Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact that changes to shotgun licensing will have on the time taken to process shotgun licence renewals in South Suffolk.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government response to the 2023 firearms licensing consultation, published on 13 February 2025, included a commitment to having a public consultation on strengthening the licensing controls on shotguns to bring them more into line with the controls on other firearms in the interests of public safety. We intend to publish this consultation shortly.
We will carefully consider all of the views put forward during the consultation, including the potential impact on those who live and work in rural communities, before taking any decisions on whether changes are necessary in the interests of public safety. We will also provide an impact assessment in relation to any changes that we bring forward after the consultation, in the normal way.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) RCH155 and (b) Boxer-variants will each Royal Artillery regiment be equipped with.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Mobile Fires Platform Project which will deliver the Remote-Controlled Howitzer 155mm (RCH 155) Calibre Wheeled Artillery System intended to be mounted on Boxer, remains in its assessment phase and is subject to contract. It is therefore too early to confirm platform numbers, delivery timelines and expected in-service dates. Analysis of future equipment fielding is ongoing. We are making good progress however with the purchase of two of these systems which are undergoing further testing.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many RCH155 does he plan to purchase in total.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Mobile Fires Platform Project which will deliver the Remote-Controlled Howitzer 155mm (RCH 155) Calibre Wheeled Artillery System intended to be mounted on Boxer, remains in its assessment phase and is subject to contract. It is therefore too early to confirm platform numbers, delivery timelines and expected in-service dates. Analysis of future equipment fielding is ongoing. We are making good progress however with the purchase of two of these systems which are undergoing further testing.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the junk food advertising ban on trends in the level of obesity.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Our manifesto commitment to restrict junk food TV advertising before 9pm, and online at all times, was a moral imperative. This measure is expected to remove around 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets each year and prevent 20,000 cases of childhood obesity. With this milestone achieved, we’re well on the way to raising the healthiest generation of children ever.Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Written Statement of 8 December 2025 on Support for Young People, HCWS1137, and the ambition to support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships, what modelling his Department has done of employer demand for 16–24-year-old apprentices in each region; what steps he is taking to ensure the new funding does not displace existing apprenticeship opportunities; and whether he will publish the evidence base underpinning the expansion of foundation apprenticeships into lower-wage sectors such as retail and hospitality.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
From the next academic year, the government will fully fund apprenticeship training for all eligible people aged under 25 at non-levy paying employers, essentially small and medium sized enterprises. Currently, this only happens for apprentices aged 16-21 and apprentices aged 22-24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or have been, or are, in local authority care. This change will make it easier for those employers, who take on a high proportion of young apprentices, to engage with apprenticeships by cutting costs and reducing bureaucracy for both them and their training providers. It is backed by the additional £725m of funding for the Growth and Skills Levy announced at the Autumn Budget.
As apprenticeships are jobs with training, uptake is subject to employer demand and also learners choosing to undertake apprenticeships. The department encourages both through its facilitation of the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network which operates across all English regions. The network has around 2,500 volunteers, comprising employers and apprentices, who support small businesses to recruit and retain apprentices, and to go into schools and colleges to promote the benefits of apprenticeships for young people.
To support our ambition of 50,000 more young people undertaking apprenticeships, we are also expanding foundation apprenticeships into sectors that traditionally recruit young people such as hospitality and retail. As we develop and implement the reformed Growth and Skills offer, including the rollout of foundation apprenticeships, the government engages regularly with employers and their representative organisations. The department also works closely with Skills England to identify sectors where there is employer demand for foundation apprenticeships and where foundation apprenticeships will be suitable and have clear progression routes.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of merging (i) shotgun and (ii) rifle licensing systems will have on constituents in South Suffolk.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government response to the 2023 firearms licensing consultation, published on 13 February 2025, included a commitment to having a public consultation on strengthening the licensing controls on shotguns to bring them more into line with the controls on other firearms in the interests of public safety. We intend to publish this consultation shortly.
We will carefully consider all of the views put forward during the consultation, including the potential impact on those who live and work in rural communities, before taking any decisions on whether changes are necessary in the interests of public safety. We will also provide an impact assessment in relation to any changes that we bring forward after the consultation, in the normal way.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number of people aged 16 to 24 who started employment in the hospitality sector in (a) October 2024, (b) April 2025 and (c) October 2025.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not hold this information. HMRC holds data on UK payrolled employment by age and industry and should be able to provide the information requested.
Asked by: Kirith Entwistle (Labour - Bolton North East)
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 ensure that (a) parents and (b) local authorities are adequately informed of the risks of Shigella-causing bacterial infections from paddling at beaches in the North West.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Environment Agency (EA) analyses samples at least monthly, from every bathing water throughout the bathing water season. However, in practice, the EA samples more frequently than this to reduce the risk of misclassification.
The EA publishes sampling information during the bathing season on Swimfo to inform the general public of water quality and provide daily pollution risk warnings. This includes details on all bathing waters, including classifications, pollution sources, and seasonal water quality results.
Local Authorities use this information to provide bathing water quality information on physical signs at each designated bathing water, including their formal classification and a link to online details. The EA samples are tested for different bacteria including E.Coli and intestinal enterococci as the most reliable indictors of faecal contamination, but this does not include Shigella.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help improve police efficiency in (a) Surrey and (b) Surrey Heath constituency.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The policing system must be equipped to serve the public effectively and to make efficient use of its funding and resources.
The Government has established a Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme which will save £354 million and free up millions of officer hours by 2029 across policing. The programme’s initiatives are available to all 43 forces across England & Wales. Surrey has already started to participate in some of the programme’s offerings including signing up to a new commercial energy strategy to increase price certainty and reduce risk in a volatile market.
In the coming weeks, we will be setting out further reforms in a white paper on policing.
Surrey Police will receive up to £343 million in 2026/27, an increase of up to £14.8 million when compared to the 2025/26 police funding settlement.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to increase training and funding for police firearm licensing authorities.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs Council have developed national training on firearms licensing. The Statutory Guidance on firearms licensing for Chief Officers of Police, most recently revised and strengthened on 5 August 2025, makes it clear that the training is mandatory for all police forces in England and Wales.
The Government has taken action to increase the fees for firearms and shotgun licensing applications that are charged by police forces. On 5 February 2025, increased fees came into effect to provide full-cost recovery for firearms licensing applications processed by police forces. The extra income from fees will help police forces to better resource and train their firearms licensing teams. This was the first increase in fees for 10 years since 2015 and we intend to conduct more regular reviews of fees in the future.