Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the Scottish offence of domestic assault in tackling violence against women and girls.
Answered by Kirsty McNeill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Scotland Office)
There can be no place in our society for violence against women and girls - and this Government was elected on a commitment to halve such violence over the next decade.
Tackling domestic abuse is a core part of this mission.
That is why last year the Secretary of State and I signed the “White Ribbon Pledge” to help end these atrocious crimes.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in what proportion of cases a pre-sentence report was requested in each year since 2013.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Probation Service is responsible for producing Pre-Sentence Reports (PSRs) where they have been requested by the Court. The PSR assesses the offender’s behaviour, the risk they pose, and recommends sentencing options tailored to the individual. The report can suggest community sentences and specific requirements like treatment programmes. Ultimately, the PSR provides recommendations to the Court, but the final decision rests with the judge.
The Lord Chancellor has been clear that she wishes to see the widest possible use of pre-sentencing reports and in recent months she has taken steps to ensure that the probation service has more time for vital work such as this.
We cannot provide the proportion of cases where a pre-sentence report was requested in each year since 2013 as obtaining this information would incur disproportionate costs. However, we can provide the number of pre-sentence reports prepared by the Probation Service and presented to the criminal courts in England and Wales.
Year | Number of pre-sentence reports |
2013 | 163,799 |
2014 | 141,932 |
2015 | 159,278 |
2016 | 148,296 |
2017 | 129,642 |
2018 | 113,228 |
2019 | 103,004 |
2020 | 68,077 |
2021 | 88,657 |
2022 | 83,240 |
2023 | 91,368 |
Note, these figures are published every April in Table 6.24 of the Offender Management Statistics quarterly bulletin. The latest figures are available within Probation: 2023 at Offender management statistics quarterly: October to December 2023 - GOV.UK. Figures for 2024 will be published on 24 April 2025.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
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 help raise awareness of (a) endometriosis and (b) other women's health issues; and what steps he is taking to help (i) reduce waiting times for diagnosis, (ii) increase access to treatment and (iii) improve treatment of chronic symptoms.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to prioritising women’s health and improving the care received by those suffering from gynaecological conditions, including endometriosis.
The Department and the National Health Service created a women’s health area on the NHS website to improve awareness of women’s health and brings together over 100 health topics including endometriosis. In 2024, the Department and national media titles ran an information campaign across England, encouraging women not to suffer in silence with periods or menopause symptoms. The NHS has also published two video series on endometriosis and heavy periods on its YouTube channel, providing evidence-based information for women and girls, as well as some short videos filmed with NHS doctors.
We have taken urgent action to tackle gynaecology waiting lists through the Elective Reform Plan. In gynaecology, the plan supports innovative models offering patients care closer to home, and piloting gynaecology pathways in community diagnostic centres. Women’s health hubs also have a key role in shifting care out of hospitals and reducing gynaecology waiting lists.
Clinical guidelines support healthcare professionals to diagnose and treat conditions. In November 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published updated recommendations on the diagnosis, management and treatment of endometriosis. This is available at the following link:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng73
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether his Department plans to introduce measures to protect men and boys online.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Online Safety Act requires all platforms to proactively tackle the most harmful illegal content, including illegal incitement to violence and sexual offences, including where these are targeted at men and boys.
Services must employ age-appropriate measures to protect all children from legal abusive and hateful content, including misandry.
Category 1 services will have extra duties where abuse is not illegal, requiring them to offer user empowerment tools, enabling all adult users greater control over their online experience. Category 1 services will also need to remove legal misandry content, when prohibited in their terms of service.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her Department’s policies of rehabilitation practices in HMP Latchmere House.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
HMP Latchmere House is no longer operational.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of placing a ban on the import of lamb produced on farms that carry out mulesing without pain relief.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is firmly committed to upholding our animal welfare standards and to promoting robust standards internationally.
The independent Trade and Agriculture Commission considered, in the context of its report on the UK-Australia FTA, the issue of imports to the UK of lamb that has been subject to mulesing without pain relief. The Commission concluded that lambs reared for meat are not mulesed and the likelihood of mutton from mulesed sheep being imported into the UK is negligible.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government plans to support the Domestic Abuse (Aggravated Offences) Bill.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government was elected on a landmark pledge to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade. Tackling domestic abuse is a core part of this mission.
As discussed during the recent Adjournment Debate on Domestic Abuse Offences, the Government is actively considering various approaches to address the challenges posed by domestic abuse. However, there is a risk that proposals set out in the Domestic Abuse (Aggravated Offences) Bill could unwittingly create a system in which some offences are deemed serious enough to constitute offences that could be aggravated by domestic abuse, whereas other offences in which domestic abuse could play a part are not. For example, we should not return to the outdated view that domestic abuse only involves physical violence.
We recognise the importance of ensuring that the harm caused by offences typically committed against women and girls is appropriately and proportionally reflected in the sentencing framework. The Sentencing Review, chaired by former Lord Chancellor David Gauke, is currently examining the sentencing of offences primarily committed against women and girls. We are committed to engaging with the review to ensure the best outcomes for survivors of domestic abuse.
We agree with the Honourable Member for Eastbourne that it is crucial that we are able to better protect victims of domestic abuse, and I have committed to discuss this with him in more detail.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to produce an animal protection strategy detailing steps to (a) increase animal welfare standards and (b) end the use of cages for farm animals.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation. The Department has initiated a series of meetings with key stakeholders as part of the development of an overarching approach to animal welfare. We will be outlining more detail in due course.
The use of cages and other close confinement systems for farmed animals is an issue which we are currently considering very carefully.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
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 (a) improve early diagnosis and (b) access to effective treatments for people with brain tumours.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We will get the National Health Service diagnosing cancer, including cancerous brain tumours, earlier, and treating it faster, so more patients survive, and we will improve patients’ experience across the system. To do this, we will address the challenges in diagnostic waiting times, providing the number of computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and other tests that are needed to reduce cancer waits. We have also delivered an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, during our first year in Government as the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and faster treatment.
We realise that there are currently limited treatment options available for people who have been diagnosed with brain tumours. The Government is invested in driving new lifesaving and life-improving research, supporting those diagnosed and living with brain tumours.
In the five years between 2018/19 and 2022/23, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) directly invested £11.3 million in brain cancer research projects plus an estimated £31.5 million to enable brain tumour research to take place in NIHR research infrastructure, namely facilities, services and the research workforce, enabling delivery of 227 studies involving 8,500 people.
In September 2024, the NIHR announced new research funding opportunities for brain cancer research, spanning both adult and paediatric populations. This includes a national NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium, to ensure the most promising research opportunities are made available to adult and child patients and a new funding call to generate high quality evidence in brain tumour care, support, and rehabilitation.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the total value is of penalty charges imposed on Serco for underperformance in relation to its electronic tagging contract since November 2023.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Serco’s performance is not good enough, and last year’s backlog of outstanding visits has been substantially reduced. We will continue to hold Serco to account and will not hesitate to impose further contract penalties, where necessary, to drive performance improvement.
The Ministry of Justice believes that the information is commercially sensitive and releasing this information would prejudice, or would likely prejudice, Serco Group Limited’s commercial interests.