Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to figures from the Electoral Commission released on 2 March 2022 recording the Conservative Party received £80,000 from Lubov Chernukhin in the last quarter, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of donations to political parties.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
UK electoral law already sets out a stringent regime of donations controls that bans foreign donations. Individuals must be on the UK electoral roll to make political donations; in the case of companies, they must be properly carrying on business in the UK. The Government is strengthening the corporate transparency regime to ensure this is the case.
Reportable donations are overseen by the Electoral Commission. If the Hon. Member has a query relating to its operational policy and guidance on permissible donations, she may wish to ask a question via the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission.
More broadly, I would make the following observation: there are people in this country of Russian origin who are British citizens. Many are critics of Putin and have condemned his invasion of Ukraine. It is completely wrong and discriminatory to tar them all with the same brush because of their family background or past nationality.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much levelling up funding he plans to allocate to projects in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Government has allocated around £1.9 billion throughout the UK through the Levelling Up Fund, Community Renewal Fund and Community Ownership Fund, including £191 million in Scotland, £169 million in Wales and £61 million in Northern Ireland since October 2021. Over its lifetime, the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund will invest at least £800 million across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Once launched, every place in the UK will receive a share of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, recognising that even the most affluent parts of the UK contain pockets of deprivation and need support. Allocations for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund will be included in the Prospectus to be published later this Spring.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps the Government is taking to promote freedom of religion or belief for Ahmadiyya Muslims in (a) Newport West constituency, (b) Wales and (c) the UK.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The United Kingdom has a proud tradition of religious tolerance, within the law. The Government is committed to creating a strong and integrated society in which hatred and prejudice are not tolerated and in which all people, including the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, are free to express their religious identity and live without fear of harassment and crime because of it.
We recognise the huge contribution of people of all faiths, beliefs and none, bring to public life, locally and nationally, and are committed to celebrating and promoting this.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans his Department has to roll out the economic development measures within the freeports programme to other UK coastal regions.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
We want all the nations of the UK to be able to share in the benefits of Freeports. We remain committed to establishing our Freeport programme in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as soon as possible.
Given the mixture of reserved and devolved policy levers which are required to realise the full benefits of Freeports, we are working with the devolved administrations to deliver Freeports across the UK.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans his Department has to announce the next group of freeports.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Government is working hard to support the other prospective Freeports. Subject to agreeing their governance arrangements and successfully completing their business cases, we expect the next set of Freeports to begin operations in 2022.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for the levelling-up White Paper of recommendations made in the Coastal Powerhouse Manifesto published by Maritime UK and the Local Government Association Coastal Special Interest Group.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
We appreciate Maritime UK and the Local Government Association Coastal Special Interest Group's detailed and insightful Coastal Powerhouse manifesto and we recognise the value of the recommendations made. We welcome the continuous engagement of the sector as we are progressing with our levelling up agenda. In this respect, we share the view expressed on the need to continue the strong partnership that exists between Government and key stakeholder groups.
Britain's maritime sector is inextricably linked to our island's rich history - to the exploration, free trade and global exchange which laid the foundations for modern Britain. Our maritime sector, our ports, harbours and coastal towns are extremely important to recovery from the pandemic.
As the Coastal Powerhouse Manifesto has highlighted, there are a number of areas where action must be taken to catalyse investment, level-up coastal communities and capitalise on the potential of the UK's coastal regions. That is why we are working with local leaders to ensure every region including coastal areas, cities and towns will recover from COVID-19 and ultimately level-up. The Government will publish a White Paper that builds on existing action being taken across Government, setting out a new policy regime that will drive change for years to come.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he plans to encourage UK media organisations to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
Antisemitism has absolutely no place in our society, which is why we are taking a strong lead in tackling it in all its forms. Following encouragement from the Government, at least three quarters of local councils in the UK have adopted the IHRA definition of Antisemitism.
The Government is committed to a free and independent press and does not intervene in what the press can and cannot publish. The Government is also committed to independent self-regulation of the press. Press regulators issue codes of conduct which provide guidelines on a range of areas, including discrimination, accuracy, privacy, and harassment.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he last discussed tackling Islamophobia with the leaders of the devolved Administrations.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Government remains committed to tackling Islamophobia and recognises the discrimination and intolerance faced by Muslim communities. Criminal Justice is a fully devolved issue in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Wales, we maintain a dialogue and the Welsh Government has been consulted on our forthcoming Hate Crime Strategy.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much the Government spent on supporting Islamophobia Awareness Week 2021.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
We continue to combat islamophobia in all its forms and throughout the year. Islamophobia Awareness Week is an event lead across departments and partners rather than centrally and the data is not available. However, in combatting Islamophobia, we have funded Tell MAMA for over £4 million between 2017 and 2022 to monitor and combat anti-Muslim hate crimes, as well as providing approximately £5 million to the Places of Worship Security Grant over the last five years, which has been used to protect Mosques and other places of worship.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on his plans to tackle Islamophobia; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Government remains committed to tackling islamophobia and recognises the discrimination and intolerance faced by Muslim communities. Our counterparts in the Welsh Government have been consulted on our upcoming Hate Crime Strategy and this will be published in due course.