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1122124

registered interest
date	18/04/2019
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Wines
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to support UK wine producers.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	245975
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2019 answer text <p>UK wine producers are exceeding the targets they have set themselves for increasing the number of bottles produced and vineyards planted to 3,000 hectares and 10 million bottles by 2020. The Government commissioned research on how best to support the industry to continue to meet these targets in the face of climate change. Recent support from Defra for the UK wine industry also includes amending the English Protected Designation of Origin and Protected Geographical Origin Wine Schemes to ensure the unprecedented harvest did not damage producers of specialty wines.</p> answering member constituency Macclesfield answering member printed David Rutley question first answered 25/04/2019 14:48:38 answering member 4033 label Biography information for David Rutley
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel

1122125

registered interest
date	18/04/2019
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Agriculture
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to ensure the sustainability of the UK agriculture sector in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	245976
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2019 answer text <p>It is in everyone’s interests to secure a good deal with the EU and that is what we are committed to.</p><p> </p><p>Whilst preparing for all outcomes, as any responsible Government would, we have also been preparing for the possibility of no deal, which is why we have contingency plans in place to minimise disruption for the food and farming sector as much as possible.</p><p> </p><p>We remain confident in the resilience of our world leading agricultural sectors and their ability to thrive outside the EU.</p> answering member constituency Scarborough and Whitby answering member printed Mr Robert Goodwill question first answered 25/04/2019 11:41:17 answering member 1562 label Biography information for Sir Robert Goodwill
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel

1122129

registered interest
date	18/04/2019
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Knives: Crime
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of knives carried on the streets in Yorkshire and the Humber.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	245977
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2019 answer text <p>The Government is very concerned about increases in knife crime and its impact on victims, families and communities. The action we are taking is set out in our Serious Violence Strategy and includes new legislation in the Offensive Weapons Bill, raising awareness among young people of the dangers of carrying a knife, supporting local early intervention projects and continuing police action under Operation Sceptre. The latest anti-knife crime week of action under Operation Sceptre took place from 11-18 March.</p><p>We are encouraging the police to use stop and search. It is a vital policing tool when used correctly and officers have the Government's full support to use these powers in a targeted way that is fair, lawful and effective. The Home Secretary has announced he is relaxing voluntary best practice guidance around the use of Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, which allows officers to stop and search anyone in a designated area in anticipation of serious violence.</p><p>The changes will allow the police to more quickly and effectively use these powers in anticipation of serious violence, safeguarding the public. <br>We have also listened to the police request that we introduce new Knife Crime Prevention Orders to help them to divert those involved in knife crime away from a violent lifestyle. The Government introduced the new Order in the Offensive Weapons Bill, currently awaiting Royal Assent.</p><p>The Offensive Weapons Bill includes specific new knives offences, in par-ticular making it an offence to possess certain offensive weapons in private, and stopping knives being sent to residential addresses after they are bought online unless the seller has arrangements with a delivery company to verify age. These measures are designed to help the police in their re-sponse to knife crime.</p><p>In addition to supporting the police on law enforcement, our Serious Vio-lence Strategy stresses the importance of early intervention to tackle the root causes of serious violence and provide young people with the skills and resilience to lead productive lives free from violence. This is why we are providing £22 million to support early intervention and prevention projects through our Early Intervention Youth Fund which is already supporting 29 projects in England and Wales, including the Box Clever project in Humber-side.</p><p>We are also supporting a national knife crime media campaign - #knifefree - to raise awareness of the consequences of knife crime. Its initial campaign was launched in March 2018 across England and Wales and activity includ-ed video on demand, street posters, social media, digital audio and video and partner engagement. The latest campaign went live on 1 April 2019.</p><p>Last October, the Government also announced a new £200 million Youth Endowment Fund to be delivered over 10 years to support interventions with children and young people at risk of involvement in crime and violence, focusing on those most at risk to steer them away from becoming serious offenders. This is now up and running and the charity Impetus, working in partnership with the Early Intervention Foundation and Social Investment Business, is operating the Fund.</p><p>In addition, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the Spring Statement on 13 March that there will be £100 million additional funding for the police in 2019/20 to tackle serious violence, including £80m of new funding from the Treasury. The majority of the investment will largely go towards supporting police forces most affected by the violence we are see-ing, but the funding will also support Violence Reduction Units, bringing to-gether a range of agencies, including health, education, social services and others, to develop a multi-agency approach to preventing serious violence.</p><p>The Prime Minister also hosted the Serious Youth Violence Summit from 1 – 4 April that underlined the whole of Government approach we are taking to tackle this issue. At this summit, the Prime Minister announced she would be chairing a new Ministerial Taskforce, supported by a dedicated Cabinet Office team, to oversee the cross-government programme of ac-tion.</p><p>On 1 April, we also launched our consultation on a new legal duty to ensure public bodies take action to prevent serious violence. The consultation will close on 28 May. It explores how a legal duty will support effective multi-agency work. It is open to everyone to respond and can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/serious-violence-new-legal-duty-to-support-multi-agency-action.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins question first answered 25/04/2019 14:37:05 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel

