Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether her Department has taken steps to assess and act upon the recommendations in the June 2026 report from the APPG for Cycling and Walking, on illegal e-bikes, in particular around police and local authority enforcement.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Enforcement of road traffic law is an operational matter for the police, but the Government has strengthened the tools available to them through the Crime and Policing Act 2026, including new powers to seize vehicles, including illegal e-bikes used antisocially, without first issuing a warning. Local authority Trading Standards services are supported by the Office for Product Safety and Standards which works with them to remove unsafe products from the market.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to assess and improve the standards under which laboratory animals, including dogs, are bred and kept in extreme heat episodes.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) provides robust protections for animals bred, supplied or used in scientific procedures. Under ASPA, licensed establishments are responsible at all times for ensuring the welfare of animals in their care, and establishments must comply with the standards set out in the Code of Practice for the care and accommodation of animals bred, supplied or used for scientific purposes, and the terms of their licences. This includes ensuring appropriate arrangements are in place during periods of extreme weather including effective monitoring, contingency planning and sufficient trained staff to maintain animal welfare and facility standards.
Standard licence conditions mandate that daily checks of animal welfare and environmental conditions are undertaken by competent and appropriately trained personnel. Any concerns identified must be assessed and acted on promptly to minimise avoidable harm or distress to animals.
The Home Office Regulator assesses compliance with ASPA through a programme of announced and unannounced audits, which inspect the health, welfare and environmental conditions of animals at licensed establishments. Where required, ASRU may request updates from establishments on environmental conditions, including temperature monitoring, to ensure that appropriate standards of animal welfare are maintained.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the Draft Conversion Practices Bill published on 25 June 2026, what assessment she has made of the potential impacts of clause 1(9)(b) which includes “procedures similar to forms of medical or surgical care” within the definition of “health care services” on individuals subject to relevant conduct.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government published its draft Conversion Practices Bill on 25 June for pre-legislative scrutiny. The draft Bill sets robust thresholds to target clear instances of harmful and abusive acts. Officials have assessed a range of evidence and research to develop and deliver measures that comprehensively protect people from abusive conversion practices.
We welcome cross-party engagement and scrutiny on all aspects of this draft legislation including through the pre-legislative scrutiny process. This includes engagement and scrutiny of the healthcare provisions.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the Draft Conversion Practices Bill published on 25 June 2026, what is meant by “procedures similar to forms of medical or surgical care” in clause 1(9)(b).
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government published its draft Conversion Practices Bill on 25 June for pre-legislative scrutiny. The draft Bill sets robust thresholds to target clear instances of harmful and abusive acts. Officials have assessed a range of evidence and research to develop and deliver measures that comprehensively protect people from abusive conversion practices.
We welcome cross-party engagement and scrutiny on all aspects of this draft legislation including through the pre-legislative scrutiny process. This includes engagement and scrutiny of the healthcare provisions.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which organisations, departments and practitioners the Department is consulting in the development of the forthcoming Youth Custody Transformation Plan; what the planned timeline is for developing and publishing that plan; and what arrangements the Department will make for sector engagement, including consultation with youth justice services, children’s charities, practitioners, academics, and children with lived experience.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
As set out in the White Paper Cutting Youth Crime, Changing Young Lives, the Government is developing a Youth Custody Transformation Plan as part of the wider programme of youth justice reform.
The Plan will set out how the youth custody estate can best protect the public, support rehabilitation and improve outcomes for children in custody, consistent with the White Paper’s vision for a more preventive, evidence-led youth justice system. Publication will be the starting point of a long-term transformative programme of work, setting out fundamental plans to improve current provision as well as decade-long ambitions.
Work is being informed through continuing engagement across the system, drawing on operational and policy expertise, as well as that of delivery partners. The Ministry of Justice recognises the value of engagement with a wide range of stakeholders, and is now engaging sector bodies, youth justice services and others with relevant expertise and experience as part of the development process. We also recognise the importance of understanding the views and experiences of children and young people.
The Youth Custody Transformation Plan will be informed by these exercises and will be published later this year.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the Draft Conversion Practices Bill published on 25 June 2026, how “standards reasonably expected of a person in their position” will be defined with regards to the exemption for health care providers set out in clause 1(3) of the draft bill.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government published its draft Conversion Practices Bill on 25 June for pre-legislative scrutiny. The draft Bill sets robust thresholds to target clear instances of harmful and abusive acts. Officials have assessed a range of evidence and research to develop and deliver measures that comprehensively protect people from abusive conversion practices.
We welcome cross-party engagement and scrutiny on all aspects of this draft legislation including through the pre-legislative scrutiny process. This includes engagement and scrutiny of the healthcare provisions.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, with reference to the Draft Conversion Practices Bill published on 25 June 2026, whether specialists in the impacts of conversion practices will be involved in assessing whether conversion practices meet the criteria to be considered abusive.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government published its draft Conversion Practices Bill on 25 June for pre-legislative scrutiny.
In developing the draft Bill, the Government has engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, including LGBT+ organisations, victim and survivor groups and criminal justice specialists. We have also assessed a range of evidence and research to develop measures that comprehensively protect people from abusive conversion practices.
The pre-legislative scrutiny process will test and strengthen our draft Bill ensuring it is effective in the long term and we welcome cross-party engagement and scrutiny on all aspects of this draft legislation including through the pre-legislative scrutiny process.
