The Government continues to be appalled by the reports of conflict-related sexual violence committed by Hamas on 7 October and against hostages, including the report from UN Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) on sexual violence in conflict, Pramila Patten. The UK condemns sexual violence unequivocally and without exception. Hamas must release all hostages and all reports of sexual violence must be fully investigated to ensure justice for survivors and victims. The UK has been working with partners across the region to secure the release of hostages, including British nationals and their families.

The Foreign Secretary's Representative for Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, along with the British Embassy in Israel, are maintaining close and regular contact with the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories unit and are working intensively to address the blockages preventing more aid reaching Gaza.

Options are currently being assessed by senior MOD officials as to how any Defence Innovation Agency will impact the work of the Defence and Security Accelerator regional innovation partner network, however there is no desire to stop work that is currently providing exploitation routes from concept to military capability.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has no role in investigating allegations of Landfill Disposals Tax fraud in Wales. However, HMRC does work collaboratively with the Welsh Revenue Authority and Joint Unit for Waste Crime to discuss and share intelligence to address cross-border issues.

Over the last year HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has deployed additional resources to tackle landfill tax fraud and support the Joint Unit of Waste Crime (JUWC) and other agencies to identify and tackle wider waste crime. HMRC has created a new team to monitor high risk waste producers to deter misdescription at source and reduce non-compliance across the sector. It has increased compliance activity with landfill site operators to ensure they are complying with legislative requirements.

The government set out in the Landfill Tax Call for Evidence that as part of its Landfill Tax Review it would consider options for structural changes to the tax and the potential impacts on Landfill Tax fraud. This is alongside wider environmental regulatory reforms designed to improve compliance and tackle waste crime.

HM Revenue & Customs publishes estimates of the amount of Landfill Tax revenue lost as part of its annual Measuring Tax Gaps report. The most recent estimate gives a Landfill Tax gap of 18.4% of the theoretical Landfill Tax liability, or £150 million in the 2021 to 2022 tax year. The Landfill Tax gap is based on an experimental methodology and has high uncertainty.

Prison governors are responsible for ensuring that their establishments respond promptly and appropriately to medical emergencies, and all prison staff must be aware of their responsibilities for responding to a medical emergency (including resuscitation, and ligature removal) and of the local procedures in place to support a streamlined response.

Responses to medical emergencies in prisons are undertaken, and monitored, locally by both prison and healthcare staff, and vary in the degree of seriousness and the level of medical intervention that is required.

The time and type (‘Code Blue’ / ‘Code Red’) of a medical emergency is recorded by prison service staff when it is reported to them by telephone or via radio, and this will initiate a response which will include on-site NHS-commissioned healthcare staff and/or first-aid trained prison staff. Staff will assess what intervention is needed and determine whether hospital treatment is required.

Prison staff will arrange for an ambulance to attend, if needed, and escort it to the nearest, safest point of access to the patient. Arrival and departure times of ambulances are recorded locally. All such instances, including response times, are discussed between prison and healthcare staff. Depending on the seriousness of the emergency, this will be either as part of a full debrief or, on the following day, as part of the regular daily reflection on the previous day’s occurrences.

While arrival and departure times of ambulances are recorded by prisons, the responsibility for their response times lies with the NHS, and, therefore, any questions related to this element of emergency responses should be directed to the Department for Health and Social Care.

HM Prison and Probation Service does not currently have legal permission to use X-ray body scanners on staff working in prisons. As such, no prison officers are searched by an X-ray body scanner upon entry to prison.

All persons may be searched on entry to or within prisons, including prison staff. Arrangements for staff searching are set out in a prisons Local Security Strategy.

The vast majority of staff are hardworking and dedicated. A minority of staff engage in corrupt activity which is often as a result of conditioning and manipulation by prisoners.

Through the Government’s £100 million Security Investment Programme (SIP) we have bolstered prison security, such as physical measures to stop illicit items from entering prisons. These include extending X-ray body scanners to all closed male prisons, and installing Enhanced Gate Security at 42 high risk sites with archway metal detectors and the regular use of sniffer dogs. We have also since installed X-ray baggage scanners at 49 establishments. Additionally, through SIP investment, we have introduced mobile phone blocking and detection capabilities. We have also expanded HMPPS’ Counter Corruption Unit to effectively support the resilience of our hardworking prison officers to coercion by criminals. Furthermore, we have enhanced our partnership working through the development of a Multi-Agency Response to Serious Organised Crime.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to drugs in all our prisons.

We have an ambitious 10-year Drug Strategy, which sets out our cross-government plan to address illegal drug use. It is underpinned by a record level of additional investment, as part of which the Ministry of Justice is rolling out a range of interventions, including in prisons in Wales, to get offenders off drugs and into recovery. These include:

• Recruiting Drug Strategy Leads in key prisons, to coordinate a whole system approach to tackling drugs.
• Increasing the number of prisons with an Incentivised Substance-Free Living unit from 25 in summer 2022 to 80 now.

Alongside the physical deterrents, prisons in Wales have a drug and alcohol intervention service which aims to address the causes of drug and alcohol-related usage and reduce the risk of harm. This is achieved through various means including opiate replacement treatments, psychosocial groups, and counselling.

