Oral Answers to Questions
Kevin Bonavia Excerpts(2 weeks, 1 day ago)
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Adam Thompson (Erewash) (Lab)
Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage) (Lab)
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Emma Hardy)
Fly-tipping is unacceptable. It blights communities, harms the environment and imposes significant costs on taxpayers and businesses. Those responsible should be cleaning it up and paying for it. That is why we have strengthened the powers and penalties available to councils, to ensure that vandals face real consequences, and we are consulting on making them clean up their own mess.
Emma Hardy
I completely understand the frustration of my hon. Friend’s constituents at repeated fly-tipping on private roads. We are taking this seriously. We have increased the maximum fine for offenders to £5,000, and we are working on advising the owners of private land on land security through the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group. We are happy to give that advice to private landowners, but where we find out who is responsible, we will not hesitate in going after them.
Kevin Bonavia
Like many other MPs, I am often reporting the worst examples of fly-tipping to our local councils. My most recent case is on Marymead Drive, with boards and tarpaulin thrown under trees and walls graffitied. I expect that Stevenage borough council staff will be on to this as quickly as possible, but they should not have to do it in the first place. What assurances can the Minister give me and the House about the Government’s war on waste crime and whether it will extend to graffiti and reduce these instances of fly-tipping?
Emma Hardy
It is good to hear about a council being proactive and cleaning up some of this mess. I agree that graffiti and fly-tipping offences are unacceptable. Graffiti is a separate offence from fly-tipping, but local councils can issue fixed penalties of up to £500 for graffiti offences, and we are consulting on powers for councils to use conditional cautions, requiring offenders to clean up their mess and cover the clean-up costs, instead of simply walking away from the damage they cause.
Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage) (Lab)
Douglas McAllister (West Dunbartonshire) (Lab)
Sir Alan Campbell
I thank my hon. Friends for their continued support for our historic churches on both sides of the border. As I noted in my previous answer, the Church remains in regular contact with DCMS regarding the operation of the places of worship renewal fund, and continues to relay the concerns and experiences of clergy and parishes.
Kevin Bonavia
I am delighted that St Andrew and St George in Stevenage, the largest parish church built in England since the second world war, has recently been awarded £882,255 as part of the places of worship renewal fund, which is helping the church undertake vital roof works. Will my right hon. Friend inform me of any other financial support that would benefit the church and others in my constituency?
Sir Alan Campbell
I am delighted to hear that St Andrew and St George was successful in its application, and I know that my hon. Friend has raised this matter before. I understand that the grant will enable the church to remain open for worship, and the community to use the facilities and museum for many years to come. I will ask that my hon. Friend is sent a copy of the Historic England advisory note, which contains details of other funding sources for any other parishes in his constituency that may not have been successful in receiving grant money.
Drought Conditions: England
Kevin Bonavia Excerpts(3 weeks ago)
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Emma Hardy
As a Member of Parliament for Hull, where the Siemens wind turbine factory employs lots of local people, I think wind turbines are a great idea. More seriously, in response to the hon. Gentleman’s question, adaptation is hugely important, which is why we need greater resilience in the system. We keep saying “the new normal”, but going between extremes of flood and drought is now the normal. Believe it or not, I am giving this statement on drought in Flood Action Week.
The hon. Member is right: we need to look at adaptation. That is why it is important to have conversations with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government about new home standards and water efficiency. This is a cross-Government issue, not just a DEFRA issue. That is why it was great to have a Minister from the Department for Transport, MHCLG and the Cabinet Office as well as a DEFRA Minister at the flood and drought taskforce this week. Resilience is an everyone problem and an every-part-of- Government issue.
Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage) (Lab)
I thank the Minister for her serious statement setting out the gravity of the situation this country is in. It is a bit rich for the Opposition to say that the Government are not doing enough in the face of what this country is up against when they had many years to build not just one, but several reservoirs, as our Government are now talking about. Will the Minister give the House the commitment that the Government will do all they can to make these major projects happen?
Emma Hardy
I can absolutely give that commitment. It is hugely important. It is, frankly, shocking that we have not built a new reservoir in years, developed any new sources of water or looked at desalination. It is an abject failure to prepare and develop the resilience this country needs. I am absolutely determined to change that. The basics of being able to move water more easily around the country and store it when it rains are the least the public expects. It highlights again that they were terribly failed by the previous Government.
