Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the easement for levying wine duty beyond February 2025.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Shadow Financial Secretary (Treasury)
The Government has supported the wine industry with duty freezes at 6 of the last 12 fiscal events, including the decision at Spring Budget 2024 to freeze alcohol duty until 1 February 2025.
As part of the new alcohol duty reforms, the Government has removed the sparkling wine premium, meaning sparkling wines now pay the same amount of duty as still wines of the same strength. As a result, an 11% sparkling wine now pays 61p less duty than under the previous duty system. While higher strength wines will be subject to more duty under the reforms than under the previous system, lower strength wines will be subject to less duty.
The Government has been clear that the wine easement is a temporary and transitional measure to support the wine industry to adapt to the new duty system by 1 February 2025. The Government is confident that the necessary changes are manageable within the time provided and that the wine industry has the information required to update their systems and calculate the correct duty.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take to support the wine industry after February 2025.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Shadow Financial Secretary (Treasury)
The Government has supported the wine industry with duty freezes at 6 of the last 12 fiscal events, including the decision at Spring Budget 2024 to freeze alcohol duty until 1 February 2025.
As part of the new alcohol duty reforms, the Government has removed the sparkling wine premium, meaning sparkling wines now pay the same amount of duty as still wines of the same strength. As a result, an 11% sparkling wine now pays 61p less duty than under the previous duty system. While higher strength wines will be subject to more duty under the reforms than under the previous system, lower strength wines will be subject to less duty.
The Government has been clear that the wine easement is a temporary and transitional measure to support the wine industry to adapt to the new duty system by 1 February 2025. The Government is confident that the necessary changes are manageable within the time provided and that the wine industry has the information required to update their systems and calculate the correct duty.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
What recent assessment she has made of the impact of the UK's departure from the EU on the music industry.
Answered by Julia Lopez
The Government continues to support the industry’s adaptation to new requirements, including through our Export Support Service and comprehensive GOV.UK guidance.
Visa and permit free touring routes are available in 24 of 27 Member States including key markets; France, Germany and Spain.
The Music Export Growth Scheme, tripled to £3.2 million until 2025, facilitates UK artist entry into new international markets. MEGS has successfully supported over 400 artist music export projects and SMEs since launching in 2013, with a return on investment of over £13 for every £1 received.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many successful prosecutions have been made for new criminal offences created by the Online Safety Act 2023.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
I wrote to you on this important subject on Friday 17 May 2024. For completeness, I set out my full written response below.
Tackling violence that disproportionately impacts women and girls remains one of this government’s top priorities. Women and girls should be able to go about their lives without being subjected to unwanted sexual images. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutors are committed to tackling this unacceptable behaviour.
As you know, this government has recently enacted new offences designed to tackle online offending through the Online Safety Act 2023. This includes the offence of cyberflashing and other intimate image offences.
The CPS has welcomed the enactment of these new offences designed to target predatory behaviour and non-contact sexual offences. It has introduced comprehensive updates to prosecution guidance to support prosecutors to better recognise behaviour-driven and escalating offending. Additionally, it has published ‘Communications Offences’ legal guidance which includes online offences relating to violence against women and girls.
Whilst this legislation is still new, the police are referring more cases to the CPS for charging decisions and I can confirm the CPS secured their first conviction for cyberflashing in February 2024, resulting in the offender being jailed for 66 weeks at Southend Crown Court. I am unable to provide detail on any other cases where there may be live criminal proceedings.
Regrettably, I am unable to provide you with data on prosecutions under the Online Safety Act yet. However, in July the CPS will publish its next data summary covering the period January to March 2024 and after this summary release, more granular data may be shared publicly. This pause ahead of publishing data allows for quality assurance checks and internal scrutiny before publication.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many prosecutions have been made under new criminal offences created by the Online Safety Act 2023.
Answered by Victoria Prentis
I wrote to you on this important subject on Friday 17 May 2024. For completeness, I set out my full written response below.
Tackling violence that disproportionately impacts women and girls remains one of this government’s top priorities. Women and girls should be able to go about their lives without being subjected to unwanted sexual images. Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutors are committed to tackling this unacceptable behaviour.
As you know, this government has recently enacted new offences designed to tackle online offending through the Online Safety Act 2023. This includes the offence of cyberflashing and other intimate image offences.
The CPS has welcomed the enactment of these new offences designed to target predatory behaviour and non-contact sexual offences. It has introduced comprehensive updates to prosecution guidance to support prosecutors to better recognise behaviour-driven and escalating offending. Additionally, it has published ‘Communications Offences’ legal guidance which includes online offences relating to violence against women and girls.
