Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many British citizens are serving prison sentences abroad.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is providing consular assistance to over 1,700 British nationals detained overseas. This includes those who are held in police custody, immigration detention, pre-trial detention (sometimes called 'remand') either in a police station or detention facility, and those who have been sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to help tackle the intersectional stigma of place-based ageing.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
I recognise that people can face challenges as they age, and so I welcome the University of Stirling Research on the Intersectional Stigma of Place-based Ageing and look forward to seeing it's report in due course.
This research is exploring how interventions such as home and environmental modifications can help people to age well within their homes and communities.
This government recognises how important home adaptations are in enabling older and disabled people to live as independently as possible in a safe and suitable environment. This is why government has boosted funding for the Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG), which can contribute to the cost of adaptations for eligible people of all ages and tenures, to £711 million for 2024-2025 and 2025-2026.
DFG funding helps adapt over 55,000 homes annually, helping disabled people and their families to live independently and well in their own homes and communities for longer.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the budget is for the Office of the Standing Advocate in financial years (a) 2025-26 and (b) 2026-27.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
It is important that the Office of the Independent Public Advocate is adequately equipped to deliver its vital function of supporting victims of future major incidents and preparing for these incidents.
The budget for the Independent Public Advocate for 2025/26 is £552k. All future spending will be considered as part of the Department’s allocations process to determine detailed budgets over the spending period. We will explore budgetary requirements with the Advocate once they are in post.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to ensure that policy-makers are aware of international law pertaining to war and genocide.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Law Officers’ Convention applies to advice which may or may not have been given by, or requested of, the Law Officers, and it applies to your question. It can be found at paragraph 21.27 of Erskine May:
“By long-standing convention, observed by successive Governments, the fact of, and substance of advice from, the law officers of the Crown is not disclosed outside government. This convention is referred to in paragraph [5.14] of the Ministerial Code [updated on 6 November 2024]. The purpose of this convention is to enable the Government to obtain frank and full legal advice in confidence.”
Policy-makers are mindful of the overarching duty, set out at paragraph 1.6 of the Ministerial Code, to comply with the law, including international law and treaty obligations. They seek advice from their departmental lawyers in this regard, as appropriate.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to allocate funding to the Lobular Moonshot Project.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government responsibility for delivering cancer research is shared between the Department of Health and Social Care, with research delivered by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), with research delivered via UK Research and Innovation, which includes the Medical Research Council (MRC).
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, accompanied by the Minister of State for Health, met with representatives of the Lobular Moonshot Project on 14 July 2025 to discuss their work. The Chief Scientific Adviser and officials from the Department of Health and Social Care and the MRC have held two further meetings with the Lobular Moonshot Project to provide advice on existing funding options.
Both the MRC and the NIHR have committed to continuing to work with the Lobular Moonshot Campaign team to support the development of fundable research proposals in this area and help drive our collective ambition to increase understanding and effective management of this disease.
The NIHR continues to welcome high quality, high impact funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including lobular breast cancer.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to the document entitled Maritime & Coastguard Agency Safety Code for Small Commercial Motor Vessels under MG280, updated on 22 January 2025.
Answered by Mike Kane
There have not been any updates or amendments made to either the ‘Code of Practice for the Safety of Small Commercial Motor Vessels’ (the ‘Yellow Code’), or Marine Guidance Note (MGN) 280(M) ‘Small Vessels in Commercial Use for Sport or Pleasure, Workboats and Pilot Boats – Alternative Construction Standards’ in 2025.
However, according to Maritime and Coastguard Agency records there were two amendments made to the Workboat Code Edition 3 in January 2025. The first amendment reinstated a requirement of the Code pertaining to the control of the discharge of oil which had been erroneously omitted when the Code was updated in 2023. As this change simply reinstated a previous requirement the impact was considered lesser than the impact of not reinstating the requirement and therefore negligible.
The second amendment was to Annex 3 - The Safety of Police Boats. This two-part amendment was made to allow the required ‘second person’ on board to hold a Powerboat Advanced certificate, and to introduce the addition of a new paragraph to provide an appropriate construction standard for police vessels operating in Category C or Category D waters only.
