks can be found here: https://www.btp.police.uk/police-forces/british-transport-police/areas/campaigns/double-lock-it/.
The Department for Transport’s (DfT) Cycling and Walking Plan for England, Gear Change, aims to boost cycling and walking and sets out a number of initiatives to combat cycle theft, including encouraging retailers to number the bicycles they sell and offer customers the opportunity to register their bicycle on a database at the point of sale. The Plan is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cycling-and-walking-plan-for-england.
The BTP-led National Cycle Crime Group, working with DfT, have set up Cycle Crime Reduction Partnerships across the country to coordinate regional enforcement activity to disrupt organised cycle theft.
The Home Office collects and publishes official statistics on the number of bicycle theft offences reported to and recorded by the police in England and Wales and their investigative outcomes, including charges, on a quarterly basis.
These can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables