Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential risk of trail hunting being used to circumvent the Hunting Act 2004.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is aware of concerns on this point. On 26 March, Defra launched a Consultation on Proposals to Prohibit Trail Hunting in England and Wales inviting views on the Government’s proposed approach to implementing a ban. All responses to the consultation will be considered carefully in developing proposals for an effective ban.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (a) what review her Department has undertaken of the exemptions listed in Schedule 1 to the Hunting Act 2004, (b) whether she plans to amend or remove exemptions relating to the stalking and flushing of wild mammals and (c) whether she has considered reviewing the legal definitions of “research and observation” and “rescue of a wild mammal” within the Hunting Act 2004.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans in a generation to improve animal welfare and that is exactly what we will do.
This Government is committed to enacting a ban on trail hunting, that truly protects our countryside, wildlife and rural communities. On 26 March, Defra launched a consultation seeking views on how best to deliver an effective and enforceable ban in England and Wales and on any potential social, community, economic, business or environmental impacts. The consultation will be open until 18 June and all responses to it will be considered carefully in developing our proposals.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to bring forward reforms to the Hunting Act 2004 beyond a ban on trail hunting; and whether she has consulted (a) police forces, (b) prosecutors and (c) animal welfare organisations on potential reforms to the Hunting Act 2004.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans in a generation to improve animal welfare and that is exactly what we will do.
This Government is committed to enacting a ban on trail hunting, that truly protects our countryside, wildlife and rural communities. On 26 March, Defra launched a consultation seeking views on how best to deliver an effective and enforceable ban in England and Wales and on any potential social, community, economic, business or environmental impacts. The consultation will be open until 18 June and all responses to it will be considered carefully in developing our proposals.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to introduce a statutory difference between drag hunting using synthetic scents and activities involving animal-based scent trails.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 26 March, Defra launched a Consultation on Proposals to Prohibit Trail Hunting in England and Wales seeking views on how to deliver a ban in England and Wales, including on any potential implications for drag hunting. All responses to the consultation will be considered carefully in developing detailed proposals for implementing a ban on trail hunting.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions under the Hunting Act 2004 there have been in each of the last five years and whether he has considered changes to evidential thresholds for offences under the Hunting Act 2004.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for a wide variety of offences in the Outcomes by Offences data tool including offences under the Hunting Act 2004. Data related to the years 2021 – 2025 can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
In response to the second part of your question, this is a policy matter for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Enforcement of the Hunting Act is an operational matter for the police. This is in line with their duties to keep the peace, protect communities and prevent the commission of offences, working within the provisions of the legal framework set by Parliament. It is for individual Chief Constables to determine how their resources are deployed, and it is for locally elected PCCs to hold their forces to account. This includes consideration of how the police tackle the crimes that matter most to residents and businesses in rural and urban areas alike. The investigation and prosecution of all criminal offences, including consideration of whether an actual offence has been committed, is a matter for the police and Crown Prosecution Service who have comprehensive powers to take action under criminal law.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the rollout of full fibre broadband infrastructure does not result in prolonged loss of service for households; and whether she has had discussions with network providers, including Openreach, on minimising disruption and providing timely support to affected consumers.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Government works in partnership with communications providers to ensure that networks remain secure, resilient, and accessible, including during emergencies and service disruption. There are statutory obligations on communications providers to take appropriate and proportionate steps to ensure their networks and services remain available. Communication providers are required to take appropriate measures to prepare for and reduce the reduce the risks of incidents occurring, and Ofcom have published Network and Service Resilience Guidance that sets out expectations on how providers can meet statutory obligations. Communication providers are also required to report significant incidents to Ofcom, who have powers to investigate, rectify and penalise communications providers for any infringement of their duties.
Whilst networks are designed to be resilient, events such as severe weather, power cuts, and technical faults can sometimes cause disruption. In these cases, providers must guarantee access to emergency services for at least one hour during a power outage for customers who rely solely on landlines and communicate clearly with customers about any risks or changes to their service, especially during the move to full fibre from analogue lines. Full fibre tends to be more resilient than other forms of technology.
Under Ofcom’s General Conditions of Entitlement Communication Providers are expected to keep customers up to date on disruption to services and when to expect normal service to resume.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is planning to take to reduce taxes on pensioners.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government wishes to encourage pension saving to help ensure that people have funds to draw on throughout retirement. That is why, for the majority of savers, pension contributions made from income during working life are tax-free. This makes pensions tax relief one of the most expensive reliefs in the personal tax system, costing £78.2 billion in 2023/24.
The State Pension is the foundation of the support available to pensioners. Over the course of this Parliament, the yearly amount of the full new State Pension is currently projected to go up by around £2,100. This year the headline rate of the new and basic State Pension will remain below the income tax personal allowance. Furthermore, the Chancellor has said that we will ease the administrative burden for pensioners paying small amounts of tax via simple assessment.
More broadly the Government has established a Pensions Commission to consider the long-term future of the pensions system and ensure it remains strong, fair and sustainable for future generations.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of trends in the use of Skilled Worker visas by UK airlines to recruit non-UK national airline pilots; and what steps her Department is taking to ensure that qualified UK-based pilots are not being disadvantaged in recruitment processes.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The aviation industry is a multinational sector which seeks qualified employees from a range of employment markets. The points-based system aims to strike the right balance between business access to labour and protecting resident workers.
There have been fewer than 100 Skilled Worker visas granted for pilots in the year ending March 2026 and we have seen no evidence to suggest UK-based pilots are being disadvantaged.
Sponsored pilots will need to be paid an annual salary of at least £80,400, and employers would need to pay the Immigration Skills Charge of £1,320 per year of sponsorship in addition to that salary.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of current school attendance enforcement policies in relation to parents with shared custody arrangements; and what plans her Department has to update guidance to local authorities to ensure that penalty notices are issued proportionately where one parent did not have care or control of the child during the period of absence.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department’s guidance sets out that schools and local authorities should take a support first approach when working with families to ensure that their children regularly attend, and that they must consider whether a penalty notice for absence is appropriate in each individual case where one of their pupils reaches the national threshold for considering a penalty notice.
Schools and local authorities should decide on a case-by-case basis which parent(s) to involve in attendance legal intervention, but this should usually be the parent or parents who have allowed the absence, regardless of which parent has applied for a leave of absence.
The meaning of 'parent' in relation to a child includes any person has parental responsibility for the child or who has care of the child, as set out in section 576 of the Education Act 1996. A penalty notice can be issued to each parent liable for the offence or offences under section 444 of the Education Act 1996. The department’s guidance makes clear that penalty notices should usually only be issued to the parent(s) who have allowed the absence.
Asked by: Connor Naismith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department is taking steps to make private landlords responsible for tackling anti-social behaviour caused by their tenants, particularly where it impacts neighbouring residents.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.
We will crack down on those making neighbourhoods feel unsafe and unwelcoming by introducing the new Respect Order, which local authorities will be able to apply for, and which will carry tough sanctions and penalties for persistent adult offenders.
The police, local authorities and social landlords may already apply for a Civil Injunction under Section 1 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 to prevent behaviour that is causing housing-related nuisance and annoyance.
Landlords have powers to regain possession where necessary. The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 shortened the notice period for the existing mandatory eviction ground (7A). Landlords can make a claim to the court immediately in all cases of anti-social behaviour. The Act also ensures judges in possession cases have particular regard to whether tenants have engaged with efforts to resolve their behaviour and the impact on other tenants within HMOs.
Under selective and HMO licensing, local authorities can also use licence conditions to require landlords to take steps to manage and deal with ASB caused by their tenants.