Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 79293 on Offences against Children: Criminal Investigation, when she expects phase one of Operation Beaconport to conclude.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
A new national police operation into group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse, Operation BEACONPORT, is now underway and being overseen by the NCA in collaboration with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and other policing partners, as recommended in Baroness Casey’s report. This will identify more perpetrators, give victims the justice they deserve, ensure best practice is shared, and equip the system to deal with complex cases more effectively.
This will be done through assistance to live investigations through support and guidance, a review of cases where they were closed with no further action, improving operating models to ensure child sexual exploitation and abuse is treated as serious and organised crime, and ensuring technology is harnessed to identify vulnerable children and safeguard them. It will also identify the prolific perpetrators carrying out these heinous offences.
Terms of Reference are being discussed and agreed with policing partners with future budgets subject to the department’s allocation process.
The closed case review element will have phases running concurrently. Each phase will build on the last.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what additional support from the Global F-35 programme has the Royal Navy received in order to meet Full Operational Capability for the recent deployment of the Carrier Strike Group.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
I am withholding the specific criteria for achieving Full Operating Capability as it would harm the security and capability of the Armed Forces. The declaration of Full Operating Capability remains on track. The decision will be based on objective criteria and the subjective assessment of the Senior Responsible Owner, following detailed and rigorous analysis, which will be captured in the Full Operating Capability acceptance case report.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what criteria he plans to use to declare Full Operating Capability for the F-35 fleet.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
I am withholding the specific criteria for achieving Full Operating Capability as it would harm the security and capability of the Armed Forces. The declaration of Full Operating Capability remains on track. The decision will be based on objective criteria and the subjective assessment of the Senior Responsible Owner, following detailed and rigorous analysis, which will be captured in the Full Operating Capability acceptance case report.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to paragraph 5 of the Committee of Public Accounts report entitled The UK’s F-35 stealth fighter capability, HC1232, what steps he has taken to help tackle increases in the F-35 stealth fighter capacity programme’s whole-life costs.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
This will be achieved through routine Departmental financial management throughout the life of the F-35 fleet to the out-of-service date.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 79293 on Offences against Children: Criminal Investigation, how many phases will Operation Beaconport have; and if she will set out the scope of each phase.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
A new national police operation into group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse, Operation BEACONPORT, is now underway and being overseen by the NCA in collaboration with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and other policing partners, as recommended in Baroness Casey’s report. This will identify more perpetrators, give victims the justice they deserve, ensure best practice is shared, and equip the system to deal with complex cases more effectively.
This will be done through assistance to live investigations through support and guidance, a review of cases where they were closed with no further action, improving operating models to ensure child sexual exploitation and abuse is treated as serious and organised crime, and ensuring technology is harnessed to identify vulnerable children and safeguard them. It will also identify the prolific perpetrators carrying out these heinous offences.
Terms of Reference are being discussed and agreed with policing partners with future budgets subject to the department’s allocation process.
The closed case review element will have phases running concurrently. Each phase will build on the last.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 October 2025 to Question 79293 on Offences against Children: Criminal Investigation, what her timetable is for setting the terms of reference for Operation Beaconport.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
A new national police operation into group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse, Operation BEACONPORT, is now underway and being overseen by the NCA in collaboration with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and other policing partners, as recommended in Baroness Casey’s report. This will identify more perpetrators, give victims the justice they deserve, ensure best practice is shared, and equip the system to deal with complex cases more effectively.
This will be done through assistance to live investigations through support and guidance, a review of cases where they were closed with no further action, improving operating models to ensure child sexual exploitation and abuse is treated as serious and organised crime, and ensuring technology is harnessed to identify vulnerable children and safeguard them. It will also identify the prolific perpetrators carrying out these heinous offences.
Terms of Reference are being discussed and agreed with policing partners with future budgets subject to the department’s allocation process.
The closed case review element will have phases running concurrently. Each phase will build on the last.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many planes was the F-35 training squadron reduced by in order to facilitate the recent deployment of the Carrier Strike Group.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The Lightning Fleet operates as a total Force, individual airframes are not permanently allocated to units. They are allocated on a day-to-day basis to meet daily tasking requirements of each unit. Throughout the period of the Carrier Strike Group deployment the Operational Conversion Unit 207 Squadron has operated sufficient airframes to meet all its planned training and course output requirements.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of implementing a pay-per-mile charge for electric vehicles on their drivers.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government keeps the tax system under review, with changes announced at fiscal events and careful consideration given to the impacts of any changes.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been released in error from HMP Littlehey since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Releases in error have been increasing for several years and are another symptom of the prison system crisis inherited by this Government. On 11 November, the Deputy Prime Minister announced a five-point action plan setting out initial steps to address this issue.
Totals for releases in error, including a breakdown by releasing prison (or Prisoner Escort Custody Services), are published each July in the HMPPS Annual Digest, available via HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2024 to March 2025 - GOV.UK, and provide data up to March 2025.
Breakdowns of the number of people who have been released in error since April 2025 cannot be provided because it would form a subset of releases in error data which underpins future versions of these Official Statistics.
The Government is determined to fix the issue of mistaken releases and ensure the public is properly protected.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 20 July 2025 to Question 69517 on Typhoon Aircraft: Decommissioning, what planned block upgrades there are to the Typhoon programme after 2035.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 20 October 2025 to Question 79721.