Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of border arrangements in Gaza for supporting eligible students to travel to study in the UK.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 12 January in response to Question 103313.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help support students in Gaza with confirmed offers from UK universities to come to the UK; and whether her Department has set a timetable for the provision of that support.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 12 January in response to Question 103313.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of issuing emergency visas to students in Gaza who have confirmed UK university places; and whether her Department has had recent discussions with UK universities on facilitating safe passage for affected students.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government provided exceptional support to enable the departure of Chevening Scholars and fully funded scholarship students from Gaza, for students whose courses began before 31 December 2025. This support was for students who met the relevant requirements of the Immigration Rules.
The Government is reviewing the impact of the policy implemented to-date, and any decision on further support will depend on the evolving international situation. We will continue to keep the policy under review.
This has been a cross-Government initiative and the Home Office, Department for Education and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office have engaged with Higher Education Institutions throughout this process.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the length of delays in the DVLA medical licensing process, particularly the time taken for applications to be reviewed by medical caseworkers after receipt; what steps her Department is taking to improve capacity and processing times; and whether (a) service standards and (b) target timeframes are in place for medical licence decisions.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) aims to process all applications as quickly as possible. However, driving licence applications where a medical condition(s) must be investigated before a licence can be issued can take longer as they vary widely in complexity and the DVLA is often reliant on receiving information from third parties, including medical professionals, before a licence can be issued.
The DVLA is currently rolling out a new casework system which will deliver significant improvements to the services provided to drivers with medical conditions. This will be fully implemented by March 2026 and will provide improved turnaround times, increased capacity, increased automation, higher levels of digital functionality and increased digital communication. The DVLA is also increasing the number of staff to help reduce application processing and call waiting times.
The DVLA’s most recent annual report and accounts for 2024/25 showed that the DVLA achieved 85 per cent against its customer service measure to make a licensing decision in 90 days in 90 per cent of medical driving licence cases.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether the Race Equality Engagement Group has published any (a) reports and (b) other documents since March 2025.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Race Equality Engagement Group (REEG) held its first meeting in June 2025.
On 25 September 2025 the REEG held its first thematic roundtable covering tackling the barriers to accessing finance and investment for ethnic minority entrepreneurs, and the Police Race Action Plan.
On 9 December 2025 the REEG held its second thematic roundtable and community engagement session, focusing on racial inequalities in maternal and neonatal health and cardiovascular disease.
The Group has met with stakeholders with lived experience, and from key government departments, civil society, community groups and institutions.
In line with the REEG’s Terms of Reference, these meetings are supporting efforts to strengthen the Government’s links with ethnic minority communities and enable constructive dialogue on the Government’s plans to tackle race inequalities.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, when she plans to publish the (a) evidence received from the consultation on how to implement mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers, and (b) draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As set out in our manifesto and in the King’s Speech in July 2024, the government is committed to introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers and making the right to equal pay effective for ethnic minority and disabled people.
Good progress has been made in developing the policy and legislative approach to ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting following the public consultation last year.
We will publish the government response to the ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting consultation, as well as sharing next steps on the Bill in due course.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will list engagements that the Race Equality Engagement Group has had with (a) stakeholders and (b) community organisations since March 2025; and the output from these engagements.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Race Equality Engagement Group (REEG) held its first meeting in June 2025.
On 25 September 2025 the REEG held its first thematic roundtable covering tackling the barriers to accessing finance and investment for ethnic minority entrepreneurs, and the Police Race Action Plan.
On 9 December 2025 the REEG held its second thematic roundtable and community engagement session, focusing on racial inequalities in maternal and neonatal health and cardiovascular disease.
The Group has met with stakeholders with lived experience, and from key government departments, civil society, community groups and institutions.
In line with the REEG’s Terms of Reference, these meetings are supporting efforts to strengthen the Government’s links with ethnic minority communities and enable constructive dialogue on the Government’s plans to tackle race inequalities.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what criteria his Department intends to use to evaluate progress towards the Child Poverty Strategy’s headline metrics.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We want to see an enduring reduction in child poverty over this parliament as part of long-term, 10-year strategy for lasting change.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, published alongside the Strategy, sets out how we will track progress and evaluate success as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, accountability and continued learning. It can be found here: Child Poverty Strategy: Monitoring and Evaluation Framework - GOV.UK.
We will use two complementary headline metrics, relative poverty (after housing costs) and deep material poverty, as well as comprehensive programme of analysis focussing on the drivers of child poverty and the impact of specific interventions.
Relative low income poverty is an internationally recognised income measure of poverty which reflects changing living standards over time. Deep material poverty is a new measure based on material deprivation, which reflects our commitment to addressing deeper child poverty. It is measured based on what families report they can afford.
We will publish a baseline report next summer which will set out the latest statistics and evidence, with annual reporting thereafter to monitor and evaluate progress.
We will continue to have a dedicated team in government that works with departments across the Government, the wider public, private sectors and civil society, to keep focus on tackling this stain of child poverty, with oversight from Ministers across Government.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what mechanisms are in place to ensure ministerial accountability to Parliament for progress on child poverty reduction.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We want to see an enduring reduction in child poverty over this parliament as part of long-term, 10-year strategy for lasting change.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, published alongside the Strategy, sets out how we will track progress and evaluate success as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, accountability and continued learning. It can be found here: Child Poverty Strategy: Monitoring and Evaluation Framework - GOV.UK.
We will use two complementary headline metrics, relative poverty (after housing costs) and deep material poverty, as well as comprehensive programme of analysis focussing on the drivers of child poverty and the impact of specific interventions.
Relative low income poverty is an internationally recognised income measure of poverty which reflects changing living standards over time. Deep material poverty is a new measure based on material deprivation, which reflects our commitment to addressing deeper child poverty. It is measured based on what families report they can afford.
We will publish a baseline report next summer which will set out the latest statistics and evidence, with annual reporting thereafter to monitor and evaluate progress.
We will continue to have a dedicated team in government that works with departments across the Government, the wider public, private sectors and civil society, to keep focus on tackling this stain of child poverty, with oversight from Ministers across Government.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of legally-binding child poverty reduction targets on cross-departmental coordination and prioritisation of resources.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our Child Poverty Strategy fulfils our commitment to reducing poverty this Parliament and sets out our ambition to fundamentally fix the structural drivers of child poverty as part of a long-term, 10-year strategy for lasting change. From the beginning of our time in government we have acted on child poverty including through increasing the minimum wage, the Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, and the removal of the two child limit from April 2026.
In addition to the existing statutory duty on Government to publish poverty statistics annually, we will be monitoring progress using two complementary headline metrics. These will measure overall child poverty using our leading measure of relative low income and our new measure of deep material poverty that looks at families’ ability to afford essentials as well as their income and housing costs.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, published alongside the Strategy, sets out our plans to track progress against these metrics as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, accountability, and continued learning. There will continue to be a dedicated team in government that, with Ministerial oversight, will work across government, the public and private sectors and civil society as we develop milestones and plans for delivering, monitoring and evaluating our strategy.
We will publish a baseline report next summer which will set out the latest statistics and evidence, with annual reporting thereafter to monitor and evaluate progress.