Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people held pilot licences issued by the Civil Aviation Authority permitting them to fly commercial passenger flights on (a) UK-registered aeroplanes and (b) aeroplanes operated by UK-licensed airlines in each of the last 10 years (i) in total and (ii) broken down by (A) type of licence, (B) sex, (C) age and (D) ethnicity.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We have provided the attached spreadsheet showing the pilot licences issued by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) over the last ten years categorised by type of licence, sex and age. However, the CAA does not hold data on pilot licences categorised by ethnicity.
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle shoplifting.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Shop theft continues to increase at an unacceptable level. We will not stand for this.
Our approach is clear – we want to see more officers on the streets and those officers to be armed with new powers.
That is why we’re giving officers the powers they need through this government’s Crime and Policing Bill, which is introducing a new specific offence of assaulting a retail worker and ending the effective immunity that currently applies for theft of goods of and under £200. We want to remove the perception that those committing shop theft will escape punishment by ensuring there are visible and meaningful consequences for those caught breaking the law.
We are also providing over £7 million over the next three years to support the police and retailers tackle retail crime, including continuing to fund a specialist policing team to disrupt organised retail crime gangs and identify more offenders.
We are committed to harnessing the collective power of Government, law enforcement and businesses to bear down on retail crime. That is why we are backing the Tackling Retail Crime Together strategy, jointly developed by the police and the private sector. This collaborative approach brings together industry knowledge and experience with policing powers, fostering the local and national partnerships that will make a real difference in local areas.
But we want to go further and faster, which is why the Home Secretary recently declared a “Winter of Action”, building on the success of our Safer Streets Summer campaign to tackle town centre crime including shop theft and anti-social behaviour.
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to help ensure effective prosecution for shoplifting.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
This Government’s Safer Streets Mission will drive forward the change we need to crack down on shoplifting – a crime that is blighting our communities.
This Government is putting a stop to the effective immunity for shoplifting of goods below £200 and bringing in a new offence of assaulting a retail worker to protect those who face unacceptable abuse in their roles serving the public.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutes shoplifting cases robustly where the Code of Crown Prosecutors is met. In the financial year 2024/25, the CPS prosecuted 121,216 offences relating to theft from a shop. This was a 39.4% increase from the year before (86,918 in 2023/2024). In the same year, the CPS prosecuted 2,145 attempted shoplifting offences, an increase of 35.6% from the previous year (2023-2024).
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to protect in-school resource provision for pupils with special educational needs.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The department knows there are lots of great examples of mainstream schools delivering specialist provision through resourced provision and special educational needs (SEN) units. They have an important role to play in a more inclusive mainstream system, enabling children to achieve and thrive in a local school.
We are committed to encouraging schools and local authorities to set up resourced provision and SEN units to increase capacity in mainstream schools.
The department has published allocations for £740 million high needs capital in 2025/26 to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or who require alternative provision, including setting up resourced provision or SEN units in mainstream schools.
It is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure there are sufficient school places for pupils in their area, including those with SEND. If a local authority identifies a shortage of places, resulting in a significant number of pupils needing to travel a long way to access a placement, they should consider creating, adapting, or expanding provision to meet that need.
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) adult and (b) child passports have been revoked since 1 January 2024.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested is not centrally held, and could only be collected and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Obtaining the specific information requested would involve collating and verifying information from multiple systems owned by multiple teams across the Home Office and, therefore, could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to NHS dentistry in (a) England, (b) London and (c) West Ham and Beckton constituency.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government plans to tackle the challenges for patients trying to access National Health Service dental care with a plan to provide 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruit new dentists to the areas that need them most.
The responsibility for commissioning primary care services, including NHS dentistry, to meet the needs of the local population has been delegated to the integrated care boards (ICBs) across England. For the West Ham and Beckton constituency, this is the NHS North East London ICB. ICBs have been asked to start making extra urgent dental appointments available from April 2025. The North East London ICB is expected to deliver 17,452 additional urgent dental appointments as part of the scheme.
ICBs have started to recruit posts through the Golden Hello scheme. This recruitment incentive will see up to 240 dentists receiving payments of £20,000 to work in those areas that need them most for three years.
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her Department's White Paper entitled Restoring control over the immigration system, published on 12 May 2025, whether the proposed extension of the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain to ten years will apply retrospectively for Skilled Worker Visa holders residing in the UK.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We will be consulting on the earned settlement scheme later this year and further details on the proposed scheme will be provided at that time.
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the availability of affordable housing in West Ham and Beckton constituency.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government is committed to the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation.
At the Spending Review on 11 June, the Chancellor confirmed £39 billion for a successor to the Affordable Homes Programme over 10 years from 2026-27 to 2035-36. For the first time in recent memory, this will give registered providers a decade of certainty over the capital funding they can access to build new housing developments.
The new programme will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and homeownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for social rent. We will publish further details shortly including in relation to the kinds of homes and schemes it will fund and the timeline for opening bids.
Following the recent consultation, the government has also confirmed a rent settlement of CPI + 1% for ten years, alongside a consultation to follow shortly on how to implement a catch-up (convergence) mechanism for social rents below formula.
We are also providing £950m capital for the fourth round of the Local Authority Housing Fund – the largest round of the fund to date – to support local authorities in England increase the supply of better quality temporary accommodation and drive down the use of Bed and Breakfasts for families with children. The fund will also provide safe and suitable housing for those on the Afghan Resettlement Programme. LAHF investment will provide local authorities with a lasting affordable housing asset for the future.
The government has also confirmed over £1 billion between 2026-27 and 2029-30 to accelerate social housing remediation by giving social housing providers equal access to government funding as private building owners receive. This will support providers of social housing to supply more affordable homes, while also improving the living conditions of tenants.
These announcements cover the main elements of our social and affordable housing investment strategy in this parliament. We will announce further details about other aspects of our reform programme, including in respect of future regulation on quality and safety and Right to Buy, shortly, so that there is the clarity and certainty needed to quickly ramp up investment in existing and new stock.
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if she will take steps to extend the availability of DNA spit kits to licensed private hire drivers.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Violence against transport workers is unacceptable and something I take very seriously. That is why my Department's best practice guidance to taxi and private hire vehicle licensing authorities in England sets out my expectations for the sector including assessing risks to private hire vehicle drivers whilst they are at work. This could include the provision of 'spit kits' to help deter such repellent behaviour.
Asked by: James Asser (Labour - West Ham and Beckton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of protections for overseas (a) health and (b) social care workers on a visa sponsorship arrangement.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government condemns the exploitation of international care workers by rogue employers in the adult social care sector and continues to take robust action against this unscrupulous behaviour.
We have recently implemented a prohibition on Skilled Worker sponsors recouping sponsorship costs from those they sponsor, and those doing so now risk losing their licence. We are also working to ensure sponsorship and employment systems are more strongly aligned.
On 9 April we further clarified our Skilled Worker salary assessment rules to make clear that sponsors cannot inflate wages by including loans for the worker’s immigration application.