Asked by: Lincoln Jopp (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of changes to the sentencing powers of magistrates on court backlogs since October 2024.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Last November, we extended magistrates’ court sentencing powers from 6 to 12 months. It is premature to assess the impact of the policy due to the time it has been in place.
The change enables more cases to be retained in the magistrates’ courts, freeing up capacity in the Crown Court for other cases to be heard. In general, magistrates’ courts hear cases more quickly than the Crown Court, therefore these cases will be dealt with faster, helping deliver swifter access to justice for victims.
We will be able to properly assess the impacts of extending these sentencing powers once the policy has been in place for a sufficient period of time. This will allow sufficient cases to have worked through the system with outcomes and the data associated with those outcomes.
Asked by: Lincoln Jopp (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 11 March 2025 to Question 36002 on Solar Power: Reservoirs, which legislation could impact what can and cannot be done regarding installing solar panels on a reservoir.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
While Defra is responsible for policy on water, including on reservoirs, it is not responsible for the legislation that is likely to apply concerning the installation of solar panels on a reservoir.
Asked by: Lincoln Jopp (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the water quality of water from places with floating solar panels on the source.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has made no such assessment. The Government takes the quality of all of our waterways very seriously; cleaning up our rivers, lakes and seas is a top Government priority and that is why we have commissioned an independent review to fundamentally transform how our water system works.
Asked by: Lincoln Jopp (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2025 to Question 35580, how far does a person have to travel to a driving test centre for it to be considered accessible.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s travel distance criteria service level agreement, states that most customers live within a certain distance of a driving test centre (DTC) dependent on the population density of the local authority they live in. For example, in more densely populated areas of the country where the population is equal to or greater than 1,250 persons per square kilometre, such as Spelthorne, the practical test centre should be located so that most customers travel no more than seven miles to a test centre.
For customers in Spelthorne, depending in which part of the constituency they live, Isleworth, Chertsey, Slough, Tolworth, and Uxbridge DTCs respectively are within this travel distance criteria.
Asked by: Lincoln Jopp (Conservative - Spelthorne)
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 make an assessment of the potential impact of floating solar panels on reservoirs on the Environment Agency's risk designation for such reservoirs.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
When considering the risk designation of reservoirs, the Environment Agency looks at the volume of water that could be stored by the reservoir, along with the potential loss of life that could occur should there be an uncontrolled release of that water. The use of the reservoir for things such as solar panels does not affect the risk designation.
If solar panels were to be installed on a reservoir, the Environment Agency would recommend that a qualified Panel Engineer is consulted to assess any associated reservoir safety risk. It is worth noting that there is other legislation that may apply which could impact on what can and cannot be done.
Asked by: Lincoln Jopp (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who are subject to a live deportation order have applied under the EU Settlement Scheme in Spelthorne.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not available from published statistics.
Asked by: Lincoln Jopp (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to ensure adequate (a) provision and (b) accessibility of driving test centres in Spelthorne.
Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) is committed to providing its customers with the best service possible. DVSA continually reviews its estate to ensure it represents good value for money and is efficient. It currently has no plans for any additional driving test centres (DTCs) in Spelthorne.
Isleworth, Chertsey, Slough and Tolworth DTCs are all accessible test centres for customers in the Spelthorne area. More information for customers booking a practical test who have a disability, health condition, or learning difficulty, can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Lincoln Jopp (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to help protect small businesses from regulatory burden.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is developing an ambitious regulatory reform agenda to ensure that future regulation, or reforms to regulation, work for businesses and supports the Government’s growth mission. It is essential that we continue to identify areas where the costs of regulations may be unnecessarily high and burdensome for businesses. As part of this, we are working across government to identify regulatory reforms that will support the Industrial Strategy and Small Business Strategy. Our plans for the government’s overall regulatory vision will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Lincoln Jopp (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to take legislative steps to instruct councils to overturn decisions on use class properties.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has no plans to legislate to require planning decisions, including those related to change of use, to be overturned.
Local planning authorities have the power to revoke or modify planning permission under section 97 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
However, such action can only be taken before a planning permission has been implemented and the local authority may be liable to pay compensation to the developer.
Asked by: Lincoln Jopp (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to reinstate dredging to increase river capacity.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Where watercourse maintenance is the responsibility of the Environment Agency (EA), it focuses its efforts on those activities which will achieve the greatest benefit in terms of protecting people and property from flooding. This includes dredging, which the EA will undertake an assessment of, working in close consultation with local communities.
For many locations, there are more effective ways to protect land and communities from floods as part of a catchment-based approach.