Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what was the average time taken to complete HM Prisons and Probation Service staff security vetting for each quarter of the last 12 months.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Within HM Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS), security vetting is carried out to ensure individuals who wish to take up employment within the organisation can uphold the security and integrity standards expected of their role and ensure prisons and probation remain safe for rehabilitation to take place.
In response to this question, information on the average time taken to complete staff security vetting is not held centrally in the format requested.
Responsibility for staff security vetting within HMPPS is split across different teams and service providers, and there is no single centrally held dataset capturing end‑to‑end average completion times by quarter. Without a centrally held dataset, we are unable to provide the average time taken to complete HMPPS security vetting in response to the question.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
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 agroecology on (a) food security and (b) food prices.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s assessment of evidence on agroecological practices, including organic and other environmentally friendly systems, indicates that these approaches can enhance biodiversity and soil and biomass carbon at farm level. However, there are further profitability and food security considerations when balancing the lower yields agroecological practises often deliver versus volatile input costs associated with conventional farming.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
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 introduce a mechanism to incentivise the creation of river habitat corridors across neighbouring farms to the Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Farmers and land managers can already work together to create river habitat corridors across neighbouring farms through Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier. Farmers can consider Feasibility Studies to support this.
The scheme already includes actions supporting river and floodplain habitat restoration, including:
These actions restore dynamic river and floodplain habitats, allowing natural movement, seasonal flooding, and reduced erosion and help reconnect rivers and floodplains to help create diverse wetland features that support biodiversity, climate adaptation and natural flood and drought management.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the Official Development Assistance funding will be provided to the UK-Public Health Rapid Support Team project in the financial years 2026-27, 2027-28 and 2028-29.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the amount of funding the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team is due to receive in Official Development Assistance funding from the Department:
Financial Year | Total |
2026/27 | £8,000,000 |
2027/28 | £8,000,000 |
2028/29 | £8,000,000 |
Total | £24,000,000 |
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government conducted an impact assessment prior to introducing changes to the Modern Slavery statutory guidance on the 11th May 2026, pertaining to the change in credibility guidance and timing of disclosure of information.
Answered by Natalie Fleet - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Policies are regularly kept under review, and impacts are assessed as part of any proposed changes. An Equality Impact Assessment was completed as part of this process.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to make long-term funding available to farmers to (a) support them to make space for beavers and (b) improve land-use through beaver presence.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
Defra recognises the benefits beavers can bring to the environment and is committed to supporting farmers and land managers to live alongside them. Defra is working closely with Natural England, farmers and other stakeholders to develop the long-term management plan for beavers in England.
Support for farmers will be provided through a rigorous risk assessment in the application process and the existing management framework laid out in the 5-step beaver management approach. This will be backed up by support through local beaver management groups and Environmental Land Management options.
Defra recognises that the management approach and support available for people living alongside beavers will need to develop and adapt to ensure that we continue to meet the challenges posed by an expanding beaver population. As part of this ongoing work, we will evaluate the effectiveness of the support for living alongside beavers, especially in instances where damage is recorded. In this way, we’ll continue to support farmers, landowners and local communities in the long term.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what is the current average distance between dedicated emergency refuge areas, excluding slip roads and junctions, on All Lane Running Smart Motorways.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
My previous answer on 27 April 2026 set out that the average distance between places to stop in an emergency is now less than a mile (around 0.9 miles). Design standard GD301 sets out the new spacing standard (around 3/4 mile where feasible and 1 mile maximum) and defines what a place of relative safety is. The document can be found at: GD 301 - Smart motorways.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle conflict-related sexual violence and sexualised abuse in the West Bank in the context of (a) incidents occurring in the presence of Israeli military forces and contributing to displacement and (b) other incidents; and whether this includes (i) applying UK commitments within the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative and the Women, Peace and Security agenda, including the UK National Action Plan, (ii) not providing assistance in maintaining the situation, including through reviewing (A) trade, (B) arms export licences and (C) security cooperation for compliance with international law and (iii) taking steps in line with the ICJ 2024 Advisory Opinion on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in relation to (1) ending Israel’s presence in Occupied Palestine and (2) the removal of settlements.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided by the Foreign Secretary to the Member for Tooting at the last session of departmental oral questions on 21 April.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the planned consultation on banning the use of high-concentration carbon dioxide gas stunning for pigs will include a proposed timetable for phasing out that method.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As set out in the Government’s animal welfare strategy, Defra will consult on banning carbon dioxide gas stunning of pigs and on possible timescales for phasing out this method. Further details will be set out later this year.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what is the current average distance between emergency refuge areas on All Lane Running Smart Motorways.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
National Highways has completed construction of 151 additional emergency areas across the All Lane Running smart motorway network, through the National Emergency Area Retrofit programme. Across every All Lane Running motorway, the average distance between places to stop in an emergency is now less than a mile (around 0.9 miles), compared to around 1.2 miles before the retrofit.