1122131

registered interest
date	18/04/2019
answering body	Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept id	13
answering dept short name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
answering dept sort name	Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
hansard heading	Bottles: Recycling
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to increase the level of glass bottle recycling in Yorkshire and the Humber.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	245979
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2019 answer text <p>Our current consultation on consistency in household and business recycling collections seeks views on whether glass should be one of the core materials to be collected by every council, including in Yorkshire and the Humber.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is currently consulting on introducing a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers, including whether it should include glass bottles.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is consulting on a packaging recycling rate for glass of 70% by 2025, and 75% by 2030.</p> answering member constituency Suffolk Coastal answering member printed Dr Thérèse Coffey question first answered 25/04/2019 14:59:41 answering member 4098 label Biography information for Dr Thérèse Coffey
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel

1121442

registered interest
date	11/04/2019
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Travellers: Caravan Sites
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2019 to Question 226712, what steps his Department is taking to give due consideration to the Public Sector Equality Duty in terms of the effect on Gypsy and Traveller communities during the review into how to criminalise the act of trespassing when setting up an unauthorised encampment.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	244190
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/04/2019 answer text <p>Acting on the findings of the last year’s Government consultation on powers for dealing with unauthorised development and encampments, where the majority of respondents believed that the Government should consider criminalising unauthorised encampments, the Home Office launched a review into whether this could be achieved.</p><p>All government departments have an ongoing responsibility to meet the Public Sector Equalities Duty (PSED) under the Equality Act 2010. As such, when formulating any policy changes following the consultation, ministers must have due regard to the three limbs of the PSED: (1) eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Act, (2) advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not, and (3) foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.</p> answering member constituency Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner answering member printed Mr Nick Hurd question first answered 24/04/2019 12:35:41 answering member 1561 label Biography information for Mr Nick Hurd
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel

1110797

registered interest
date	09/04/2019
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	RAF Menwith Hill
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, on what date a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee last visited NSA/NRO Menwith Hill.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	242955
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/04/2019 answer text <p>The Intelligence and Security Committee does not comment on the details of its work programme. Where appropriate it publishes information on visits it has undertaken in its Annual Reports.</p> answering member constituency South Staffordshire answering member printed Gavin Williamson question first answered 23/04/2019 15:34:47 answering member 4108 label Biography information for Sir Gavin Williamson
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel

1109366

registered interest
date	03/04/2019
answering body	Ministry of Defence
answering dept id	11
answering dept short name	Defence
answering dept sort name	Defence
hansard heading	Firing Ranges
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he has taken to investigate a video circulating on social media that depicts British soldiers using a picture of the Leader of the Opposition as target practice.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	240642
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/04/2019 answer text <p>The video circulating on social media is deeply troubling. This behaviour is far from the high standards we usually see and expect of the Army at any time</p><p> </p><p>The Army has quick to launch a full investigation by the Royal Military Police. The findings of this investigation will inform next steps and appropriate action will be taken.</p><p> </p><p>The Defence Operational Shooting Policy specifies which types of targets are to be used during live fire training. At no time on any live firing activities are Service personnel encouraged to use images of public figures as targets.</p> answering member constituency Bournemouth East answering member printed Mr Tobias Ellwood grouped question UIN 240543 240577 240604 question first answered 08/04/2019 14:29:37 answering member 1487 label Biography information for Mr Tobias Ellwood
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel

