Oral Answers to Questions

Warinder Juss Excerpts
Thursday 4th September 2025

(1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
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The Solicitor General was asked—
Warinder Juss Portrait Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)
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1. What steps she is taking to help ensure the effective prosecution of people smugglers. [R]

Alan Strickland Portrait Alan Strickland (Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor) (Lab)
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9. What steps she is taking to help ensure the effective prosecution of people smugglers.

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Lucy Rigby Portrait The Solicitor General (Lucy Rigby)
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Anyone involved in the vile trade of people smuggling will be met with the full force of the law. This year, 67% more offences for facilitating illegal entry into the UK were prosecuted. I am pleased to tell my hon. Friend that the Government’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill will allow for more prosecutions, including by criminalising the creation of online material that facilitates a breach of UK immigration law.

Warinder Juss Portrait Warinder Juss
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I welcome the Government’s steps to deter people smuggling and end the exploitation of vulnerable people. I also want to highlight the work that Wolverhampton City of Sanctuary does in my constituency to help refugees rebuild their lives. As the Home Secretary confirmed only this week, one of the Government’s major reforms is developing controlled and managed routes for genuine refugees. Does the Solicitor General agree that having safe and legal routes for asylum seekers is a crucial step in undermining the business model of the people smuggling gangs?

Lucy Rigby Portrait The Solicitor General
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Developing controlled and managed routes for genuine refugees is important. This is one of a host of robust, concrete and practical measures that the Government are taking to crack down on the vile activities of people smuggling gangs. I contrast our approach with that of the Conservative party, which left us with this borders crisis, and with that of Reform, which is happy to stoke anger but has absolutely no answers.

Oral Answers to Questions

Warinder Juss Excerpts
Thursday 20th March 2025

(6 months, 2 weeks ago)

Commons Chamber
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Rachel Hopkins Portrait Rachel Hopkins (Luton South and South Bedfordshire) (Lab)
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5. What steps he is taking to tackle fly-tipping.

Warinder Juss Portrait Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)
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7. What steps he is taking to tackle fly-tipping.

David Williams Portrait David Williams (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)
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14. What steps he is taking to tackle fly-tipping.

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Mary Creagh Portrait Mary Creagh
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It is clear that my hon. Friend is right. Luton has a particular problem with fly-tipping, but the council has been doing good work, with 263 fixed-penalty notices and 32 prosecutions. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs chairs the national fly-tipping prevention group, and we work with a wide range of interested parties, including councils, the Environment Agency, the National Farmers Union and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to disseminate good practice, and I urge Luton to join us in that endeavour.

Warinder Juss Portrait Warinder Juss
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Although City of Wolverhampton council is to be congratulated on introducing a range of initiatives to tackle fly-tipping, including deploying drones, raising the fine for fly-tipping to £1,000 and rewarding those who identify culprits with gift cards, fly-tipping in my constituency of Wolverhampton West costs Wolverhampton taxpayers around £300,000 a year and involved some 2,714 incidents during 2023-24. Does the Minister agree that we need stronger disincentives to discourage those who fly-tip, so that that £300,000 can be redistributed to where it is really needed?

Mary Creagh Portrait Mary Creagh
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I am interested to hear about the work my hon. Friend’s council is doing with drones. We use CCTV, but there could be lessons for other councils. In our manifesto, we committed to forcing fly-tippers to clean up their mess. We are seeking powers to issue statutory fly-tipping enforcement guidance so we have a consistent and effective approach, but it is clear that the waste carriers, brokers and dealers, and the exemption permitting regimes, are not fit for purpose. I have asked my officials to look at everything we can do to strengthen both of those.