Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria will be used to determine how the new growth and skills levy may be spent; and whether a criteria will be published.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This government’s first mission is to kickstart economic growth. We know that skills gaps are holding back business growth and that we need to support employers to invest in skills training. Our new levy-funded growth and skills offer will introduce greater flexibility to employers and learners in England, creating routes into good, skilled jobs in growing industries, aligned with the government’s industrial strategy.
The new training offer will include shorter duration apprenticeships. From August 2025, subject to the legislative timetable, the minimum duration of an apprenticeship will be reduced to eight months. This change means apprentices will be able to achieve occupational competence more quickly, where appropriate.
The department will also introduce foundation apprenticeships for young people, a work-based offer providing high-quality progression pathways into further work-based training and employment, including occupationally specific apprenticeships.
In response to feedback from employers and learners, the department has already introduced flexibilities for employers to the English and mathematics requirements for adult apprentices.
These are the first steps in expanding the apprenticeships offer into a wider levy-funded growth and skills offer that works better for employers, individuals and the wider economy. The government has established Skills England to form a coherent national picture of skills gaps across all sectors and to help shape the technical education system so that it is responsive to skills needs. This will include advising on priorities for the new growth and skills offer.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to support recycling (a) efforts and (b) infrastructure in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are improving recycling services across England through our upcoming Simpler Recycling reforms, which will ensure that across England, people will be able to recycle the same materials, whether at home, work or school.
From 1 January 2025 the cost of managing household packaging when it becomes waste was transferred from taxpayers to producers placing that packaging material on the market. PackUK will make payments to local authorities (Approximately £1.4 billion across the UK) to cover the cost of the efficient and effective management of household packaging waste. In England, these payments will help local authorities to fund improvements to household recycling collections, enabling the consistent collection of all dry materials from every household. Additionally, through Simpler Recycling we have disbursed around £318 million of transitional funding to local authorities to support roll out of weekly food waste collections across England.
In February 2025, Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) published a Recycling Infrastructure Capacity Analysis with anticipated waste arisings and associated infrastructure needs to 2035; this will support industry and decisions on investment in necessary infrastructure.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the potential impact of abolishing NHS England on savings to the public purse.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The abolition of NHS England is expected to bring savings that would amount to hundreds of millions of pounds a year. While there will be some upfront costs, we are confident that the reform to wipe out duplication and drive a smaller centre, based in a single organisation, will generate significant savings in the long run allowing us to divert savings to the front line.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to prevent blank guns being converted to weapons which can fire live rounds.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government keeps firearms legislation under close review to ensure that the law responds to threats to public safety posed by firearms including converted blank firing firearms.
Blank firing guns are, generally speaking, regarded as imitation firearms under firearms legislation. They are categorised by how the discharge, or vent, fumes or gases when fired: either at the top of the gun known as Top Venting Blank Firers, or from the front of the gun known as Forward Venting Blank Firers. In particular, realistic imitation firearms are subject to controls under the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, while readily convertible imitation firearms, which are those blank firing firearms that can be converted to fire live ammunition without any special skill and using tools or equipment that are generally available are, by virtue of the Firearms Act 1982, controlled under the Firearms Act 1968.
In response to concern about specific types of Top Venting blank firing firearms being converted into lethal firearms and used in crime, the Government has worked closely with the National Crime Agency and the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) lead on illegal firearms, and it has taken action against specific types of Top Venting blank firing firearms. Following testing in 2024, these blank firing firearms had been found to be readily convertible and therefore contrary to firearms legislation. The specific features of these blank firing firearms also means they fall within the prohibited categories of firearms provided for by section 5 of the Firearms Act 1968. An amnesty was organised by the NPCC lead in which anyone in possession of the specific types of Top Venting blank firing firearms was able to hand them into a local police station. The amnesty started on 3 February 2025 and ran for four weeks.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what proportion of food procured by her Department is sourced in the UK.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
As tenants in our offices, the management and procurement of food supplies is overseen by the Government Property Agency or the Landlord.
