Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been wrongfully convicted of a crime in the last ten years.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We have interpreted this question as relating to successful appeals against verdicts, heard at the Crown Court and the Court of Appeal.
The Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly data on successful appeals against magistrates’ courts verdicts heard at the Crown Court in the Criminal Courts Statistics release. Data started being published from 2016. As a result, the dataset covers the past nine years. This can be found in column E of Table_C11 in the statistical tables: Criminal court statistics - GOV.UK.
Figures for the number of successful appeals against convictions in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) are published annually in the Royal Courts of Justice tables within Civil Justice Statistics Quarterly. This can be found in column B of table 2.2: Royal_Courts_of_Justice_Annual_Tables_2024.ods.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to support persecuted minorities in Bangladesh.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 6 November 2025 in response to Question 86282, and I would add that Baroness Chapman raised the issue of violence towards religious minority groups during her trip to Bangladesh later that month.
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 improve quality of life for people being diagnosed, treated for or living with cancer under the National Cancer Plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Cancer Plan for England will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and ongoing care, as well as prevention, and research and innovation. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care in England to better the experience and outcomes for people with cancer.
The plan will aim to improve how, in England, the physical and psychosocial needs of people with cancer can be met, with a focus on personalised care to improve quality of life. It will address how the experience of care can be improved for those diagnosed, treated, and living with and beyond cancer in England.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps are being taken to encourage more smaller businesses to take on apprentices.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Apprenticeships are a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
To encourage smaller businesses to take on apprentices, the government will fully fund apprenticeship training for non-levy paying employers (essentially small and medium sized enterprises) for all eligible people aged under 25 from the next academic year. This change will make it easier for those employers to engage with apprenticeships by cutting costs and reducing bureaucracy for both them and their training providers. At the moment, this only happens for apprentices aged 16 to 21 and apprentices aged 22-24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or have been, or are, in local authority care.
We also provide £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19-to-24-year-old apprentices who have an EHCP or have been, or are, in care.
Additionally, the department engages with small employers regularly to promote apprenticeships. During National Apprenticeship Week 2025, we held a round table with small and medium employers and other key partners to better understand the challenges they are facing in recruiting apprentices. This insight allows us to better target engagement activities with small businesses.
The government also facilitates and funds the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN) which comprises 2,500 employers and apprentices who volunteer to promote the benefits of apprenticeships. It operates across all parts of England through nine regional networks. These networks provide buddying and mentoring support to small businesses to help them recruit and retain apprentices.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for her policies of the humanitarian situation in Sudan.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the statement made to the House by the Foreign Secretary on 18 November 2025, and to the most recent Urgent Question debate on 15 December 2025.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many UK children are currently missing with active investigations to locate their whereabouts.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold this data centrally.
Information about current missing persons incidents is held by individual police forces. The National Crime Agency’s UK Missing Persons Unit holds the national database for all missing incidents that are unresolved after 72hours, allowing the police to have access to missing persons information across force boundaries.
In addition, annual missing persons statistics, broken down to police force level,are published by the National Crime Agency’s Missing Person’s Unit in its annual data report which can be found here: Downloads - National Crime Agency
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the provision of agricultural education in schools.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education meets with Cabinet colleagues, including my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on the actions she is taking to secure high quality education for all pupils, but has not met to discuss agricultural education as a discrete issue.
The national curriculum is a framework designed to give teachers the flexibility to cover particular topics in greater depth if they wish. For example, giving them the freedom to teach about agriculture within the geography and science curricula.
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Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with major airports on tackling noise pollution.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Ministers and officials engage regularly with airports on a range of issues including noise pollution.
Major airports are required to produce noise action plans every five years. Current plans cover the period 2024-2028 and have been published on airports’ websites.
The government also sets noise controls at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. At other airports, appropriate noise controls should be set locally through the planning system.
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, whether he has has discussions with his counterparts in Northern Ireland on pressures on accident and emergency services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As a Government department, we work collaboratively with the devolved administrations to drive forward our objective of supporting people to lead more independent, healthier lives for longer.
While health is primarily devolved and each health system operates in its own context, there are strong benefits from sharing experiences and learning between the devolved administrations. While ministers have not recently discussed pressures on accident and emergency services in recent months, Department and NHS England officials periodically speak informally with counterparts on urgent and emergency care issues.
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 are being taken to ensure hospitals are routinely up to date with fire safety guidance.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has published guidance through Health Technical Memorandum 05:03 – Firecode, which provides guidance on operational provisions for fire safety for health sector buildings and premises. This guidance is avaiable at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/fire-safety-in-the-nhs-health-technical-memorandum-05-03/
This HTM is updated when necessary. For example, the ‘Training’ section of the guidance was last updated in 2024.