Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure that Gypsies and Travellers are able to access homes and contents insurance without discrimination.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Insurers make commercial decisions about the terms on which they will offer cover following an assessment of the relevant risks. This is usually informed by the insurer’s claims experience and other industry-wide statistics. The government does not usually intervene in these decisions.
However, the government is determined that insurers treat customers fairly and insurers must comply with all relevant regulations and legislation. This includes the Equality Act 2010 which generally prohibits discrimination based on certain protected characteristics, including race.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as the independent regulator of financial services firms, requires firms to treat customers fairly under its rules. This includes ensuring that firms meet their obligations under the Equality Act 2010. The FCA actively monitors firms and has robust powers to take action if firms do not comply with its rules.
Individual insurers may take a different view of the relevant factors in determining whether they will offer insurance and at what price. Consumers may wish to contact the British Insurance Brokers’ Association, who can offer guidance on how to look across the insurance market for the best deals and may be able to provide names of specialist brokers.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to improve rail services on the East Coast Main Line.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has invested £4bn in route-wide upgrades – including new trains and improvements to platforms, tracks, signals and junctions.
This will deliver journey time, reliability and capacity improvements, with more than 60,000 extra seats across the route each week, faster services between London and Edinburgh, and London to Leeds, and a third train per hour to and from London and Newcastle. This will all form part of the new timetable in December.
The Department are now working closely with Network Rail and industry stakeholders to develop a long-term strategy for the route.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps she is taking to support small retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in City of Durham constituency.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Businesses in our retail, hospitality and leisure sectors are foundational to our economy and our high streets, and we are supporting them to succeed.
From 2026-27, we will introduce a permanently lower business rates multiplier for retail, hospitality and leisure properties with rateable values under £500,000.
We have increased the Employment Allowance to £10,500, pledged to cut business admin costs by 25% during this parliament, and introduced tougher retail crime measures, including a new offence for assaulting retail workers and ending immunity for shop theft under £200.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that PSHE education is consistently embedded as part of the curriculum in all year groups in secondary education.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
All schools should teach personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education, drawing on good practice, and this expectation is outlined in the national curriculum framework document.
The department published revised relationships, sex and health education statutory guidance on 15 July, which sets out a comprehensive and age-appropriate curriculum for all pupils in England. The revised guidance will become statutory on 1 September 2026, replacing the existing guidance which has been in force since 2020. The guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/relationships-education-relationships-and-sex-education-rse-and-health-education. We know that many schools choose to teach some of the content from the curriculum in their PSHE or similarly described programme for their pupils.
The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, which wants to ensure a rich, broad, inclusive and innovative curriculum that readies young people for life and work. Their final report and recommendations will be published in the autumn, followed by the government’s response.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for her policies of the report of the National Literacy Trust entitled Children and young people’s writing in 2025, published in June 2025.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell
I refer my hon. Friend the member for the City of Durham to the answer of 03 July 2025 to Question 62713.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional steps her Department plans to take to improve the process of accessing evisa accounts.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
eVisas are a key part of delivering a border and immigration system which will be more digital and streamlined, a change that will enhance the applicant’s experience and increase the immigration system’s security and efficiency.
The UKVI account provides people with the ability to use online services to ‘view and prove’ their immigration status, including their rights to rent, work, study and access public services, by sharing relevant information about their permissions in the UK. People can easily keep the Home Office updated with any changes in their details or documentation using their account. For example, they can tell us about changes to their name, nationality or a new passport.
Our aim is that new and existing immigration status holders will have access to a UKVI account and their eVisa, and that creating a UKVI account is a smooth and straightforward process.
To help people create and use their UKVI accounts, we have provided information and guidance videos on GOV.UK which show users how to access and use their UKVI account. We have listened to feedback from users and have plans to make our GOV.UK pages easier to follow. These planned improvements are currently being drafted and are scheduled for release later in 2025.
We are continually improving the functionality and ease of use of the UKVI account. For example, we recently added the facility for a person without an identity document to create an account and we will add the ability to link a Home Office issued travel document to a UKVI account later in 2025.
Monitoring of the system since the end of December 2024 suggests that for most people the transition to eVisa has gone smoothly. By the end of April 2025 over 4.3 million people had created an online (UKVI) account to access their eVisa, with the latest statistics published on GOV.UK on 22 May 2025. Further statistics will be published in due course.
