Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of exempting people with experience of transnational suppression from proposals to increase the qualifying time for Indefinite Leave to Remain to ten years.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We will be consulting on the earned settlement scheme later this year. All will be welcome to participate. We will provide details of how the scheme will work after that consultation.
Any attempt by any foreign power to intimidate, harass or harm individuals or communities in the UK will not be tolerated.
Wherever we identify such threats, we will use all measures, including through our world-class intelligence services, to mitigate risk to individuals, and we will continue to ensure that robust systems are in place to detect, deter and counter such activity.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to launch its consultation on changes to indefinite leave to remain for Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa holders; and how long her Department expects to run that consultation for.
Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is committed to supporting members of the Hong Kong community who have relocated to the UK and those who may come here in future.
I welcomed the opportunity to listen to the views of Members around these subjects in the recent 8th September Westminster Hall Debate on settlement.
We will be consulting on the earned settlement scheme later this year, and the length of the consultation will be announced at that point. All will be welcome to participate. We will provide details of how the scheme will work after that consultation.
We regularly engage with representatives of the Hong Kong diaspora in the UK on issues related to the BN(O) visa and will continue to do so.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how (a) temporary accommodation use and (b) all forms of homelessness were factored into assessments of levels of need in the Fair Funding review of local authority needs.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has set out our proposal for consolidating funding across all forms of homelessness, through the first multi-year settlement in a decade, in the Fair Funding Review 2.0 consultation on gov.uk here.
The Fair Funding Review 2.0 includes proposals to roll funding for Temporary Accommodation, currently part of Homelessness Prevention Grant, into the Local Government Finance Settlement Revenue Support Grant and the creation of a consolidated Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Grant thematic pot.
Taking this approach of separating out temporary accommodation funding will end the current tension that forces local authorities to choose between investment in prevention and meeting current temporary accommodation costs, creating dedicated ringfenced funds for the prevention of homelessness and rough sleeping.
This follows the government’s consultation on the Homelessness Prevention Grant. You can read the response to this consultation on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will consider the potential merits of reintroducing health in pregnancy grants to support early years development.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Children’s early years are crucial to their development, health, and life chances. This is why the Government offers financial support to families with young children on low incomes through the Healthy Start scheme and the Sure Start Maternity Grant (SSMG). The SSMG is a one-off £500 grant payment intended to help with the costs of having a newborn or adopted baby. Eligibility for SSMG is set out on the GOV.UK website, at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/sure-start-maternity-grant/eligibility
Healthy Start is a demand-led, statutory scheme that aims to support young families in the greatest need to buy healthy food. We recently announced in the 10-Year Health Plan that we will uplift the value of weekly payments by 10%.
The move to a Neighbourhood Health Service, as described in the 10-Year Health Plan, and the Best Start in Life Strategy, will further improve support for families, so that every child has the healthiest possible start in life. Building on the £126 million funding boost for the Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme in 2025/26, Best Start Family Hubs will be rolled out to every local authority from April 2026.
Alongside improving services for all families, tackling child poverty is an urgent priority for the Government. A Ministerial Taskforce is exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term action across the Government to reduce child poverty and is working to publish the Child Poverty Strategy.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to improve the processing of export licensing to Ukraine to aid the war effort.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Secretary of State for Scotland
All export licence applications to Ukraine are treated with the highest priority by the Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU). As with all export licence applications, assessments are made on a case-by-case basis according to the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria. Assessments for Ukraine, given the situation within the country and the nature of the goods often being exported, mean these cases are some of the most complex for ECJU to process.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve specialist paediatric Pancreatic Cancer services in the NHS as part of the 10 year plan.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
In England, children with cancer have their care managed by specialist paediatric cancer multi-disciplinary teams, whose responsibility it is to provide high-quality care through the effective coordination of integrated, disease specific pathways. This includes arranging for access to specialist pancreatic services, where clinically appropriate.
The 10-Year Health Plan for England includes a number of important actions that will improve children’s health and paediatric health services.
A National Cancer Plan for England will also be published this year. The plan will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and earlier diagnosis to accessing treatment and ongoing care. It will apply to all cancer types, including pancreatic cancer, and will include a specific focus on children and young people with cancer.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if the Government will work with (a) housing associations, (b) police authorities, (c) mayors, (d) local authorities and (e) other landlords to introduce fast track courts to tackle antisocial behaviour cases.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) and the harm it causes is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission. Every police force in England and Wales now has a dedicated lead officer for ASB, who will work with communities to develop a local ASB action plan.
Through the Crime and Policing Bill, we are strengthening the powers available to the police and other relevant agencies to tackle ASB quickly and effectively. We will crack down on those making neighbourhoods feel unsafe and unwelcoming by introducing the new Respect Order, which will carry tough sanctions and penalties for persistent adult offenders. Breaching a Respect Order will be a criminal offence, allowing police officers to immediately arrest offenders and disrupt ongoing ASB. We are also extending the maximum exclusion period for dispersal directions from 48 to 72 hours and enhancing the powers for the police to seize nuisance off-road bikes, and other vehicles which are being used in an anti-social manner, without having to first give a warning to the offender.
There are currently no plans to introduce fast-track courts for ASB.
This Government inherited a record and rising courts backlog. We have funded a record-high allocation of 110,000 Crown Court sitting days for this year to tackle the outstanding caseload, including in relation to ASB cases.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department has put guarantees are in place for using British-made glass in the windows and doors in her Department’s housebuilding programme.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department has not stipulated the use of British-made glass in developments funded through housebuilding programmes.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help improve access to pancreatic specialists in children’s healthcare.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever. This includes ensuring that children receive the appropriate care and support whenever they need it. A range of measures across National Health Service systems support this goal.
NHS England commissions specialist paediatric gastroenterology services, which include the management of pancreatic conditions, through a network of designated regional centres. These centres are supported by clear referral pathways to ensure children can access specialist teams regardless of where they live.
National clinical guidelines, developed by the British Society of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, help ensure consistent standards of diagnosis and care. NHS England continues to work with professional bodies, specialist centres, and commissioners to improve equity of access and ensure timely treatment for children with complex pancreatic conditions.
The Department continues to work with NHS England to support service planning, training, and commissioning for paediatric gastroenterology, to ensure children receive timely and appropriate care for pancreatic conditions.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many heat pumps have been removed from homes in the last 12 months.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Schemes like the Boiler Upgrade Scheme offer a one-off, upfront grant payment to help property owners transition to low carbon heating. The scheme’s independent evaluation follows up with a sample of participants and the interim report published in January, found that 79% of property owners were satisfied with their low carbon heating system overall.
Building regulations on the energy efficiency of buildings restrict the replacement of a heating system with a less efficient or higher emission system. There are currently no data available on heat pump systems which have been removed, including those which have reached the end of their lifecycle.