To date the Government has not held information on where publicly procured food is sourced from. This Government is reviewing the food currently bought in the public sector to determine the standards that it is meeting, where it is bought from and look to introduce monitoring for transparency and accountability within those supply chains to ultimately get the best food for the consumer. This work will be a significant first step to inform any future changes to public sector food procurement policies as we want to help make it an equal playing field for British producers to bid into the £5 billion spent each year on public sector catering contracts.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has banned the use of DeepSeek.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has a robust set of security policies in place to oversee how information is handled, within our buildings, on our IT, and by our staff.We keep these policies under constant review to ensure they are applicable to new technologies.
The AI Playbook for the UK Government outlines that only corporately assured Generative AI tools should be used to process HMG information. Everyone who works in government has a duty of confidentiality and a responsibility to safeguard any government information or data that they process, access or share, and all government departments are required to meet a range of mandatory security standards.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were fined under the clandestine entrant civil penalty scheme in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The table below shows the number of CECP penalties issued each year for the last 10 years, with the value of how much has been paid against those penalties.
Year | s.32 | Value of penalties paid | s.31A | Value of penalties paid |
2015 | 2611 | £2,769,153.58 | 0 | 0.00 |
2016 | 3029 | £3,326,748.36 | 0 | 0.00 |
2017 | 1700 | £2,269,684.73 | 0 | 0.00 |
2018 | 1584 | £1,891,368.35 | 0 | 0.00 |
2019 | 6136 | £7,124,350.97 | 0 | 0.00 |
2020 | 8002 | £8,524,296.95 | 0 | 0.00 |
2021 | 3961 | £6,306,986.58 | 0 | 0.00 |
2022 | 3618 | £4,835,220.46 | 0 | 0.00 |
2023 | 1939 | £3,989,365.87 | 761 | £1,601,920.40 |
2024 | 2164 | £2,652,440.05 | 3257 | £2,892,122.46 |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much was raised by fines from the clandestine entrant civil penalty scheme in the last ten years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The table below shows the number of CECP penalties issued each year for the last 10 years, with the value of how much has been paid against those penalties.
Year | s.32 | Value of penalties paid | s.31A | Value of penalties paid |
2015 | 2611 | £2,769,153.58 | 0 | 0.00 |
2016 | 3029 | £3,326,748.36 | 0 | 0.00 |
2017 | 1700 | £2,269,684.73 | 0 | 0.00 |
2018 | 1584 | £1,891,368.35 | 0 | 0.00 |
2019 | 6136 | £7,124,350.97 | 0 | 0.00 |
2020 | 8002 | £8,524,296.95 | 0 | 0.00 |
2021 | 3961 | £6,306,986.58 | 0 | 0.00 |
2022 | 3618 | £4,835,220.46 | 0 | 0.00 |
2023 | 1939 | £3,989,365.87 | 761 | £1,601,920.40 |
2024 | 2164 | £2,652,440.05 | 3257 | £2,892,122.46 |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to protect Christians from persecution in (a) Rwanda and (b) the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Protection of civilians, promotion of respect between different religious and non-religious groups, and human rights are priorities for the UK. The UK continues to work through UN bodies and other multilateral fora to promote and protect these rights. Recent attacks by IS-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) on Christian communities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are alarming and we are deeply saddened by the loss of life. Ministers and senior officials including our Ambassador in Kinshasa regularly raise the importance of civilian protection with the Government of DRC. The UK continues to remind all parties of their obligations under international humanitarian law and make clear that all those who have committed human rights violations and abuses must be held accountable.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has banned the use of DeepSeek.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has a robust set of security policies in place to oversee how information is handled, within our buildings, on our IT, and by our staff. We keep these policies under constant review to ensure they are applicable to new technologies. The AI Playbook for the UK Government outlines that only corporately assured Generative AI tools should be used to process HMG information. Everyone who works in Government has a duty of confidentiality and a responsibility to safeguard any government information or data that they process, access or share, and all government departments are required to meet a range of mandatory security standards.