Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of accusations of discrimination against white men in recruitment decisions by the Royal Air Force on quality of recruits.
Answered by Andrew Murrison
There has been no reduction in the quality of recruits joining the Royal Air Force (RAF) and all individuals joining the RAF must meet the required standard. Defence will continue to do all it can to attract the best people from the widest pool of talent, whatever their background, gender or ethnicity.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that (a) critical race theory and (b) white privilege and other contested terms are not taught in schools.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Political issues relating to racial and social justice can be taught in a balanced and factual manner, just as pupils are often taught about a range of different views on other topics, but schools should not teach contested theories and opinions as fact.
The Department is aware that there has been increasing focus on political impartiality in schools over the last few years. This has been challenging for head teachers, teachers and staff with a lack of clarity about what the legal duties in this area really mean. That is why the Department has published clear and comprehensive guidance to help those working with and in schools to better understand legal duties on political impartiality. The guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools.
As with other aspects of the curriculum, schools have flexibility over how they deliver these subjects. It is important that schools take full responsibility for ensuring lessons and materials are age appropriate, suitable and politically impartial, particularly when using materials produced by external organisations. When teaching, schools should consider the age of pupils and their religious and cultural background.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help improve the environmental condition of the River Gipping in Suffolk.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Environment Agency, whilst taking account of the aspirations of other river users, works with partners to restore a more naturally functioning river which will support natural habitats and a rich biodiversity.
Using Defra’s Water Environment Improvement Fund, the Environment Agency has worked with Suffolk Wildlife Trust on several projects to enhance wildlife and the resilience of the river environment to the impacts of climate change. The Environment Agency has also funded Groundwork to deliver the Yellow Fish Project (http://oilcare.org.uk/avoid-pollution/yellow-fish) which focused on pollution prevention messages to the community, businesses and schools in the towns of Needham Market and Stowmarket in 2019/20. A further Yellow fish project is currently running in Ipswich in 2023-4 including on the lower River Gipping funded by the Environment Agency.
The Environment Agency continues to hold water companies to account to reduce pollution, tackle storm overflows and invest more into the environment; work with farmers to support environmentally friendly farming that doesn’t damage water quality; respond to environmental incidents to stop and reverse damage to our rivers as well as prosecute the most serious polluters. As well as the protection of water quality, the Environment Agency has a permitting and regulatory system that protects water quantity. Additionally the Environment Agency has a regulatory role to ensure that physical modification does not reduce the ecological and biological value of the river. This could include things such as the removal of bankside trees and vegetation.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the environmental condition of the River Gipping in Suffolk.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Environment Agency monitors the water quality, ecology (plants, invertebrates and fish) rainfall, river flows and groundwater levels of the River Gipping and its catchment. The Environment Agency delivered a fish survey report in 2019 for the River Gipping which indicated that fish populations within the river are stable, with an average of 10 species being recorded at each of the five survey sites. A further survey was completed this year and the results are still being analysed. The river is currently at Moderate Ecological Potential, with a target to achieve Good Ecological Potential by 2027. The main sources of pollution are agriculture and the water industry and there is a growing threat from plastics and forever chemicals.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of local authorities sending homeless people to be accommodated in main towns of other local authorities.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The Homelessness Code of Guidance is clear that local authorities should, as far as possible, avoid placing homeless households out of their borough. However, where there is a limited supply of suitable accommodation, we are aware that sometimes it is necessary to place households in temporary accommodation outside of the local area.
Legislation stipulates that where temporary accommodation is provided, it must be suitable, taking account of the needs of the household. If a local authority places a household into accommodation in another local area, they are required by law to notify the local authority of any placement, to minimise disruption to schooling or employment.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he plans to bring forward the date of the planned rollout of Challenger 3 battle tanks to the Army.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The intent remains to build 148 Challenger 3 Main Battle Tanks, as set out in the 2021 Defence Command Paper. The programme is on schedule to achieve Initial Operating Capability in 2027 and Full Operating Capability in 2030.
