Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of UK Overseas Territories on progress made on adopting publicly accessible registers of company beneficial ownership.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to my Written Ministerial Statements of 3 July and 22 July which provide an update on progress achieved to date and details of next steps. We have clearly conveyed to our partners in the remaining Overseas Territories the urgency of meeting previously agreed deadlines and expect prompt action. I raised these points directly with the elected leaders of Bermuda and the Cayman Islands on my visit to those Territories last month, and in my recent conversations and correspondence with the Premier of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Baroness Hodge visited the BVI at my request in September and I recently met with her to discuss her findings. This issue will also be discussed at the upcoming Joint Ministerial Council. The registers should offer streamlined access to a broad range of legitimate users, supporting proactive investigations, deterring the concealment of illicit gains, and promoting maximum transparency.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with his counterpart in Iraq on the rights of (a) women and (b) children in that country.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Countering rollback and promoting the rights of women and girls is a key focus of UK diplomatic and policy engagement and our programming in Iraq. The UK/ Iraq Joint Statement in January 2025 affirmed commitment to deepening cooperation on the Women, Peace and Security agenda and agreed the importance of supporting women's rights organisations. This statement further recognised the need for on-going support for all survivors of Daesh-perpetrated sexual violence, including mothers and their children born of conflict-related sexual violence. The Foreign Secretary will be raising these and other priority issues with her Iraqi counterpart.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many officials were investigated under their Department's disciplinary processes in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Treasury does not hold data on the number of investigations it has conducted. Its disciplinary data collection is limited to the number of formal disciplinary cases that have taken place and number of sanctions issued
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what volume of UK aid has been successfully delivered to Gaza in the last six months.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
All allocations of our Humanitarian Programme are available publicly on Development Tracker. We have published further information on Core Relief Items through the programmes annual review with the next to be published by November 2025. Quantifying how much UK aid has entered into Gaza is difficult, due to the complex operating environment and limited real-time data, as well as Israel's restrictions on humanitarian workers and monitors. But despite Israel's restrictions on access we know UK Aid is having an impact - our funding has enabled UK-Med to complete nearly 750,000 patient consultations in Gaza.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many officials were investigated under their Department's disciplinary processes in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The following table contains the number of Ministry of Justice (inc. HMPPS) employees who had a disciplinary investigation case opened against them between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2025, by financial year:
Financial Year | Number of Employees who had an investigation case opened against them | |
2020 - 2021 | 1,470 | |
2021 - 2022 | 1,443 | |
2022 - 2023 | 1,610 | |
2023 - 2024 | 2,079 | |
2024 - 2025 | 2,467 | |
Caveats
This is based on the latest available investigations data as at 30 September 2025 and includes all cases where the investigation was commissioned or opened between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2025 by financial year.
A small proportion of individuals will have been subject to multiple investigation cases. Within each financial year, individuals are only counted once in this table, regardless of how many investigations are opened against. However, where an individual has an investigation opened in more than one year, they will be counted once in each of those years.
This only includes cases where the individual that the case was opened was employed by MoJ HQ, HMPPS, HMCTS, OPG, LAA, and CICA, and will include all cases regardless of outcome. This excludes non-payroll employees such as agency staff and contractors.
Within HMPPS, all investigation cases related to disciplinary processes and so all investigation cases have been included here. Within MoJ, investigations can relate to either disciplinary processes or grievances processes. Therefore, only investigations relating to disciplinary processes have been included.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when his Department intends to respond to the coroner's Prevention of Future Death report following the death of Stephen Sleaford.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
HM Prison and Probation Service responded to the coroner’s Prevention of Future Death Report following the inquest into the death of Stephen Sleaford on 9 December 2024, which was within the statutory deadline of 56 days from the date of the report. The response is now available on the Chief Coroner’s website.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will ask the Health and Safety Executive to respond to the coroner's Prevention of Future Death report following the death of Graham Faulkner.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) records indicate that a detailed response to the coroner's Prevention of Future Death report following the death of Graham Faulkner was sent by e-mail on 3 July 2024.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to update the HMRC mileage rate to reflect changes to (a) fuel costs, (b) vehicle asset depreciation and (c) vehicle running costs since 2011.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Approved Mileage Allowance Payment rates are used by employers to reimburse an employee's expenses, tax free, for business mileage in their private vehicle. These rates are also used by self-employed drivers to claim tax relief on business mileage (when using simplified motoring expenses), and can be used by organisations to reimburse volunteers who use their own vehicle for voluntary purposes.
Employees can claim up to 45p/mile for the first 10,000 miles annually, followed by up to 25p/mile thereafter. An additional 5p/mile can be claimed for each passenger transported.
The AMAP rates are not mandatory, and employers can choose to pay more or less than the AMAP rate. It is therefore ultimately up to employers to determine the rate at which they reimburse their employees.
The government keeps all taxes under review and the Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has assessed the potential merits of making (a) directors and (b) owners of (i) dissolved and (ii) all other companies personally liable for the underpayment of taxes arising from the adaptation of tax (A) avoidance and (B) evasion schemes that those companies have (1) promoted and (2) made earnings from.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to closing the tax gap and cracking down on avoidance and evasion.
The Government is determined to do more to close in on promoters of marketed tax avoidance and recently consulted on a package of measures to strengthen HMRC’s powers to tackle them.
HMRC also carries out civil and criminal investigations into suspected tax evasion, including where there is suspicion of third parties being involved in fraud or evasions. All investigations are assessed to determine which action would be most appropriate.
It is a fundamental principle of the tax system that taxpayers are responsible for their own tax affairs. However, HMRC does levy penalties on promoters of tax avoidance and uses the Joint and Several Liability legislation to seek to recover penalty liabilities from appropriate individuals: including directors; shadow directors; or participators when the company becomes insolvent.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when she plans to introduce a universal stop notice for tax avoidance schemes.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the damage caused to the tax system by those that promote tax avoidance schemes. It takes action to prevent that damage, for example by publishing details of schemes and promoters to help customers to steer clear of or otherwise exit such schemes.
The Government is determined to do more to close in on promoters of marketed tax avoidance and recently consulted on a package of measures to strengthen existing powers. This included a proposal to introduce a Universal Stop Notice. It will respond to this consultation in due course.