Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to increase capacity for housing asylum seekers within the Bradford Council district.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
When this Government came to office, we inherited a system where hotels had become one of the primary means of providing asylum accommodation – with more than 400 in use in Autumn 2023 at a cost of almost £9 million per day – and where a 70 per cent collapse in asylum decision-making in the last months of the previous administration had driven that pressure up further.
We have taken rapid action to address that chaos, in particular by speeding up the volume of asylum decision-making so that fewer people are stuck in limbo, dependent on support from the state, and so that more failed asylum-seekers can be removed from the UK, along with foreign national offenders and others with no right to be in our country.
The number of hotels in use is now around half the peak reached under the previous Government, and we will take further action over the rest of this Parliament to end the use of asylum hotels entirely.
We are continuing to work with a range of stakeholders to pursue that goal, while fulfilling our statutory obligations in the interim. Where the Home Office needs to use dispersed accommodation, it does so in accordance with the principle of Full Dispersal, announced by the previous government in 2022 to ensure that asylum seekers were more fairly distributed across the UK.
We also continue to consult with local authorities, the police, and other interested parties to ensure that – wherever there are concerns over the impact of particular asylum accommodation sites on the local community, public safety and public amenities – all necessary actions are taken to address those concerns, and protect the security of each local area.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what capacity her Department has to house asylum seekers within the Bradford Council district.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
When this Government came to office, we inherited a system where hotels had become one of the primary means of providing asylum accommodation – with more than 400 in use in Autumn 2023 at a cost of almost £9 million per day – and where a 70 per cent collapse in asylum decision-making in the last months of the previous administration had driven that pressure up further.
We have taken rapid action to address that chaos, in particular by speeding up the volume of asylum decision-making so that fewer people are stuck in limbo, dependent on support from the state, and so that more failed asylum-seekers can be removed from the UK, along with foreign national offenders and others with no right to be in our country.
The number of hotels in use is now around half the peak reached under the previous Government, and we will take further action over the rest of this Parliament to end the use of asylum hotels entirely.
We are continuing to work with a range of stakeholders to pursue that goal, while fulfilling our statutory obligations in the interim. Where the Home Office needs to use dispersed accommodation, it does so in accordance with the principle of Full Dispersal, announced by the previous government in 2022 to ensure that asylum seekers were more fairly distributed across the UK.
We also continue to consult with local authorities, the police, and other interested parties to ensure that – wherever there are concerns over the impact of particular asylum accommodation sites on the local community, public safety and public amenities – all necessary actions are taken to address those concerns, and protect the security of each local area.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timetable is for implementing the proposed reforms to the Bathing Water Regulations 2013.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government announced reforms to the Bathing Water Regulations 2013 on 12 March 2025 following a public consultation. In this, we outlined plans for three core reforms, nine technical amendments, and two wider reforms to the bathing water Regulations.
A Statutory Instrument is being prepared to implement the core and technical reforms, including removing automatic de-designation, assessing feasibility of improving water quality to ‘sufficient’ for designation, and removing fixed bathing season dates from the Regulations.
We have also begun policy development and research for the wider reforms: expanding the definition of ‘bathers’ and introducing multiple monitoring points to assess water quality. We will work closely with stakeholders to shape our approach, and a timetable for implementation will be planned for this next piece of work in due course.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the annual administrative cost has been of providing (a) delinked payments and (b) the Basic Payment Scheme since 2020.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assurance mechanisms his Department has implemented to help ensure the accuracy of AI-derived data that forms part of the new UK peat map.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The England Peat Map, produced by Natural England as part of the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment Programme, went through a rigorous science assurance process across Natural England, Defra and external peer reviewers. This science assurance covered the scientific design of the map’s production, the collection of the field data used to drive the model and testing the final modelled analysis which produced the map.
The AI-derived data was reviewed and refined through checking in the field, using field survey data, and the methods by which this was done were reviewed by independent Defra group technical experts and external academics. This included reviewing the data inputted into the models, the models’ training and validation, the models’ application, the models’ outputs, and covered all the map layers produced including peat depth, extent and vegetation layers. Beta testing of outputs across Defra group users was initiated a year prior to release and feedback was used to refine the models.
Limitations and precautions associated with the use of AI in the project are discussed in the England Peat Map final report, available on Natural England’s Access to Evidence website.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of (a) foreign and (b) dual national offenders were (i) tried and (ii) sentenced in absentia in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on trials, convictions and sentencing outcomes at criminal courts in England and Wales (latest data to December 2024), available from the Criminal Justice Statistics page.
However, it is not possible to provide the number of people sentenced in their absence, as this is not held. Nor is it possible to provide data on the nationality of convicted defendants who were sentenced in their absence, as this information is not collected. This information may be held in court records, but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information her Department holds on the (a) number and (b) proportion of people who abscond abroad before (i) trial and (ii) sentencing in the most recent period for which data is available; and how many and what proportion of these people were (A) dual and (B) foreign nationals.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice does not centrally hold information on the numbers of people who abscond abroad before trial and sentencing or absconding abroad by dual/foreign nationals. To obtain the data to answer this question would involve a manual interrogation of court records which would result in a disproportionate cost to the department.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of (a) suspects were tried and (b) convicted people were sentenced in absentia in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on trials, convictions and sentencing outcomes at criminal courts in England and Wales (latest data to December 2024), available from the Criminal Justice Statistics page.
However, it is not possible to provide the number of people sentenced in their absence, as this is not held. Nor is it possible to provide data on the nationality of convicted defendants who were sentenced in their absence, as this information is not collected. This information may be held in court records, but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make it his policy to tie the provision of UK aid to Pakistan to the Pakistani authorities' cooperation on the (a) deportation of Pakistani criminals in the UK and (b) return of criminal suspects charged in the UK who are residing in Pakistan.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK has transitioned from a traditional aid relationship with Pakistan to a mutually beneficial partnership which underpins UK national interests, and we have regular constructive discussions with Pakistani authorities on a range of topics of vital mutual interest, including criminal justice. None of the UK's Official Development Assistance (ODA) spent in Pakistan is dispersed through the Pakistani government, therefore the UK government rules out linking ODA and deportations. Despite significant and complex challenges when seeking to return foreign national offenders, this government is fully committed to making our communities safer by deporting those who break our laws. The Foreign Secretary raised this matter with Pakistan's Prime Minister in May.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with relevant stakeholders on the the potential impact of the potential closure of the Vapormatic site in Exeter on the supply chain in that sector.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
This Government recognises the importance of a fully functioning supply chain but does not normally intervene in the decisions made by individual companies.