Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to ensure people convicted of sexual offences are excluded from early release provisions.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
First, I would like to express my sincere sympathy with all victims of these appalling crimes. This Government inherited a prisons system days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe. Our landmark Sentencing Act 2026 will now deliver a more sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis we inherited, including through the progression model which will help ensure there are always enough places for the courts to be able to send people to custody in order to keep the public safe. The worst thing for victims would be running out of prison space and not being able to lock up dangerous offenders.
The progression model amends release points for offenders on Standard Determinate Sentences.
Over 18,000 offenders serving more serious sentences like Extended Determinate Sentences or life sentences will be unaffected by these reforms and will be kept in prison for as long as they are now. Once released, offenders will be managed under strict licence conditions in the community. Offenders released on licence can be recalled if they breach their conditions or if they cannot be safely managed in the community.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how the Digital Waste Tracking service will help to reduce fly tipping.
Answered by Mary Creagh
Once fully implemented the digital waste tracking service will require certain information about waste movements to be entered before the movement, followed by confirmation that a waste carrier has collected it and confirmation that it has been received at a waste receiving site.
If these confirmations are not provided, then this will highlight to regulators that this waste may have been ‘lost’ and potentially mismanaged. They can then act accordingly to investigate this.
This transparency and near real time data will reduce the opportunities for organised waste criminals to operate; making it much harder to commit waste crime such as fly-tipping.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how the Digital Waste Tracking service will be enforced; and how members of the public can report waste that is not disposed of correctly.
Answered by Mary Creagh
Once fully implemented the digital waste tracking service will require certain information about waste movements to be entered before the movement, followed by confirmation that a waste carrier has collected it and confirmation that it has been received at a waste receiving site.
If these confirmations are not provided, then this will highlight to regulators that this waste may have been ‘lost’ and potentially mismanaged. They can then act accordingly to investigate this.
This transparency and near real time data will reduce the opportunities for organised waste criminals to operate; making it much harder to commit waste crime such as fly-tipping.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when further information regarding the Digital Waste Tracking service will be made available to the public.
Answered by Mary Creagh
Defra is working with the four nations representatives and regulatory bodies to consistently and continuously engage with stakeholders on the development of digital waste tracking, both in the waste industry and software development sectors and with our colleagues in local councils. Timelines and information can be found on this gov.uk webpage - Digital waste tracking service - GOV.UK. Information will be made available as the service develops.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of individuals convicted of animal welfare offences were (a) issued with an animal disqualification order under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in each of the last 10 years and (b) not issued with such an order; and what the average length of disqualification was for those orders.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
This data is not held by the Home Office.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when his Department plans to publish updated estimates of the fiscal and economic return on investment generated by the Access to Work scheme.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government) (Equalities)
In 2018, the Department commissioned NatCen, an independent social research organisation, to explore the feasibility of evaluating the impact of Access to Work: ‘Feasibility of evaluating the impact of the Access to Work programme’.
The Department has also published several qualitative research reports on the scheme, most recently ‘Journeys to Access to Work’ published in June 2026.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of individuals convicted of animal welfare offences went on to commit a further animal welfare offence in each of the last 10 years; and what proportion of those repeat offenders had previously been issued with an animal disqualification order.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested on convictions could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Information regarding animal disqualification orders is not contained in the Ministry of Justice extract of the Police National Computer.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what percentage of variation applications based on diversion of income by the Child Maintenance Service were successful in the last financial year.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service holds data on the number of variation applications made however does not gather data on the specific reason, for example diversion of income.
Therefore, the information requested specific to diversion of income is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many variation applications based on diversion of income were received by the Child Maintenance Service in the last financial year.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Child Maintenance Service holds data on the number of variation applications made however does not gather data on the specific reason, for example diversion of income.
Therefore, the information requested specific to diversion of income is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Annual statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain 2025, published in July 2026, what steps she is taking to replace the use of specially protected species in scientific research with human-specific technologies.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Technology)
The Government is committed to reducing and replacing the use of specially protected species in scientific research through the Replacing Animals in Science strategy. The strategy supports the development, validation and regulatory uptake of human-specific technologies, including advanced cell-based models, organ-on-a-chip systems, data-driven approaches and AI-enabled tools. It includes targeted ambitions to reduce the use of dogs and non-human primates in specific areas of medicines development where scientifically justified and supported by validated alternatives. The use of specially protected species remains subject to stringent controls and is permitted only where no validated alternative exists.