Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many civil servants in her Department are responsible for the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, including reviewing the compliance of entities related to the People’s Republic of China.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is focused on ensuring compliance with the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), including, where appropriate, referring cases to the police where we believe a criminal offence has been committed.
It would not be appropriate to provide details of registrations beyond those that appear on the public FIRS register, as doing so could identify information not intended to be published and undermine the scheme’s objectives. Registrations under the enhanced tier are not published unless they relate to political influence activities; there are also circumstances in which publication will not occur, for example where publication could create a risk to the safety or interests of the UK.
An annual report on the operation of FIRS will be laid before Parliament. This will include, among other things, the number of registrations under both tiers, the number of information notices issued, and the number of people charged and prosecuted for failing to comply with the scheme’s requirements. The first report will be published as soon as practicable after 30 June 2026.
Owing to security considerations, I am unable to provide specific details of the number of civil servants working on FIRS.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is focused on ensuring compliance with the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), including, where appropriate, referring cases to the police where we believe a criminal offence has been committed.
It would not be appropriate to provide details of registrations beyond those that appear on the public FIRS register, as doing so could identify information not intended to be published and undermine the scheme’s objectives. Registrations under the enhanced tier are not published unless they relate to political influence activities; there are also circumstances in which publication will not occur, for example where publication could create a risk to the safety or interests of the UK.
An annual report on the operation of FIRS will be laid before Parliament. This will include, among other things, the number of registrations under both tiers, the number of information notices issued, and the number of people charged and prosecuted for failing to comply with the scheme’s requirements. The first report will be published as soon as practicable after 30 June 2026.
Owing to security considerations, I am unable to provide specific details of the number of civil servants working on FIRS.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the reasons that no companies and organisations linked to the People's Republic of China have registered under the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme to date.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is focused on ensuring compliance with the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), including, where appropriate, referring cases to the police where we believe a criminal offence has been committed.
It would not be appropriate to provide details of registrations beyond those that appear on the public FIRS register, as doing so could identify information not intended to be published and undermine the scheme’s objectives. Registrations under the enhanced tier are not published unless they relate to political influence activities; there are also circumstances in which publication will not occur, for example where publication could create a risk to the safety or interests of the UK.
An annual report on the operation of FIRS will be laid before Parliament. This will include, among other things, the number of registrations under both tiers, the number of information notices issued, and the number of people charged and prosecuted for failing to comply with the scheme’s requirements. The first report will be published as soon as practicable after 30 June 2026.
Owing to security considerations, I am unable to provide specific details of the number of civil servants working on FIRS.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to identify and prosecute entities who should have registered under the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government is focused on ensuring compliance with the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS), including, where appropriate, referring cases to the police where we believe a criminal offence has been committed.
It would not be appropriate to provide details of registrations beyond those that appear on the public FIRS register, as doing so could identify information not intended to be published and undermine the scheme’s objectives. Registrations under the enhanced tier are not published unless they relate to political influence activities; there are also circumstances in which publication will not occur, for example where publication could create a risk to the safety or interests of the UK.
An annual report on the operation of FIRS will be laid before Parliament. This will include, among other things, the number of registrations under both tiers, the number of information notices issued, and the number of people charged and prosecuted for failing to comply with the scheme’s requirements. The first report will be published as soon as practicable after 30 June 2026.
Owing to security considerations, I am unable to provide specific details of the number of civil servants working on FIRS.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether Ministers from his Department took Government phones and laptops on recent delegations to the People's Republic of China.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade takes security of its information and devices seriously.
Ministers (and officials) are provided with guidance on appropriate use of government-issued devices during overseas travel, in line with cross-government security policies. DBT Ministers have taken DBT devices on overseas visits to China, including April 2025, September 2025, and January 2026; Lord Stockwood did not take DBT devices when he visited China in April/May 2026.
The Department asks travellers to apply proportionate mitigations, based on specific risks associated with countries. For security reasons, it would not be appropriate to provide detailed information on those measures.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government uses IFlyTek for any translation services.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Details of central government contracts above £12,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder. Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service. Neither platform show any contracts with iFlyTek.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether (a) Ministers and (b) officials in her Department have (i) met with and (ii) received communications from (A) Groze Consulting Limited, (B) CGC reSolutions Ltd and (C) Morris de Corve and Associates Limited registered as representing the Republika Srpska Entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Lists of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) ministers' and specified senior officials' meetings with external individuals and organisations are routinely published on a quarterly basis.
Dame Karen Pierce, UK Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, has previously met former UK diplomats, who also hold positions in CGC reSolutions Ltd and Groze Consulting Ltd, to set out UK policy in the region. We are also aware that a junior official from the British Embassy in Sarajevo has been contacted by, and had a meeting, with the head of Morris de Corve. We are not aware of any other FCDO contact with these firms.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 22 April 2026 to Question 111844 on Schools: Allergies, which organisation will schools be required to report allergy incidents.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Draft statutory guidance on allergy safety was published for consultation on 6 March. The consultation closed on 15 May. The new guidance is due to be published in the summer and come into effect from September 2026.
The consultation proposed that serious incidents relating to allergy safety and other medical conditions should be recorded. The report should always be shared with the governing body to consider what lessons can be learned and whether changes are required to the school, college or setting’s medical conditions and/or allergy safety policies. The report should be shared with the child’s parents, the young person or the individual involved, so they can discuss what happened and contribute their views to the consequent lessons learned review. Any learning should be shared appropriately with staff so they can act on them, reducing the chance of an incident reoccurring.
In addition, schools acting as food businesses must report any allergen-related food safety incidents to their local authority. Schools, colleges and early years settings must report incidents which arose directly from the way they undertook a work activity and which resulted in death or immediate hospitalisation to the Health and Safety Executive.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 19 May 2026 to Question 472, whether any of the enhanced technical solutions and technological tools rely on Chinese (a) technology and (b) equipment.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Policing is operationally independent of Government and decisions on procurement are taken by individual forces. However, Police are provided briefing and support by Government to understand and manage national security risks.
Separately, there are a range of tools to ensure that sensitive UK supply chains and technologies are suitable and safe.
This includes the National Security and Investment Act 2021 (NSIA). The NSIA provides the Government with powers to identify and, where necessary, intervene in acquisitions of entities or assets that may pose a threat to the UK’s national security.
Additionally, the Procurement Act 2023 provides Government powers to exclude and debar suppliers from public sector contracts where they are judged to pose a national security risk.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to prevent people with known links to Chinese organised crime groups from being treated as community representatives by public bodies.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government are absolutely committed to ensuring appropriate due diligence when making decisions on who to engage on particular issues.
More broadly, if individuals are linked to organised crime, we will pursue all avenues to ensure the perpetrators of crimes are brought to justice. We are also working closely with law enforcement partners to strengthen understanding of Chinese related organised crime activity in the UK.