Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions her Department is having with the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum, National Highways, and other stakeholders on eliminating the need for the deployment of Operation Brock to be deployed on the M20.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The department continues to work closely with the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum, National Highways, Kent County Council, and other local partners to ensure that traffic management arrangements in Kent remain effective, proportionate and responsive to changing risks.
Operation Brock remains a contingency measure designed to protect the strategic road network, maintain access for local communities and businesses, and support the continued flow of freight through the Short Straits during periods of disruption. Decisions on its deployment are kept under regular review through established multi-agency arrangements, led locally by the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum, so that Brock is used only where it is necessary and proportionate.
The government recognises the impact that Operation Brock can have on road users and communities in Kent and is committed to working with partners to reduce that impact wherever possible. The department, National Highways and local partners are actively considering longer-term options that could lessen reliance on queuing HGVs on the M20, including approaches that make better use of technology to manage freight movements and provide greater resilience through off-road holding capacity.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing regulations for standard fines in car parks owned by private operators.
Answered by Nesil Caliskan
The government is carefully considering options on the level of the private parking charge cap as part of its work to introduce a new private parking Code of Practice.
The government intends to lay this new Code before parliament in autumn 2026.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has discussed with local planning authorities the potential for allowing alternative on-site wastewater treatment solutions where these may reduce nutrient discharge into protected waterways.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government supports innovation in the water sector and works closely with regulators to ensure solutions comply with requirements.
Nutrient pollution from wastewater is one of the key pressures affecting our rivers, lakes, and seas. The Government is committed to tackling Phosphorus pollution caused by wastewater discharges.
In the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025, we set an interim target to reduce phosphorus loadings by 55% by 2030 against a 2020 baseline. To meet this target, we will require water companies to upgrade 440 wastewater treatment works by 2030 to meet stricter phosphorus permit limits, reducing harmful nutrient pollution from treated wastewater.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
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 capacity and environmental performance of sewage treatment infrastructure serving new housing developments.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government now requires sewerage undertakers to plan ahead to manage drainage and wastewater. This is to ensure they meet future demand, support growth, and protect the environment.
These plans will help sewerage undertakers to fully assess the capacity of the drainage and wastewater network and develop collaborative solutions to current problems and future issues. The plans will bring together various stakeholders including local authorities and industry regulators.
Taking a strategic approach to drainage and wastewater management, will help to identify and mitigate issues related to insufficient network capacity or damaged infrastructure.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment his department has made of the impact of nutrient neutrality requirements on small-scale residential developments.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Impact Assessment for the Planning and Infrastructure Act can be found here.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
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 help tackle fly-tipping in Ashford constituency.
Answered by Mary Creagh
The Waste Crime Action Plan sets a zero‑tolerance approach to waste crime and fly-tipping. It includes £45 million for the Environment Agency to double the enforcement, new police-style powers for officers, and budget for tougher sanctions for offenders, such as penalty points on driving licences. We will also soon consult on giving local authorities the powers to issue fly-tippers with conditional cautions, one of a range of pre-court community-based sanctions. Locally, work to clear illegal waste from Hoads Wood continues to be delivered as per the agreed programme. Almost half of the site has been cleared down to the natural underlying clay level. Sampling of the natural ground is taking place to demonstrate all waste and contamination has been removed.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps she has taken to ensure that (a) thistles and (b) ragwort are removed from land owned by her Department between the village of Mersham and the Sevington inland border facility.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The most appropriate weeding regime is being kept under review. The Department has undertaken the removal of weeds on previous occasions. The field is allocated for a biodiversity scheme, and we need to consider the impact of any weeding regime on the overall biodiversity including nesting birds. We will be working with an ecologist on the most appropriate actions.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending business rates relief to small businesses that are not in the retail, hospitality or leisure sectors.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
The Government has introduced new permanently lower multipliers for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new multipliers are worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit over 750,000 properties.
Since these new multipliers were announced at Budget 2024, the Government has been clear that the intention was for their scope to broadly reflect the scope of the previous RHL relief, which was centred around RHL properties that are “reasonably accessible to visiting members of the public”.
Around a third of properties already pay no business rates as they receive 100 per cent Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR), with an additional 85,000 benefiting from reduced bills as this relief tapers.
The Government has also introduced a supporting small business scheme, capping bill increases for the smallest businesses losing some or all of their SBRR or rural rate relief as a result of the revaluation.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to support small and medium sized businesses in a) Ashford constituency and b) Kent.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government’s Plan for Small Businesses, published in July, sets out the measures that the Government is taking to support small businesses across the UK. This includes tackling late payments, boosting access to finance, and removing red tape. This will enable small businesses, including those in Ashford constituency and Kent, to grow and thrive. SMEs can access DBT’s wealth of business and export support via business.gov.uk.
SMEs in the Ashford constituency can also access the Kent and Medway Growth Hub to benefit from specialist business advice they need to start, grow and succeed.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if she has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the rules governing data protection that require sites and services using age verification to delete submitted information once that data has been used.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government has not undertaken a specific assessment of the effectiveness of rules requiring the deletion of data submitted for age verification once it has been used.
The UK’s data protection framework requires personal data to be minimised and not retained for longer than necessary, including where data is collected for age verification purposes. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is independent of Government and is responsible for monitoring and enforcing the UK’s data protection laws.
In January 2024, the ICO published an updated Commissioner’s Opinion on age assurance for the Children’s Code (https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2024/01/ico-publishes-updated-commissioner-s-opinion-on-age-assurance-for-the-children-s-code/).