Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions his Department has had with the European Commission on ensuring that UK-built vehicles and components are treated as equivalent to EU-origin content under future “Made in Europe” automotive policies.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
My department is looking carefully at the proposed measures in the EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act. Where these measures, as currently drafted, could disadvantage the UK’s automotive sector, or UK-EU integrated automotive supply chains, the Secretary of State, Minister Bryant, and I have and are continuing to engage positively with EU member states, Commission counterparts, and MEPs.
We continue to engage industry to assess potential impacts to business.
This Government is supporting investment into the transformation of our automotive industry through DRIVE35, a £4 billion programme to 2035. This is in addition to wider interventions to improve competitiveness and attract investment. From 2027, a new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme will reduce electricity costs by c.£35-40/MWh and support thousands of businesses, including those in the automotive sector.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department is taking steps to support the competitiveness of UK automotive manufacturers and supply chains in response to the European Commission’s proposal for an Industrial Accelerator Act and the inclusion of Made in EU requirements on the sector.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
My department is looking carefully at the proposed measures in the EU’s Industrial Accelerator Act. Where these measures, as currently drafted, could disadvantage the UK’s automotive sector, or UK-EU integrated automotive supply chains, the Secretary of State, Minister Bryant, and I have and are continuing to engage positively with EU member states, Commission counterparts, and MEPs.
We continue to engage industry to assess potential impacts to business.
This Government is supporting investment into the transformation of our automotive industry through DRIVE35, a £4 billion programme to 2035. This is in addition to wider interventions to improve competitiveness and attract investment. From 2027, a new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme will reduce electricity costs by c.£35-40/MWh and support thousands of businesses, including those in the automotive sector.
Asked by: Rebecca Paul (Conservative - Reigate)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been (a) prosecuted and (b) convicted for sexual offences committed in nursery, pre-school or other early years settings, broken down by (i) sex of the offender, (ii) offence type and (iii) age of the victim in each of the last five years.
Answered by Catherine Atkinson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government is resolutely committed to delivering meaningful change for victims of child sexual abuse and will do everything in its power to prevent the horrors of these appalling crimes. Cases of such abuse committed in nurseries and early years settings are particularly shocking.
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for a wide range of offences, including sexual offences in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics - GOV.UK. It is not possible to identify where sexual offences have been committed nor the exact age of the victim. This information may be held in court records, but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
The Tackling Child Sexual Abuse Progress Update, published in April 2025, sets out clearly the actions the Government is taking to respond to the final recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), alongside broader measures to address the evolving threat from child sexual abuse and exploitation.
For the Ministry of Justice, this includes:
Introducing a new mandatory reporting duty under the Crime and Policing Act 2026. This requires individuals undertaking key roles with responsibility for children in England to report sexual abuse and creates a new criminal offence of obstructing an individual from making a report under the duty.
Making it easier for victims to pursue justice by removing the three-year time limit for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse to bring personal injury claims through the civil courts.
Providing funding for the Centre for Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse to develop a directory of child sexual abuse support services across England and Wales.
This sits alongside a broader programme of cross-government work on CSA, including the creation of a new Child Protection Authority to make the child protection system clearer and more joined up, and the rollout of the multi-agency Child House model across all NHS regions in England to provide survivors with specialist, trauma informed care.
More widely, the Ministry of Justice is investing £550 million in victim support services over the next three years – the biggest investment in victim support services to date. This includes ringfenced funding for Police and Crime Commissioners for community-based domestic abuse and sexual violence services, including Children’s Independent Sexual Violence Advisers.