Every parliamentary written question tabled by Lee Anderson this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.
Showing 1,181–1,200 of 1,340 · this parliament
What his planned timetable is for publication of the review of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme.
I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave to my hon Friend the Member for Falkirk (Euan Stainbank) on 29 January 2025 to Question UIN 25410.
What steps her Department is taking to prevent irregular migrants working in the UK from accessing (a) social security benefits and (b) the NHS.
Under UK legislation, access to work is reserved to those who are eligible and have lawful immigration status in the UK. All employers are required to undertake right to work checks before employing someone and can incur civil penalties of up to £60,000.00 per employee if found to be employing migrants without the right to work. Irregular migrants are subject to the No Recourse to Public Funds policy which means they cannot access social security benefits, and nor can they access NHS treatment without charge. The Home Office operates data sharing arrangements with other Government Departments to confirm immigration status information to support eligibility checks.
If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing (a) beer duty and (b) other alcohol duties for pubs.
Pubs make an enormous contribution to our economy and society, and this is recognised in the tax system. Draught Relief provides a duty discount for all draught products below 8.5 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV). Around 60% of alcoholic drinks served in pubs are covered by this relief. At the Autumn Budget, the Chancellor increased this relief from 9.2% to 13.9%. This represents an overall reduction in duty bills of over £85m a year and is equivalent to a 1p duty reduction on a typical pint.
What steps her Department is taking to help reduce the cost of motor insurance premiums.
Our cross-Government taskforce on the cost of motor insurance is exploring how we can stabilise or reduce premiums to break down barriers to opportunity and grow the economy, delivering the Plan for Change. We will provide updates about the taskforce in due course.
Whether he has commissioned a cost-benefit analysis on providing additional support to prevent the closure of key strategic steel plants.
Our commitment to the steel industry remains unwavering. On Sunday 16 February we published a consultation on our Plan for Steel. Along with work already ongoing across Government, this will provide a clear evidence base on the needs of the steel sector and its customers. This work will ensure the best use of our funding commitment of up to £2.5bn to deliver change and unlock private investment, ensuring a bright and sustainable future for UK steelmaking.
Whether she plans to introduce charges for EU visitors to the UK, in the context of the EU’s planned introduction of the EUR 7 visa waiver charge under its Etias system.
Electronic travel authorisations (ETAs) have been introduced to enhance our ability to screen travellers upstream and stop those who pose a threat from travelling to the UK. ETAs will be extended to eligible European nationals on 5 March 2025, and will be a requirement for this cohort for travel from 2 April 2025. The price of an ETA is currently £10, although the Government has made clear its intention to increase the fee to £16 by amending the relevant legislation.
What assessment he has made of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of illegal sales of (a) tobacco, (b) vape and c) alcohol products.
Evidence shows that when we have introduced targeted tobacco control measures, they have had a positive impact on tackling the problems of illicit tobacco. When the age of sale was increased from 16 to 18 years old in 2007, this created 1.3 million more people who were no longer able to be sold cigarettes, and in theory would be in the market for illicit cigarettes. However, in practice, the number of illicit cigarettes consumed fell by 25% from 10 billion in 2005/06 to 7.5 billion in 2007/08. Overall, the consumption of illicit cigarettes has gone from 15 billion cigarettes in 2000/2001 to 1.5 billion cigarettes in 2022/2023.The Government is investing over £100 million over five years to boost HM Revenue and Customs and Border Force’s enforcement capabilities to tackle illicit tobacco, supporting their Illicit Tobacco Strategy. In 2025/26, we will invest £30 million of new funding in total for enforcement agencies, including Trading Standards, Border Force, and HM Revenue and Customs, to tackle the illicit and underage sale of tobacco and vapes.We have invested £3 million over two years specifically to enhance the work led by National Trading Standards to tackle underage and illicit vape sales. This is done through enhancing market surveillance, enforcement action at ports, intelligence development, and financial support for the storage and disposal of vapes. The new funding for 2025/26 will build on this work to tackle underage and illicit vape sales.On alcohol, the Licensing Act 2003 regulates the sale and supply of alcohol in England and Wales, and sets out offences relating to the purchase and consumption of alcohol by children. The protection of children from harm is one of the four licensing objectives under the act, and the statutory guidance that accompanies this act makes it clear that the illegal purchase and consumption of alcohol by minors is a criminal activity that may arise in connection with licensed premises, and that this should be treated particularly seriously by licensing authorities. The guidance also sets out that licensing authorities are expected to maintain close contact with the police, young offenders’ teams, and trading standards officers about the extent of unlawful sales and consumption of alcohol by minors, be involved in the development of any strategies to control or prevent these unlawful activities, and to pursue prosecutions.Since 2016, HM Revenue and Customs has operated a comprehensive strategy to combat illicit alcohol. This initiative has seen duty losses successfully reduce by over £500 million annually. This has been achieved through the introduction of measures such as the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme, which controls the supply of wholesale alcohol in the United Kingdom. Collaborative efforts with other enforcement agencies such as Trading Standards and Border Force have also enhanced compliance and enforcement, significantly reducing the availability of illicit alcohol.
What steps her Department is taking to improve the effectiveness of counter-terrorism measures.
I refer the Hon. Member to Question UIN 15502 answered on 26 November 2024.
Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help prevent postal vote fraud.
Our postal voting systems contain a range of measures that are designed to protect the security of postal voting, such as the requirement for postal voters to use personal identifiers when applying for and returning their ballot.We are currently carrying out a review of electoral registration and conduct, and if any further changes to postal voting are found to be necessary or appropriate, we will bring forward proposals for them in due course.
What steps her Department is taking to prevent money laundering by foreign nationals.
The Government is committed to tackling illicit finance and economic crime. We have appointed an Anti-Corruption Champion Baroness Hodge to support the government's agenda in tackling corruption at home and overseas.HM Treasury has been working with partners across the public and private sector to update our National Risk Assessment for money laundering and terrorist financing and to deliver Economic Crime Plan 2, the government’s public-private strategy to combat economic crime and strengthen the UK system. This includes work on HM Treasury-owned actions to reform our Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Terrorist Financing supervisory regime, and to improve the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations.HM Treasury is responsible for the UK’s money laundering regulations which require that banks and other financial services companies apply enhanced customer due diligence and enhanced ongoing monitoring in any business relationships with a person established in high-risk jurisdictions as determined by the Financial Action Task Force or in relation to any relevant transaction where either of the parties to the transaction is established in a high-risk jurisdiction.HM Treasury is also supporting the development of a new Anti-Corruption Strategy to be published in 2025 which will include measures that address the UK’s vulnerabilities to corruption and money laundering.
If she will extend the 75% business rates relief for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses after 2025.
To deliver our manifesto pledge, we intend to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties, including those on the high street, from 2026-27. Ahead of these changes being made, the Government recognises that businesses will need support in 2025-26. As such, we have prevented the current RHL relief from ending in April 2025, extending it for one year at 40 per cent up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business, and we have frozen the small business multiplier.
Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with (a) local authority officers and (b) local authority elected representatives on the cancellation of the local elections in West Sussex, and if she will publish those discussions.
The Secretary of State has not had discussions with these local authorities on the cancellation of the local elections. Discussions on the applications to the Devolution Priority Programme have been had with all upper tier and unitary councils in the preparation of the programme, and those discussions covered all matters related to the timetable and process by both officials and ministers, as you would expect.
What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of levels of capacity in phlebotomy services on the time taken for leukaemia cases to be diagnosed.
We are taking meaningful steps to improve cancer diagnostic performance for all cancers, including leukaemia. The 2025/26 NHS Planning Guidance sets a stretching target for cancer diagnosis that will see approximately 100,000 more people every year having cancer confirmed or ruled out within 28 days.This will be supported by our commitment to improve diagnostic performance. We are delivering an additional two million operations, scans, and appointments during our first year in Government, as a first step in our commitment to ensuring that patients can expect to be treated within 18 weeks. As of December 2024, community diagnostic centres are now delivering additional tests and checks on 168 sites across the country and have delivered over 12.2 million additional tests since July 2021, including phlebotomy service tests.We have also announced plans for a revised NHS Long Term Workforce Plan in summer 2025 to ensure the National Health Service has the right people, in the right places, with the right skills to deliver the care patients need when they need it.Finally, the National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology. The plan will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to improve the experience and outcomes for people with cancer, including leukaemia.
Communities and Local Government, what discussions she has had with (a) local authority officers and (b) local authority elected representatives on the cancellation of local elections in East Sussex; and if she will publish those discussions.
The Secretary of State has not had discussions with these local authorities on the cancellation of the local elections. Discussions on the applications to the Devolution Priority Programme have been had with all upper tier and unitary councils in the preparation of the programme, and those discussions covered all matters related to the timetable and process by both officials and ministers, as you would expect.
What steps his Department is taking to (a) help support community pharmacists in the early detection of leukaemia, (b) expand phlebotomy capacity and (c) increase levels of access to full blood counts.
It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service in catching cancer, including blood cancers, as early as possible, to treat these diseases faster and more effectively, and thereby improve outcomes.NHS England does not currently commission any phlebotomy or full blood count services from community pharmacies. Patients can access these services in community diagnostic centres (CDCs), which offer local populations a wide range of diagnostic tests closer to home, and greater choice on where and how they are undertaken, reducing the need for hospital visits and speeding up diagnosis.The Elective Reform Plan commits to transform and expand diagnostic services and speed up waiting times for tests, including for blood tests. We will also expand the number of CDCs operating seven days a week and 12 hours a day, as well as the tests they offer, so that patients have greater access to these more convenient tests. We will also deliver additional CDC capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new ones.
How many reports of benefit fraud were made to her Department in 2024; and how many and what proportion of these resulted in benefits being revoked.
The number of benefit fraud public referrals, received by Counter Fraud, Compliance and Debt (CFCD) in the Department, in the calendar year 2024 was 160,079. Data is not held on how many of these resulted in benefit being revoked.Counter Fraud and Compliance has different approaches to tackling fraud, depending on the nature and severity. The team deploys a diverse range of expertise, technology, and intelligence to protect the integrity of the benefits system, correcting benefit where appropriate and bringing the most serious cases to justice. This approach has seen Counter Fraud and Compliance deliver over £1.2 billion savings for 2023-24.
Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy that local authority areas which have had elections postponed in May 2025 will have elections in May 2026.
We have postponed local authority elections from May 2025 to May 2026 only, where it is crucial to do so in order to ensure that we can reorganise local government and deliver devolution as quickly as possible.For those areas which are part of the Devolution Priority Programme, it is the government's intention to deliver a new wave of mayoral elections in May 2026.For any area in which elections are postponed, we will work with areas to move to elections to new ‘shadow’ unitary councils as soon as possible as is the usual arrangement in the process of local government reorganisation.
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what his planned timetable is for the transferring of sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
A timetable for the transfer of sovereignty will be among details of the proposed treaty, which will be laid before Parliament following signature.
Communities and Local Government, if she will publish the conversations and negotiations which she had in order to determine which elections were to be postponed.
The Secretary of State will not publish these details. I wrote to councils who requested for their local elections to be postponed from May 2025 to May 2026 to inform them of the outcome of the government's decision. The bar for postponement was high and requests were only granted where this supports delivery of both reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeframe.
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, which groups of Chagossians he has met with; and when he met them.
As Minister for the Overseas Territories, I have met with members of the Chagossian community on 30 September and 3 October, and officials have also been in regular contact with Chagossians on a range of issues. We recognise the importance of the British Indian Ocean Territory / Chagos Archipelago to Chagossians and have worked to ensure the sovereignty agreement reflects their interests.