Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when his Department intends to respond to the coroner's Prevention of Future Death report following the death of Stephen Sleaford.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
HM Prison and Probation Service responded to the coroner’s Prevention of Future Death Report following the inquest into the death of Stephen Sleaford on 9 December 2024, which was within the statutory deadline of 56 days from the date of the report. The response is now available on the Chief Coroner’s website.
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, if she will ask the Health and Safety Executive to respond to the coroner's Prevention of Future Death report following the death of Graham Faulkner.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) records indicate that a detailed response to the coroner's Prevention of Future Death report following the death of Graham Faulkner was sent by e-mail on 3 July 2024.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to update the HMRC mileage rate to reflect changes to (a) fuel costs, (b) vehicle asset depreciation and (c) vehicle running costs since 2011.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Approved Mileage Allowance Payment rates are used by employers to reimburse an employee's expenses, tax free, for business mileage in their private vehicle. These rates are also used by self-employed drivers to claim tax relief on business mileage (when using simplified motoring expenses), and can be used by organisations to reimburse volunteers who use their own vehicle for voluntary purposes.
Employees can claim up to 45p/mile for the first 10,000 miles annually, followed by up to 25p/mile thereafter. An additional 5p/mile can be claimed for each passenger transported.
The AMAP rates are not mandatory, and employers can choose to pay more or less than the AMAP rate. It is therefore ultimately up to employers to determine the rate at which they reimburse their employees.
The government keeps all taxes under review and the Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has assessed the potential merits of making (a) directors and (b) owners of (i) dissolved and (ii) all other companies personally liable for the underpayment of taxes arising from the adaptation of tax (A) avoidance and (B) evasion schemes that those companies have (1) promoted and (2) made earnings from.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to closing the tax gap and cracking down on avoidance and evasion.
The Government is determined to do more to close in on promoters of marketed tax avoidance and recently consulted on a package of measures to strengthen HMRC’s powers to tackle them.
HMRC also carries out civil and criminal investigations into suspected tax evasion, including where there is suspicion of third parties being involved in fraud or evasions. All investigations are assessed to determine which action would be most appropriate.
It is a fundamental principle of the tax system that taxpayers are responsible for their own tax affairs. However, HMRC does levy penalties on promoters of tax avoidance and uses the Joint and Several Liability legislation to seek to recover penalty liabilities from appropriate individuals: including directors; shadow directors; or participators when the company becomes insolvent.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when she plans to introduce a universal stop notice for tax avoidance schemes.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the damage caused to the tax system by those that promote tax avoidance schemes. It takes action to prevent that damage, for example by publishing details of schemes and promoters to help customers to steer clear of or otherwise exit such schemes.
The Government is determined to do more to close in on promoters of marketed tax avoidance and recently consulted on a package of measures to strengthen existing powers. This included a proposal to introduce a Universal Stop Notice. It will respond to this consultation in due course.
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 a recent estimate of the value of Russian owned assets held in the Overseas Territories.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Overseas Territories (OTs) stand with the UK in condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine. The OTs have committed to implement UK sanctions in full. The Governments of the Territories take seriously their responsibility for the implementation and enforcement of sanctions within their jurisdictions. The Territories have frozen assets worth approximately US $9 billion. OT Governments have informed us that the vast majority of these assets belong to persons designated under the Russia sanctions regime.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the consistent implementation of (a) Non-Specific Symptom pathways, (b) GP direct access and (c) NHS England Best Practice Timed Pathways to ensure (i) faster and (ii) earlier diagnosis of people with pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has completed the national roll-out of non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways to support faster diagnosis of cancer in patients who present with symptoms that do not align with a single cancer site.
We are investing an additional £1.1 billion in general practices (GPs), bringing total GP Contract spend to £13.4 billion in 2025/26, the biggest increase in over a decade. NHS England has also expanded GP direct access to diagnostic tests, enabling faster investigation of concerning symptoms.
The National Health Service has also launched a new £2 million programme which is funding 300 GPs to identify pancreatic cancer early by screening high-risk patients over 60 years old with new diabetes diagnoses and unexplained weight loss for urgent testing.
NHS England continues to implement Best Practice Timed Pathways to ensure consistent and faster diagnosis in line with the Faster Diagnosis Standard. Alongside this, it is working with Pancreatic Cancer UK on a Family History Checker to help individuals assess inherited risk, and has launched the National Inherited Cancer Predisposition Register, which supports earlier identification and screening of high-risk individuals.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of a national multi-cancer case finding programme to identify individuals at high risk of (a) pancreatic cancer and (b) all other cancers.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is developing case-finding approaches for less survivable cancers where the evidence supports this, including pancreatic cancer.
This work includes the development of a public-facing Family History Checker in partnership with Pancreatic Cancer UK, which enables individuals and families affected by pancreatic cancer to assess inherited risk. Those identified as being at risk are referred directly to the European Registry of Hereditary Pancreatic Diseases research trial. Referrals can be made by any healthcare professional or by individuals via self-referral, contributing to a more consistent and centralised approach to case-finding.
The National Disease Registration Service has launched the National Inherited Cancer Predisposition Register, which identifies individuals at increased inherited risk of a wide range of cancers, including pancreatic cancer. The register supports targeted screening and surveillance and will act as an electronic referral route into national screening programmes where these exist.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many officials were investigated under their Department's disciplinary processes in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
In this instance, ‘disciplinary process’ has been defined as a misconduct and discpline case and ‘officials’ as Civil Servants. The table below shows the total number of misconduct cases over the last five years.
Financial Year | Number of Misconduct cases |
2020-21 | 151 |
2021-22 | 151 |
2022-23 | 209 |
2023-24 | 304 |
2024-25 | 334 |
The total numbers of misconduct cases that had full investigations is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
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, whether she plans to establish new statutory action standards for PFAS in drinking water.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Drinking Water Inspectorate published a report on 26 February 2025 recommending revisions to some of the parameters listed in the drinking water regulations; this included a new standard for PFAS. Defra and the DWI will work together to consider potential regulatory updates to England’s drinking water quality legislation based on these recommendations. DWI have issued guidance to water companies on PFAS. Concentrations of ‘sum of 48 PFAS’ reported as greater than 0.1 micrograms (or 100 nanograms) must be reported to the DWI as a water quality event and all necessary actions to reduce concentrations below this value must be taken. There is no evidence of PFAS above 0.1 micrograms (or 100 nanograms) in drinking water supplies.