Animal Abusers
Kevin Bonavia Excerpts(4 months, 1 week ago)
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Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
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Jacob Collier (Burton and Uttoxeter) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered e-petition 759783 relating to a public register of animal abusers and automatic ownership bans.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison, and a privilege to lead this debate on behalf of the Petitions Committee. The creator of the petition, Bea Elton, joins us in the Public Gallery. Bea does not work day to day in the protection of animals; she provides a cleaning service for those in need and who are struggling to keep their homes in order. She documents this on her Instagram channel, cleanwithbeax, which has more than 2.2 million followers—probably about the same number as the Minister has.
Bea was kind enough to meet me online ahead of today’s debate—it is lucky she did not meet me in my office, because there was quite a lot of cleaning to do on my desk. Meeting Bea made clear to me her passion and sense of duty for those less fortunate than herself. While deep cleaning homes, Bea has uncovered the awful situations in which some animals find themselves vulnerable to serious neglect and abuse.
It is important to note the distinction between abuse and neglect. Abuse is distinguished by intent. Some people unintentionally neglect their animals due to circumstances beyond their control, such as financial difficulty or mental distress. Those people are not the concern of this petition, which is focused on intentional abuse. The abuse we are discussing today is not the professional cruelty of organised criminals running illegal dogfights or breeding operations, which are well known to the police, or abusive commercial practices in farms; it is about the hidden cruelty inflicted in domestic settings up and down the country.
Bea emphasised to me that her focus is on abuse committed in the domestic, rather than the commercial setting. Unfortunately, the most recent statistics from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the main investigative body for offences under the current legislation, confirm that Bea’s experiences reflect the situation across our society. In 2022, 400 pet owners were convicted on evidence gathered by the RSPCA in its investigations. I put on record my thanks to the RSPCA for its tireless work in this space right across our country.
The abuse of animals offends our deepest instincts of fairness and kindness. These animals are utterly blameless, yet uniquely vulnerable. The more animals Bea found in this predicament, the stronger became her conviction that the current system for preventing animal abuse is inadequate. One of Bea’s most pressing concerns is that the system fails to prevent animal abuse from occurring in the first place.
In short, Bea’s petition requests that those convicted of animal abuse be prohibited from owning animals again, and that their conviction be listed on a national register that can be accessed by breeders, charities, vets, local authorities and other appropriate organisations. In response, the Government have rejected the demands on the grounds that the current provisions are sufficient; I will return to those points later in my remarks.
Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage) (Lab)
I thank the petitioners for bringing this important issue to the House; I am very sympathetic.
Animal abuse comes in many forms, and we should also consider what sanctions owners who are irresponsible with their pets should face. In my constituency, we recently had a horrific case where an XL bully attacked a man and he ended up needing hospital treatment. Does my hon. Friend agree that people who cannot responsibly handle their animals are also committing a form of abuse and should be treated accordingly?
Jacob Collier
I think that is a separate issue, but legislation on XL bullies already exists and it needs to be properly enforced.
Animal abuse convictions are most often made under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, and sexual abuse is covered by the Crime and Policing Act 2026. An individual convicted under the Animal Welfare Act can face up to five years in prison and can be subject to a court-issued disqualification order preventing them from owning animals for the rest of their life, although the court decides the specific terms of the order.
The experts I spoke to in preparation for this debate—I thank Claire McParland, Dr David Martin and Mark Randell—agree that the current legislative framework is a significant improvement on the previous legislation, under which animal cruelty was largely prosecuted as criminal damage and sentences were often a little lenient for organised crime. The Government note in their response that all
“offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 are currently stored on the Police National Computer. This information may be shared with appropriate organisations”
and with members of the public in specific circumstances. However, the records of convictions under the earlier legislation are less comprehensive.
Under the current system, the reporting of suspected offences is an inevitable challenge. Most reports of animal abuse come from the public, which makes enforcement more reactive than preventive. One risk of a national register is that it could make people less likely to report, because they may assume that the authorities already have the matter in hand. Once the RSPCA begins to investigate a report, it can request information from the police about any previous convictions, but that process can be slow and there is no guarantee that the police will release the information. A dedicated national register would, of course, make that easier.
Another route through which animal abuse can be investigated is when police forces discover abuse while investigating other reports. Dr David Martin, who has decades of experience as an expert witness in animal abuse cases, stressed to me that the collaboration between the police and the RSPCA is very effective in England, Scotland and Wales. Local teams know who to call when they have a query or come across animal abuse in their day-to-day activities. On the other hand, Mark Randell, a former police officer who has spent decades campaigning for improvements to the police response to animal abuse, said that identifying animal abuse is not standardised across police forces, and understanding of how animal abuse fits into broader safeguarding varies greatly between police forces across the country. We should consider standardised training so that there is not a postcode lottery.
