Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to prevent industrial action from Royal Fleet Auxiliary a) ratings and b) officers.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a vital element of Defence, enabling the ability to deliver operational effect in conjunction with our allies around the world. We continue to engage constructively with the trade unions which represent RFA ratings and officers. It would not be appropriate to offer more detail of these engagements as discussions are ongoing.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, by when will the first phase of the Light Mobility Vehicle Project be completed.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Light Mobility Vehicle (LMV) sub programme is in its Concept Phase. On current plans, formal market engagement will commence in early 2026.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment has he made of the quality of the a) workmanship and b) quality control on the Ajax production line at General Dynamics Merthyr Tydfil facility.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ajax programme has a Joint Acceptance Group; a collaborative team of British Army and General Dynamics Land Systems-UK personnel who work together to test, evaluate, and formally accept the new Ajax vehicles into service.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress has he made in identifying a replacement for FV433.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Army’s FV433 self-propelled howitzer was replaced in the mid-1990s, by the AS90.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the use of weight-loss injections upon the levels of grocery sales within the UK.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government Office for Science are currently exploring existing evidence and potential future implications of weight-loss drugs.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what will the training capacity shortfall be, and for how long, between the closure of ATR Winchester and opening of new facilities at ATR Pirbright.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
There will be no shortfall in the training capacity between the closure of ATR Winchester and the opening of new facilities at ATR Pirbright. The Army has arranged for additional accommodation and other facilities to be made available for recruits at ATR Pirbright.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which of the 43 police forces in England and Wales do not currently have specialist rape and sexual offence investigation teams.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Rape and sexual offences are amongst the most harmful crimes in society and can have a devastating impact on victims, their loved ones and our communities. Therefore, it is essential that every police force has the right specialist capability to properly investigate these crimes and to deliver justice for victims.
The Home Office’s assessment is that half of the forces in England and Wales do not have a specialist rape and sexual offence team. However, we are committed to ensuring that by the end of this parliament every police force has one.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to help tackle the use of AI in proliferating indecent images of children.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government recognises the serious and evolving threat posed by AI being misused to create child sexual abuse material. We know offenders will seek to exploit emerging technologies for their own sexual gratification.
AI-generated child sexual abuse is not a victimless crime. The material often includes depictions of real children, escalating the risk of contact abuse. The volume and realism of this material can make it increasingly challenging for safeguarding partners to identify and protect children. Offenders can also use these images to groom and blackmail children.
The Government announced in the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy that we will ban nudification apps and other tools designed to create synthetic non-consensual intimate images (NCII) to stop women and girls’ images being tampered with and exploited without their consent.
This Government is also introducing specific measures within the Crime and Policing Bill to tackle AI driven child sexual abuse. These include:
These measures are part of this Government’s ongoing efforts to make sure offenders are held accountable for their actions and have no safe place to hide online.
UK law is crystal clear: child sexual abuse material is illegal, whether AI generated or not. Producing, storing, sharing or searching for any content depicting child sexual abuse is a criminal offence.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she plans to take to help tackle the use of end-to-end encryption in proliferating indecent images of children.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The implementation of E2EE without safety mitigations has catastrophic consequences. In 2024, tech companies reported 7 million fewer incidents of suspected child sexual abuse exploitation to NCMEC compared to 2023. This decline is linked to reduced detection capabilities due to E2EE and platform design choices. Offenders deliberately migrate to encrypted platforms to evade detection, using E2EE as a safe haven for grooming, sextortion, and CSAM distribution.
Technology exists to detect and prevent the abhorrent abuse of children, including in end-to-end encryption (E2EE). Platform design cannot be used as an excuse to avoid detection and reporting obligations. Under the Online Safety Act, in-scope services must assess and act on risks regardless of their technical architecture – including the risk of child sexual exploitation and abuse on public and private parts of their service. Section 121 of the Act gives Ofcom the power to issue a Technology Notice requiring a service to deploy accredited technology – or use best endeavours to develop or source technology – to detect and remove child sexual exploitation and abuse across public and private parts of the service, including encrypted environments, where necessary and proportionate. Where companies fail to protect users, the regulator, Ofcom, can issue fines of up to £18 million or 10% of a company's global revenue, whichever is greater.
The Government announced further work to protect children from sexual abuse online in the Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy. Government will work constructively with companies to make it impossible for children in the UK to take, share or view a nude image. This is about prevention. Preventing the harm from happening in the first place whilst avoiding the need for data collection, data sharing or reporting. The technology exists. Now the government wants to work with tech companies to go further.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason a) RFA Lyme Bay and b) RFA Mounts Bay have not been put to sea.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
As a matter of policy, the Department does not comment on the detailed operational readiness or tasking of individual ships.