Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his Israeli counterpart on Deirdre Murphy from Swansea following her arrest on 31 May 2025.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our embassy in Tel Aviv is aware of the situation. We understand that Ms Murphy is being supported by the Irish Embassy. She has not been in touch with the British Embassy, but our consular team remain on hand to provide any support to Ms Murphy if required.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many eVisa errors remain unresolved.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many eVisa errors were reported using the online portal in the last six months.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of reports of shots fired towards (a) UK, (b) Irish and (c) EU diplomats while visiting the West Bank.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The events in Jenin on 21 May were unacceptable. We are clear that diplomats must be allowed to do their jobs and civilians must always be protected. Israel must launch a full investigation and those responsible held accountable. I have spoken to our diplomats affected and our position has been made clear to the Israeli Ambassador to the UK.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work, published on 18 May 2025, what estimate has she made of the potential impact of her Department's Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work, published on 18 May 2025, on the number of claimants who will have their housing benefit cut because they have at least one spare room in Northern Ireland in each of the next five years.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
PIP is administered in Northern Ireland by the Department for Communities (DfC). DfC is responsible for producing analysis on how the planned reforms will impact claimants in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department has made of the number of (a) deaf and (b) disabled people who will be affected by proposed Personal Independence Payment changes in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
PIP is administered in Northern Ireland by the Department for Communities (DfC). DfC is responsible for producing analysis on how the planned reforms will impact claimants in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to paragraph 264 of the White Paper entitled Restoring Control over the Immigration System, CP 1326, published on 12 May 2025, whether her Department has undertaken an impact assessment in relation to its proposals to increase the standard qualifying period for settlement to ten years.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
We will be consulting on the earned settlement scheme later this year and further details on the proposed scheme will be provided at that time.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total value is of contracts awarded to outside providers for the provision of the Making Tax Digital programme.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The MTD Programme’s current external supplier expenditure to date totals approximately £0.4 billion. MTD for VAT is expected to bring in over £4 billion in tax revenue by reducing error in VAT returns, whilst MTD for Income Tax is expected to bring in an additional £1.95 billion additional tax revenue by 2029 to 2030.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment HMRC has made of the potential impact of quarterly reporting on smaller businesses.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Quarterly updates required under Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax are not the same as full tax returns. They are simple summaries of income and expenses. Software will automatically draw data from a taxpayer’s digital records so where these records are up to date, updates will be quick and easy to submit.
Quarterly updates help to reduce the risk of error by moving record-keeping closer to real time. With this data already captured in software, preparing the end-of-year return should also be easier, as the information needed is already available. Quarterly updates can also provide estimates of tax liability and nudging and prompts to support users to get their tax right.
HMRC has an established model for estimating the impacts that result from MTD. The latest published assessment is available at:
MTD for VAT is already helping businesses to increase their productivity, with most users surveyed reporting benefits including time savings and greater accuracy.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's Green Paper entitled Pathways to Work, published on 18 May 2025, what estimate she has made of the number of claimants currently in receipt of contributory Employment and Support Allowance who would transfer to the proposed unemployment insurance.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department is currently consulting on a proposed Unemployment Insurance. The consultation closes on 30 June 2025. No decisions have yet been made about transitioning existing claimants of NS ESA and NS JSA to the proposed Unemployment Insurance and therefore an estimate cannot be provided at this stage. However, a further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper has been published here ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’(opens in a new tab). Latest data as of November 2025 shows that there are 750,000 claimants for contributory ESA.