Andy Burnham

Mr Speaker, I know you take the safety of Members of this House very seriously. These revelations are deeply alarming and reflect yet another attack on our liberal democracy. As MPs, we know that our parliamentary staff receive regular reminders to be vigilant against the CCP and its efforts to gain sensitive information. We receive those as MPs, yet we are told that the Home Office has not taken proactive steps to inform the Members concerned in this case. I do not think the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), who asked the urgent question, got the response he possibly deserves, so I will try again. When were Ministers first aware and when were officials first aware of the information that was reported in the Daily Mail this weekend? Will the Minister commit today to reviewing the process, so that Members are told promptly whenever the Government learn that their personal information is compromised, particularly when it is done by a hostile foreign power? Recent reports have revealed what the Financial Times has described as a “chronic shortage of China expertise” in the British state, both in the FCDO and in MI6. Meanwhile, the US has built a dedicated China office. Will the Minister set out a plan to rebuild our China expertise urgently, and will he consider adding China to the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme, as the Joint Committee on Human Rights has recommended?

21. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle violence against women and girls through the criminal justice system.

The ability of powerful men to exert control over and exploit women is again at the forefront of our minds. But it is not just rich and powerful men: we recently debated in this place a petition by Paris Shears, who campaigns against coercive and controlling behaviour. During the debate, the Minister refused to give Paris the common courtesy of explaining whether those convicted of coercive and controlling behaviour are eligible for Labour’s early release programme. Can the Justice Secretary show proper respect to Paris and other victims and at least answer that question now?

Every Member of this House should be concerned about this affront to democracy, because the threat from China is incredibly well documented. Current and former heads of the security services have talked prominently about the threat from China and foreign Governments. We have industrial espionage and Chinese activity aimed at infiltrating our energy systems. We could not be clearer-eyed than we are, so what more has to happen before the Government put China on the enhanced tier of FIRS? Week after week, we get reports of industrial espionage, hacking and threats to democracy. What has to happen before the Government finally acknowledge that China should be on the enhanced tier?

What was noticeable about the Minister’s statement was that there was no reference to discussions that the Prime Minister had with the Prime Ministers of Nigeria or Mauritius. Did he raise the issue of the more than 4,000 Christians killed in Nigeria this year? Did he raise the fact that my constituents, and the vast majority of the millions of people in this country, do not want to surrender the Chagos islands?

Our colleague, the Chairman of Ways and Means—I notified her that I was going to mention her—is sanctioned by China. She was sanctioned because she constantly raised the horrific human rights abuses against the Uyghurs. The Minister is pointing out all the reasons why he cannot answer questions and cannot say anything, but one thing he could do is to say to the new Prime Minister and the new Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero that, having said there would be an ethical procurement policy, there should be a pause on processed renewables materials that come from China, because there appears to be plenty of evidence that human rights abuses of the Uyghurs are taking place to produce them. Will he commit to doing that?

T7. Last week the Government announced their Visitor Levy (England) Bill, which will create a number of new offences, including a 14-year maximum prison sentence for deliberate evasion of a tourist tax, all while the Government are still releasing prisoners early. Has the Department carried out a justice impact test, and when will the impact assessments be published? What assessment has the Department made of the additional prison spaces that would be needed?

In 2011, there were 230 firms and 781 accredited legal representatives undertaking mental health legal aid work. There are now only 148 firms and 383 representatives. The rate of pay for mental health lawyers has, accounting for inflation, gone down by 47% since 2008. Our criminal courts are full of people with mental health disorders, so a functioning mental health system must be part of the mission to tackle the courts backlog. Does the Minister agree that legal aid fees for mental health law work must increase to ensure that patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 have access to competent, publicly funded legal representation?

During the course of the Sentencing Act 2026, I asked the former Lord Chancellor to reassure me about the Probation Service and the use of tagging, following an incident where a constituent had been traumatised by her former partner’s being released under licence and pursuing her because the tags failed. If the Minister cannot reassure me now about the Probation Service vacancy rate and number of tag failures over the last 12 months, will she write to me providing that information?

The targeted harvesting of phone and financial records appears to be part of a co-ordinated campaign of transnational repression against critics of Beijing. Given this escalatory behaviour, will the Minister review the powers available to our intelligence services to disrupt the commercial proxies, and state plainly what consequences the People’s Republic of China will face for executing operations against sitting British parliamentarians, bearing in mind that the website of the all-party parliamentary group for international freedom of religion or belief, which I chair, was hacked, and articles were replaced with pro-China propaganda? Quite clearly, that is something that we would never have agreed to.