Whilst this legislation is still new, the police are referring more cases to the CPS for charging decisions and I can confirm the CPS secured their first conviction for cyberflashing in February 2024, resulting in the offender being jailed for 66 weeks at Southend Crown Court. I am unable to provide detail on any other cases where there may be live criminal proceedings.
Regrettably, I am unable to provide you with data on prosecutions under the Online Safety Act yet. However, in July the CPS will publish its next data summary covering the period January to March 2024 and after this summary release, more granular data may be shared publicly. This pause ahead of publishing data allows for quality assurance checks and internal scrutiny before publication.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many personnel of what (a) service and (b) rank were found guilty of drugs possession in each year since 2015.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
Court Martial results from the Military Court Service are available back to 2010 in a searchable format at the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-martial-results-from-the-military-court-centres. Information includes rank, service, final legal charges, finding and overall sentence. However, the particulars of the offence are not included. The detailed information necessary to answer every question would require the recall of physical files from archives to examine each charge sheet, and this could only be achieved at disproportionate cost. In addition, the term ‘dishonourably discharged’, is not used by the UK Armed Forces.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the cost to the public purse was of maintenance of military and defence bases in each year since 2015.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The maintenance costs for Ministry of Defence (MOD) bases in the UK and Overseas dating back to Financial Year 2018-19 is shown in the tables below (rounded to one decimal place).
Defence Infrastructure Organisation
FY2018-19 | FY2019-20 | FY2020-21 | FY2021-22 | FY2022-23 |
£497.2 million | £576 million | £634.3 million | £689.4 million | £706.4 million |
Navy
FY2018-19 | FY2019-20 | FY2020-21 | FY2021-22 | FY2022-23 |
£67.4 million | £68 million | £59 million | £61.6 million | £71.1 million |
Army
FY2018-19 | FY2019-20 | FY2020-21 | FY2021-22 | FY2022-23 |
£5.5 million | £6.4 million | £6.7 million | £4.4 million | £4.8 million |
Defence Equipment & Support
FY2018-19 | FY2019-20 | FY2020-21 | FY2021-22 | FY2022-23 |
£10.8 million | £8.9 million | £10.1 million | £16.9 million | £15 million |
Strategic Command
FY2018-19 | FY2019-20 | FY2020-21 | FY2021-22 | FY2022-23 |
£3.1 million | £4.1 million | £2.3 million | £0.3 million | £0.4 million |
Maintenance on the majority of MOD bases is carried out under contracts managed by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation. However, a proportion of bases are managed by other individual areas of the MOD and are detailed separately in corresponding tables above.
Maintenance cost data prior to Financial Year 2018-19 is not held because IT systems and contracts were not configured to capture data in this way.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people were found (a) guilty and (b) not guilty of the offence of (i) assisting an enemy, (ii) misconduct on operations, (iii) obstructing operations, (iv) mutiny, and (v) desertion in each year since 2015.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
Court Martial results from the Military Court Service are available back to 2010 in a searchable format at the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-martial-results-from-the-military-court-centres. Information includes rank, service, final legal charges, finding and overall sentence. However, the particulars of the offence are not included. The detailed information necessary to answer every question would require the recall of physical files from archives to examine each charge sheet, and this could only be achieved at disproportionate cost. In addition, the term ‘dishonourably discharged’, is not used by the UK Armed Forces.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many people have been dishonourably discharged from service for (a) treason, (b) subterfuge, (c) espionage and (d) spying for a foreign power since 2014.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
Court Martial results from the Military Court Service are available back to 2010 in a searchable format at the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-martial-results-from-the-military-court-centres. Information includes rank, service, final legal charges, finding and overall sentence. However, the particulars of the offence are not included. The detailed information necessary to answer every question would require the recall of physical files from archives to examine each charge sheet, and this could only be achieved at disproportionate cost. In addition, the term ‘dishonourably discharged’, is not used by the UK Armed Forces.
Asked by: Chris Elmore (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many military bases the UK has maintained in Germany in each year since 2010.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The number of military bases maintained by the UK in Germany in each year since 2010 can be found in the table below:
Year | Number of Bases Maintained in Germany |
2010 | 5 |
2011 | 5 |
2012 | 5 |
2013 | 5 |
2014 | 5 |
2015 | 5 |
2015 | 5 |
2016 | 5 |
2017 | 3 |
2018 | 2 |
2019 | 2 |
2020 | 2 |
2021 | 2 |
2022 | 2 |
2023 | 2 |