More broadly, the number of Challenger 3 remains under review to ensure the Army's Main Battle Tank fleet is sufficient to meet Defence's needs.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department have made of the impact of immigration levels on housing availability.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Net migration is too high and this Government is determined to bring it down to sustainable levels to help protect public services and housing supply against unsustainable pressure.
That is why on 23 May, the Government introduced a package of measures to help deliver its goal of reducing net migration. The package includes removing the right for international students to bring dependants unless they are on research postgraduate courses, and removing the ability for international students to switch out of the student route into work routes before their studies have been completed.
We keep all our immigration policies under review to ensure that they best serve the UK and reflect the public’s priorities.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department have taken to support Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh since January 2023.
Answered by David Rutley
The UK has been a leading donor to the Rohingya response in Bangladesh, providing a total of £362 million of support since 2017. Minister Trevelyan visited Bangladesh in March this year and announced £5.26 million to support the World Food Programme and UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to feed 449,000 people and provide pressure cookers to reduce the consumption of cooking gas. In May, the UK announced £2.3 million to support healthcare, shelter rebuilding and site management for refugees and host communities in the aftermath of Cyclone Mocha. Most recently in July, the UK announced a further £10 million of assistance for refugees and host communities for food provision, water, sanitation and hygiene.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to support residents who are evacuated from high-rise residential buildings as a result of flooding.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Flooding in buildings, unless part of a major, wide-area incident, is normally locally managed. In terms of supporting evacuated residents in such circumstances, normally a building owner or insurer will provide alternative accommodation.
Local authorities also have statutory duties to assist households that are homeless or threatened with homelessness (subject to households being eligible, including having recourse to public funds and being habitually resident).
Local authorities must take reasonable steps to prevent and/or relieve homelessness for eligible households. They must also provide temporary accommodation until long-term settled housing is secured for households that have priority need; this includes any household with a dependent child and households that are homeless as a result of an emergency such as flood, fire or other disaster.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of levels of theft from shops (a) nationally and (b) in Suffolk.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Home Office works closely with retailers and trade associations such as the British Retail Consortium (BRC), Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) and the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW), and police partners via the National Retail Crime Steering Group (NRCSG) to understand the crime trends retailers are experiencing and to work together to tackle these issues.
The NRCSG has produced practical resources to provide guidance on partnership working and encourage engagement with Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRPs) to help ensure businesses and police can work effectively together to identify the trends and types of crimes that affect businesses and to ensure incidents are dealt with appropriately at a local level.
In addition, the National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) co-ordinates Safer Action Business Days (SABA), where police, BCRPs and retailers work in partnership to carry out days of action to prevent crime against businesses, including shoplifting.
The Home Office collects and publishes information on the number of shoplifting offences reported to and recorded by the police in England and Wales, on a quarterly basis. These are available at Police Force Area and can be accessed here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
The table below shows the police recorded crime figures for Suffolk
Number of shoplifting offences recorded by the police in England and Wales (excluding Devon and Cornwall) | |||
Year | Suffolk | England & Wales* | |
2015/16 | 3,707 | 330,622 | |
2016/17 | 3,751 | 363,349 | |
2017/18 | 4,145 | 374,646 | |
2018/19 | 4,171 | 367,725 | |
2019/20 | 4,155 | 353,053 | |
2020/21 | 2,174 | 224,343 | |
2021/22 | 2,582 | 270,410 | |
YE Dec 21 | 2,396 | 251,774 | |
YE Dec 22 | 3,114 | 309,511 | |
Many shoplifting offences are not reported to the police. The 2021 Commercial Victimisation Survey, which provides estimates of crime against the Wholesale and Retail sector in England and Wales, showed that 25% of premises were victims of theft by customers in the 12 months prior to taking part in the survey. Of those victims, 39% said they experienced customer theft once a week or more.