The Hand Gathering (Restrictions and Permitting) Bylaw 2021 has not yet been submitted to Defra for approval.

I am pleased to tell my hon. Friend that I have visited Djibouti, without suffering the fate that I am so sorry he suffered. As he knows, we are taking up this matter with the authorities in Djibouti.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. This is because it would require data linking between prison data and the Ministry of Justice extract of the police national computer.

I understand this will be a concerning time for those impacted. The Department for Work and Pensions’ Rapid Response Service is a service designed to give support and advice to employers and their employees when faced with redundancy.

The range of support may include:

• Connecting people to jobs in the labour market.
• Help with job search including CV writing, interview skills, where to find jobs and how to apply for them.
• Help to identify transferable skills and skills gaps (linked to the local labour market).
• What benefits they may get and how to claim.

Employees may be entitled to statutory redundancy pay, compensatory notice pay and holiday pay from the Insolvency Service. Further information may be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-body-shop-in-administration-information-for-employees-and-creditors.

This information is not held in the format requested. On 14 December 2023, Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK published their fifth annual Perinatal Mortality Review Tool report. The report presents data from the 4,111 reviews conducted between March 2022 to February 2023. The report sets out that an external member was present in 45% of reviews, which is an increase from only one in three involving an external member from the previous year. An external panel member is strongly recommended due to the importance of providing fresh eyes to support the review.

The Department has allocated £16 million to the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations Programme for this financial year, which is the last year of this spending review period. Future budgets will be allocated in the usual way as part of the next Spending Review.

The lifespan of the programme is under review and will continue to be overseen by the Care Quality Commission, until directed otherwise by the Department. The Department, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, is funding an evaluation to understand whether Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch investigations and Perinatal Mortality Review Tool reviews have met their anticipated requirements, resulted in system level quality improvements in maternity care, and improved outcomes for parents and families.

The Government does not have a role in Royal Mail’s commercial decisions, including the prices of stamps and other services.

In setting its prices, Royal Mail must observe the regulatory framework set by Ofcom which imposes prices controls, ‘safeguard caps’, on certain second-class products to ensure a basic universal service is available to all at affordable prices.

On 24 January 2024, following a public consultation, Ofcom announced its decisions regarding retail price caps on Royal Mail’s universal postal services to apply from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2027.

The requested information can be found in the attached spreadsheet.

The removal of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) is a Government priority and my department continues to work closely with the Home Office to maximise the number of deportations.

Published figures show that FNO returns have increased following the pandemic, in the latest 12-month period (ending December 2023) by 27% when compared to the previous 12-month period. Between January 2019 and December 2023 17,795 FNOs have been removed.

The proportion of FNOs held in custody is 12% of the total prison population and has remained stable in recent years while the overall prison population has grown.

On 11 March, the Government set out a plan to increase the number of FNOs removed through:

• The recruitment of 400 additional caseworkers and streamlining the end-to-end removal process;
• Extending foreign national conditional cautions to FNOs with limited leave to remain; and
• Amending deportation policy to enable FNOs given suspended sentences of 6 months or more to be considered for deportation.

These actions build on our expansion of the Early Removal Scheme to allow for removal of FNOs up to 18 months before the end of the custodial element of their sentence, and expediting prisoner transfers with priority countries such as Albania and seeking to conclude new transfer agreements with partner countries.

Data on how many Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) are held in custody are published in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly: Offender management statistics quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). For data on the prison population by nationality, see prison population table 1_7.

The latest published data from 31 December 2023 shows that there were 10,423 (3,333 remand, 6,697 sentenced and 393 non-criminal) FNOs held in custody; representing 12% of the total prison population. The most common nationalities after British Nationals in prisons are Albanian (13% of the FNO prison population), Polish (9%), Romanian (7%), Irish (6%) and Jamaican (4%).

The removal of FNOs is a Government priority and my department continues to work closely with the Home Office to maximise the number of deportations.

Published figures show that FNO returns have increased following the pandemic, in the latest 12-month period (ending December 2023) by 27% when compared to the previous 12-month period. Between January 2019 and December 2023 17,795 FNOs have been removed.

The proportion of FNOs held in custody is 12% of the total prison population and has remained stable in recent years while the overall prison population has grown.

On 11 March, the Government set out a plan to increase the number of FNOs removed through:

• The recruitment of 400 additional caseworkers and streamlining the end-to-end removal process;
• Extending foreign national conditional cautions to FNOs with limited leave to remain; and
• Amending deportation policy to enable FNOs given suspended sentences of 6 months or more to be considered for deportation.

These actions build on our expansion of the Early Removal Scheme to allow for removal of FNOs up to 18 months before the end of the custodial element of their sentence, and expediting prisoner transfers with priority countries such as Albania and seeking to conclude new transfer agreements with partner countries.

Details on UK funding committed to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) can be found in the AIIB Capital Order 2015 and in the published guidance relating to the AIIB Project Preparation Special Fund.