Following the most recent deaths, HMPPS in Wales has taken further steps, including:

• Issuing to prisoners leaflets and information from Public Health partners on the increased dangers of current strains of synthetic opioids.
• Further control measures on prisoners suspected of moving drugs within the prison.
• Reviewing recent overdoses that did not cause deaths, as well as trends in the issuing of Naloxone.

In each year since 2019, there have been 2 staff in Welsh prisons who were investigated or recommended for dismissal for trafficking through internal disciplinary procedures.

Data relating to staff investigated or recommended for dismissal for having an inappropriate relationship with prisoners/ex-prisoners is held and is provided in table 1 below. The annual HMPPS staff equalities report covers staffing information, including investigations and conduct & disciplinary action, and the latest publication covers data up to 31 March 2023. This data does not include criminal investigations of prison officers or staff by law enforcement.

Table 1: HMPPS staff in Public Sector Prisons¹ in Wales who were (i) investigated² and (ii) recommended for dismissal^3,4 for having an inappropriate relationship with a prisoner/ex-prisoner⁵, in each financial year from 2018/19 to 2022/23^6(p)

Notes

1. Excludes any privately managed prisons.

2. Figures relate to formal investigations with an outcome recorded in the year. Staff subject to at least one investigation that was concluded during the year.

3. Conduct and discipline cases are defined as where a penalty has been imposed on a member of HMPPS staff for a reason of conduct. Staff with at least one conduct and discipline case concluded during the year.

4. A dismissal case is defined as where at least one of the charges relating to an individual is recommended for dismissal. Information on the outcomes of any appeal is not included.

5. Allegations which meet a criminal threshold will be referred to the Police for investigation. If a criminal justice outcome is secured, this will result in a summary dismissal as per PSI 10/2016 Conduct and Discipline and will not be recorded against a specific ‘type’ of misconduct in the Conduct and Discipline data. 6. Financial year runs from 01 April to 31 March. Latest published data on Investigations is up to 31 March 2023. 7. Band 3-5 Officers includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officers (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officers, and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.

~ denotes suppressed values of 2 or fewer or other values which would allow values of 2 or fewer to be derived by subtraction. Low numbers are suppressed to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 2018.

(p) Provisional data. There may be minor changes to figures in future due to additional data being recorded on the reporting system.

HM Prison & Probation Service has a zero-tolerance policy of smuggling of contraband into prisons, such as drugs and mobile phones, including by staff. The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated.

We are determined to recruit the right people into our frontline positions, which is why they are subject to personnel security vetting which includes criminal record checks during the application process. Before taking up post, new recruits receive specific training to support them and ensure their resilience to corruption.

The £100 million Security Investment Programme (SIP) funded Enhanced Gate Security in 42 high risk sites, meaning we have counter-measures in place to detect and disrupt any staff attempting to smuggle contraband into prisons. The routine searching of staff, use of drug sniffer dogs and metal detectors acts as a deterrent against conveyance. SIP also funded mobile phone blocking and detection capabilities and drug detection units.

Appropriate action is taken towards the minority of staff who engage in corrupt activity. Whenever staff are suspected of wrongdoing, HMPPS’ Counter-Corruption Unit pursues disciplinary action or criminal convictions, working closely with the police.

We have recruited over 100 new staff into HMPPS’ Counter-Corruption Unit, which proactively detects, disrupts, and deters activities of those suspected of wrongdoing and supports prisons and probation services with specialist staff working alongside the police to support their investigations. Regional Prevent teams are dedicated to building staff resilience to corruption through training, awareness-raising and individual support.

My right hon. Friend lives this issue on a daily basis, and I commend him for highlighting the plight of his constituents, who have to endure the impact of such devastating environmental pollution. Any way we look at it, this donation stinks, and it is shameful that the Welsh Government are evading scrutiny on the issue. His constituents can have no confidence that this matter will be investigated. There is no independent scrutiny here. Labour Members should explain why they are scared of scrutiny on this question.

My right hon. Friend is right that in the autumn statement the Government extended retail, hospitality and leisure relief in England, essentially to cut tax for 230,000 businesses—a tax cut worth £2.5 billion.

The Barnett formula allows the Welsh Labour Government to offer similar relief to Welsh businesses, and it is disappointing, if not surprising, that they have chosen not to.

Small businesses drive our economy, and we support them to thrive using levers across Government, whether through our small business rates relief, by increasing the VAT registration threshold, or providing reliefs such as the annual investment allowance.

My right hon. Friend brings up an incredibly important issue. I know that people in Wales are concerned about the relationship he mentions. I also agree with him on the need for transparency and an investigation regarding the Welsh Labour leader, because it is very clear that the situation is not at all transparent and answers are needed.

The Department engages regularly with renewable electricity developers across a range of technologies, including floating offshore wind and tidal. The parameters for Allocation Round 6 include a budget of £105 million for Pot 2. My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State will have the opportunity to review the budget once eligibility checks and appeals are complete.

National Grid (ESO) is currently assessing applications to Allocation Round 6 of the Contracts for Difference scheme. Once all applications have been reviewed and any appeals processes completed, my Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State will have the opportunity to consider revising the budget.