Apr. 24 2024
Source Page: Defra: workforce management information March 2024Found: staff costs; OvertimePayroll staff costs; Employer pension contributionsPayroll staff costs; Employer national
Oral Evidence Apr. 24 2024
Inquiry: Non-contact sexual offencesFound: It is important to have that national co-ordination and that national framework so that we can initiate
Found: Inflationary pressures (including higher energy, food and wage costs) also led to an estimated funding
Found: A picture of the National Audit Office logo SESSION 2023-24 24 APRIL 2024 HC 701Preparations to extend
Mentions:
1: Wendy Chamberlain (LD - North East Fife) Without farmers, we would not have food. - Speech Link
2: Jim Shannon (DUP - Strangford) That is incredibly concerning as it affects our food security, which this debate is also about—food security - Speech Link
3: Wendy Chamberlain (LD - North East Fife) I know the National Farmers Union raised concerns about the transition as early as 2018 in evidence to - Speech Link
4: Jo Churchill (Con - Bury St Edmunds) with them, and I agree that that point is important.For clarity, I met the representatives from the National - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Anthony Mangnall (Con - Totnes) It would be effectively a national licensing scheme. - Speech Link
2: Alex Sobel (LAB - Leeds North West) I am a PhD student receiving the UKRI minimum stipend which is paid monthly.The cost of living for food - Speech Link
3: Caroline Lucas (Green - Brighton, Pavilion) In the absence of a national system for rent controls with local flexibility, which is what we really - Speech Link
4: Jacob Young (Con - Redcar) seeking to improve care leavers’ access to housing, as set out in the “stable homes, built on love” strategy - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Grant Shapps (Con - Welwyn Hatfield) I warned that we were entering a much more dangerous period in the world and I made the case for a national - Speech Link
2: Martin Docherty-Hughes (SNP - West Dunbartonshire) are at a near Napoleonic decline on the frontline and have pushed members of the armed forces into food - Speech Link
3: Stephen Farry (APNI - North Down) additional defence spending, but may I ask the Defence Secretary for reassurance that the Government’s strategy - Speech Link
4: Grant Shapps (Con - Welwyn Hatfield) We have just made our seventh or eighth drop of food aid into Gaza, using the RAF. - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: None It is unhappy that it is a one-off; this should be part of an overall strategy to deal with fraud and - Speech Link
2: Viscount Camrose (Con - Excepted Hereditary) My Lords, I now turn to the national underground asset register, which I will refer to as NUAR. - Speech Link
3: Lord Clement-Jones (LD - Life peer) UK’s economic and national security. - Speech Link
4: Baroness Kidron (XB - Life peer) Others described being forced into destitution, becoming homeless and reliant on food banks as they attempted - Speech Link
5: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab - Life peer) transparency and safety reports from all those at the forefront of AI development should be a key part of that strategy - Speech Link
Found: permit any Trading Standards departments based in Great Britain to carry out investigations across national
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) classifying wildlife crimes as either-way offences with a maximum sentence of up to five years imprisonment, (b) giving wildlife crime notifiable status and (c) incorporating wildlife crime into the Policing Education Qualification Framework.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government takes crimes against wildlife seriously. In 2022 Defra more than doubled its funding of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) from a total of £495,000 over the three previous years to £1.2 million for the three-year period of 2022-25.
Significant sanctions are already available to judges to hand down to those convicted of wildlife crimes - up to an unlimited fine and/or a six-month custodial sentence. Furthermore, the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 realises the Government’s manifesto commitment to increase the sentences available to our courts for the most serious cases of animal cruelty – including acts against wildlife - by increasing the maximum penalty for this offence to five years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. Sentencing those convicted of wildlife crimes is, however, a matter for judges; these decisions are rightly taken independently of Government.
Defra has actively supported stakeholders in making representations to the Home Office regarding the issue of making wildlife crimes notifiable. However, regardless of notifiable status, when it comes to responding to the most prevalent wildlife crimes, Chief Constables have operational independence to tackle the crimes that matter most to their communities.
Wildlife crime is not mandated as authorised professional practice and therefore is not a training requirement via the College of Policing. However, the NWCU (funded to a large degree by Defra) currently provides training to police officers across the UK. This training reflects the National Police Chiefs' Council wildlife crime strategy and provides comprehensive training in UK wildlife crime priorities and emerging trends. Since November 2022 the NWCU has trained 890 officers and is in the process of building a comprehensive digital training platform for wildlife crime which police officers and police staff will be able to access nationwide. Additionally, the NWCU provides a digital information hub for almost 1000 police staff, with up-to-date guidance on investigating wildlife crime.