To match an exact phrase, use quotation marks around the search term. eg. "Parliamentary Estate". Use "OR" or "AND" as link words to form more complex queries.


Keep yourself up-to-date with the latest developments by exploring our subscription options to receive notifications direct to your inbox

Written Question
Dangerous Dogs (Designated Types) (England and Wales) Order
Monday 20th November 2023

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, with reference to paragraph 12.1 of the explanatory memorandum to The Dangerous Dogs (Designated Types) (England and Wales) Order 2023, how her Department estimated the cost to businesses, charities and voluntary bodies of those regulations.

Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The cost estimates referred to in the Explanatory Memorandum to The Dangerous Dogs (Designated Types) (England and Wales) Order 2023 were developed using evidence and data collated from a range of sources including animal welfare charities, and other key stakeholders.


Written Question
Humanitarian Aid: Older People
Monday 20th November 2023

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 his Department is taking to (a) reach older people with targeted humanitarian and social protection support and (b) ensure data on humanitarian and social protection is (i) age-disaggregated and (ii) inclusive of older people.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The UK works to ensure that all humanitarian assistance reaches the most vulnerable, including those who are vulnerable because of their age. FCDO works with governments and partners to strengthen and expand inclusive social protection systems to reach more vulnerable people, including older people.

The FCDO is signed up to and provides a leading role as a co-facilitator of the Inclusive Data Charter which commits the FCDO to collecting data disaggregated by gender, disability, age and geography where possible. We currently do not have comprehensive age disaggregated data at an aggregate level but continue to work with partners to collect more disaggregated data, including on age, in a standardised way.


Written Question
Unitaid: Finance
Thursday 16th November 2023

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, how much funding the UK pledged to Unitaid in the period from 2006 to 2026; how much and what proportion of that funding has been disbursed; and whether he plans to disburse the full amount of the pledged funding by the end of 2026.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The UK has been a strong supporter and partner of Unitaid for over 17 years. We continue to highly value Unitaid's work to drive access to life-saving new health technologies for those who need them most.

The UK has a 20-year donor arrangement with Unitaid from 2007-2026, for a total commitment of €1.1 billion converted to £789 million at the outset. The UK has contributed £574 million to date. Allocations for 2025-26 and beyond will form part of the next Spending Review process.


Written Question
Floods: Grants
Thursday 26th October 2023

Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to increase the value available of the (a) Community Recovery Grant and (b) Business Recovery Grant for those who are eligible to receive it under the flood recovery framework.

Answered by Jacob Young

We work closely with local authorities to ensure recovery support is provided when appropriate. The current guidance is regularly reviewed and updated as required.


Written Question
UN Population Fund
Thursday 26th October 2023

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, with reference to the £785 million pledged by his Department to the United Nations Population Fund Supplies Partnership from 2020-25, what the planned schedule of payments was for that funding; and how much of that funding has been disbursed and on what dates as of 23 October 2023.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

In 2019, the UK pledged £425 million to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Supplies Partnership (not £785 million)

Following the signing of its first agreement, the UK disbursed £65 million in 2020 as planned. The UK signed a second agreement in 2020 to provide the remaining £360 million from 2020-2025 but this was reduced in 2021 following reductions in ODA spending. We are currently providing £60 million a year to UNFPA Supplies Programme.

Payments can be found on DevTracker: https://devtracker.fcdo.gov.uk/projects/GB-GOV-1-300713/documents.


Written Question
Development Aid: Disability
Wednesday 25th October 2023

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, how much official development assistance his Department has spent on disability-specific projects in each year since 2010; and what proportion of total official development assistance spending in those years was spent on disability-specific projects.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) tracks spending on disability-specific official development assistance (ODA) programmes through the OECD-DAC disability policy marker.

The UK was one of the first countries to adopt a disability policy marker, introducing it in 2018, and was central to the OECD-DAC adopting it in 2019. The marker has been used throughout FCDO since 2021.

The table below provides FCDO spending on disability-specific ODA programmes and total bilateral ODA spending from 2016 onwards.

Department

Total bilateral1 ODA (£ million) (a)

Bilateral ODA spent on disability-specific programmes (£ million) (b)

Percentage of bilateral ODA spent through disability-specific programmes (c)

20162

Department for International Development

6,369.7

2.0

0.0%

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

479.6

0.0

0.0%

Total

6,849.3

2.0

0.0%

20172

Department for International Development

6,312.8

6.3

0.1%

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

594.6

0.0

0.0%

Total

6,907.4

6.3

0.1%

2018

Department for International Development

6,352.9

6.7

0.1%

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

603.4

0.0

0.0%

Total

6,956.3

6.7

0.1%

2019

Department for International Development

7,063.5

19.6

0.3%

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

642.3

0.0

0.0%

Total

7,705.7

19.6

0.3%

2020

Department for International Development

6,362.9

22.4

0.4%

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

559.6

0.0

0.0%

Total

6,922.5

22.4

0.3%

2021

Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office

4,485.3

16.2

0.4%

2022

Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office

4,607.5

19.0

0.4%

Footnotes

1. Following the OECD-DAC guidelines, the disability policy marker cannot be applied to core multilateral ODA. Core multilateral ODA has, therefore, been omitted from the table.

2. DFID introduced the disability inclusion marker in 2018. Figures for disability-specific ODA spending in 2016 and 2017 have been estimated by retrospectively applying the marker to programmes that were running prior to 2018 and marked as being disability-specific in 2018.


Written Question
Companies: Registration
Tuesday 24th October 2023

Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many and what proportion of company registrations with Companies House were reported as fraudulent in 2022.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade

Companies House currently does not have a dedicated fraud allegation reporting route and does not hold data on alleged fraudulent company registrations.


Written Question
Dangerous Dogs
Tuesday 24th October 2023

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 estimate her Department has made of the resources that will be required to implement the proposed ban on American Bully XLs; and whether her Department plans to take steps to help support (a) animal welfare charities, (b) local authorities and (c) the police when the proposed ban comes into effect.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

We are working with animal welfare charities, local authority representatives and the police to identify the resources that will be required to implement the ban on American XL Bully breed type dogs. We will continue to work closely as the ban comes into effect


Written Question
Hate Crime: LGBT+ People
Monday 23rd October 2023

Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will have discussions with LGBT (a) community organisations and (b) charities on steps to help prevent homophobic and transphobic hate crimes.

Answered by Sarah Dines

The Government is clear that all forms of hate crime - including homophobic, biphobic and transphobic hate crime - are completely unacceptable.

We have a robust legislative framework in place and expect the police fully to investigate these abhorrent offences and make sure those who commit them feel the full force of the law.

Whilst part of the increase in transgender hate crime may be due to a genuine rise, the biggest driver is likely to be general improvement in police recording and identification of a hate crime, along with increased victim willingness to come forward. This is positive and reflects the hard work that has gone in to ensuring that police can target their resources, understand the scale of the challenge and ensure that victims get the support they need.

Our absolute priority is to get more police into our streets, cut crime, protect the public and bring more criminals to justice. We are supporting police by providing them with the resources they need, including having recruited 20,000 additional police officers by March 2023. We also engage with relevant stakeholders when appropriate to do so.


Written Question
Police: Finance
Monday 23rd October 2023

Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to reinstate capital grants for police forces in England.

Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons

From 2022/23 all forces received their core funding as resource grant. This provides maximum flexibility and options for investing in critical infrastructure and is in line with funding for local authorities as set out at the Local Government Finance Settlement.

We will consider these funding arrangements at the next Spending Review.