The amendments to the Safety of Police Boats Annex were undertaken in consultation with, and with the full cooperation of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (Maritime Policing Portfolio), representing all police forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and were also considered negligible, especially given the short period of time since the introduction of Annex 3 and the amendment being made.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
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 support the mental health of (a) victims and (b) survivors of crime.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Too many people with mental health issues, including victims and survivors of crime, are not getting the support or care they need. This is why we will fix the broken system to ensure we give mental health the same attention and focus as physical health so that people can be confident in accessing high quality mental health support when they need it.
We are committed to improving mental health care for people with a range of mental health conditions, and to shifting the focus from treatment to prevention as we make the National Health Service fit for the future.
This Government is recruiting 8,500 mental health workers to help ease pressure on busy mental health services. More than 6,700 extra mental health workers have been recruited since July, latest data shows. The latest recruitment milestone means the government is more than halfway towards its target of hiring an extra 8,500 mental health staff by the end of this Parliament, helping get people the care they need so they can get back to work, school and doing what they love.
We are transforming mental health services into 24 hour a day, seven day a week neighbourhood mental health centres, improving assertive outreach, and increasing access to evidence based digital interventions. People will get better access to mental health support and advice 24 hours a day, seven days a week directly through the NHS App, including through self-referral for Talking Therapies.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help support the recruitment of teachers in (a) Eastbourne constituency and (b) East Sussex.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
High-quality teaching is the in-school factor that has the biggest impact on children’s outcomes. This is why the government’s Plan for Change has committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers in secondary and special schools, and in our colleges over the course of this Parliament.
To support this key pledge, we recently announced a 4% pay award for 2025/26, building on the 5.5% pay award for 2024/25, resulting in a near 10% pay award for teachers since this government came to power. We also announced a teacher training financial incentives package worth nearly £233 million, including bursaries worth up to £29,000 tax-free, and scholarships up to £31,000 tax free. We also announced targeted retention payments worth up to £6000, with 10 schools in the Eastbourne constituency, and 31 schools in East Sussex qualifying for these.
The teaching workforce has grown by 2,346 full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers, between 2023/24 and 2024/25, in secondary and special schools. In Eastbourne constituency there are 30 more secondary and special school teachers, with 457 FTE teachers this year.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
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 the supply of Pancreatin for people struggling to acquire their required quantity and dosage.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is currently managing a supply issue with the pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (PERT) Creon, which is used by patients with conditions such as cystic fibrosis and certain cancers, including pancreatic cancer and neuroendocrine cancer. The supply issue with Creon is impacting countries throughout Europe and has been caused by the limited availability of raw ingredients and manufacturing capacity constraints to produce the volumes needed to meet demand. This is causing knock-on supply issues with alternative PERT products.
The Department is continuing to work with all suppliers of PERT to help resolve the supply issues in the short and longer term. This includes asking that they expedite deliveries, source stock from other markets, and increase production. Through these discussions we have managed to secure additional volumes for 2025 for the United Kingdom.
The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market. In May 2024, pancreatin preparations were added to the Department’s list of medicines that cannot be exported from the UK or hoarded. In the longer term, the Department has had interest from non-UK suppliers of PERT wishing to bring their products to the UK and, along with colleagues in the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, we are working with these potential suppliers, and if authorised, these products could further diversify and strengthen the market.
The Department has widely disseminated comprehensive guidance to healthcare professionals about these supply issues, which provides advice on how to manage patients whilst there is disruption to supply to ensure that no patient is left without PERT.
Asked by: Josh Babarinde (Liberal Democrat - Eastbourne)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to provide guidance to schools on when the roll out free breakfast clubs will take place in Eastbourne.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Free breakfast clubs were made available in up to 750 early adopter schools from April 2025, as part of a test and learn phase in advance of a national rollout. Further details on the national rollout, including guidance for schools, will be available in due course.