Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of climate change on conflict in Sudan.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We use analysis of the drivers of conflict, including climate change, to inform our policy and programming in Sudan. Our response to the conflict seeks to address the needs of the most vulnerable populations, including those susceptible to the impact of climate change.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the costs of fraud in his Department in the last three financial years.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Since the establishment of the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) in 2022, the Department has been working closely with PSFA to implement the Counter Fraud Functional Standard framework, a common set of standards required by government departments to counter fraud, bribery, and corruption. To support compliance with the Functional Standard, the Department internally published its Counter Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Strategy for 2022-2025 to improve culture and awareness and build on the counter fraud activity delivered since the launch of DfT’s first strategy in 2019.
The following key activities have taken place to drive improvements in reducing fraud by improving detection activity, enhancing fraud prevention and building capability.
To support detection activity the department utilises Spotlight, a due diligence tool provided to departments by the Cabinet Office to help identify areas of risk and potential fraud and error. The department has also commenced a data analytics project utilising artificial intelligence to identify instances of fraud and error within high-risk spending areas. This initiative is providing comprehensive insights into fraudulent activities and errors that can be used to further strengthen controls and seek recovery of funds where fraud or error is identified. The Department’s contract management teams have furthermore increased their focus on fraud risks and detection, resulting in substantial sums recovered and returned to the Exchequer. Detected, prevented and recovered fraud is formally disclosed to the Cabinet Office who report publicly on these results across government in their annual Fraud Landscape Report.
On fraud prevention, a Fraud Risk Assessment (FRA) policy was introduced to enable accountable officers across DfT to take responsibility in ensuring that fraud, bribery, and corruption risks are adequately understood and effectively managed. The FRA process has been embedded into business-as-usual activity and has supported the department in identifying fraud risks, driving control improvements, and fostering continuous improvement in fraud risk management practices.
To build capability DfT has increased its engagement with the PSFA to enhance oversight, prioritisation of risks, delivery against counter fraud functional standards and sharing of best practice. We have increased our collaboration across the departmental group and across government networks to share lessons learnt, horizon scan for new and emerging trends and deliver collaborative best practice workshops, training sessions and awareness campaigns on areas of development e.g. risk assessment.
In 2023 and early 2024, DfT was one of the first departments assessed under the latest framework by PSFA for compliance against the Counter Fraud Functional Standard. The Department is now working with PSFA to take forward the recommendations from this review to drive further improvements in the Department’s counter-fraud function.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she will hold discussions with the Leader of the House on making parliamentary time available for scrutiny of Ofcom’s guidance on age verification and age assurance before publication of a government response.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Parliamentary scheduling is a matter for the Business Managers.
The government is focused on implementing the Online Safety Act as quickly as possible. Ofcom published its consultation on draft guidance about use of age assurance for sites displaying pornographic content on 5 December 2023, and this was open for responses until 5 March 2024. The Act requires that Ofcom consult with the Secretary of State before producing this guidance.
For the broader duties under the Act about protecting children from harmful content, we expect Ofcom to publish its draft codes of practice later in the Spring. The Act requires that codes of practice are laid in both Houses before coming into force.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of levels of bovine tuberculosis.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Bovine TB is a devolved policy matter.
The latest bovine TB statistics published on GOV.UK, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/bovine-tb, continue to show a gradually improving picture in most headline indicators for England overall and particularly in the High Risk Area and the Edge Area. In 2023 the lowest annual incidence of TB in cattle herds in England was recorded since 2007. In the Low Risk Area, the incidence and prevalence of TB in cattle herds remain very low and stable.
During the 2023 calendar year, just over 20,000 cattle were slaughtered for TB-related reasons in England, having peaked at 34,500 in 2018.
Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to include renewable electricity within the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is currently supporting the rollout of public electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure through targeted grants, the Local EV Infrastructure Fund and the Rapid Charging Fund. However, the Government continues to review all options to support the continued rollout of public EV chargepoints.
Last year, the Department commissioned independent research into potential regulation-based options that may be required to support the continued rollout of public EV chargepoints from mid-2020s, including their opportunities, risks and likely impact. Options under consideration include the potential merits of including renewable electricity in the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation. This research is still in progress.