Between Q4 2019 and Q1 2025, the 'view and prove' service has seen over 41.9 million views by individuals and over 6.3 million views by organisations checking immigration status.
Should anyone find themselves needing support with creating their UKVI account or getting access to their eVisa, the latest updates and guidance can be found on GOV.UK
We are continuing to listen to the views and concerns of stakeholders and users of our digital systems and aim to continually enhance the user experience wherever possible. We have also increased the number of support services available to vulnerable people and have delivered £4m of grant funding to 72 voluntary and community sector organisations across the UK to support people to be able to set up and access their eVisa accounts.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to help improve mobile telephone signal in (a) Brancepeth Village, (b) County Durham and (c)) across the country.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Ofcom reports that 4G is available across 96% of the City of Durham constituency from all four mobile operators, while 5G (standalone and non-standalone) is available outside 94% of premises in the constituency from at least one operator.
However, I know Ofcom data does not always reflect lived experience and I have raised my concern about this with Ofcom. I welcome their much improved online mobile coverage checker which went live on 26 June.
I am keen to strengthen the mobile infrastructure across the UK, which is primarily the responsibility of the mobile operators, so I would urge the honourable member to engage directly with the mobile operators to encourage improvements in her patch.
We continue to work closely with the mobile operators and are committed to ensuring we have the right policy and regulatory framework in place to support investment into mobile networks and competition in the market.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
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 improve (a) continuity of care in cancer treatment pathways, (b) assigning named points of contact and (c) back-up contacts for all patients.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government and NHS England are committed to improving continuity of care and provision of support contacts for cancer patients. All patients, including those with secondary cancers, should have access to the right expertise and support, including a Clinical Nurse Specialist or other support worker to aid their navigation through the cancer pathway. Accessing this support is in line with the NHS Comprehensive Model for Personalised Care.
In the most recent National Cancer Patient Experience Survey, 91.2% of respondents said they had a main contact person within the team looking after them who would support them through treatment. After cancer treatment, the National Health Service provides end of treatment summaries for patients, to support people to manage their care and the impact of their cancer. End of treatment summaries provide people with a route back into the system if they notice any worrying changes or need to seek help.
The Government’s National Cancer Plan, due to be published later in 2025, will aim to improve the efficiency of patient pathways as an essential part of improving cancer outcomes and experiences.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he had discussions with transgender individuals on the Sullivan Review.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has not met with transgender individuals to discuss the Sullivan Review. We have acted on the findings of Professor Sullivan’s report by suspending applications for National Health Service number changes for children under the age of 18 years old, to safeguard them. Taking such action does not prevent the NHS from recording, recognising, and respecting trans people’s gender identity.
The Government is steadfast in its dedication to listening to LGBT+ people. My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has hosted constructive, open, and honest roundtable discussions with the LGBT+ community and has set out his intention to maintain an open dialogue and to continue to listen to all views.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has assessed the potential impact of making pensions subject to (a) inheritance tax and (b) probate on bereaved families.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Most unused pension funds and death benefits will be included within the value of a person’s estate for inheritance tax purposes from 6 April 2027. This removes distortions resulting from changes that have been made to pensions tax policy over the last decade, which have led to pensions being openly used and marketed as a tax planning vehicle to transfer wealth, rather than as a way to fund retirement. These reforms also remove inconsistencies in the inheritance tax treatment of different types of pensions.
Estates will benefit from the normal nil-rate bands, reliefs, and exemptions available. For example, the nil-rate bands mean an estate can pass on up to £1 million with no inheritance tax liability, and the general rules mean any transfers to a spouse or civil partner are fully exempt from inheritance tax.
The reforms are forecast to raise £1,460 million in 2029-30. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility certified this costing at Autumn Budget 2024.
Most estates will continue to have no inheritance tax liability following these changes. The Government estimates that, out of around 213,000 estates with inheritable pension wealth in 2027-28, 10,500 estates – or around 1.5 per cent of total UK deaths - will become liable to pay inheritance tax where this would not previously have been the case. Around 38,500 estates will pay more inheritance tax than would previously have been the case. Unlike the revenue forecast, these figures do not take into account potential behavioural changes following the announcement of these measures and are illustrative.
An assessment of impacts was included in the recent technical consultation on the processes required to implement these changes. This can be found at www.gov.uk/government/consultations/inheritance-tax-on-pensions-liability-reporting-and-payment/technical-consultation-inheritance-tax-on-pensions-liability-reporting-and-payment#part-4-assessment-of-impacts.
In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.