Despite the difficulties, the RSPCA successfully prosecutes hundreds of cases each year. Although disqualification orders are at the discretion of the court, the petition requests that bans be made automatic upon conviction. That might reduce instances of animal abuse, especially if coupled with a national register available to vets and rehoming charities. However, in a liberal democracy, we evaluate proposals for punishing crimes based not simply on how effectively they prevent recurrence, but on whether the punishment is proportionate, and it is not clear that automatic lifetime bans are proportionate.
An automatic ban has no regard for whether the perpetrator is entirely responsible for their crime. For example, they could be in a coercive or controlling relationship, or could themselves be a victim of abuse, which might drive them to inflict harm on animals. In such cases, it is harder to establish with certainty that they are responsible for the crime, so an automatic ban may be disproportionate.
Fly-tipping: Residential Areas
Kevin Bonavia Excerpts(4 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Kevin Bonavia (Stevenage) (Lab)
It is a pleasure, as always, to see you in the Chair, Mr Stringer. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) for securing the debate, because fly-tipping affects every community in this country.
Stevenage was the country’s first post-war new town, which is great, because our forefathers and mothers planned a great new town, but there are many green spaces and woods between residential developments. I also have four villages in my constituency—Knebworth, Codicote, Datchworth and Aston—and each has similar issues to the town of Stevenage.
Most of us are rightly proud of our communities, but a few people, who are not necessarily from our communities, wreck all that. Many of us go out week in, week out to clean up our streets. We have our Stevenage Wombles; just like Wombles across the country, they do sterling work, and I have joined them in the old town. Stevenage Labour party also has its own action team, which goes out once a month. We do our bit, and we go into the woods and clear them out, but do you know what? It is sometimes an impossible task. You try moving a fridge with just a few volunteers; it is just not possible. We have also found suitcases with things in them that I cannot possibly mention here. All of that is just not acceptable.
People are reporting fly-tipping incidents. Just yesterday, on one of our Stevenage Facebook groups, a diligent citizen spotted an address on a TV licence letter and reported it straightaway. I know that our council will take firm and effective action, but it is dealing with 3,000 reported fly-tipping incidents a year and spending more than £1.6 million.
Some Members have talked about funding. Yes, it is important, and we are fortunate in Stevenage that this Labour Government have increased our funding by 9% in the last year. That is great, but the extra funding needs to be matched with powers, so I am also grateful to the Government for their waste crime action plan. We have heard about some of the measures, which I fully support, including clean-up squads and taking away driving licences.
However, how will the Government monitor these things, because they will vary across the country? What potential measures does the Minister have in mind to go further? My hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes set out some interesting ideas today, which we should follow up. It cannot just be for councils to tackle this; we need private landlords to take action, we need to crack down on the gangs and we need to get the police involved. There is a lot more that we need to do
For now, however, it is right that all of us in this place should place on record our thanks to all those in our communities who will not let their streets and green spaces be blighted by this scourge. I am glad that action has been taken, and I can only call for more.
Oral Answers to Questions
Kevin Bonavia Excerpts(1 year, 4 months ago)
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Emma Hardy
My hon. Friend is right to highlight the important work that the commission has been doing. I do not want to get ahead of any announcements the commission may make—it is not long to wait now, Mr Speaker; it is only a few weeks—but clearly regulation has not been working, so action is needed.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mary Creagh)
Fly-tipping sky-rocketed under the Conservative Government. This Labour Government will crack down on the waste cowboys in order to clean up Britain’s streets. We will support councils in seizing and crush their vehicles. We will use drones and CCTV to hunt down the fly-tippers, forcing them to clean up their mess, and we will bring in new prison sentences for those transporting waste illegally. I am delighted to tell the House that we are beginning the clean-up of the disgraceful fly-tipping in Hoads Wood site of special scientific interest, which happened under the previous Government. That work is ongoing.
Kevin Bonavia
I thank the Minister for her very strong answer. Recently, I have been made aware of a recurring incident of fly-tipping in Bedwell, in the heart of my constituency. The council is working very hard to clear up the mess and find those responsible, but the situation is being made worse by people picking up that rubbish and taking it to the nearby woods. Will the Minister offer extra support to councils like mine, so that together we can clean up our communities and crack down on criminals who think that they can dump their waste with impunity, wrecking the lives of constituent like mine, and making their lives a living hell?
Mary Creagh
I have the greatest sympathy for my hon. Friend’s constituents. I encourage Stevenage borough council to work with our National Fly-tipping Prevention Group, which shares best practice on tackling fly-tipping. We are also taking direct action on some of the littered items, because once there is litter, people think that they can fly-tip, and then they think that they can dump. That is why we have banned the sale of single-use vapes from 1 June, and I stand ready to work with his council.