Asked by: Luke Murphy (Labour - Basingstoke)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has plans to (a) implement and (b) allow public sector employees to utilise existing private cycle to work style salary sacrifice schemes to (i) lease and (ii) purchase electric vehicles at reduced rates.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is crucial to decarbonising transport and will support growth and productivity across the UK. There are now more than 1 million EVs on our roads. The government has committed to phasing out new cars that rely solely on internal combustion engines by 2030, and that from 2035 all new cars and vans sold in the UK will be zero emission.
Salary sacrifice schemes are not generally permitted in the public sector. This is because salary sacrifice arrangements mean employees and employers pay less income tax and National Insurance on remuneration and do not, therefore represent best value for the exchequer and UK taxpayers as a whole.
However, many public sector employees can and do make use of existing schemes that will likely be accessible to all staff, such as Cycle to Work. Employers are also encouraged to consider other options for encouraging the use of zero emission vehicles in their workforce.
Asked by: Luke Murphy (Labour - Basingstoke)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2025 to Question 23643 on Hampshire Police and Crime Commissioner, for what reasons funding amounts for individual Police and Crime Commissioner areas are not routinely published; and if she will make it her policy to publish these amounts in the future.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Funding amounts for the commissioning of victims’ services by individual Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) have not previously been systematically published on gov.uk.
Individual PCCs publish annual reports which includes funding for victim services. Furthermore, a breakdown of grant funding is publicly available on the Government Grants Information System, which is released annually in March covering the previous financial period of grant spending.
PCCs commission victim services with funding outside of Ministry of Justice allocations, and individual allocations do not take into account any co-commissioning arrangements. As such, individual allocations will not provide the whole picture for victims’ funding in an area.
Asked by: Luke Murphy (Labour - Basingstoke)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether additional guidance will be provided to (a) police forces and (b) local councils on the use of Respect Orders to target anti-social car meets and illegal street racing.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Acts of anti-social behaviour (ASB) - such as the arrangement of illegal car meets - cause great harm, distress and nuisance to our communities, and, if left unchecked, can lead to even more serious offending. That is why tackling ASB is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission, and it is also why we are putting 13,000 additional police officers and community support officers back on the beat to restore effective and visible neighbourhood policing in communities like Basingstoke.
As recently announced by the Home Secretary, the Respect Orders we will introduce in the forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill will enable the courts to place wide-ranging restrictions on the behaviour of the most persistent and disruptive ASB offenders. Breaches of those orders will be a criminal offence, and the courts will have a wide range of sentencing options for those convicted, including community orders, unlimited fines and, for the most severe cases, up to two years' imprisonment.
The Home Office publishes statutory Guidance for police and local authorities on the use of the anti-social behaviour powers under the Anti-social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014, and this will be updated to include the Respect Order. The Respect Order will be piloted to ensure it is as effective as possible, before national roll-out.
Section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002 empowers the police to issue a warning to anyone driving both in a careless and inconsiderate manner on road or off-road without consent and in a way which causes alarm, distress or annoyance to members of the public. If the driver ignores the warning to stop the behaviour, the police can seize the vehicle. It is then only released on payment of prescribed fees.
The Home Office has recently announced plans to strengthen this law so that these vehicles can be seized by police when they are used to commit anti-social behaviour, including illegal street racing, without the necessity to issue a prior warning, thereby speeding up effective enforcement action and allowing the police to swiftly seize vehicles being used anti-socially.
The Home Office does not collect data on vehicles seized under Section 59 of the Police Reform Act 2002.