Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making it easier for refugees who are carers to qualify for UK citizenship.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office expects all applicants for naturalisation to meet the statutory requirements which are based on a period of residence in the UK, including being free from immigration time restrictions and being of good character.
The Government considers that those seeking to make a permanent home in the UK should be equipped to integrate successfully in society, with an appropriate level of English and an understanding of British life. All applicants are therefore required to pass the Life in the UK test and meet the English language requirement. The aim is to ensure that those who intend to settle here develop both the language skills that enable them to make a success of living permanently in the UK and have an understanding of life here and society’s expectations.
There are no plans to change the requirements for citizenship.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to amend fiscal rules to (a) incentivise and (b) reward spending on climate change mitigation measures.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to sustainable public finances and delivering on the priority of getting debt falling over the medium-term. To deliver on this priority, the Government has fiscal rules – the rules require underlying debt to be falling and borrowing to be below 3% of GDP in the fifth year of the rolling forecast period. The fiscal rules are comprehensive, and targeting public sector wide measures means the impact of Government decisions on the public finances is clearly reflected.
The Government is committed to ensuring fiscal decision making is aligned with achieving net zero and our legally binding environmental targets. The Green Book requires departments to assess the climate and environmental impacts of policy proposals, with major bids and proposals at fiscal events assessed according to these impacts, and Spending Review 2021 was developed alongside the Net Zero Strategy to ensure our plans were funded.
Spending Review 2021 committed £30 billion of domestic investment for the green industrial revolution. Since then, we have committed a further £6 billion for energy efficiency in the next parliament, up to £20 billion of long-term funding for early deployment of carbon capture, usage and storage, and over £1 billion for green industries supply chains through the Green Industries Growth Accelerator.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his planned timetable is for ensuring that the (a) National Disability Strategy is and (b) related policies are compliant with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The commitments set out in the National Disability Strategy are designed to support the UK to become as accessible and inclusive as possible, in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ aims of progressive realisation. The strategy, together with other work such as the Disability Action Plan, demonstrate this Government's commitment to implementing the Convention through its legislation, policies and services.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to negotiate a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement with the EU.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is the world’s biggest zero tariff, zero quota trade agreement, and we actively use its mechanisms to continuously secure improvements to the trading relationship. In particular, the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) chapter of the TCA creates a framework to agree to further trade facilitations, including potential reductions in the frequency of import checks, where justified.
The UK proposed an equivalence mechanism for SPS measures during the 2018-20 negotiations for the TCA. The EU did not accept this.
We remain open to discussions with the EU on additional steps to further reduce trade friction, but these cannot be on the basis of future alignment with EU rules. This would compromise UK sovereignty over our own laws.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been convicted of illegal working since the introduction of that offence.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice holds data on convictions for illegal working covering the period requested and this can be viewed in the Outcomes by Offence tool: June 2023.
The offence ‘illegal working’ can be found using the following HO code; 19464.
This can be accessed by navigating to the ‘Prosecutions and convictions’ tab and using the HO Offence Code filter to select the above offence in the Outcomes by Offence data tool.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2024 to Question UIN 7644 on Gaza: Israel, what recent assessment he made of the implications for his policies of allegations that Israel has used starvation as a weapon of war.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We are doing everything we can to get more aid in as quickly as possible by land, sea and air.
On 20 March, the Foreign Secretary announced the UK has funded WFP to provide 2000 tons of food aid, enough to feed 275,000 people in Gaza.
Israel has now committed to significant steps to increase the amount of aid getting to Gaza. We have seen an encouraging increase in the number of aid trucks getting into Gaza, but we must see further action to ensure more aid actually gets over the border.
Israel must fulfil its commitments to enable a flood of aid, including by guaranteeing deconfliction for aid workers.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with reference to his oral contribution in response to the question from the hon. Member for West Dunbartonshire of 17 January 2024, Official Report, column 816, what the expected timetable is for publishing his review of the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Since I advised on 17 January that I had met with Justice McAlinden, my officials have conducted extensive stakeholder engagement with more than twenty consultees throughout January to March. We are now considering the findings and will publish the report in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will extend the upcoming application deadline of the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As part of the review of the operation of the Troubles Permanent Disablement Scheme, I will consider evidence to determine whether an extension to the period for backdated payments is warranted. My officials have now conducted their engagement and I will advise on my decision in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will allocate additional resources to the Victims Payment Board to help process applications to the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme received close to the deadline.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Support for victims of the Troubles - including the Troubles Permanent Disablement Payment Scheme - is a devolved matter.
Resourcing of the Victims Payments Board is a matter for the consideration of the Northern Ireland Executive.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will list Heritage Lottery Fund Northern Ireland grants in each of the last five years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Information on grants are publicly available on the National Lottery Database, found at https://nationallottery.dcms.gov.uk/data.
Between 26 March 2019 and 21 February 2024, 215 grants were awarded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, totalling £25,962,712.
Of these awards, 7 were made in the North Down constituency, with awards ranging from £4,700 to £1,048,020.