Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending legislation so that driving disqualification periods commence at the end of any custodial sentence imposed.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Courts can impose a driving disqualification for any offence committed after 01 January 1998.
Driving bans generally start from the day they are imposed at sentencing. This is because, if the offender’s ban was set to commence at the usual point of release, an offender released earlier (on an electronic tag for example) would be able to drive before the ban came into effect. However, Courts have a statutory duty to take into account the impact of a custodial sentence when imposing a driving ban at sentencing. Judges will therefore extend the disqualification period based on the custodial point of release, for all types of sentences including life sentences.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of fines in tackling levels of attendance at schools.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Tackling absence is at the heart of the government’s mission to break down the barriers to opportunity. If children are not in school, it does not matter how effective or well-supported teaching and learning is, they will not benefit. Thanks to the hard work of the sector there has been progress, but we remain a long way off pre-pandemic levels.
The department’s statutory attendance guidance, ‘Working together to improve school attendance’, promotes a support-first model. The guidance is clear that all partners should always work together to understand and remove the barriers to attendance. However, where that support is not successful, not appropriate (for example for term-time holidays), or not engaged with, the law protects pupils’ right to an education. The guidance outlines a role for legal intervention based on effective practice within the sector.
The vast majority of penalty notices are issued due to unauthorised family holidays. However, usage has been uneven across the country, with 26 out of 153 local authorities accounting for half of all penalty notices issued in 2023/2024. The new National Framework for Penalty Notices, introduced in August 2024, is designed to create consistency in that area by establishing a common threshold at which a penalty notice must be considered. In a public consultation in 2022, 71% of local authority employees and 59% of school and academy trust employees and governors or trustees strongly or somewhat agreed with the proposed national thresholds which were subsequently adopted within the framework.
The statistical release on parental responsibility measures, which includes information on the number of penalty notices issued for unauthorised absence, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/parental-responsibility-measures.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on what the average fine was for parents who had failed to secure their child’s regular attendance at school under section 444(1) of the Education Act 1996 in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Information held on the average values of fines for parents who had failed to secure their child’s attendance at school will be held by local authorities.
The amount payable was £60 if paid within 21 days of receipt, rising to £120 if paid between 22 and 28 days. From August 2024, the fine for school absences increased to £80 if paid within 21 days or £160 if paid within 28 days. In the case of repeated fines, if a parent receives a second fine for the same child within any three-year period, this will be charged at the higher rate of £160.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to (a) update guidance on the use of Conformité Européenne marking for construction products and (b) expand testing and certification capacity in the UK.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
(a) The guidance pages on the use of CE marking for construction products are regularly updated. They were most recently updated on 26th of February 2025. You can find the guidance here:
Construction Products Regulation in Great Britain - GOV.UK
Construction Products Regulation in Northern Ireland - GOV.UK
(b)The Construction Products Reform Green Paper (published on 26 February 2025) sets out proposals for system wide reform of the construction products regime, including expanding testing and certification capacity in the UK. Access to this capacity is critical to growth and meeting our commitment to deliver 1.5 million homes during this parliament. Measures to improve conformity assessment capacity include consideration of whether the government should have the ability to recognise conformity assessment activity undertaken outside of the UK, and supporting skills development of conformity assessment bodies (for example, through government-backed training schemes).
The green paper also sets out our ambition to support and encourage innovation in the built environment, and seeks views on the potential to expand public testing capacity.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February 2024 to Question 28652 on Ministers: Aviation, how much air passenger duty has been paid for ministerial travel on the RAF Envoy since 5 Jul 2024.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The total amount of Air Passenger Duty paid for Ministers who travelled on the RAF Envoy between 5 July and 31 December 2024 is £4,282.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many operational drones are held by the (a) Royal Navy, (b) Royal Air Force and (c) Army.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Details of the number of Unmanned Aircraft Systems held by the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and Army are published in the UK Armed Forces Equipment and Formations on gov.uk. The statistics for 2024 can be found at the following link: UK armed forces equipment and formations 2024 - Accredited official statistics announcement - GOV.UK.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people waiting for elective treatment are claiming sickness benefits.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not held by the Department.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) plans to link NHS waiting times data to Census, DWP Benefits and HMRC PAYE records to analyse the relationship between waiting time duration (for various health conditions and procedures) and labour market outcomes (such as employment status, gross pay and benefit receipt) in England. This may shed light on the role of extended waiting times witnessed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic on benefit receipt, including sickness related benefit receipt. ONS currently has access to linked Census, DWP Benefits and HMRC PAYE data and is working with NHS England to acquire the waiting times dataset. Due to many dependencies and unknowns, ONS is not able to confirm when the analysis will be available.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that prison leavers under the Early Release Scheme are supported in securing housing upon release.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Those released under the Standard Determinate Sentence (SDS40) changes who are at risk of homelessness can be referred to H M Prison & Probation Service’s Community Accommodation Service, Tier 3, which can provide up to 12-weeks’ temporary accommodation.
Latest published statistics show that the proven reoffending rate for adults released from prison homeless or rough sleeping was double the proven reoffending rate for those who were in some kind of accommodation upon release (69% vs 34%).
During the initial release phase in September and October we worked closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government and the Welsh Government to mitigate any impact on local authorities, as well as taking practical steps to minimise the chances that individuals were released homeless. These included ensuring data were shared with the 49 Strategic Housing Specialists based in prisons and with the Probation Service-based Homeless Prevention Teams, to make sure plans were in place for those who needed accommodation support.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking with Cabinet colleagues to (a) support prisoner rehabilitation and (b) reduce trends in the level of homelessness amongst released prisoners.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is committed to improving rehabilitation services for offenders by giving them the tools to move away from crime. We work alongside other government departments investing in a wide range of interventions to directly support a prisoner’s rehabilitation journey.
This includes improving prisoners’ access to purposeful activity, such as education; delivering pre-release plans for all those leaving custody; and ensuring that ex-offenders leave prison with a job and the skills needed to lead law abiding lives. We have recently launched regional Employment Councils, which for the first time bring businesses together with probation services and the Department for Work and Pensions to support offenders in prison and the community.
We know that accommodation is key to supporting prisoner rehabilitation. Our CAS3 service provides transitional accommodation for prison leavers who are under probation supervision and at risk of homelessness for up to 12 weeks, to provide a stable base upon release. It is currently available in all probation regions, and we are further expanding provision to support more prison leavers at risk of homelessness each year. We are also working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and other departments on the development of a new cross-government strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether flights made by (a) the Prime Minister and (b) other Ministers in the Royal Air Force's No. 32 Squadron are subject to Air Passenger Duty.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Air Passenger Duty (APD) is payable for travel undertaken on aircraft that are on the civilian register – it is not payable for aircraft on the military register.
It is therefore payable for all ministerial travel undertaken on the RAF Envoy as that is currently on the civilian register.