Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will publish a timetable for a data sharing agreement between the (a) Crown Prosecution Service, (b) courts, (c) police and (d) other criminal justice agencies; and if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of not having such an agreement.

Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

There are several data sharing agreements that exist between Criminal Justice System (CJS) agencies for specific purposes, and we are working with CJS agencies to further improve how data is shared. For example, we have run a pilot to link data between probation, prisons and police to enhance data driven decision-making by probation practitioners and are developing a cross-CJS dataset that brings together data from the Crown Prosecution Service, courts, police, prisons and probation services to better inform policy decisions.

We know there are several economic benefits to improving the flow of data across the CJS. The Ministry of Justice is currently working with Home Office and AGO/CPS on joint proposals to improve the flow of data across the system.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the tools available to (a) bars and (b) venues to (i) help prevent and (ii) spiking incidents.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Spiking is an appalling crime that undermines the people's right to feel safe when they are simply enjoying a night out.

The Government is currently delivering a range of measures to tackle this vile practice, specifically targeted at raising awareness, identifying perpetrators, and gathering evidence. They include:

• Introducing a new criminal offence for spiking to help police better respond to this crime. This is being delivered through the Crime and Policing Bill which is currently at Committee Stage in the House of Commons.
• Funding the development and delivery of increased training on spiking to staff in the Night Time Economy at no cost to venues.
• Working with the regulator of the UK private security industry, the Security Industry Authority to deliver mandatory spiking training for their 352,000+ door supervisor licence holders by April 2028. This has already been delivered to more than 135,000 new licence applicants since Spring 2024.
• The funding of police spiking "intensification weeks" which have seen an enhanced focus on spiking and led to increased arrests, detections, and prevention activity taking place.
• Investing in research into the accuracy and efficacy of commercially available spiking testing kits, to help the police detect if someone has been spiked in real-time.

The Home Office works closely with the hospitality and third sectors, as well as law enforcement to ensure that we are delivering measures on spiking which make it more difficult to carry out in the first place, that venues and the emergency services are proving the best possible response, and that victims are listened to and feel supported.

A wide range of spiking training, resources, support and advice options are available across a number of organisations, many of whom are referenced on the Government's spiking web pages or within our training package.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help (a) identify and (b) promote new ways for (i) bars and (ii)venues to prevent spiking.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Spiking is an appalling crime that undermines the people's right to feel safe when they are simply enjoying a night out.

The Government is currently delivering a range of measures to tackle this vile practice, specifically targeted at raising awareness, identifying perpetrators, and gathering evidence. They include:

• Introducing a new criminal offence for spiking to help police better respond to this crime. This is being delivered through the Crime and Policing Bill which is currently at Committee Stage in the House of Commons.
• Funding the development and delivery of increased training on spiking to staff in the Night Time Economy at no cost to venues.
• Working with the regulator of the UK private security industry, the Security Industry Authority to deliver mandatory spiking training for their 352,000+ door supervisor licence holders by April 2028. This has already been delivered to more than 135,000 new licence applicants since Spring 2024.
• The funding of police spiking "intensification weeks" which have seen an enhanced focus on spiking and led to increased arrests, detections, and prevention activity taking place.
• Investing in research into the accuracy and efficacy of commercially available spiking testing kits, to help the police detect if someone has been spiked in real-time.

The Home Office works closely with the hospitality and third sectors, as well as law enforcement to ensure that we are delivering measures on spiking which make it more difficult to carry out in the first place, that venues and the emergency services are proving the best possible response, and that victims are listened to and feel supported.

A wide range of spiking training, resources, support and advice options are available across a number of organisations, many of whom are referenced on the Government's spiking web pages or within our training package.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle spiking.

Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Spiking is an appalling crime that undermines the people's right to feel safe when they are simply enjoying a night out.

The Government is currently delivering a range of measures to tackle this vile practice, specifically targeted at raising awareness, identifying perpetrators, and gathering evidence. They include:

• Introducing a new criminal offence for spiking to help police better respond to this crime. This is being delivered through the Crime and Policing Bill which is currently at Committee Stage in the House of Commons.
• Funding the development and delivery of increased training on spiking to staff in the Night Time Economy at no cost to venues.
• Working with the regulator of the UK private security industry, the Security Industry Authority to deliver mandatory spiking training for their 352,000+ door supervisor licence holders by April 2028. This has already been delivered to more than 135,000 new licence applicants since Spring 2024.
• The funding of police spiking "intensification weeks" which have seen an enhanced focus on spiking and led to increased arrests, detections, and prevention activity taking place.
• Investing in research into the accuracy and efficacy of commercially available spiking testing kits, to help the police detect if someone has been spiked in real-time.

The Home Office works closely with the hospitality and third sectors, as well as law enforcement to ensure that we are delivering measures on spiking which make it more difficult to carry out in the first place, that venues and the emergency services are proving the best possible response, and that victims are listened to and feel supported.

A wide range of spiking training, resources, support and advice options are available across a number of organisations, many of whom are referenced on the Government's spiking web pages or within our training package.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to make a decision on the extension of transitional protections for free school meal entitlements beyond 31 March 2025.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The continued provision of school food has an important role to play in breaking the unfair link between background and opportunity, which is why the department is considering the government’s school food offer as part of our work on child poverty.

As part of our Plan for Change, we have already taken wide-ranging action, despite this government’s incredibly challenging fiscal inheritance, including setting up the Child Poverty Taskforce.

The transitional protections policy on free school meals (FSM), put in place in 2018 during the roll out of Universal Credit (UC), ensures that households in receipt of FSM will retain their entitlement during UC migration.

As with all government programmes we will keep our approach, including to FSM and Pupil Premium, under continued review.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to answer Question 36463, tabled on 7 March 2025.

Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

A response to Question 36463 was published on 11 April 2025 and can be found here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-03-07/36463.

Found: Current membership Dame Karen Bradley (Conservative; Staffordshire Moorlands) (Chair) Shaun Davies (Labour

Found: person to answer questions about the detail of the commissioning of Telford is your colleague, Shaun Davies

Found: Shaun Davies (Labour) and Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat) raised the issue of local authority powers

Found: Presented by Gareth Snell supported by David Baines, Shaun Davies, Dave Robertson, Laurence Turner,