Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2024 to Question 19048 on Gaza: Israel Defense Forces, whether any products made by Elbit Systems exported before 2 September 2024 were used by Israel Defence Forces in operations in Gaza.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Following the suspension of export licences announced on 2 September, there are currently no extant export licences for items that we assess might be for use by the Israel Defense Forces in military operations in the Gaza conflict (except for F-35 components, which have been excluded from the ambit of the suspension). We continue to keep export licences for Israel under continual and careful review.
Licences where there is no clear risk the items could be used in military operations in the conflict remain extant. These cover items such as body armour for NGOs, journalists, components for trainer aircraft, items for re-export to third countries, or non-military controlled items such as technology for commercial aircraft, chemical manufacturing equipment, commercial satellite, and spacecraft components.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 20 December 2024 to Questions 19855 and 19857 on Climate Change: Demonstrations and to Questions 19852 and 19853 on Arms Trade: Israel, Question, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of (a) the policing of protests and (b) trends in the number of (a) arrests and (b) convictions for protest related activities.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The right to peacefully protest is a fundamental part of our democratic society.
We have committed to holding expedited post-legislative scrutiny of the Public Order Act 2023 beginning in May 2025. This process will review how the legislation has operated since it came into force. We will carefully consider the outputs of this review.
The full Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 will also be subject to post-legislative scrutiny between April 2025 and April 2027. This will include a review of sections 73, 74 and 79, as well as the other public order measures in the Act.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 20 December 2024 to Questions 19855 and 19857 on Climate Change: Demonstrations and to Questions 19852 and 19853 on Arms Trade: Israel, Question, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the (a) Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2023 and (b) Public Order Act 2023 on (i) the policing of protests and (ii) (A) arrests and (B) convictions for protest related activities.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The right to peacefully protest is a fundamental part of our democratic society.
We have committed to holding expedited post-legislative scrutiny of the Public Order Act 2023 beginning in May 2025. This process will review how the legislation has operated since it came into force. We will carefully consider the outputs of this review.
The full Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 will also be subject to post-legislative scrutiny between April 2025 and April 2027. This will include a review of sections 73, 74 and 79, as well as the other public order measures in the Act.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers of 20 December 2024 to Questions 19855 and 19857 on Climate Change: Demonstrations and to Questions 19852 and 19853 on Arms Trade: Israel, Question, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the implementation of the (a) Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2023 and (b) Public Order Act 2023.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The right to peacefully protest is a fundamental part of our democratic society.
We have committed to holding expedited post-legislative scrutiny of the Public Order Act 2023 beginning in May 2025. This process will review how the legislation has operated since it came into force. We will carefully consider the outputs of this review.
The full Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 will also be subject to post-legislative scrutiny between April 2025 and April 2027. This will include a review of sections 73, 74 and 79, as well as the other public order measures in the Act.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 20 December 2024 to Question 20272 on Social Security Benefits, whether she plans to conduct a statutory public inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 into (a) deaths and (b) serious harm linked to the social security system.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department is fully supportive of the Work and Pensions Select Committee’s ‘safeguarding vulnerable claimants’ inquiry, which is examining how the department supports vulnerable benefit claimants and whether its approach to safeguarding needs to change. I look forward to reading the Committee’s report and recommendations when this inquiry concludes.
We are reviewing the approach we take as a department to safeguard our most vulnerable customers – we are working to introduce and publish a DWP ‘safeguarding approach’. This will tell customers what support is available, how they access it and the level of service they can expect.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether she has any plans to abolish the Shared Accommodation Rate as part of the Government’s Universal Credit review.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Individual policies cannot be considered in isolation and there are currently no plans to abolish the Shared Accommodation Rate (SAR), which is the rate of housing support for individuals under 35 living in the private sector. Government will prioritise the best way to achieve its mission goals within the current challenging fiscal situation at the appropriate fiscal event.
The Government’s housing strategy will set out a long-term vision for a housing market that works for communities and builds 1.5m high-quality homes, including the biggest increase in affordable housing for a generation. We continue to work across-Government to support the development of the strategy and through the Inter-Ministerial Group on Homelessness and Rough Sleeping.
Meanwhile the Department is committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty. Parliament will be updated on progress and future changes accordingly.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to implement recommendation 58 of the report by the Law Commission entitled Home ownership: exercising the right to manage, published on 21 July 2020.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to enacting remaining Law Commission recommendations relating to the Right to Manage.
On 10 February, we laid regulations in Parliament to implement the reforms contained in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 concerning the Right to Manage and these will come into force on Monday 3 March.
The changes will increase the non-residential limit on Right to Manage claims and remove the requirement for leaseholders to pay the freeholders’ process costs.
Amending the threshold for premises excluded from the Right to Manage will allow more leaseholders in mixed-used buildings to take control of their buildings and bear down on poor service and spiralling costs. Ensuring that going forward both parties to a claim bear their own costs will save leaseholders money and reduce the incentive for freeholders to inflate costs and stifle the process.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to increase the security of tenure of houseboat dwellers.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government recognises that while the occupants of residential boats have the benefit of protection under the Protection from Eviction Act 1977 and wider consumer protection legislation, they do not enjoy the same level of tenure security as those in the private rented sector.
We will consider what action might be necessary to provide houseboat residents across with greater security in their homes.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the UK has any agreements with countries under which asylum seekers could be sent to them as a safe third country.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has been clear that it will be ending the Migration and Economic Partnership with Rwanda. The UK has no other such agreements.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Independent - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the deals announced on 16 December 2024 between the Israel Ministry of Defence and Elbit Systems for the supply of advanced communication systems to the Israel Defence Force will include products (a) developed or (b) made by Elbit Systems UK Ltd.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
We cannot comment on individual companies’ commercial plans. Elbit Systems UK Ltd, like all UK companies, would be required to apply for an export licence to export military or dual-use items from the UK.
All such applications are assessed against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria and under the terms of our current suspension of certain licences to Israel, any licence application for components that could be used in military operations in Gaza would currently be refused.