The Home Office does publish statistics on the returns of foreign national offenders by nationality and year. These returns are published in the Returns Detailed Datasets, Year Ending December 2023; which are available at: Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The term ‘deportations’ refers to a legally defined subset of returns, which are enforced either following a criminal conviction, or when it is judged that a person’s removal from the UK is beneficial to the public good. The published statistics refer to enforced returns which include deportations, as well as cases where a person has breached UK immigration laws, and those removed under other administrative and illegal entry powers that have declined to leave voluntarily. Figures on deportations, which are a subset of enforced returns, are not separately available.

The information requested is not available from published statistics.

Our Nationality and Borders Act became law in April 2022. A factsheet can be viewed here: Nationality and Borders Bill: factsheet - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The same act also amended legislation which means a foreign offender who returns to the United Kingdom in breach of a deportation order can be sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. Anyone who enters the UK without leave, or without a visa, also faces a maximum penalty of four years.

The Department for Transport regularly engages with National Highways on the issue of litter clearance, and its performance is monitored against a litter performance indicator which helps to ensure National Highways are carrying out its legislative duty. National Highways strategy is to simultaneously reduce the need for litter picking and collection by encouraging behavioural change whilst also providing an effective litter clearing service. In 2023-24, National Highways collected over 50,000 bags of litter from roads under its supervision.

The Office for Road and Rail, as Highways Monitor, also plays an important role in monitoring National Highways’ litter clearance on behalf of the Secretary of State and holding National Highways to account for its licence commitments. The ORR report annually to Parliament and the public on National Highways performance, including litter. If the Office for Road and Rail deem that National Highways is not complying with its statutory directions or complying with the requirements of the Road Investment Strategy, they may determine enforcement action to be appropriate.

National Highways survey and grade the Strategic Road Network in accordance with The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Code of Practice for Litter and Refuse. National Highways teams patrol the Strategic Road Network and collect litter daily where it is safe to do so. National Highways carries out weekly inspections on its network, ensuring that it prioritises the clearance of the worst affected areas. National Highways also takes advantage of planned closures for other works to undertake additional litter picks.

National Highways’ grading activities are reported and monitored via its corporate Performance Indicator of the percentage of the Strategic Road Network where litter is graded at A or B as defined in the Code of Practice on Litter and Refuse.

National Highways strategy is to simultaneously reduce the need for litter picking and collection by encouraging behavioural change whilst also providing an effective litter clearing service. National Highways takes a data-led approach to litter clearing activities to ensure that litter hotspots are quickly identified and that resources are targeted effectively. In 2023-24, National Highways collected over 50,000 bags of litter from roads under its supervision.

The Office for Road and Rail, as Highways Monitor, also plays an important role in monitoring National Highways in areas such as litter on behalf of the Secretary of State, ensuring National Highways deliver its commitments as set out in the Roads Investment Strategy and holding National Highways to account for its licence commitments.

We are actively monitoring threats to UK data and will not hesitate to take further action if necessary to protect our national security.

Data can be exploited by those seeking to counter UK interests and we are taking action to secure our data. As set out in the Integrated Review Refresh 2023, this includes considering new levers to prevent hostile actors accessing our data.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is an established multilateral development bank (MDB) with a membership of 109 countries worldwide.

The benefits of the UK's membership of the AIIB were set out when the government announced its intention for the UK to join the AIIB and in presenting the Draft AIIB (Initial Capital Contribution) Order 2015 for agreement by the House of Commons.

HM Treasury pursues secondments with a wide range of partners to represent the Treasury, deepen our exchange with other institutions whilst also honing the skills and experience of our staff beyond the Civil Service environment.

HM Treasury pursues secondments with a wide range of partners to represent the Treasury, deepen our exchange with other institutions whilst also honing the skills and experience of our staff beyond the Civil Service environment.

I thank my hon. Friend enormously for raising this question. Let me be clear that the hostile activity we have seen from Chinese authorities and state-affiliated groups poses a serious threat to the security and wellbeing of the British people and to our partners and allies across the world. The Deputy Prime Minister came to this Chamber last month to speak about the pattern of malign activity, including the targeting of our parliamentarians and two malicious cyber-campaigns by Chinese state-affiliated actors. We must never be afraid to stand up for ourselves and to call out this kind of activity that has targeted both my hon. Friend and me.

My hon. Friend, who has given this House and our country exceptional service over many years, and who will sadly be standing down at the next election, has again made some strong points. On the first, he knows the language that I use and he has heard the words I have said. The reality is that we face threats from around the world, and many of them sadly are emerging out of Beijing today. We know it, we have seen it, and many of us in this House feel it. It is not something we are shying away from. The reality, however, is that there are many different ways of answering it. He has raised an important aspect on FIRS, which of course is being looked at, but he will have heard the

words of the Deputy Prime Minister in this Chamber only a few weeks ago and how clearly he made himself heard.