Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of reports that the predominantly Sunni Adjarian Muslim community in Batumi, Georgia, has experienced prolonged legal obstacles in seeking permission for the construction of a new mosque; and what representations have been made to the Government of Georgia on ensuring equal access to places of worship and protecting freedom of religion or belief for religious minorities.
Answered by Uma Kumaran - Assistant Whip
The Government is committed to standing up for freedom of religion or belief globally. The UK regularly discusses the promotion and protection of human rights with foreign partners and supports the right to freedom of religion or belief and other rights in Georgia, including through statements at the Council of Europe. We are also using the UN, G7 and other multilateral fora to uphold these rights.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of financial penalties for gambling operators in relation to breaches involving adult gaming centres, and whether further measures are needed to strengthen enforcement.
Answered by Vicky Foxcroft - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
Where there is evidence of non-compliance with the license conditions, the Gambling Commission takes decisive regulatory action. This includes the suspension of licenses and financial penalties for operators. In the last year, the Commission has issued 11 financial penalties and one regulatory settlement to adult gaming centres involved in breaches, totalling £205,149. All licencees subject to suspension had their licenses restored within a few days after taking immediate steps to address failings, highlighting the effectiveness of the Commission’s enforcement work.
In addition to the Gambling Commission's compliance and enforcement activity, several further measures have been introduced to strengthen protections in adult gaming centres. This includes the Government's decision not to proceed with further deregulation after self-exclusion failures were identified in several AGCs, the requirement for AGCs to contribute to the the statutory gambling levy to support the research and prevention of gambling harm, and the review of the Gaming Machine Technical Standards, which will further improve player protections for gaming machines.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will consider employing the Tiger precedent to implement Stricter National Measures under the UK Wildlife Trade Regulations to ban imports of hunting trophies of highly vulnerable species such as the African elephant, Polar bears, Cheetahs and other threatened and vulnerable species such as Black and White rhinoceroses.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government remains committed to bringing forward a ban on the import of hunting trophies from species of conservation concern, as this represents the most effective way to deliver the Government's manifesto commitment. The Department continues to engage with relevant stakeholders to determine the most appropriate scope of the ban and to ensure that any measures introduced are robust and enforceable.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the Government of Indonesia concerning restrictions on the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s freedom to worship and reports of discrimination against its members.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We strongly condemn all instances of hate and violence against the Ahmadiyya community. The UK remains committed to championing freedom of religion or belief for all. Last year, we launched the UK's Freedom of Religion or Belief Strategy. The UK, including Embassy officials, engages with religious minority communities, including Ahmadiyya, in Indonesia. The UK regularly raises concern around instances of violence against minority religious groups with Indonesian Government officials, most recently in September 2026. The UK's Human Rights Ambassador Eleanor Sanders raised the restrictions facing Ahmadiyya during her visit to Jakarta in 2025. Through programming, the UK has supported training in Indonesia on inter-faith mediation for community leaders and on understanding legal rights for religious minority communities.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals identified as members of organised grooming gangs have been charged with and convicted of rape offences in the United Kingdom in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office does not hold the information requested. Information on criminal offences and criminal justice outcomes is not routinely recorded or published in a way that identifies whether an offender was a member of an organised grooming gang.
Data on the total number of charges for rape offences, not specifically those relating to grooming gangs, recorded in England and Wales for each of the last ten years is shown below. As policing is devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Home Office does not hold equivalent data for those jurisdictions.
Financial year ending | Number of charges for rape offences |
March 2017 | 4,543 |
March 2018 | 3,775 |
March 2019 | 2,596 |
March 2020 | 2,404 |
March 2021 | 3,159 |
March 2022 | 3,158 |
March 2023 | 3,954 |
March 2024 | 4,965 |
March 2025 | 5,486 |
March 2026 | 6,976 |
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions for rape offences in its Criminal Justice System statistics. These data do not identify whether offenders were members of organised grooming gangs. Ministry of Justice date is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-statistics-quarterly-march-2026
The Government is committed to improving its understanding of, and response to, group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse. This includes investing in specialist policing capabilities through the Tackling Organised Exploitation (TOEX) Programme and the Child Sexual Exploitation Taskforce to improve the identification of offenders, support victims and bring perpetrators to justice. The Government is also implementing all of Baroness Casey’s recommendations following her National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to review VAT on school uniforms.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events, and does not routinely comment on proposals.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Biodiversity Net Gain and peatland restoration funding on land subsequently developed for onshore wind.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra's peatland funding includes grants to address different challenges across England's peatlands.
Protections for peatland include the National Policy Statements for major renewable energy developments, guiding developers to avoid peatland, and where not possible, mitigate or compensate for impacts.
The National Planning Policy Framework states relevant development proposals should contribute to creation or restoration of habitats which can act as carbon stores, and contribute positively to the natural environment, and supporting nature’s recovery.
Normal biodiversity net gain (BNG) processes apply to onshore wind development. For large schemes consented through the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project route, mandatory BNG applies from November.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of restrictions on the mowing, burning and grazing of vegetation on (i) its volume, (ii) its age structure, (iii) its moisture content and (iv) its flammability.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Restrictions on burning through The Heather and Grass etc. Burning (England) Regulations 2021 aim to reduce the impacts of unnecessary repeated burning on peatlands. Repeated burning can alter species composition and hydrology, resulting in peatlands that are often dominated by heather or Molinia.
As part of its delivery of the Third National Adaptation Programme, Defra has commissioned a wildfire and peatland study, which includes looking at the effectiveness of a range of peatland land management systems and practices in creating wildfire resilience including practices such as grazing, mowing and controlled burning. Defra will continue to monitor these results and engage with key stakeholders.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in developing her Department’s peatland calculator for carbon losses, whether the Government will include peat destruction caused by (i) wind farm developments and (ii) wildfires caused by excess vegetation.
Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working with the Scottish Government on the development of an updated carbon calculator tool for England, similar to that used in Scotland. This will assess for the carbon impacts of peatland disturbance associated with onshore wind developments.
Peatland damaged through wildfire is not a factor being assessed through the peatland carbon calculator.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the Gambling Commission’s licensing checks in identifying whether gambling software providers supply unlicensed gambling websites.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Gambling Commission, as the independent regulator for gambling, has responsibility for making decisions around licensing.
As part of its regulatory approach, the Gambling Commission assesses applicants against the statutory licensing objectives and may take compliance and enforcement action where it identifies evidence of breaches of licence conditions or other regulatory requirements. This includes where operators or gambling software licensees are found to be supplying the illegal gambling market.