It is rare that we can achieve cross-party consensus in this place, but I think we have consensus that no party here would want to see rich and powerful men abusing our justice system to silence the voices of victims of violence against women and girls. Eleanor de Freitas took her own life in 2014 after being privately prosecuted for allegedly making a false rape accusation. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women found that the UK violated Eleanor’s rights. Will the Minister please consider Eleanor’s law to ensure that prosecutions concerning allegedly false reports of rape and sexual violence can be brought only by public prosecuting authorities?

T4. Two months ago, I wrote to the Secretary of State asking him to confirm how many prisoners will be released under the Government’s early release scheme untagged because they cited homelessness or mental health issues. I got a reply from his Minister saying that she could not answer the question because the scheme did not start till 1 October, but her letter was dated 4 November—five weeks later. Will Secretary of State tell me today how many have been released early untagged for those reasons?

While it is unacceptable that Members of this Parliament are under constant hostile threat from foreign states, it is also unacceptable that this Government are unwilling to offer protection by taking appropriate action against China. Despite the CCP sanctioning, spying on and now accessing the phone and financial records of parliamentarians, the Government still refuse to publish the China audit in full or to publish any strategy on how to deal with this threat. Why, given all the evidence, have the Government not finally added China to the enhanced tier of FIRS? I draw attention to the fact that the Minister has dodged that question up to now. Given that the revelations we are talking about today happened in 2021, can he confirm whether a full UK investigation, alongside the FBI investigation, is now taking place?

While I have huge respect for the right hon. Gentleman, I must say that he did not really answer the question. It is not about state security, but individual Members of Parliament who are being attacked and from whom information is being taken so that they can be attacked in future. That is the question we are asking. I understand that Mr Miller, who was originally arrested in an FBI operation for trying to sell arms via a source through to China, revealed that an ex-detective of Scotland Yard, Keith Hunter, had been asked to compile information on the financials and personal telephone calls of certain Members of Parliament, all of whom it appears were sanctioned already by the Chinese Communist party. The bit that it is vital that the Minister answers is that when Mr Hunter was about to do this, or was doing it, Mr Miller told him that China already had the information. My question, therefore, is what do the Government know about what China has on us, and how much more is China trying to gather? It is important that these questions are answered, because it is not just us who are sanctioned, but our family members too. It is about their security—one of mine lives abroad—and it worries me. What did the Government really know about this? Why have they not spoken to each of us as individuals to explain what was happening? They could have done it under guidance with security, but none the less, they have not done it. Since Sunday, not one single security individual has attempted to contact any of us about the story in the Daily Mail , which is now being read by the British population. Will the Minister answer the question? As sanctioned individuals, with the freedom of speech that we exercise in this House, and under the protection of Mr Speaker, I simply say that this is not good enough. Why are we not being talked to? Why were we not taken to one side and informed?

I appreciate that the Minister cannot talk about security matters, so I shall try to broaden the question, and will hopefully receive a clearer response. It is obvious that agents of the Chinese Government, and the Chinese Government themselves, are targeting pro-democracy campaigners, whether they sit in Parliament, are citizens of Britain or are in Hong Kong. Just this week we saw that Joshua Wong had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for standing up for democracy in Hong Kong, and we have seen the transnational repression of British national overseas passport holders and UK citizens here on our streets. Will the Government summon the Chinese ambassador to talk about the case reported in the Daily Mail and the transnational repression, as well as calling for Joshua Wong’s release, which they did for Jimmy Lai? Will they sanction those responsible for the national security law prosecutions, as the United States has? Will the Minister be able to tell Parliament what further consequences will follow if the Chinese Government do not start to behave differently towards the UK and will not release Joshua Wong and Jimmy Lai?

Victims of crime have asked the Lord Chancellor to publish criminal conviction data by nationality. Will he do so?

The evidence that China poses a threat to our national security and democracy is clearly overwhelming. We have spent a lot of time discussing this matter in the House, including the threats to parliamentarians and the overall security threat. The Minister has spoken in glowing terms about the foreign influence registration scheme, which the Government introduced, and said that it is working. Can he give an explanation to this House as to why China is not on the enhanced tier of FIRS?

Diolch yn fawr iawn, Lefarydd. Tackling reoffending requires rehabilitation, but the Wales Governance Centre’s latest report shows that that is not happening well enough in Wales. Recall numbers are up 27%; rough sleeping on release is becoming the norm; and the rate of death by drug poisoning while under community supervision is considerably higher than in England. Addressing those issues requires a holistic approach, which is impossible when Westminster controls the levers when it comes to justice. Following the Secretary of State’s meeting with Welsh Government Ministers yesterday, does he agree that devolving justice is key to making justice work in Wales?

2. What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the handling of sexual offences committed by healthcare professionals in the criminal justice system.