Asked by: Luke Akehurst (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what his planned timetable is for developing the deep precision strike capability with Germany.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
UK and Germany are considering several concepts and technologies to address emerging threats and have defined a joint range requirement of over 2,000km. Specific characteristics, in-service dates and launch platforms are to be confirmed.
Asked by: Luke Akehurst (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what information his Department holds on whether the Myanmar military is violating United Nations Security Council Resolution 2417 in (a) Rakhine State and (b) other places.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We continue to call on the Myanmar military to allow full, unrestricted humanitarian access in Myanmar and to respect fundamental humanitarian principles, including in Rakhine state. One in four households in Myanmar are in acute food insecurity. The UK has reached over 650,000 people with humanitarian food support in 2024, through our humanitarian programme. We will continue to maintain a spotlight on the humanitarian situation in Myanmar and will continue to provide vital humanitarian assistance and support.
Asked by: Luke Akehurst (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure UK aid to Myanmar (a) reaches people impacted by the recent earthquake and (b) is not intercepted by the military regime.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has announced up to £25 million in life-saving support for those affected by the recent earthquake in Myanmar, including up to £5 million to match public donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal. So far this support has provided food, water, healthcare, and shelter supplies to over 300,000 people. The UK funds local actors who can directly access affected populations, overcoming humanitarian access restrictions to support the most vulnerable communities.
The UK does not fund the military regime in Myanmar, and the regime has no involvement in directing our programmes. To manage the increased risk of aid diversion due to security and access constraints, we contract a third party to monitor our humanitarian programmes, verifying activities have taken place and flagging any allegations of aid diversion or other malpractice.
Asked by: Luke Akehurst (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether a proportion of UK aid to Myanmar will be ringfenced for healthcare provision.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Since the coup, the UK has provided over £170 million to Myanmar in lifesaving humanitarian assistance, including healthcare provision through the Access to Health (A2H) Fund. The UK is the largest donor to A2H, which has supported vulnerable populations with critical nutrition services, maternal and child health interventions, and immunisation services since 2021. In 2024, UK-funded support provided essential health services to approximately 1.2 million people.
The UK has announced up to £25 million in life-saving support for people affected by the recent earthquake in Myanmar, including £2 million to the (A2H) Fund. So far, UK funding has reached over 48,000 people with healthcare services following the immediate aftermath of the earthquake.
Asked by: Luke Akehurst (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to publish guidance to the public on action to take in the days following an armed attack on the UK by another state.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The United Kingdom has well-developed contingency plans to respond to a wide range of risks. The plans and supporting arrangements have been developed, refined and tested over many years.
The scale of these capabilities is driven by classified planning assumptions derived from the United Kingdom’s National Security Risk Assessment. The Government sets out some of the main risks and emergencies that drive this common consequence planning in the National Risk Register, the latest version of which was published earlier this year: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-risk-register-2025
GOV.UK/prepare, the Government’s website for resilience and emergency planning, is designed to help people plan for potential hazards and equip themselves with the necessary knowledge and resources to respond effectively.
Asked by: Luke Akehurst (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when homeland defence plans were last reviewed.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The United Kingdom has well-developed contingency plans to respond to a wide range of eventualities. The plans and supporting arrangements have been developed, refined and tested over many years. This includes continuous reviews of the risk landscape through specific assessment and updating of NSRA risks. Plans are developed in line with the risk landscape and scalable to these risks.
The Government sets out some of the main risks and emergencies that drive this common consequence planning in the National Risk Register, the latest version of which was published earlier this year: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-risk-register-2025
GOV.UK/prepare, the Government’s website for resilience and emergency planning, is designed to help people plan for potential hazards and equip themselves with the necessary knowledge and resources to respond effectively.
Asked by: Luke Akehurst (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing mission critical neighbourhoods, as defined by the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods, on the effectiveness of the Government's policies on tackling (a) deprivation and (b) other issues.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This Government has recently announced the Plan for Neighbourhoods, a £1.5 billion programme to invest in 75 areas over the next decade, offering a long-term strategy to fix the foundations of places that have been left behind. This plan will help to tackle deprivation at the root cause, creating neighbourhoods where people can thrive, communities are stronger, and people have control over the things that matter to them. In each of these areas, we will help set up a Neighbourhood Board, bringing together residents, local businesses, and grassroots campaigners to draw up a new vision for their neighbourhood. I welcome the launch of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhood’s interim report and look forward to seeing, their insights on how we can build on this agenda to support the most in need neighbourhoods.
Asked by: Luke Akehurst (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when she expects to receive the final report of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This Government has recently announced the Plan for Neighbourhoods, a £1.5 billion programme to invest in 75 areas over the next decade, offering a long-term strategy to fix the foundations of places that have been left behind. This plan will help to tackle deprivation at the root cause, creating neighbourhoods where people can thrive, communities are stronger, and people have control over the things that matter to them. In each of these areas, we will help set up a Neighbourhood Board, bringing together residents, local businesses, and grassroots campaigners to draw up a new vision for their neighbourhood. I welcome the launch of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhood’s interim report and look forward to seeing, their insights on how we can build on this agenda to support the most in need neighbourhoods.
Asked by: Luke Akehurst (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the population of England and Wales has a criminal record.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
To answer the question exactly would be disproportionate costs. The Ministry of Justice holds an extract of data from the Police National Computer (PNC). To obtain data on all those with a criminal record would require collaborating with the Home Office as they hold the complete source data.
In October 2024, the Ministry of Justice published an ad-hoc statistical publication which estimated that 9.4 million working age people in the UK have a nominal record with a criminal element against their name held on the MoJ extract of the PNC. This is a high-level estimate based on the UK population and is equivalent to 22% of the working aged population (those aged 16-64). This is an estimate with limitations. A comprehensive programme of work would need to be undertaken to determine a precise figure and this would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Luke Akehurst (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what demographic information is held about the subjects of DBS checks in England and Wales.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is operationally independent from the Home Office and as such the Home Office does not hold any demographic information about the subjects of DBS checks in England and Wales. The DBS itself only holds demographic information that is mandatory for the processing of disclosure checks and barring referrals.