Asked by: Lee Pitcher (Labour - Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of a national Housing First rollout.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant (RSPARG) is providing a total of £185.6 million to local authorities across England in 2025/26. The RSPARG gives local authorities the flexibility to determine the most suitable rough sleeping services required to meet local need, including support to housing first projects.
The Government has published evaluations of the Housing First pilots on GOV.UK (linked here), which local authorities can use to inform their approach.
Asked by: Lee Pitcher (Labour - Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help people sleeping rough access long-term and stable accommodation.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Homelessness levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected. We are determined to address this and deliver long term solutions.
The Government is looking at these issues carefully and is developing a new cross government strategy. We are committed to moving away from a system focussed on crisis response, taking a holistic approach to preventing homelessness in the first place and driving better value for money interventions.
The Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant (RSPARG) is providing a total of £185.6 million to local authorities across England in 2025/26. The RSPARG gives local authorities the flexibility to determine the most suitable rough sleeping services, this includes accommodation required to meet local need.
Asked by: Lee Pitcher (Labour - Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to regulate the use of privately owned e-scooters involved in anti-social behaviour.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission. Our Crime and Policing Bill will give the police greater powers to clamp down on all vehicles, including e-scooters, involved in anti-social behaviour, with officers no longer required to issue a warning before seizing these vehicles.
On 28 May, the Government launched a six-week consultation on proposals to allow the police to more quickly dispose of seized vehicles such as e-scooters which have been used anti-socially. The consultation closed on 8 July and the Government response will be published in due course. Combined, these proposals will help tackle the scourge of vehicles ridden anti-socially by sending a clear message to would be offenders and local communities that this behaviour will not be tolerated.
There are various offences relating to e-scooter use that the police can enforce with a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN). Riding an e-scooter on the pavement can result in a FPN of £50.
The Government has made no decisions on micromobility regulation, however, resolving the longstanding problems and missed opportunities of micromobility, including e-scooters, is a priority for the Government.
Asked by: Lee Pitcher (Labour - Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to encourage the use of digital asset management systems by local retailers to support crime prevention.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
the Retail Crime Forum to ensure we understand the needs of retailers and to promote collaboration between the retail sector, security providers and law enforcement. This is an opportunity to share best practice and awareness of different initiatives to tackle the range of drivers of shop theft, including technology.
Asked by: Lee Pitcher (Labour - Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate her Department has made of the number of children living in temporary accommodation in Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme constituency.
Answered by Rushanara Ali
The government publishes statistics on homelessness including the number of children in temporary accommodation each quarter through gov.uk. You can find the data gov.uk here.
Asked by: Lee Pitcher (Labour - Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to announce the remaining local authorities selected for the pilot inquiries into group-based child sexual exploitation.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is committed to getting to the truth of both historical and current group-based child sexual exploitation or grooming gangs offending, to ensure that perpetrators are punished and to deliver justice and accountability for victims and survivors. That is why the Home Secretary commissioned Baroness Louise Casey to undertake a national audit into the nature, scale and characteristics of this type of offending.
The Home Secretary wrote to the Home Affairs Committee on 28 May 2025 to explain that Baroness Casey has requested a short extension to complete her audit, as she continues to speak directly to victims, fully assess the scale of the issue and submit meaningful recommendations to further tackle this vile crime.
We expect to receive Baroness Casey's report in the coming weeks, and the Home Secretary has already committed to publishing it at that point. It is important that the government has all the information available so we can set out a comprehensive response to this horrific crime, taking into account Baroness Casey's findings, including next steps on local inquiries.
Asked by: Lee Pitcher (Labour - Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the use of drones to record footage over police cordons at emergency scenes on privacy; and whether she plans to introduce additional (a) legal protections and (b) enforcement powers to prevent drone use impacting the (i) privacy and (ii) dignity of people involved in such incidents.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The use and deployment of drones by policing is an operational matter made independently by police forces, who are best placed to assess their own operational needs while ensuring they have the tools necessary to protect the public.
However, in the use and deployment of drones, police forces must have due regard to Data Protection legislation and the Air Navigation Order (ANO) 2016, which specifies the requirements and conduct drone operators must abide by to use drones in a manner which is both safe and does not unduly endanger or negatively impact members of the public.
To support development of a national drone capability for policing which is effective and safe, in FY24/25, the Home Office allocated over £4m to national police-led programmes of work to drive standardisation and improve coordination in police drone operations to support public safety outcomes.
Furthermore, to support development of these programmes and improve the safe and legal use of drones by policing, police forces work closely with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Drone activities conducted by members of the public is a matter for the CAA, who are responsible for regulating the activities of civilian drone operators.
Asked by: Lee Pitcher (Labour - Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to promote water reuse.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government recognises that recycled water e.g. from rainwater or domestic greywater showers play a key role in helping non-household users and businesses meet the statutory water demand reduction target of 20% by March 2038. We encourage water companies and developers to move from potable water to recycled sources where possible.
To enable reuse in households, we are working to support the water sector to supply treated, non-potable water, including rainwater, for certain water demands such as toilet flushing. To support this, Ofwat consulted on environmental incentives for developers which considered where recycled water could be integrated into buildings and developments, and acknowledged the importance of recycled water to reducing pressure on the water system
Asked by: Lee Pitcher (Labour - Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many units of service family accommodation are located in Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme constituency.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
There are no Service Family Accommodation properties in Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme constituency.
Asked by: Lee Pitcher (Labour - Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to extend eligibility for NHS lung screening programmes to include people with a history of occupational exposure to (a) asbestos, (b) coal dust and (c) other hazardous substances.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme is offered to people between the ages of 55 and 74 years old who are current smokers or have previously been smokers. This is in line with the recommendation made by the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) in 2022.
The UK NSC recognised that there are other causes of lung cancer such as air pollution and occupational exposure to inhaled carcinogens but as 72% of lung cancer is largely attributable to age and smoking status, the benefits of screening would have the most impact in this cohort of people.
When appraising the viability of a targeted screening the UK NSC takes into consideration the feasibility of identifying the cohort of people eligible for targeted screening. This would be necessary if the NHS Lung Cancer Screening Programme were to be extended to these groups.
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), welcomes any new published peer reviewed evidence which suggests the case for a new or modified screening programme via its annual call, of which details are available at the following link: