Every parliamentary written question tabled by Ben Obese-Jecty this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 2,181–2,200 of 4,341 · this parliament
What (a) financial, (b) manpower and (c) other material contributions the UK has made to US coalition warfare projects in the last 12 months.
There is no single cohering group that collects this information. Each of the single Services and Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) independently propose and deliver projects as part of the Coalition Warfare Programme. This collaboration has taken place over the past 20 years.
With reference to page 48 of the Strategic Defence Review 2025, published on 8 July 2025, what recent progress he has made in establishing a digital warfighter group.
Mature work on the concept is underway on the core functions of the Digital Warfighter Group, its operating model and detailed design on its construct. Its focus will be to deploy digital warfighters alongside conventional warfighters to enable the rapid application of digital technologies in support of operational activities. The financial overheads have been submitted into the Defence Investment Plan process, and if funded and resourced, should be delivered at Initial Operating Capability in July 2026 as per the Strategic Defence Review.
With reference to page 42 of the National Security Strategy 2025, published in June 2025, CP 1338, what progress she has made on supporting priority sectors through a new National Wealth Fund investment for defence companies.
The National Wealth Fund was directed in its Statement of Strategic Priorities to consider the role it can play in supporting the delivery of the wider Industrial Strategy, including in the defence sector. It was also directed to consider investments in dual-use technologies across its priority sectors, to better support the UK’s defence and security.The National Wealth Fund is just one of many levers to support the defence sector. The National Security Strategy 2025 included a historic commitment to spend 5% of GDP on national security by 2035.
How many children were victims of (a) all forms of violent assault, (b) battery, (c) actual bodily harm and (d) grievous bodily harm by (i) age and (ii) gender in each year since 2015.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 10th October is attached.
With reference to page 42 of the Defence Industrial Strategy: Making Defence an Engine for Growth, published on 8 September 2025, CP 1388, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using the National Wealth Fund to provide funding for dual-use graphene technology created by Paragraf in Huntingdon constituency.
The National Wealth Fund invests in capital intensive projects, businesses, and assets by offering financing in the form of debt, equity and guarantees. The Government published the National Wealth Fund’s Statement of Strategic Priorities on 19 March which directed the National Wealth Fund to consider investments in dual-use technologies across its priority sectors of clean energy, digital and technologies, advanced manufacturing, and transport to better support the UK’s defence and security. The National Wealth Fund is operationally independent and has delegated authority to make investment decisions, subject to those investments meeting certain conditions agreed with HM Treasury. An investment made by the National Wealth Fund would need to have satisfied its investment principles and internal approval processes.
Whether local authorities are able to utilise the expertise of the (a) Office for Investment, (b) National Wealth Fund and (c) British Business Bank.
The UK's public investment bodies, including the Office for Investment, National Wealth Fund, and British Business Bank, are committed to working with each other, local government and the private sector to support regional growth.a) The Office for Investment actively pursues investment projects that support national growth missions and infrastructure strategies across the UK. It will work closely with local and regional partners, including local authorities, to support this. This includes helping key places to identify, develop, and showcase investment opportunities with global investors that are aligned with the UK's Industrial Strategy. b) The National Wealth Fund offers commercial and financial advice, and has £4bn to provide low-cost lending, to local authorities across the UK. It is also trialling Strategic Partnerships with Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, West Midlands, and Glasgow City Region to provide enhanced support to help places develop and finance long-term investment opportunities. c) The British Business Bank works closely with local and regional stakeholders to improve access to finance for small and medium-sized enterprises, including through its Nations and Regions Investment Funds and upcoming cluster champion activity, supporting local economic priorities through targeted funding and investment readiness support.
What assessment has he made of the potential impact of US Section 232 steel and aluminium tariffs on the level of exports.
Thanks to the strength of the UK-US partnership, the UK remains the only country to benefit from a preferential 25% tariff on steel and aluminium exports to the US, avoiding the global rate of 50%. The UK is therefore uniquely positioned as the only country to have secured this commitment, giving our companies a 25% competitive advantage over global competitors.We continue to engage closely with the steel and aluminium sectors, holding regular discussions with senior industry leaders and trade unions to assess and understand the impact of US tariffs.
With reference to page 88 of the Strategic Defence Review 2025, published on 8 July 2025, what progress she has made on working with the Ministry of Defence to develop understanding of the Armed Forces among young people in schools.
I refer the hon. Member for Huntingdon to the answer of 13 June 2025 to Question 57466.
What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Timms review on the Health Transformation Programme.
The Health Transformation Programme is transforming the entire Personal Independence Payment (PIP) service to improve customer experience and efficiency, build trust in our decisions and support people to enter or remain in work. The Programme is working closely with the Timms review and will support the delivery of any service changes following its outcome, to ensure PIP is fair and fit for the future.
If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of including travel to swimming lessons within the scope of the sport premium.
Schools receive core funding for activities within the curriculum, including delivery and travel for swimming and water safety lessons. After pupils have completed their core curriculum swimming and water safety lessons, it is permissible to use the physical education and sport premium for top-up lessons, including transport costs for pupils who have not met national curriculum requirements.
What assessment he has made of the risk to UK strategic capability from the global precision weapons of hostile nations.
The threat from global precision weapons is advancing, proliferating and converging. As a response, the Strategic Defence Review announced an investment of £1 billion to enhance our homeland air and missile defence. This investment will be prioritised appropriately as part of the future Integrated Force. Work to deliver the Strategic Defence Review recommendations, including on all aspects of the Integrated Air and Missile Defence, will be set out in the Defence Investment Plan to be published this year.
With reference to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority Annual Report 2024-25, published on 11 August 2025, what the projects are that have been added to the Government Major Products Portfolio since the 2023-24 financial year.
The projects which have joined the Government Major Projects Portfolio since the 2023-24 financial year are included in the 2023-24 IPA Annual Report, and the 2024-25 NISTA Annual Report.
Communities and Local Government, what progress he has made on the Local Land Charges Programme.
HM Land Registry’s (HMLR’s) new national Local Land Charges search service went live for customers in 2018, the programme is making good progress in digitising this critical information on land and property, transforming how it is stored, searched and delivered. Since the launch of the programme, at the time of writing HMLR has transferred 8 million charges from 137 Local Authorities to the new service, and another 133 Local Authorities’ data is currently in the process of being digitised, ready for it to be transferred. So far, the new service has delivered over 1.9 million searches, which saves the average customer over £10 per search and approximately 12 days in waiting time. As a result, customer sentiment is overwhelmingly positive, with 74% of them rating the service as good to excellent.
What assessment he has made of the future (a) structure, (b) role and (c) responsibilities of the Veterans’ Advisory and Pensions Committees.
We are reviewing the functions and activities of the Veterans Advisory Pension Commission in relation to wider departmental priorities for the Armed Forces Community. This includes the new VALOUR initiative and the Covenant Legal Duty Extension. The review aims to enhance and simplify the support provided to all members of the community.
With reference to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority Annual Report 2024-25, published on 11 August 2025, what the projects are that have been removed from the Government Major Products Portfolio since the 2023-24 financial year.
The projects which have been removed from the Government Major Projects Portfolio since the 2023-24 financial year are included in the 2023-24 IPA Annual Report, and the 2024-25 NISTA Annual Report.
Communities and Local Government, how much funding has been allocated from the Brownfield Infrastructure and Land fund to (a) Huntingdonshire District Council and (b) Cambridgeshire since the establishment of that programme.
No funding has been allocated to Huntingdonshire District Council from the Brownfield, Infrastructure and Land (BIL) programme. In Cambridgeshire, one BIL project is now in contract, for a £23.35m grant (alongside funding from the Cambridge City Deal) to support the relocation of the Waterbeach Village railway station which is a condition of the planning for the 4,500 home Waterbeach East New Town.
With reference to page 117 of the Strategic Defence Review, published on 2 June 2025, what progress he has made on seeking partners with which to develop the overhead, persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability needed for effective Integrated Air and Missile Defence in the Euro-Atlantic.
The Ministry of Defence regularly engages with our Euro-Atlantic partners to discuss air and missile threats. The development of an Integrated Air and Missile Defence capability set will be pursued both on a sovereign basis and through partner nation collaboration. The associated investment will be prioritised appropriately against the threat as part of the future Integrated Force. Work to deliver the Strategic Defence Review recommendations, including on all aspects of the Integrated Air and Missile Defence, will be set out in the Defence Investment Plan to be published this year.
With reference to page 106 of the Strategic Defence Fund, updated on 8 July 2025, what modifications would be required to aircraft carriers in order to facilitate long-range precision missiles capable of being fired from the carrier deck.
Project VANTAGE has recently been established as the maritime element of the UK’s One Way Effectors (OWE) programme, which are long-range uncrewed systems. VANTAGE is an iterative programme, with the first phase focussed on demonstrating OWE launch from a Royal Navy vessel. If successful, VANTAGE will look to exploit the demonstration in a core programme from a range of Royal Navy Vessels, including the Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers. Subsequent phases of VANTAGE will focus on spiral development of the capability, keeping pace with evolving threats and counter OWE systems, as well as the potential of a modular construct, with interchangeable launchers, effectors, munitions and sensor packages which would require minimal change to shipping to accommodate OWE.
With reference to page 11 of the National Security Strategy 2025, CP 1338, published on 24 June 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the defence dividend on Huntingdon constituency.
The Ministry of Defence is committed to ensuring the increased investment in defence translates into more British jobs, increased skills and a stronger and more resilient defence industrial base, supported by major procurement reforms. We hope that all constituencies will benefit from increased defence investment including Huntington Investment decisions will be set out in the Defence Industrial Strategy which will be published later this year.
With reference to his Department's policy paper entitled AI action plan for justice, published on 31 July 2025, what progress he has made in strengthening partnerships with criminal justice partners on a collective response to AI-enabled criminality.
The Criminal Justice Action Group, chaired by the Ministry of Justice Permanent Secretary and attended by core criminal justice partners (the police, Home Office, AGO, CPS, Judicial Office, HMCTS and HMPPS), is actively considering the risks to the criminal justice system of AI-enabled criminality and a collective response. This is part of the Government’s wider response to tackling AI enabled crime and emerging risks from AI, working closely with the AI sector, law enforcement and international partners.