1109101

registered interest
date	02/04/2019
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Royal Bank of Scotland
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what conditions were used to determine the planned disposal of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) shares by 2023-24; what alternative proposals were assessed (a) for the disposal of shares by 2023-24 and (b) during the planning of the earlier proposal for disposal of RBS shares by 2022-23; and what assessment he has made of the potential merits of maintaining majority public ownership of RBS in the short, medium and long term.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	240102
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/04/2019 answer text <p>Following significant further progress made by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in resolving its legacy issues, Budget 2018 set out the government’s intention to undertake a full disposal of the RBS shareholding by 2023-24, subject to market conditions and achieving value for money. This built on the intention set out at Autumn Budget 2017 to dispose of around £15 billion of shares by 2022/23.</p><p>Returning RBS to private ownership is the right policy for taxpayers, customers and the wider economy. It was never the intention that government would be a permanent shareholder in RBS. The government intervened in RBS to protect ordinary savers and businesses, and to prevent the collapse of a bank which was vital to the functioning of the UK economy and financial system. It was not a speculative investment designed to make a profit.</p><p> </p><p>The government keeps the timing and method of future disposals under constant review but will only undertakes sales when it can achieve fair value – that is, when the share price accurately reflects the current and future prospects of RBS. RBS is a fundamentally different, smaller and more sustainable bank today compared to 2008. As a result, we have to accept that the shares are worth less than the price the then government paid for them.</p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen grouped question UIN 240103 question first answered 08/04/2019 14:30:24 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel

1109103

registered interest
date	02/04/2019
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Royal Bank of Scotland
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2019, to Question 222650 on Royal Bank of Scotland, how the Treasury will determine at which point and under what conditions the disposal of RBS shares will represent value for money for the taxpayer such that they will at that time be disposed of.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	240103
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/04/2019 answer text <p>Following significant further progress made by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in resolving its legacy issues, Budget 2018 set out the government’s intention to undertake a full disposal of the RBS shareholding by 2023-24, subject to market conditions and achieving value for money. This built on the intention set out at Autumn Budget 2017 to dispose of around £15 billion of shares by 2022/23.</p><p>Returning RBS to private ownership is the right policy for taxpayers, customers and the wider economy. It was never the intention that government would be a permanent shareholder in RBS. The government intervened in RBS to protect ordinary savers and businesses, and to prevent the collapse of a bank which was vital to the functioning of the UK economy and financial system. It was not a speculative investment designed to make a profit.</p><p> </p><p>The government keeps the timing and method of future disposals under constant review but will only undertakes sales when it can achieve fair value – that is, when the share price accurately reflects the current and future prospects of RBS. RBS is a fundamentally different, smaller and more sustainable bank today compared to 2008. As a result, we have to accept that the shares are worth less than the price the then government paid for them.</p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen grouped question UIN 240102 question first answered 08/04/2019 14:30:24 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel

1108677

registered interest
date	01/04/2019
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Developing Countries: Cocoa
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure that international cocoa farmers are achieving a living income.
tabling member constituency	Leeds North West
tabling member printed	Alex Sobel
uin	239287
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/04/2019 answer text <p>Working towards a living income in global value chains is one of the keys to driving poverty reduction and economic development. The Department for International Development (DFID) is a long-term supporter of the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance (ISEAL Alliance), the umbrella organisation for standards systems such as Fairtrade, and is one of the founding members of the Living Income Community of Practice. We support the development of standards that help smallholder farmers reach a decent standard of living. DFID also supports the Ethical Trading Initiative, a multi-stakeholder body working with UK food retailers, suppliers, trade unions and civil society to implement International Labour Organisation standards in global value chains, including cocoa.</p><p> </p><p>The UK has a strong history of protecting human rights in business and promoting our values globally. We are committed to upholding the UK’s values, including around labour standards, and will consider the full range of mechanisms available in the design of future trade and investment agreements.</p> answering member constituency West Worcestershire answering member printed Harriett Baldwin question first answered 08/04/2019 16:03:26 answering member 4107 label Biography information for Dame Harriett Baldwin
tabling member	4658 label Biography information for Alex Sobel