Asked by: Martin Vickers (Conservative - Cleethorpes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the report entitled Emission Factors for Domestic Solid Fuels Project - Work Package 1 Report, published on 3 January 2024.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We continue to undertake regular monitoring of emission sources of air pollutants to inform future policy. The results from Work Package 1 of this project are preliminary. An assessment of the implications for policies will be considered after the project is complete.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 programme in ensuring prison leavers find settled accommodation following up to 12 weeks of temporary accommodation.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMPPS Community Accommodation Service (CAS) provides transitional accommodation via three tiers of support, each focused on a different cohort. CAS3 was launched in July 2021, providing up to 12 weeks’ guaranteed accommodation on release for those leaving prison at risk of homelessness, with support to move on to settled accommodation. Initially implemented in five probation regions (Yorkshire and the Humber; North West; Greater Manchester; East of England; and Kent, Surrey and Sussex), the service was rolled out to Wales in June 2022. From April 2023, the CAS3 service was operating in all probation regions in England and Wales. By January 2023, the proportion of offenders housed on the first night of their release from custody was 7.6 percentage points higher in CAS3 regions versus non-CAS3 regions.
We are undertaking an evaluation of the impact of CAS3 on offenders’ obtaining settled accommodation and employment, and on re-offending outcomes. The report is due to be published in the autumn.
The National Audit Office’s report “Improving resettlement support for prison leavers to reduce reoffending”, published in May 2023, looks at the impact of CAS3 on accommodation outcomes during the period up to February 2023. It can be accessed via the following link:
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of prison leavers went on to live in settled accommodation after using the Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMPPS Community Accommodation Service (CAS) provides transitional accommodation via three tiers of support, each focused on a different cohort. CAS3 was launched in July 2021, providing up to 12 weeks’ guaranteed accommodation on release for those leaving prison at risk of homelessness, with support to move on to settled accommodation. Initially implemented in five probation regions (Yorkshire and the Humber; North West; Greater Manchester; East of England; and Kent, Surrey and Sussex), the service was rolled out to Wales in June 2022. From April 2023, the CAS3 service was operating in all probation regions in England and Wales. By January 2023, the proportion of offenders housed on the first night of their release from custody was 7.6 percentage points higher in CAS3 regions versus non-CAS3 regions.
We are undertaking an evaluation of the impact of CAS3 on offenders’ obtaining settled accommodation and employment, and on re-offending outcomes. The report is due to be published in the autumn.
The National Audit Office’s report “Improving resettlement support for prison leavers to reduce reoffending”, published in May 2023, looks at the impact of CAS3 on accommodation outcomes during the period up to February 2023. It can be accessed via the following link:
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for how many and what proportion of people on community sentences with a supervision element was a breach recorded in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The supervision requirement was phased out with the introduction of Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014, therefore we have used the Rehabilitation Activity Requirement as the data source in this response as the best match to Supervision.
Between 01/04/2022 and 31/03/2023, the last full year for which data is available, breaches were initiated one or more times for 39,617 individuals with a Rehabilitation Activity Requirement as part of their Community Sentence.
During this period, the typical number of persons with an active Rehabilitation Activity Requirement was 84,608. As the caseload will vary, with a vast number of sentences commencing and ending on a daily basis, it is not possible to provide a figure for the proportion of those with a Rehabilitation Activity Requirement, with a breach recorded.
It should be noted that a breach being initiated does not necessarily mean that a breach was heard at court, or resulted in a Court hearing, they may instead have been withdrawn due to renewed compliance, at the Probation Practitioner’s professional judgement. Breaches are undertaken for a number of reasons, including non-attendance, unacceptable behaviour and commission of further offences.
Data are as at 16/04/2024. Data are sourced from nDelius and while these data have been assured as much as practical, as with any large administrative dataset, the data should not be assumed to be accurate to the last value presented.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure people leaving prison have settled accommodation upon release.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is committed to preventing homelessness and works closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the Welsh Government to do so. Prisons and probation have a statutory duty to refer someone at risk of homelessness to a local authority for assistance, and we have worked closely with DLUHC on the design and delivery of their Accommodation for Ex-Offenders scheme. We have set up a Cross-Whitehall Accommodation Board, attended by officials from MoJ, HMPPS, Welsh Government and DLUHC, to ensure collaboration across policy and operational areas. In the year to March 2023, 86% of prison leavers were in accommodation on their first night of release from custody (excluding cases where the status was unknown). This is up from 80% in 2019-20, the year immediately before our accommodation investments began.
In July 2021, we launched our groundbreaking Community Accommodation Service Tier-3 in five probation regions, to guarantee up to 12-weeks temporary accommodation to prison leavers subject to probation supervision who are at risk of homelessness on release, including those released under the End of Custody Supervised Licence measure. From April 2023, the service was expanded across all probation regions in England and Wales and continues to bring new beds online as the service embeds. By January 2023, the proportion of offenders housed on the first night of their release from custody was 7.6 percentage points higher in CAS3 regions versus non-CAS3 regions.