Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, if he will take diplomatic steps to help prevent the expansion of Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The UK policy on settlement expansion is clear: settlements are illegal under international law and only make it harder to progress to achieving peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians. We have called on the Israeli Government to halt seizures of Palestinian lands immediately.
On 3 May, the Foreign Secretary announced new sanctions on extremist groups and individuals for inciting and perpetrating settler violence in the West Bank. The measures impose financial restrictions on the entities and individuals, and travel restrictions on the individuals. The UK will not hesitate to take further action if needed, including through further sanctions.
The Foreign Secretary has made our position clear to his Israeli counterparts, including during his visit to the region on 17 April.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average time taken was to process migrant visa applications in each of the last three years for which data is available.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Data relating the performance against visa service standards are produced as part of the Migration Transparency publication.
These can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) creating a team in his Department that specifically supports bereaved benefit claimants and (b) providing training to all staff in his Department on bereavement support.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP provides a cross government service called Tell Us Once. The Tell Us Once service allows bereaved citizens to inform all the relevant government departments when someone dies. This is available on gov.uk. What to do after someone dies: Tell Us Once - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Bereaved claimants who are unable to use the online service via Gov.uk can contact the DWP Bereavement Service on 0800 151 2012, to cancel the person’s benefits and entitlements, including their State Pension. The service will also signpost bereaved claimants who may be eligible for help with funeral costs or other benefits such as bereavement support payment.
All colleagues undergo a comprehensive learning journey when they join the DWP. The learning provides staff with the knowledge and skills to enable them to treat each claimant as an individual regardless of additional or complex needs.
In addition, DWP offer training on Vulnerable Customers and Complex Needs, which is available to all colleagues in DWP. This learning product includes specific bereavement content including:
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of updating information sharing requirements for academies in line with requirements for local authority maintained schools.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Academies are held to a high level of accountability and transparency.
Academies are required to follow the Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2014 as they are independent schools. Under these regulations the proprietor of an academy must ensure that an annual written report of each registered pupil’s progress and attainment in the main subject areas taught is provided to the parents of that registered pupil, except that no report need be sent where the parent has agreed otherwise. Academy trusts enter into Funding Agreement with my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, which contains a clause concerning information sharing requirements relating to assessments. It provides that the academy trust must report on assessments as the Secretary of State requires, or provide any information on assessments, on the same basis that maintained schools are required to provide the information.
The department has no plans to change these arrangements.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many of those receiving State Pension paid tax in the (a) 2021-22, (b) 2022-23, and (c) 2023-24 financial years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This information is published in Table 2.1 Number of individual Income Tax payers.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the UK's departure from the EU on the effectiveness of processes for working with French authorities to prosecute (a) small boat gangs and (b) other people traffickers.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Since the UK left the EU in January 2020, we have strengthened our bilateral relationship with France on migration. This included establishing, in July 2020, the UK-France Joint Intelligence Cell (JIC) which is located in France and has co-located UK and French officers working together to support the prosecution of small boat gangs. Since it was established, the work of the JIC has led to the dismantling of 24 organised crime groups involved in small boat crossings, with 12 of these groups being dismantled in 2023 alone.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies on arms exports to Israel of protests by university students.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The UK has one of the most robust and transparent export licensing systems in the world, enshrined in law through the Export Control Act and implemented through our Strategic Export Licensing Criteria.
This informs our approach to export licensing – both for our extant licences and for new licence applications for exports to Israel. All decisions are assessed on a case-by-case basis against our licensing criteria.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, whether he has had discussions with his US counterpart on the (a) handling of pro-Palestine protests on university campuses and (b) potential impact of disbanding those protests on (i) free speech and (ii) the right to assembly in that country.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The handling of protests in the US is a matter for US authorities. The Deputy Foreign Secretary has not had any discussions with his US counterpart on the handling of pro-Palestine protests on university campuses or the potential impact of disbanding these protests.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the requirement for Academy schools to provide parents with an annual report of their child's progress.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
The department has not made any recent assessment of this requirement. The requirements on academies in relation to reporting on pupils’ progress to parents are set out in paragraph 32(1)(f) of the Schedule to The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014 These regulations can be accessed here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/3283/made.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, if he will have discussions with his Israeli counterpart on the (a) effectiveness of command and control within the Israeli Defence Forces and (b) reports that a senior commander who was dismissed in connection with the strike that killed international aid workers in Gaza had expressed personal views on aid to Gaza.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
The Foreign Secretary visited Israel on 17 April and held high-level talks with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Herzog and Foreign Minister Katz. He reiterated the need for an immediate pause in the fighting in Gaza to get aid in and hostages out.
The UK is pushing as hard as we can to get aid to Palestinian civilians. Israel must fulfil its commitments to enable a flood of aid, including by guaranteeing deconfliction for aid workers.