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of her Department's annual stop and search data release finding that the majority of strip searches were carried out on the suspicion of drug possession.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises that strip search is one of the most intrusive powers available to the police and that its use must be lawful, necessary, proportionate and subject to robust safeguards, particularly where children and vulnerable people are involved. Use of strip search powers should be on the basis of operational need in line with the legal thresholds. We are considering reforms to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Codes of Practice to strengthen safeguarding, accountability and transparency. The Home Office publishes data on strip searches conducted in custody and following stop and search as part of the annual statistical bulletin Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK, and continues to work with police forces to improve the quality and completeness of this data. This data includes information on self-defined ethnicity, sex, age, search location, supervisory involvement, appropriate adult attendance and safeguarding referrals, helping to improve transparency, scrutiny and understanding of disproportionality. There are currently no present or future obligations for police forces as part of the data collection requirements supporting the publication of this bulletin to send the Home Office additional characteristics of child vulnerability such as child in need status, looked after child status, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities status and medical vulnerabilities status. However, these data may be held directly by individual forces. As part of the annual statistical bulletin, the Home Office also collects and publishes information on the number of strip searches. However, this data is not linked to previous years. The most recent data is available on gov.uk: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69d50cc885ac94fabd46251c/custody-person-data-pivot-tables-year-ending-march-2025.xlsx Published data show that drugs are the most common reason for strip searches. Police may use search powers to search for prohibited items, including drugs, offensive weapons and stolen property, where the relevant legal thresholds are met. Recent increases in arrest rates following stop and search, shown in the Home Office’s annual data publication, suggest that these powers are being used in a more targeted manner. The Government keeps the use of strip search powers under review, informed by published data, inspection findings and stakeholder engagement, including recommendations from the Children’s Commissioner. Operational decisions on the use of police powers, and local recording practices, remain matters for individual chief constables. |
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has plans to help ensure that the recording of the ethnicity of individuals who are strip searched is based on their self-identification.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises that strip search is one of the most intrusive powers available to the police and that its use must be lawful, necessary, proportionate and subject to robust safeguards, particularly where children and vulnerable people are involved. Use of strip search powers should be on the basis of operational need in line with the legal thresholds. We are considering reforms to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Codes of Practice to strengthen safeguarding, accountability and transparency. The Home Office publishes data on strip searches conducted in custody and following stop and search as part of the annual statistical bulletin Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK, and continues to work with police forces to improve the quality and completeness of this data. This data includes information on self-defined ethnicity, sex, age, search location, supervisory involvement, appropriate adult attendance and safeguarding referrals, helping to improve transparency, scrutiny and understanding of disproportionality. There are currently no present or future obligations for police forces as part of the data collection requirements supporting the publication of this bulletin to send the Home Office additional characteristics of child vulnerability such as child in need status, looked after child status, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities status and medical vulnerabilities status. However, these data may be held directly by individual forces. As part of the annual statistical bulletin, the Home Office also collects and publishes information on the number of strip searches. However, this data is not linked to previous years. The most recent data is available on gov.uk: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69d50cc885ac94fabd46251c/custody-person-data-pivot-tables-year-ending-march-2025.xlsx Published data show that drugs are the most common reason for strip searches. Police may use search powers to search for prohibited items, including drugs, offensive weapons and stolen property, where the relevant legal thresholds are met. Recent increases in arrest rates following stop and search, shown in the Home Office’s annual data publication, suggest that these powers are being used in a more targeted manner. The Government keeps the use of strip search powers under review, informed by published data, inspection findings and stakeholder engagement, including recommendations from the Children’s Commissioner. Operational decisions on the use of police powers, and local recording practices, remain matters for individual chief constables. |
Asked by: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has plans to help ensure that the recording requirements in PACE Code A covering stop and search are extended to strip searches.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises that strip search is one of the most intrusive powers available to the police and that its use must be lawful, necessary, proportionate and subject to robust safeguards, particularly where children and vulnerable people are involved. Use of strip search powers should be on the basis of operational need in line with the legal thresholds. We are considering reforms to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Codes of Practice to strengthen safeguarding, accountability and transparency. The Home Office publishes data on strip searches conducted in custody and following stop and search as part of the annual statistical bulletin Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK, and continues to work with police forces to improve the quality and completeness of this data. This data includes information on self-defined ethnicity, sex, age, search location, supervisory involvement, appropriate adult attendance and safeguarding referrals, helping to improve transparency, scrutiny and understanding of disproportionality. There are currently no present or future obligations for police forces as part of the data collection requirements supporting the publication of this bulletin to send the Home Office additional characteristics of child vulnerability such as child in need status, looked after child status, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities status and medical vulnerabilities status. However, these data may be held directly by individual forces. As part of the annual statistical bulletin, the Home Office also collects and publishes information on the number of strip searches. However, this data is not linked to previous years. The most recent data is available on gov.uk: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69d50cc885ac94fabd46251c/custody-person-data-pivot-tables-year-ending-march-2025.xlsx Published data show that drugs are the most common reason for strip searches. Police may use search powers to search for prohibited items, including drugs, offensive weapons and stolen property, where the relevant legal thresholds are met. Recent increases in arrest rates following stop and search, shown in the Home Office’s annual data publication, suggest that these powers are being used in a more targeted manner. The Government keeps the use of strip search powers under review, informed by published data, inspection findings and stakeholder engagement, including recommendations from the Children’s Commissioner. Operational decisions on the use of police powers, and local recording practices, remain matters for individual chief constables. |