Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) statement entitled, At least one UNRWA staff killed when Israeli Forces hit UNRWA centre used for food and lifesaving supplies, published on 13 March 2024.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We are aware of this statement.
The Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister have underlined the need for Israel to ensure effective deconfliction in Gaza, and to take all possible measures to ensure the safety of medical personnel and facilities.
Israel must limit its operations to military targets and avoid harming civilians and destroying homes. All parties must act within International Humanitarian Law.
The safety of humanitarian personnel and healthcare workers in Gaza is critical to enable aid to reach those who need it most. Medics and aid agencies must be able to operate freely and reach people in need. We cannot separate this tragedy from the inadequate level of aid supplies. Israel must take action to allow more aid into Gaza, including:
The Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister have underlined the need for Israel to ensure effective deconfliction in Gaza, and to take all possible measures to ensure the safety of medical personnel and facilities. We continue to call for International Humanitarian Law to be respected and civilians to be protected. Too many civilians have been killed. The Foreign Secretary raised the above issues with Israeli Minister Benny Gantz on 6 March.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of delays to planned rail reforms.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Department has actively managed rail reform costs in response to delays to original plans. A recent National Audit Office report noted that the Department estimates it will spend £0.4bn on rail reform up to the end of March 2024, compared to initial planned spending of £1.2bn.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, with reference to the statement from the Canadian Government entitled Canada announces continued assistance for people in Gaza, published on 8 March 2024, whether his Department has received the interim report of the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We are aware that the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services has released an interim report to the UN Secretary-General. We are pressing Catherine Colonna to produce a rapid interim report on the investigation into UNRWA's neutrality.
We are working with allies to try to bring this situation to a rapid conclusion - not least because UNRWA have a vital role to play in providing aid and services in Gaza, and the wider region. We want UNRWA to give detailed undertakings about changes in personnel, policy and precedents to ensure this can never happen again.
Any future funding decisions will be taken after UNRWA's review has concluded.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she plans to take steps to implement recommendations in the report by the APPG on Hormone Pregnancy Test entitled Bitter Pill: Primodos - the forgotten thalidomide, published on 27 February 2024.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
We remain hugely sympathetic to the families who believe that they have suffered because of using Hormone Pregnancy Tests (HPTs). In 2017 an independent Expert Working Group (EWG) conducted a comprehensive review of the available scientific evidence and concluded that the data did not support a causal association between the use of HPTs, such as Primodos, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. This remains the Government’s position. The Government has committed to reviewing any new evidence related to HPTs and a possible causal association with adverse pregnancy outcomes.
On the recently published recommendations of the HPT All-Party Parliamentary Group, we have no plans to set up an independent review to examine the findings of the EWG. In the interests of transparency, all evidence collected and papers considered by the EWG were published in 2018, along with full minutes of its discussions. Details of conflicts of interests and how these were managed were also published. The Government is reviewing Professor Danielsson’s publication to consider if it presents any new evidence or analyses not already considered by the EWG on HPTs, and will be seeking independent expert advice from the Commission on Human Medicines in due course.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has conducted recent distributional analysis of the impact of inflation on people in different income brackets.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish experimental statistics which show the inflation experienced by households across the income distribution:
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit Migration Notice letters he plans to send to people in (a) Liverpool, Walton constituency and (b) the UK by 31 March 2025.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department plans to send Migration Notices to over 1 million households by 31 March 2025.
We intend to publish constituency level data at a future date.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 January 2024 to Question 9921 on Teachers: Training, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of trends in the cost of living on teachers in training.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government recognises that cost of living pressures impact trainee teachers but has taken steps to increase the financial support available. All trainee teachers on tuition fee-funded initial teacher training (ITT) routes can apply for a tuition fee loan and a partially means-tested loan for living costs. Additional means-tested student finance is also available depending on individual circumstances, such as the Childcare Grant for students with child dependants.
The government has continued to increase maximum loans, grants for living and other costs each year. Maximum support has been increased by 2.8% for the current 2023/24 academic year, with a further 2.5% increase announced for 2024/25. The highest levels of support are targeted at students from the lowest-income families.
The department has also frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years to deliver better value for students and to keep the cost of higher education under control. By the 2024/25 academic year, maximum fees will have been frozen for 7 years.
The department has already made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available for the 2023/24 academic year to support successful outcomes for students, including disadvantaged students.
The department is now making a further £10 million of one-off support available to support student mental health and hardship funding. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.
The department announced an ITT financial incentives package worth up to £196 million for the 2024/25 ITT recruitment cycle, a £15 million increase on the last cycle. This includes bursaries worth up to £28,000 tax-free and scholarships worth up £30,000 tax-free, to encourage talented trainees to key subjects such as mathematics, physics, chemistry and computing.
Last year, the department accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s recommendations for the 2023/24 pay award for teachers and leaders. This included an increase to the unqualified teacher pay range for salaried trainee teachers and a minimum £30,000 starting salary for school teachers in all regions of the country, with a pay award of up to 7.1% for new teachers outside London.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her Department's planned timescale is for responding to the Patient Safety Commissioner's report entitled The Hughes Report: Options for redress for those harmed by valproate and pelvic mesh, published on 7 February 2024.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Government commissioned the Patient Safety Commissioner (PSC) to produce a report on redress for those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. We are grateful to the PSC and her team for completing this report, and our sympathies remain with those affected by sodium valproate and pelvic mesh. The Government is now carefully considering the PSC’s recommendations, and will respond substantively in due course.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department's policies of the report by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism entitled Visa system forces care workers to stay silent on rape and abuse, published on 11 March 2024.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Government strongly condemns any allegations of such abuse.
Anyone who has witnessed or been the victim of criminal activity should, in the first instance, contact the police.
The UK’s sponsorship system has a built-in compliance framework, which has strong safeguards to prevent sponsors from engaging in illegal employment practices.
Sponsors are required to comply with UK laws, including wider employment law (such as working hours and meeting minimum salary requirements). UKVI have powers to revoke a licence where any of the key personnel named on it are convicted of certain serious offences. UKVI regularly visits premises to check sponsor compliance with the duties and requirements set out in the sponsor guidance, and this is frequently done alongside the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, whose specific remit is to protect vulnerable and exploited workers.
Employers in the health and care sector are also expected to adhere to the Department’s Health and Social Care’s Code of Practice for international recruitment. This sets out clear routes of escalation for anyone with concerns about exploitative recruitment or employment practices. It can be accessed here:
Anyone who has witnessed or has been the victim of immigration abuse is strongly encouraged to report an immigration or border crime here: www.gov.uk/report-immigration-crime.
Or, to the Gangmasters & Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) here: www.gla.gov.uk/report-issues/.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the supply of triamcinolone hexacetonide injections (intra-articular steroid) for children and young people with rheumatoid arthritis.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are aware of a shortage of triamcinolone hexacetonide 20 milligram/1 millilitre suspension for injection ampoules. Details of this shortage were shared with the National Health Service in June 2022. We are working closely with the sole supplier of this product to expedite resupplies, to make this important product is available again as soon as possible. We regularly review the tier, or impact categorisation, assigned to supply issues, and the tier of a supply issue does not affect the options available for management.
We understand how frustrating and distressing medicine supply issues can be. While we cannot always prevent supply issues from occurring, the Department has a range of well-established processes and tools to manage them when they arise. We work with the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England, the devolved administrations, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and others operating in the supply chain to help prevent shortages, and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when supply issues arise. If any patient is concerned about their treatment, they should discuss this with their clinician at the earliest opportunity.