Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her policy is on the duty of the police to limit the use of amplified noise (a) on multiple occasions, (b) at extreme volumes and (c) in public places, whether in support of (i) political or (ii) non-political objectives; and what rights her Department recognises of other people in the vicinity to (A) go about their business undisturbed and (B) mount equally noisy counter protests nearby if no action is taken to limit the volume and repetitiveness of the disturbance.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government is committed to upholding the right to lawful protest, while ensuring that legislation across the framework of public order maintains a balance between freedom of expression and the need to protect the public from serious disruption or harm. The use of these powers and the management of protest is an operational policing matter and police forces work with organisers to plan protests and assess risks, including risks posed by counter protests.

The Government has tabled an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill which will require police to take cumulative disruption into account when imposing conditions under s12 or s14 of the Public Order Act 1986, including the the time and route of the protest. This new duty will help to protect communities from repeated disruption caused by protests especially where the same site has been targeted again and again, causing disorder or distress.

Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of removing immunity from prosecution of perpetrators of crimes during the Troubles on their likelihood of (a) giving and (b) withholding testimony about unsolved murders of which they have knowledge; and what the evidence basis is for that assessment.

Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

The provisions in the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 on immunity were found to be incompatible with our human rights obligations and never commenced. Those provisions were, in any case, opposed by political parties, by victims and survivors across communities in Northern Ireland, and by those veterans who saw immunity as an affront to the rule of law that they sought to protect, and as implying a moral equivalence between those who served the State in Northern Ireland and those who committed heinous terrorist crimes.

The Northern Ireland Troubles Bill will provide victims and families with the greatest possible opportunity to obtain the information they seek regarding Troubles-related incidents. The Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery already has significant powers, including powers to require disclosure from state bodies (that will, of course, include significant records pertaining to the actions of terrorist organisations), and the power to compel witnesses.

It is using those powers as part of its ongoing investigations into cases such as the Guildford Pub Bombings, the M62 Coach Bombings, and the Warrenpoint attack. All of these incidents were perpetrated by the IRA, and the ICRIR is seeking to provide answers for bereaved families of service personnel who were brutally murdered in those attacks.

Building on these powers, the Troubles Bill introduces provisions to further enhance the Commission’s investigative functions, and to further strengthen the disclosure regime to ensure that it is fair and transparent, and allows the greatest possible amount of information to be published, within the necessary safeguards of national security. This will be supported by the Irish Government’s commitment to provide the fullest possible cooperation of the Irish authorities with a reformed Commission, giving access to information for families that would otherwise not be available.

Furthermore, the Troubles Bill sets out that the Government will establish, alongside the Irish Government and on a pilot basis, the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval. This will be an international body that will seek to give families an additional means to retrieve information about Troubles-related deaths. Any information disclosed by individuals to the ICIR will be inadmissible in criminal and civil proceedings. The work of the ICIR must not impinge on criminal investigations.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the contribution of the Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum of 17 November, Official Report column 468, what percentage of migrants arriving in the UK by illegal means in each month since the general election did so without any reliable documentation of their (a) identity and (b) nationality.

Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)

This information is not available in an easily accessible format.

However, the Home Office does publish statistics on irregular migration, which include data on Inadequately Documented Arrivals (IDAs). IDAs refer to passengers arriving in the UK by air who are either undocumented, travelling with fraudulent documents, or without the correct documentation required for travel or entry.

For data that is available since the July 2024 General Election (Calendar Year Q3 2024 – Q2 2025), there have been 3,266 inadequately document irregular air arrivals.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number women born in the 1950s who have died since the publication of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's findings (HC 638) on 21 March 2024.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Department has made no such assessment.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2025 to Question 92953 on State Retirement Pensions: Women, if he will make an estimate of the number of women born in the 1950s who have died since the publication of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's findings (HC 638) on 21 March 2024.

Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and National Records Scotland (NRS) publish annual data on deaths by sex and age group on their websites.

Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2025 to Question 92498 on Terrorism: Northern Ireland, what the evidential basis is that removing immunity from prosecution of perpetrators of crimes during the Troubles will increase the likelihood of them giving testimony on unsolved murders of which they have knowledge; and what assessment he has made of the compatibility of (a) information disclosed by individuals to the ICIR being inadmissible in criminal and civil proceedings with (b) the work of the ICIR not impinging on criminal investigations.

Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

The Government has not removed the prospect of immunity from prosecution for any individual. The provisions in the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 were found to be incompatible with our human rights obligations and never commenced. I refer the Honourable gentleman to my answer of 24 November 2025 pursuant to Question 92498.

Regarding the Independent Commission on Information Retrieval, clause 72(5)(c) of the Troubles Bill is clear that it must not do anything which would risk having, or would have, a prejudicial effect on any actual or prospective legal proceedings in any part of the United Kingdom or Ireland.

This is supported by clause 75, which ensures that the ICIR cannot accept a request in relation to a case where an investigation is required for the purposes of ECHR compatibility, or where the Legacy Commission is conducting a criminal investigation. If the ICIR accepts a request, but that case is subsequently subject to a criminal investigation by the Legacy Commission, the ICIR must cease exercising its functions in relation to that case.

This approach to ‘sequencing’ between the Legacy Commission and the ICIR will ensure that the discharge of our ECHR obligations and the conduct of criminal investigations will not be prejudiced by the information retrieval process available through the ICIR.

In any case, the inadmissibility provisions attached to the ICIR relate only to information provided to it. It does not confer immunity on any individual. That means that, while information provided to the ICIR cannot be used in criminal and civil proceedings, individuals to which that information relates can still be subject to legal proceedings should evidence be obtained via other means.

Life and legacy of Saskia Jones

Thanking postal workers

Royal Naval Association Torbay

Buying community energy locally

Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness Week 2025