Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make it her policy to include measures to help tackle the resale of live event tickets in the forthcoming King’s Speech.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This Government is committed to putting fans back at the heart of live events and we recently announced a series of measures to end the scourge of ticket touting and protect consumers on the ticket resale market. We will legislate to introduce these measures when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to answer given to Question UIN 77478 on 14 October 2025, what discussions her officials have had with their Saudi counterparts regarding (a) the execution of Jalal Labbad for offences allegedly committed while he was a minor and (b) other juvenile defendants currently on death row.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government continues to monitor individual cases of concern in Saudi Arabia, and we regularly raise human rights with the Saudi authorities, including at ministerial level.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on the basis of what evidence was the estimate of a 20 per cent time saving for judge only trials made, including the following evidence referred to in the Leveson report (i) the quantitative analyses, (ii) the quantitative estimate of impact from the workshop with HMCTS operational staff and (iii) a summary of judicial expectations of time saving; and what is the confidence interval for the 20 per cent estimate.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Hearing cases without a jury negates the need for jury selection, judges explaining legal concepts to jurors, and jury deliberation. There is no denying that these add to the time it takes to hear a case.
The latest figures show offences heard by magistrates already complete more than four times faster than similar cases in the Crown Court.
In Part I of the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, Sir Brian Leveson, one of the foremost judges of his generation, and his Expert Advisers have estimated a new Crown Court bench division would speed up cases by at least 20%. Sir Brian himself has indicated that he believes this was a conservative estimate and could be significantly more in practice.
Further details of the work undertaken to arrive at this assumption can be found below:
Quantitative analyses explored potential proxies for jury trial savings by drawing comparisons within the current system. Whilst there is no directly comparable proxy for judge only trials within our own systems, this provided a framework for elicitation workshops and judicial engagement.
A structured elicitation workshop with expert operational staff from HMCTS. The quantitative analysis was shared with participants, and the workshop generated a suggested estimated range of 10-30% for lower to upper end plausible time savings, with 20% given as a median value.
Engagement session with judges to understand their personal expectations of potential time-savings, intended to provide an anecdotal indication of where and how the judiciary thought time savings may or may not become apparent in a CCBD. Their views were in keeping with wider estimates.
The 20% assumption is also broadly in line with international evidence from New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research who compared quantitative data from judge only and jury trials. Whilst time savings varied by offence type, for all offences it found a 16% reduction in trial length for judge only trials, and a 29% time saving for complex and prejudicial offences.
A full Impact Assessment of the policy measures announced will be published alongside legislation as is usual.
We will continue to monitor conviction rates and sentencing outcomes as part of our ongoing assessments of the criminal justice system.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of requiring shops to hide knives for sale from public view.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Since 2016 there has been a voluntary agreement between the Home Office and most major high street retailers on the responsible sale of knives. The purpose of the agreement is to set out best practice around the sale of knives, including age verification and display.
Retailers who are signatories are required to ensure knives are displayed and packaged securely as appropriate to minimise risk. This should include retailers taking practical and proportionate steps to restrict accessibility and avoid immediate use, to reduce the possibility of injury, and to prevent theft.
We are clear that knives should be sold responsibly. Through measures in the Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, we are increasing the maximum penalties for selling knives to those under the age of 18 and selling prohibited weapons to 2 years imprisonment.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners were (a) released into homelessness and (b) homeless three months after release in each quarter since January 2022.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are taking a number of steps to reduce numbers of those being released from prison homeless, including measures to improve joint processes and guidance across prisons, probation and local authorities. Overall statutory responsibility for housing and homelessness lies with local authorities in both England and Wales.
We are working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and other Departments through the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping to develop a new long-term cross-government strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness.
We deliver our Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 (CAS3) to support prison leavers who are subject to probation supervision and at risk of homelessness, by offering up to 12 weeks of basic transitional accommodation to provide a stable base on release.
We employ 50 prison-based Strategic Housing Specialists, including nine across the female estate, to support prisons to reduce homelessness on release by working in partnership with probation teams and Local Authorities.
Published figures relating to offender accommodation outcomes can be found here: Offender Accommodation Outcome Statistics - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of people needing homelessness relief from local authorities on release from prison.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are taking a number of steps to reduce numbers of those being released from prison homeless, including measures to improve joint processes and guidance across prisons, probation and local authorities. Overall statutory responsibility for housing and homelessness lies with local authorities in both England and Wales.
We are working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and other Departments through the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping to develop a new long-term cross-government strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness.
We deliver our Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 (CAS3) to support prison leavers who are subject to probation supervision and at risk of homelessness, by offering up to 12 weeks of basic transitional accommodation to provide a stable base on release.
We employ 50 prison-based Strategic Housing Specialists, including nine across the female estate, to support prisons to reduce homelessness on release by working in partnership with probation teams and Local Authorities.
Published figures relating to offender accommodation outcomes can be found here: Offender Accommodation Outcome Statistics - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Civil Military Coordination Centre at Kiryat Gat on coordinating aid delivery into Gaza.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 28 October to Question 84235.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what Britain’s role is in the Civil Military Coordination Centre at Kiryat Gat.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 28 October to Question 84235.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the terms of reference are for the Civil Military Coordination Centre at Kiryat Gat.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 28 October to Question 84235.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when she last asked her Bahraini counterpart to allow a research mission by a UN Special Rapporteur to consider the human rights situation in Bahrain.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We continue to encourage all countries to engage constructively with UN mechanisms, including Special Rapporteurs, as part of their international commitments. The UK remains committed to supporting progress on human rights.