Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of scrapping the High Income Child Benefit Charge.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
While the government understands the concerns that have been raised about the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC), it is currently the best way to manage Child Benefit expenditure. By withdrawing Child Benefit from high-income families, the HICBC helps to ensure the sustainability of the public finances and protect our vital public services.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to keep children safe online.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Keeping children safe online is a priority for this government. Through the Online Safety Act, children already benefit from the protections of the illegal content duties, and later this month the child safety duties will come into force, providing additional protections. Once in force, services in-scope will be required to protect children from harmful content, including pornography, suicide and self-harm material.
Ofcom – the regulator of the Act – has robust enforcement powers to use should services not comply with their duties. The government continues to consider all options in pursuit of child online safety building on provisions in the Act.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to help tackle digital skills inequalities.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
In February we published a Digital Inclusion Action Plan, which outlines the first five actions we are taking over the next year to boost digital inclusion across the UK.
These will be targeted at local initiatives for boosting digital skills and confidence, widening access to devices and connectivity, and supporting people in their communities. This includes increasing digital upskilling, and enhancing support for the Essential Digital Skills framework, which helps businesses and individuals obtain the necessary digital skills.
Additionally, The Department will deliver a £187 million 'TechFirst' programme and a charter to deliver AI skills for 7.5 million workers.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure children have access to drama education in schools.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Drama is included in the current English national curriculum, compulsory up to age 16 (key stages 1 to 4). At key stage 4, all pupils in maintained schools have an entitlement to study an arts subject, including drama, if they wish.
The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE. The Review seeks to deliver a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum, including drama. The final report and government response will be published this autumn.
To help meet our ambitions for improved and more equitable arts education, we will be launching a new National Centre for Arts and Music Education, which will promote arts opportunities to children and young people, support excellent teacher training in the arts, and boost partnerships between schools and arts organisations.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with Glastonbury organisers on comments made at the festival by Kneecap.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Culture Secretary has made clear that previous comments made by Kneecap are appalling, and that celebrating and promoting prescribed terrorist organisations is a criminal offence. This Government unequivocally condemns threatening remarks made towards any individual, and political intimidation and abuse must have no place in our society.
Following conversations between the Secretary of State and members of the Jewish community on concerns about imagery and slogans on display at the festival, DCMS officials have met with Glastonbury organisers for detailed discussions on their procedures to monitor imagery on site, and the due diligence processes undertaken for festival acts.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of seizures of cocaine at (a) ports and (b) airports on the supply of the drug.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
In 2023/24, 28.3 tonnes of powder cocaine was seized by police and Border Force in England and Wales. This was an increase from 18.6 tonnes the previous year and the largest recorded quantity of cocaine seized since the time series began in 1973.
However, serious criminals are constantly developing their approaches to traffic cocaine into the UK in response to our efforts at the border. This includes changing their trafficking routes and evolving their methodologies to evade detection, for example, diversifying importation methods through at-sea-drop-offs.
We therefore recognise that we must continue to adapt our strategy and work more closely with law enforcement partners upstream to stop cocaine trafficking at source and all across the supply chain, targeting the gangs responsible, and bringing them to justice. Officials will continue to assess the impact of global drug trafficking on the UK and implement new approaches to respond to this threat.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has any plans to upgrade cannabis to a class A controlled substance.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has no current plans to review the classification of cannabis.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to promote public awareness of (a) sarcoma and (b) its symptoms.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to the Hon. Member on 23 January 2025 to Question 24851.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to help improve HMRC investigation times.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As part of our transformation of HMRC, we are improving our compliance learning offer to build the capability of both new trainees and established colleagues. Our Compliance Professional Standards reinforce that all colleagues should be mindful to avoid unnecessary delay in dealing with cases and keep customers informed throughout the compliance activity.
HMRC’s new Interactive Compliance Guidance tool, launched in April 2025, is designed to help businesses and individuals understand HMRC compliance checks, improving our support for customers. This promotes a better experience for the customer.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent progress his Department has made on fitting military vehicles with direct energy weapons to help protect from swarm drone attacks.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
This Government has announced nearly £1 billion in further investment for Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) to bring these capabilities into service, including a new DEW for the British Army by the end of the decade.
We have recently completed trials of both radio frequency and laser DEW demonstrators mounted on British Army vehicles, putting DEW in the hands of the warfighter so we can learn from their experience and shape the development of future systems. This included the first use of DEW by the Army to counter drone swarms as part of live testing against targets.
DragonFire, our high energy laser for Type 45 destroyers, recently completed a trial that saw us fire 300 times, proving consistency and reliability, and included 30 drone defeats and firings in adverse weather conditions. This is critical to system development, meeting our plan to put it into service from 2027.