Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to answer Question (a) 74612 and (b) 74613, tabled on 3 September 2025.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The responses to Written Parliamentary Questions 74612 and 74613 were published on 22 October 2025.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
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 take steps to produce a chemicals strategy.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The delivery of a Chemicals Strategy was a commitment included in the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) 2023. Defra’s future approach to chemicals management will be set out in the revised EIP.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of creating a single firearms licensing authority for England and Wales.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government has no plans to introduce a single firearms licensing authority. The Firearms Act 1968 places statutory responsibility for firearms licensing on the Chief Officer of Police of each individual force in England, Wales and Scotland. This framework is supported by Statutory Guidance to Chief Officers of Police issued by the Home Secretary in respect of firearms licensing, and by Authorised Professional Practice issued by the College of Policing.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many officials were investigated under their Department's disciplinary processes in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
From HR data, there are currently 911 individual staff showing on the disciplinary report as at 30/09/2025. The disciplinary report is a point in time report of all staff who are or have been undergoing disciplinary action including those cases where an investigation has been or is taking place. We are unable to provide further information as the report does not show historic data beyond live cases and those closed in the past 12 months.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of UK Overseas Territories on progress made on adopting publicly accessible registers of company beneficial ownership.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to my Written Ministerial Statements of 3 July and 22 July which provide an update on progress achieved to date and details of next steps. We have clearly conveyed to our partners in the remaining Overseas Territories the urgency of meeting previously agreed deadlines and expect prompt action. I raised these points directly with the elected leaders of Bermuda and the Cayman Islands on my visit to those Territories last month, and in my recent conversations and correspondence with the Premier of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Baroness Hodge visited the BVI at my request in September and I recently met with her to discuss her findings. This issue will also be discussed at the upcoming Joint Ministerial Council. The registers should offer streamlined access to a broad range of legitimate users, supporting proactive investigations, deterring the concealment of illicit gains, and promoting maximum transparency.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his counterpart in Pakistan on levels of religious freedom in that country.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Promoting freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) is a core part of the UK's diplomatic engagement with Pakistan. Ministers and senior officials have consistently raised this issue with Pakistani counterparts, including in August 2025 when I voiced concern over violence against the Ahmadiyya community with Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister. Our High Commission in Islamabad also continues to engage regularly on the persecution of religions minorities, as well as wider issues of misuse of blasphemy laws, desecration of places of worship, and the need to uphold fundamental rights in line with international standards. The UK Government remains concerned by the FoRB situation in Pakistan and will continue to urge the Pakistani authorities to guarantee the rights and safety of all religious communities.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of state actors in Pakistan targeting UK residents with (a) political intimidation and (b) interference on those residents.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 17 March 2025 to Question 36232.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to improve public preparedness for emergencies.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Advice for the general public on how to prepare for emergencies is published at GOV.UK/Prepare, which provides simple and effective steps that individuals, households and communities can take to be more prepared for a range of emergencies.
The Prepare website was included in the message sent to tens of millions of mobile devices across the country in September as part of the successful test of the Emergency Alerts systems.
The Government is currently considering what further public communications activities might support improvements to public preparedness for emergencies. We published the first annual UK Public Survey of Risk Perception, Resilience and Preparedness in July 2025. The results are being used to inform the development of future public preparedness communications and to monitor trends.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to improve systems for delivering oxygen to battlefield trauma casualties without making use of pressurised cylinders; and what estimate he has made of when this will be available for frontline use.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) deploys oxygen concentrators under certain circumstances to deliver oxygen without pressurised cylinders.
The Defence Investment Plan will set out any further funding available to support the wider roll out of oxygen concentrators to deliver oxygen to battlefield trauma casualties.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many officials were investigated under their Department's disciplinary processes in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The following table contains the number of Ministry of Justice (inc. HMPPS) employees who had a disciplinary investigation case opened against them between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2025, by financial year:
Financial Year | Number of Employees who had an investigation case opened against them | |
2020 - 2021 | 1,470 | |
2021 - 2022 | 1,443 | |
2022 - 2023 | 1,610 | |
2023 - 2024 | 2,079 | |
2024 - 2025 | 2,467 | |
Caveats
This is based on the latest available investigations data as at 30 September 2025 and includes all cases where the investigation was commissioned or opened between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2025 by financial year.
A small proportion of individuals will have been subject to multiple investigation cases. Within each financial year, individuals are only counted once in this table, regardless of how many investigations are opened against. However, where an individual has an investigation opened in more than one year, they will be counted once in each of those years.
This only includes cases where the individual that the case was opened was employed by MoJ HQ, HMPPS, HMCTS, OPG, LAA, and CICA, and will include all cases regardless of outcome. This excludes non-payroll employees such as agency staff and contractors.
Within HMPPS, all investigation cases related to disciplinary processes and so all investigation cases have been included here. Within MoJ, investigations can relate to either disciplinary processes or grievances processes. Therefore, only investigations relating to disciplinary processes have been included.